raw water from the river for washing
purposes, and now they each seized one and went on the run toward
the house.

It was a matter of a few minutes only to reach it, and once there
Jack and Dick formed them into a double line reaching from the
house to the well, and to an artificial pond on the grounds.

Once the line of buckets got started the boys went into the house,
on the balconies and everywhere convenient, and the work went on
rapidly.

Bucket after bucket was passed to the boys at the end of the lines,
and passed back empty after their contents had been dashed upon the
flames, the work going on rapidly.

The boys had been at work nearly ten minutes and had done much to
stay the progress of the flames if not to subdue them when a fire
company from Riverton arrived, and with a lot of noise and bustle,
but with very little system, got to work to put out the fire.

Then their engine would not work, orders were misunderstood or not
obeyed, and there was a great deal of confusion, during which the
Hilltop boys worked steadily on and soon began to show the effects
of their efforts, the flames being under control in many places
and entirely out in a few.

Jack was hard at work taking bucket after bucket, and throwing
water on the flames that poured from a corner of the piazza roof
when Margaret ran up to him, almost fainted in his arms, and gasped:

"My baby brother! He is in the room up there in the extension. No
one has thought of him. Save him, Jack!"

"Yes, just as soon as---here, Billy, Arthur, take my place. I must
go up to the extension."

One of the boys quickly took his place at the head of the bucket
line, and he ran inside and up the stairs to the room indicated
by Margaret, covering his mouth with his hand to keep from breathing
smoke.

He found the door, burst it open, and saw a bed in a corner with a
small child asleep.

Seizing the infant he wrapped it in the blankets, pressed it close
to him, and rushed out and down stairs to the open air.

"Here you are!" he cried, and a nurse ran up to him, and took the
baby from his arms.

"Oh, thank you, thank you a thousand times!" she cried hysterically.
"I do not know what I would do if the baby was lost. I shall lose
my place."

"H'm! thinking more of herself than of the baby!" sputtered Percival,
who had run to support Jack. "Are you all right, old man?"

"Yes, but it was a close shave. Look! the place is all in flames now.
It was lu