"THIS," said Tim presently, "is a bit dull, if you ask me. I came out
for some excitement. Let's do something."

"What?" asked Clint, yawning loudly.

"Let's eat."

The others groaned.

"That's all right for you chaps, but I'm getting hungry," Tim asserted.
"I thought we were going to have a feed. They'll be closing this place
up the first thing we know. How about a rarebit, fellows?"

"Oh, let's wait awhile," said Don. "Let's take a walk and get up an
appetite."

"Walk!" jeered Tim. "Gee, I've walked enough. And there's nothing the
matter with my appetite right now. Tell you what----" Tim paused. An
automobile was stopping in front of the Inn. The headlights suddenly
dimmed and the single occupant, a tall man in a light overcoat, got out,
walked up the path, ascended the steps and passed into the house. "Now,
who's he?" asked Tim. "Say, I wish he'd loan us his car for awhile."

"Run in and ask him," suggested Tom. "He looked kind."

"Maybe he'd give us a ride if we asked him," pursued Tim. "It's a peach
of a car; foreign, I guess."

"It's a Mercy Dear," said Tom.

"Or a Fierce Sorrow," hazarded Clint.

"Bet you it's a Cheerless," said Don, "or a Backhard."

"Don't care what it is," persisted Tim. "I want a ride in it."

"Let's go down and stand around it with our fingers in our mouths," said
Tom, with a chuckle. "Perhaps he will take pity on us and ask us in."

"Or we might open the door for him," offered Don.

At that moment Clint, who had left his chair to lean across the railing
and gaze past the end of the porch, interrupted with an exclamation.
"Say, fellows, what's that light over there?" he asked eagerly.

"Fire, by jingo!" cried Tim.

"That's what!" agreed Tom. "Say, you don't suppose it's the school, do
you?"

"Of course not! The school's over that way. Besides, that fire's away
off; maybe two miles. Come on!" And Clint started for the steps.

"Wait!" called Tim. "I want to see the engine come out. Bet you it's a
fine sight! Anyway, we can't foot it two miles."

"Maybe it isn't that far," said Don. "Fires look further than they are
sometimes."

"Yes, and nearer, too," replied Tim. "Think we ought to run over and
tell them about it?"

But that question was speedily answered by the sudden clanging of a gong
inside the fire house, followed by the sound of running footsteps and,
an instant later, the wild alarm of the shrill-tongued bell in the
little belfry.

"My word!" exclaimed