, Phil!" returned the senator's son, hurriedly. "We
must get it out somehow!"

"If it goes off it will wreck the building!"

"Yes, and the gasoline tank with it!"

The tank in question was not underground, as would have been safer, but
was located in a bricked-up place at one side of the garage. In the
storehouse were two barrels of gasoline, and also some lubricating oils.
If that storehouse caught, it would certainly make a hot and dangerous
blaze.

Pell-mell down the stairs rushed the youths, one after another. In the
meantime Senator Morr was dressing and so were the others of the
household.

"Be careful, boys! Don't go too close!" warned Mrs. Morr.

"Watch out for an explosion!" puffed her husband. The senator was so
stout that dressing in a hurry was no easy matter for him.

When the boys got out in the garden they found the chauffeur and the
gardener at work, trying to pull the burning brushwood away from the
garage. The flames were crackling merrily and the sparks were flying in
various directions.

"I'm going in and get that big cannon cracker," said Roger to Phil, in a
low voice, so that the others might not hear.

"I'll go with you, Roger. Be careful, though, the sparks are flying all
round that doorway."

"I've shut everything!" bawled the chauffeur, as he saw Roger at the
big sliding doors. "Better not open up, or the fire will get inside."

"I've got to go in, Jake!" answered Roger. "I've got to get something
out."

"What?" asked Dave, who was close by.

"Never mind, Dave. It's something that can't be left in there," and so
speaking Roger slid open a door and hurried inside the garage. Phil came
directly behind him.

On the floor, in a corner, was a box with ordinary firecrackers in
it--about two hundred packs in all. On top of this was a package in
paper containing the big cannon cracker.

"Lookout!"

"It's on fire!"

Thus yelled both boys as they saw that the flames from the brushwood had
made their way into a corner of the garage, just where the firecrackers
had been placed. For an instant they hesitated, then both leaped forward
again and commenced to stamp out the fire.

It had caught at a corner of the box containing the smaller firecrackers
and was also at the paper containing the cannon cracker. This Phil
caught up, knocking the fire away with his hand.

"What are you after, anyway?" The question came from Dave, who had
followed his chums into the building. Buster, Shadow,