's arm, walked toward the house, Tom,
Ned, Koku, and some of the workmen began carrying out the explosives
which had so narrowly escaped the fire. With long hooks the men pulled
the shed apart, where the side walls had partly been burned through.
Tom maintained an efficient firefighting force at his works, and the
men had the proper tools with which to work.

Soon large openings were made on three sides of the red shed, or
rather, what was left of it, and through these the dangerous chemicals
and carbide, in sheet-iron cans, were carried out to a place of safety.
In a little while nothing remained but a heap of hot sand, some charred
embers and certain material that had been burned.

"Much loss, Tom?" asked Ned, as they surveyed the ruins. They were both
black and grimy, tired and dirty, but there was a great sense of
satisfaction.

"Well, yes, there's more lost than I like to think of," answered Tom
slowly, "but it would have been a heap sight worse if the stuff had
gone up. Still, I can replace what I've lost, except a few models I
kept in this place. I really oughtn't to have stored them here, but
since I've been working on my new aerial warship I have sort of let
other matters slide. I intended to make the red shed nothing but a
storehouse for explosive chemicals, but I still had some of my plans
and models in it when it caught."

"Only for the sand the whole place might have gone," said Ned in a low
voice.

"Yes. It's lucky I had plenty of ballast aboard the dirigible. You
see, I've been running it alone lately, and I had to take on plenty of
sand to make up for the weight of the several passengers I usually
carry. So I had plenty of stuff to shower down on the fire. I wonder
how it started, anyhow? I must investigate this."

"Mr. Damon and Eradicate seem to have seen it first," remarked Ned.

"Yes. At least they gave the alarm. Guess I'll ask Eradicate how he
happened to notice. Oh, I say, Rad!" Tom called to the colored man.

"Yais, sah, Massa Tom! I'se comin'!" the darky cried, as he finished
piling up, at a safe distance from the fire, a number of cans of
carbide.

"How'd you happen to see the red shed ablaze?" Tom asked.

"Why, it was jest dish yeah way, Massa Tom," began the colored man. "I
had jest been feedin' mah mule, Boomerang. He were pow'ful hungry,
Boomerang were, an', when I give him some oats, wif a carrot sliced up
in 'em--no, hole on--did I gib him a carrot t'day, or was it
yist'day?