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Harry Squires, the reporter for The Banner, notebook in hand, came up at that instant.

“Looks pretty serious, doesn’t it, Chief?” he remarked.

“The fire-company deserves all the credit, Harry,” said Anderson magnanimously. “I want you to put it in the paper, just that way, as comin’ from me. If it hadn’t been for the loyal, heroic efforts of the finest fire-department Tinkletown has ever had, the–Hey! Pull that hose back here, you derned fools! Do you want to get it scorched an’ ruined so’s it won’t be fit fer anything agin? Fetch that engine over here across the road too! Do you hear me?” Turning again to the reporter, he resumed: “Yes sir, if it hadn’t been fer them boys, there wouldn’t have been a blessed thing saved, Harry.”

Harry Squires squinted narrowly. “I can’t say that anything has been saved, Chief. Just mention something, please.”

Anderson looked at him in amazement. “Why, ain’t you got any eyes? Hain’t they saved the engine and every foot of hose the town owns?”

“They could have saved that much by staying at home in bed,” said Mr. Squires dryly. “I’ve just seen Mr. Smock. He says there were fifty thousand bushels of wheat in the bins, waiting for cars to take it down to New York. Every bushel of it was going abroad for the Allies. Does that put any sort of an idea into your nut, Anderson?”

“What?”

“Into your bean, I should say. Or, in other words, hair-pasture.”

“He means head, Mr. Crow,” explained Miss Sue Becker.

“Well, why don’t he say head–that’s what I’d like to know.”

“Do you deduce anything from the fact that the grain was to go to the Allies, Anderson?” inquired Harry.

The harassed marshal scratched his head, but said: “Absolutely!”

“Well, what do you deduce, Mr. Hawkshaw?”

“I deduce, you derned jay, that old man Smock won’t be able to deliver it. Move back, will you? You’re right in my way, an’–“

“I suppose you know that the Germans are still fighting the Allies, don’t you? Fighting ’em here as well as over in France? Now does that help you any?”

Mr. Crow’s jaw fell–but only for a second. He tightened it up almost immediately and with commendable dignity.

“My sakes alive, Harry Squires, you don’t suppose I’m tellin’ my real suspicions to any newspaper reporter, do you? How do I know you ain’t a spy? Still, dog-gone you, if it will set your mind at rest, I’ll say this much: I have positive proof that Smock’s warehouse was set on fire by agents of the German gover’ment. That’s one of the reasons I was a little late in gettin’ to the fire. Now, don’t try to pump me any more, ’cause I can’t tell you anything that would jeopardize the interests of justice. Hey! Where in thunder are you fellers goin’ with that hose an’ engine?”

The firemen were on a dead run.

“We’re goin’ a couple of hundred yards down the road, so’s we won’t be killed when that front wall caves in,” shouted Ed Higgins, without pausing. “Better come along, Anderson. She’s beginning to bulge something awful.”

Anderson Crow arose to the occasion.

“Lively now!” he barked through the trumpet. “Get that hose and engine back to a safe place! Can’t you see the wall’s about ready to fall? Everybody fall back! Women and children first! Women first, remember!”

Down the road fled the crowd, looking over its collective shoulders, so to speak–followed by the venerable fire apparatus and the still more venerable commander-in-chief.

Harry Squires, in his two-column account of the fire in the Banner, dilated upon the fact that the women failed to retain the advantage so gallantly extended by the men. For the matter of about ten or fifteen yards they were first; after which, being handicapped by petticoats, they fell ingloriously behind. Some of the older ones–maliciously, he feared–impeded the progress of their protectors by neglecting to get out of the way in time, with the result that at least two men were severely bruised by falling over them–the case of Uncle Dad Simms being a particularly sad one. He collided head-on with the portly Mrs. Loop, and failing to budge her, suffered the temporary loss of a full set of teeth and nearly twenty minutes of consciousness. Mr. Squires went on to say that the only thing that saved Mr. Simms from being run over and killed by the fire-engine was the fact that the latter was about a block and a half ahead of him when the accident occurred.