“come on, fellows!” cried jerry.
he was struggling to get out of the seat where three of them were rather a tight fit, considering chunky’s plumpness. but jerry managed it, at the same time thumping bob on the back to dislodge the bit of doughnut that had gone down the hungry lad’s “wrong throat.”
the boys had arrived at a most critical time. the blaze had quite a start at the rear of the farmhouse, the flames flickering out of a first story window—evidently the kitchen—and eating their way up to the second story.
“i wonder if they’ve telephoned in an alarm?” cried ned, for though there were no “pull boxes” on the country road that far out of cresville, nearly every farmer had a telephone.
“sounds like the new motor engine coming,” said bob, with a cough, to dislodge the last remaining particles of the doughnut, which, by this time, he had managed to swallow.
“yes, there she is!” added ned, as they caught[12] the sound of the siren horn on the new motor apparatus, recently purchased by the town.
“but it won’t get here in time to save them! look!” shouted jerry.
he pointed to a window about eight feet above the one-story extension of the house where could be seen a woman and two children. from another window on the left of these frantic and screaming ones smoke was pouring, showing that the fire was close to them.
“we’ve got to save them!” cried ned.
“that’s right!” added bob. “we can do it from that low roof. they can drop down and we can help them get to the ground. or if we could find a short ladder——”
“there’s one!” yelled ned, pointing to one leaning against a fruit tree at the side of the house. “come on!”
“we’re just in time!” added jerry. “it’s a good thing we drove out this way!”
the boys dashed to the rescue of the fire-trapped ones, while they could hear the motor engine approaching; and as they watched neighbors came running across the fields to aid, having seen the pall of smoke.
while the motor boys are hastening on their errand of mercy i shall take just a moment to introduce my new readers more formally to the youths who are to be the heroes of this story.
[13]
in the first volume of this series, entitled “the motor boys,” the reason for this name being given jerry hopkins, ned slade and bob baker was very fully set forth. ned slade’s father was a wealthy department store owner in cresville, and bob baker’s father was president of the richest bank in that section. jerry hopkins’ father was dead, but had left his widow, mrs. julia hopkins, very well off, and jerry managed to keep up his end with his two chums.
jerry, the tallest of the three lads, was a rather quiet and thoughtful youth, destined to be a leader. ned was the best dresser of the three, if that is any compliment, and bob baker—well, when it is said that his nickname was “chunky,” more has been told than could be divulged in several pages. of his appetite, sufficient testimony has been given.
the home of the motor boys was in cresville, in one of the new england states, but from there the boys had traveled to many other parts of their own country and foreign lands. as you know, they had recently come back from the great war.
but before this, when they were not circumventing tricks of the notorious noddy nixon and his crony, jack pender, the boys had traveled overland, to mexico, and across the great plains in a motor car. they had been afloat on the atlantic[14] and in strange waters, voyaging at times in a motor boat, and the various volumes tell of their activities.
as if the earth was not wide enough for them, the lads had even ventured into the clouds in aeroplanes and balloons, and when they had a chance to go in a submarine they did not hesitate. part of their time they spent at school—boxwood hall—but after the war they had voted unanimously that they could not take up their quiet studies again; at least, not at once.
the volume immediately preceding this present one is entitled “the motor boys bound for home; or, ned, bob and jerry on the wrecked troopship.” they had some strenuous times, in part with their old friend, professor snodgrass, and they had not long been at home when the letter came from their officer friend, written from his western mining camp.
however, all thoughts of gold mines were now driven from the heads of the lads as they saw the immediate necessity of quick action if they were to save the woman and the two children now appealing for help in the burning farmhouse.
“get the ladder!” cried jerry. “we can easily help them down to the roof of that one-story extension. then they can jump to the ground if they have to.”
[15]
“they won’t have to—we can move the ladder!” shouted ned, as he dashed for it.
“help us! save us!” screamed the woman.
“we’re coming! don’t jump!” warned jerry.
being tall and athletic, he had managed, with the aid of a drain pipe and clinging vine, to scramble up to the flat roof of the one-story extension before the ladder was brought up. ned could do the same, but bob was too fat. he had to ascend by the ladder. however, after he was on the roof, he helped pull the ladder up so that it could be raised to the window.
the house appeared to be on fire in the vicinity of the kitchen, and the boys guessed that the woman and girls had been cut off from the front and back stairs.
while the motor engine was chugging its way nearer and while friends and neighbors were gathering to do what they could, the ladder, now on the roof of the extension, was raised to the window at which the three stood frantically calling.
“we’ll get you down in a minute!” shouted jerry encouragingly, as he ran up the ladder, which was steadied at its foot by ned and bob. “come on!” he cried to the youngest girl, who was crying.
“i—i’m afraid!” she sobbed, leaning out of the window.
[16]
“you needn’t be,” jerry assured her. “i won’t let you fall.”
“go on with him, mary!” urged her mother. “then take helen next. and there’s a lame man in here.”
“we’ll get you all out,” declared jerry, with more confidence when he had looked through the window and saw no flames in the room behind the three. “you’ve got plenty of time.”
he helped the two girls down to the flat roof of the one-story extension, where ned and bob took charge of them, calming them and telling them they would soon be on the ground.
“can you save mr. cromley?” gasped the woman, when jerry went back to assist her. “he’s lame and he’s in that room where the smoke is. the girls and i were up there talking to him when the fire broke out.”
“i’ll get him as soon as you get down,” cried jerry. “how lame is he? will he have to be carried?”
“oh, no, he just walks with a limp—that’s all.”
“then i guess i can get him down the ladder. but you must come now,” and the mother was soon on the low roof. “i’m going after the lame man, fellows!” jerry then called to his chums. “keep the ladder here until i get him to the window.”
[17]
“corporal” jerry hopkins was giving orders as he had done on the battlefields of france, and his chums “snapped into” obedience as they had done in those terrible days.
up the ladder the tall lad raced, to meet a limping man stumbling toward the window from which jerry had already assisted the woman and girls to the roof.
“i—i must have swallowed some of the smoke!” the man coughed. “i didn’t know where i was for a minute!”
“can you get down the ladder if i help you?” asked jerry, entering the room.
“sure! i’m not as helpless as all that, even if i have a game leg. i’m spry yet! where’s the ladder? is the whole house afire?”
“no, only part of it. i think they’ll save most of it. here’s the ladder,” and jerry led the man to the window, for now a cloud of smoke blew into the room, making them both cough and obscuring their vision for a moment.
mr. cromley, to give him the name mentioned by the woman, proved that he was no weakling in spite of his age and lameness, and he went down the ladder almost as spryly as did jerry.
“oh, uncle bill, i’m so glad you’re saved!” cried one of the girls.
“but we aren’t on the ground yet!” sobbed her sister.
[18]
“you soon will be,” said bob. “come on, let’s move the ladder!” he cried.
“any more up there?” asked jerry, pointing to the window from which smoke was now pouring more thickly.
“no, we’re all out!” answered the woman.
it was but the work of a few seconds to shove the ladder over the edge of the low roof, and down it the rescued ones, including the lame man and the motor boys, soon made their way to the ground.
by this time the fire apparatus had arrived and with it many men and boys to help. in addition to the chemical stream turned into the blazing kitchen, volunteers dashed on the flames as many pails of water as they could.
so quick and efficient was the work that the fire was confined to one wing of the house and it was out in half an hour, the kitchen being about the only room burned, though all through the place was the smell and black soot of the smoke.
“my kettle of lard that i was heating to fry doughnuts must have boiled over,” explained the woman—a mrs. gordon—when something like calmness had been restored. “i left the grease boiling for a minute while i ran upstairs to see if my brother wanted anything,” and she nodded toward mr. cromley. “all of a sudden i heard a sort of explosion, and when i tried to get down[19] the stairs i couldn’t. the girls were up in their room, and they ran back to where brother bill and i were, and so we were all trapped. if you boys hadn’t come along when you did we might all have been burned to death,” she concluded.
“oh, i guess some one else would have saved you,” said jerry. “the alarm got in quickly enough, anyhow.”
“yes, we have an extension telephone upstairs, and i called from there,” explained mrs. gordon. “but i didn’t see how we were going to get out in time.”
“well, it’s all right now,” said bill cromley, limping about to inspect the damage done. it was not as much as seemed at first, though it was bad enough.
“my husband will feel terrible when he comes home and sees that i can’t cook a meal,” sighed mrs. gordon.
“you can use my kitchen,” offered one neighbor kindly.
“and mine! and mine!” came other proffers.
while plans were being made to help the gordon family, bill cromley moved about, limping painfully, and, speaking to the motor boys, he said:
“seems like it’s one accident after another with me. guess i must have run into a streak of bad luck.”
[20]
“why, what else happened?” asked ned.
“well, just before i came away from the west i was in a sort of premature explosion and got this game foot. then i come to visit my sister and her house catches fire.”
“are you from the west?” asked jerry, thinking of tinny’s letter.
“yes, i’m a gold miner out there, or i was. why? are you fellows from the west?” bill cromley inquired as he saw looks of interest on the boys’ faces.
“we’ve been out there,” admitted bob. “and we may go again. we’ve got an offer to help develop a mine at a place called thunder mountain——”
before ned or jerry could offer any objection to the stout lad blurting out this rather personal information, bill cromley exclaimed:
“thunder mountain! why, i know where that is!”
“any gold there?” ned wanted to know.
“sure there is—if you can find it. it’s in montana, and montana is a good gold region. i’ve panned out some pretty good stuff there myself. course, it wasn’t anything like blue rock.”
“what’s blue rock?” asked bob. “that’s the kind of soil they find diamonds in, isn’t it?”
“you’re thinking of africa,” remarked jerry.
“blue rock is the name of a mine,” resumed[21] bill cromley. “i never got a chance at it, but some lucky fellows did, and they took out a whole chest full of gold. but, no—i won’t call them lucky,” he added, with a shake of his head.
“why not?” inquired ned.
“because of what happened to ’em,” and bill cromley shook his head dolefully.
“what happened?” demanded jerry.
“the worst that could happen to anybody. they lost their lives, and the gold, too. the miners had about cleaned out the mine—taken a fortune in gold from it. they packed it in a chest and set out for the east, putting the chest of gold on a stage coach.
“but the stage horses ran away on the worst part of the trail, the coach was upset and went over a cliff, horses, driver, passengers, chest of gold and all. it was just the end of everything!”
