"Oh! will no one save us!" cried Snaith. "Fellows, I guess we're going to die!" and he began to whimper.
"No! no!" yelled Pud Armstrong. "Let's jump!"
"Come on!" cried Jack, bursting into the room. "There's no danger. It's only smoke. The fire's 'most out."
"Are you--are you sure?" faltered Glen Forker.
"Yes. Come on! It's all down in the boiler-room."
Thus assured, the three bullies, who were the worst kind of cowards, followed Jack through the smoke-filled corridors. When the four appeared there was a cheer, and Professors Socrat and Garlach embraced each other again.
"It's all out!" cried Nat Anderson, running from the boiler-room. "Fire's all out!"
He was smoke-begrimed, and his thin clothing was wet through.
"Are you sure there is no more danger?" asked Dr. Mead.
Jack hurried up to join his chum. The snow was changing into rain, mingled with sleet, and it was freezing as it fell.
"Say, if I was you I'd go in," exclaimed a voice at Jack's elbow, and he turned to see a lad standing near him, whose lower jaw was slowly moving up and down, for he was chewing gum.
"Hello, Budge," said Jack. "Where have you been all this while?" For Budge Rankin, the odd character whom Jack had befriended by getting him the position of assistant janitor at Washington Hall, was clad in overcoat and cap.
"Me? Oh, I've been in town," answered Budge, stretching some gum out of his mouth and beginning to pull it in again by the simple process of winding it around his tongue.
"Oh, it was your night off," repeated Jack, for Budge had a habit of running his words together.
"Yep. Wow! My gum's frozen!" he exclaimed, pausing in the act of trying to chew it again. "But say," he added, "if the fire's out, you'd better go inside. It's cold here."
"You're right; it is," admitted Jack, shivering.
"Here, take my coat," spoke Budge, starting to take it off.
"Indeed, I'll do nothing of the sort," replied Jack. "I'll go in and get warm."
"I guess that's what we'd all better do," added Nat, for the wintry wind was beginning to make itself felt, now that the exercise in putting out the fire no longer warmed them.
"Come, young gentlemen, get inside," called Dr. Mead, and the students filed back into the school. The smoke was rapidly clearing away, and after a tour of the building, to make sure the flames were not lurking in any unsuspected corners, the pupils were ordered to bed.