The Boy Scout Fire Fighters or Jack Danby's Bravest Deed   By: Robert Maitland

Boy Scout Series Volume 4

The Boy Scout Fire Fighters

OR

Jack Danby's Bravest Deed

BY

Major Robert Maitland

THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY

CHICAGO AKRON, OHIO NEW YORK

Copyright, 1912

By

The Saalfield Publishing Co.

CONTENTS

Chapter

I AT THE EDGE OF THE FIRE II FIGHTING THE FIRE III WHAT THE SPY SAW IV THE DOUBLE HEADER V TOM BINNS' BAD LUCK VI THE ATTACK ON THE STATION VII JACK DANBY'S PERIL VIII THE RESCUE IX A SWIMMING PARTY X THE BURNING LAUNCH XI THE MYSTERY DEEPENS XII AN UNGRATEFUL PARENT XIII THE MOVING PICTURES XIV A FOOLISH STRIKE XV THE DYNAMITERS XVI OFF ON A LONG HIKE XVII A TIMELY WARNING

[Transcriber's notes:

Two chapters in the source book were misnumbered. Chapters in this ebook have been renumbered.

The last numbered page in the source book was page 168, but damage to the book indicates that a number of pages were missing after that point. Since the original book did not have a table of contents, it is unknown what may be missing.]

The Boy Scout Fire Fighters

CHAPTER I

AT THE EDGE OF THE FIRE

A pall of smoke, dark, ugly, threatening, hung over a wood in which the Thirty ninth Troop of the Boy Scouts had been spending a Saturday afternoon in camp. They had been hard at work at signal practice, semaphoring, and acquiring speed in Morse signaling with flags, which makes wireless unnecessary when there are enough signalers, covering enough ground.

The Scout camp was near the edge of the woods. Beyond its site stretched level fields, sloping gradually upward from them toward a wooded mountain. The smoke came from the mountain, and in the growing blackness over the mountain a circular ring proclaimed the spreading fire.

"Gee, that looks like some fire, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, a Tenderfoot Scout, to his chum, Jack Danby, head office boy in the place where he and Pete both worked.

"I'm afraid it is," said Jack, looking anxiously toward it.

"I never saw one as big as that before," said Pete. "I've heard about them, but we never had one like that anywhere around here."

"We used to have pretty bad ones up at Woodleigh," returned Jack. "I don't like the looks of that fire a bit. It's burning slowly enough now, but if they don't look out, it'll get away from them and come sweeping down over the fields here."

"Say, Jack, that's right, too! I should think they'd want to be more careful there in the farmhouses. There's some of them pretty close to the edge of the woods over there."

Scout Master Thomas Durland, who was in charge of the Troop, came up to them just then.

"Danby," he said, "take your signaling flags, and go over toward that fire. I want you to examine the situation and report if there seems to be any danger of the fire spreading to the lowlands and endangering anything there."

"Yes, sir," said Jack at once, raising his hand in the Scout salute and standing at attention as the Scout Master, the highest officer of the Troop of Scouts, spoke to him. His hand was at his forehead, three middle fingers raised, and thumb bent over little finger.

"Take Scout Stubbs with you," said the Scout Master. "You may need help in examining the country over there. I don't know much about it. What we want to find out is whether the ground is bare, and so likely to resist the fire, or if it is covered with stubble and short, dry growth that will burn quickly."

"Yes, sir!"