Four Boy Hunters | Page 4

rear, with a face as
red as a beet.
A dozen men and boys were on hand, besides the mill workers, and a
bucket brigade had been formed to throw buckets of water taken from
the river on the flames. Some men were bringing out a line of hose,
which was presently attached to the engine of the mill itself.
"I am going to help here!" cried Snap, throwing off his coat, and he
went to work with a will and the other lads did the same. The buckets
of water came along swiftly, but for a long time it looked as if the
whole plant was doomed to destruction. The fire was in a shed next to
the saw mill itself, a place one end of which was used as an office by
the mill company. The wind was blowing the sparks directly to the mill
proper.
"Phew! but this is hot work!" cried one of the men. "Can't stand this
much longer."
"Don't give up!" pleaded the master of the mill. "Perhaps the wind will
change."
It certainly was warm work, as all of the boys found out. The sparks
and brands were dropping over them, and once Snap's shirt sleeve
caught fire, while Shep had a spark blister his neck and cause him to let
out a yell like an Indian.
In the midst of the excitement, Mr. Dodge arrived, and a moment later

the local fire engine, an old-fashioned affair purchased from a
neighboring city. The stream of water, however, did good service, and
the fire was kept largely to the shed in which it had started. The mill
itself caught a dozen times, but the flames were extinguished before
they did material damage. Finally the wind veered around, blowing the
sparks toward a cleared spot in the woods, and then all saw that the
worst of the affair was over. But men and boys kept at their labors, and
did not stop until every spark of the conflagration had been
extinguished.
"Now it is over, I am going down to the river and wash up," said Snap
to Shep, and they walked to the edge of the stream, followed by
Whopper and Giant. "I feel dirty from head to foot."
"Your father can be thankful that the mill didn't go," said Whopper.
"Gosh, what a blaze! I thought the whole county was going to burn up.
I got burnt in about 'leventeen hundred spots."
"And I let a bucket of water drop on my foot," put in Giant. "Say, but
didn't the edge of the bucket feel nice on my little toe!" and he limped
along to the water's edge.
Having washed up, the boys returned to the scene of the fire. They
found the mill master, Tom Neefus, in earnest conversation with Mr.
Dodge.
"You saw the rascal do it?" asked Snap's father.
"I certainly did," replied Tom Neefus. "I started to catch him, but then I
came back to put out the blaze. I made up my mind it would be better
to stop the fire than catch the man, even though he was such a villain."
"Who's a villain, father?" asked Shep.
"The man who started this fire."
"Did a man start it?" asked the boy, while several others drew closer to
listen.

"So Mr. Neefus says. He caught the fellow at the office desk. In a
corner the fellow had thrown a pile of shavings and saturated it with oil.
As he ran away he threw a handful of lighted matches into the shavings
and they caught instantly."
"I suppose he did that so that he could get away. He knew the men
around here would try to save the property instead of going after him."
"Exactly, Charley. He must have been a cold-blooded villain to do such
a thing, for it might have been the means of burning down everything,"
continued Mr. Dodge.
"What was he doing at the desk, Mr. Dodge?" asked Shep.
"He was evidently looking for money or something of value."
"Did he get anything?"
"Nothing, so far as Mr. Neefus knows. The safe was locked up, I
believe."
The strong-box mentioned stood in a corner of the office, and the fire
had swept all around it. It was quite hot, but after some more water had
been poured over it the master of the mill threw it open.
"The books are all right---the fire wasn't hot enough to touch them,"
said Tom Neefus. "I don't think---Ha!"
He stopped short, gazing into a small compartment of the safe. Then his
brow contracted.
"What have you discovered?" questioned Mr. Dodge, quickly.
"The money is gone---and also those papers to that tract of land at Spur
Road!"
"The money? How much money?"
"Three hundred and fifty dollars."

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