nder but what they had formally
organized by this time."

"He certainly deserves to be chief; he did good work. When a gas
tank--a small affair--started to hiss in the servants' dining room,
Jack grabbed up a big palm and dumped the contents of the flower pot
into the tank. It was a small thing they heated coffee on, and when,
the next moment, the tank broke it was surprised to find itself buried
under a bed of sand, with flowers on the grave."

Cora laughed heartily at Ed's telling of the incident. Certainly
strange things, if not really funny things, always seem to occur during
the excitement caused by fire.

"If everything in the kitchen is gone, don't you think we had better
bring back some refreshments?" asked Cora. "The folks will all have
appetites when they find there is nothing to eat."

"Great idea. Here is a good-looking store. Let's load up."

"But is there no manager at the hotel? Who was or who is boss?"

"Jim. The management of that sort of place goes into the shape of
bills and accounts, settled every month. Some New York company owns
the place. It was a failure, and they leased it to a local man.
That's why there will be no one to look after things now."

"Well, we will buy the food and send our bill in to the company. I
guess they will be glad enough to pay it when they hear of the
emergency."

"Yes, it would not do for the hotel disaster to get into the New York
papers, with a starved-to-death head. Well, here's our store. What
shall we buy?"

Cora and Ed left the car and went into the store. They bought all
sorts of canned goods, although Cora declared they would have to be
eaten raw. Then they bought bacon and eggs. Ed insisted on that, no
matter, he said, if they had to come to town again and take back to
Restover a gas stove. He insisted that no well-regulated emergency
feed ever went without bacon and eggs. Bread and butter they procured
for fifty persons. Some cake for the ladies, Ed suggested. Pork and
beans, canned, Cora thought might do for breakfast, even if they had to
be eaten from the cans. Then the last thought, and by no means the
most trifling, was wooden plates and tin cups. The bill footed up to
ten dollars, and Ed insisted that the man make out the bill as paid and
marked for the Restover Hotel.

A half hour later the _Whirlwind_ drew up to the hostelry.

The rain had ceased, and the hotel patrons were almost all out of
doors, so that the motor gi