bid for the navy contracts, at any rate," said Peggy
presently, after a pause, during which both girls winked and blinked at
the lightning and stared at the red glow of the fire.

"So you said. But you stole a march on them by kidnapping your lieutenant
in this way."

"You ought to give the weather credit for that," laughed Peggy, "but
seriously, Jess, there is no sentiment in things of this kind. If the
Mortlake machine is a better machine than ours, the Mortlake will be the
type adopted by the government."

"I suppose that's so," agreed Jess, with a wry face. "But I hate to think
of that old Harding creature getting any----"

The door flew open suddenly, and a tall, thin-faced woman in a raincoat,
and holding up an umbrella, stood in the doorway.

"Well, for the land's sake!" she ejaculated, looking fairly dumfounded, as
she comprehended the scene and the young folks enjoying the unrequested
hospitality of her kitchen.

But the words had hardly left her lips, and she was still standing there,
like an image carved from stone, when a fearful light illumined the whole
scene. It was followed almost instantaneously by a clap of thunder so
deafening that the girls involuntarily quailed before it.

A fiery ball darted from the chimney and sped across the room, exploding
in fragments with a terrific noise on the opposite side, just above the
heads of Jimsy and Lieut. Bradbury.

Stunned by the shock, they both collapsed in heaps on the floor, while the
farm woman's shrieks filled the air. At the same instant, a pungent,
sinister odor filled the atmosphere.

"The house is on fire!" shrieked the woman in a frenzied voice.

Smoke rolled down into the room, and the acrid fumes grew sharper.

"The house is on fire, and my baby is up-stairs!"

"Where?" demanded Peggy.

"In the room above this!" groaned the woman, taking a few steps and then
fainting.

"Jess," cried Peggy in a tense voice, "take that bucket and get water from
that pump in the corner and then follow me."

"But the boys!" gasped Jess.

"They are only stunned. I saw Jimsy's arm move just now, and the
lieutenant is breathing."

With these words, she started from the room, darting up a narrow stairway
leading from one end of the kitchen to the upper regions.

"What are you going to do?" shouted Jess, her voice shaky with alarm.

"Save that child if I can," flung back Peggy, plunging bravely up the
smoke-laden stairway.

In the unfamiliar house, a