ed. This game was great fun,
and the children played it for some time until down in the street Laddie
heard the tooting of fire engines and the clanging of bells.

"Oh, there's another fire!" he cried. "Let's go down to see it."

"No, indeed!" cried Mrs. Whipple, with a laugh, coming into the room just
then. "No more fires for you boys. You can look out the window, but that's
all."

And so they had to be content with that. The fire did not seem to be a
large one, though it was somewhere near the hotel.

Down in the street were a number of engines and hose carts, and also two
police automobile wagons, which had brought the officers who were to keep
the crowd from coming so close as to get in the way of the fireman.

But there is not much amusement in looking out of a window at a fire which
cannot be seen, and Flossie, Freddie and Laddie soon tired of this fun--if
fun it was. Mrs. Whipple had left the room, to see a lady who called, when
Freddie, taking a last look from the window to the street below, said:

"I know how we could have some fun!"

"How?" asked Laddie.

"Get in one of the police wagons and have a ride," went on the small
Bobbsey boy.

"Oh, let's do it!" cried Flossie, always ready for anything that Freddie
proposed. "How you going to do it?" she asked her brother.

"Why, we can go down in the elevator," Freddie said. "There's nobody in
the police wagon now, for all the policemans are at the fire, but we can't
see them or it. And the driver on the front seat of the wagon won't see us
if we crawl in the back."

"Oh, so he won't!" cried Flossie. "'Member how we crawled in the empty
ice-wagon once?" she asked Freddie.

"Yep. I tore my pants that day. But we had a nice ride. We'll have a nice
ride now," he went on. "We can get in when they don't see us."

"But when the policemans comes back from the fire they'll see us and maybe
arrest us," said Laddie in a whisper.

"They won't if we hide under the seats," returned Freddie. "See, there are
long side seats in the police automobile wagon, and we can lie down under
'em and make believe we're in a boat."

"Oh, if it's a make-believe game, I'll do it," said Laddie. "I guess my
aunt won't care, as long as it isn't goin' to a fire."

"Then come on," answered Freddie.

One of the police patrol wagons, or, to be more correct, automobiles,
stood near the curb not far from the front entrance to the hotel. It had
brought several policemen to the scene of