lity by the kerosene the
Norwegian had carried, there came a startling interruption.

There was a knock at the door and a girlish voice cried:

"Roy! Roy, let me in!"

"Furies!" exclaimed Dan Cassell under his breath. "It's one of those
girls."

"Come on. Let's get away quick!" exclaimed his father, trembling from
nervous agitation.

"Not before I set a match to this," exclaimed Dan Cassell viciously.

He touched the match to the pile and the flames leaped up.

"Now for our getaway," he cried, and the three fire-bugs ran for the
window by which they had made their entrance.

In the meantime a perfect fusillade of blows had been showered on the
door outside. Jimsy awoke just as the last of the three midnight
intruders vanished through the window. His first instinct was a hot
flush of shame over the feeling that he had betrayed his trust.

Then to his ears came the voice that had alarmed the Cassells and
their tool.

"Roy! Jimsy! Are you there?"

"It's Peggy!" gasped Jimsy.

"And Jess," he added the next instant, and simultaneously there came the
pounding of a stick on the door.

"This is an officer of the law. Open up at once."

Jimsy, dazed by his sleep, had not till then noticed the blazing pile of
litter. Now he did so with a quick cry of horror. The stuff was blazing
up fiercely. Already there was an acrid reek in the air.

"The place is on fire!" he shouted.

The next moment there came a violent assault on the door and the crazy
lock parted from its rotten fastenings as a man attired in a police
officer's uniform burst into the place. Behind him came two wide-eyed
frightened girls. The leaping flames lit up their faces vividly.

"It's fire sure enough!" cried the police officer.

"Great Scot, what's happening?"

It was Roy who shouted the question. He was peering down from the loft
where he had been sleeping. The uproar had awakened him and in a jiffy
he was among them.

"Quick! the fire extinguishers!" he cried, and Jimsy, readily
understanding, secured the flame-killing apparatus from the biplane and
from the _Red Dragon_.

He and Roy, aided by the officer, fought the flames vigorously, and,
luckily, were able to subdue them, though if it had not been for the as
yet unexplained arrival of Peggy and Jess it is doubtful if they could
have coped with the blaze. When it was all out Peggy rushed into
explanations.

"Something warned me that you were in danger," she exclaimed, "and
I woke u