The Safety First Club fights fire

Sam led his little party straight to the water’s edge, and there almost at once caught sight of the boat with the punt in tow.

There was no waste of time in explanations while the rescuing craft drove shoreward, or while the four were scrambling aboard. Then Step and Poke backed away from the beach, not resting on their oars until the boat was perhaps a hundred yards from the land.

The presence of Zorn and Hagle, Sam’s battered countenance, a not wholly convincing increase in the Shark’s indifference of manner—none of these things escaped the observation of the other members of the club. There was light enough for such study; all along the shore were blazing beacons, huge if smoky torches. The spectacle afforded by the fire, indeed, was now at its finest, and the boat gave a splendid view of the long, fiery line and its weirdly reflected splendors on the surface of the water; but Orkney, Step, Poke, Herman and the Trojan gave a dozen thoughts to Sam and his adventures to one bestowed on the conflagration so near at hand.

“Whew! That’s what I call a real flare-up,” Step declared, but with no marked enthusiasm.

“Our camp’s gone, of course?” queried Sam.

“Yes. We saved some of the truck, though.”

“And you woke up the folks across the lake?”

“You bet we did! They sent to town for help.”

There was a pause in the talk. Hagle, unhappily aware of the interested, if unobtrusive, scrutiny to which he was subjected, sat with bowed head. Sam glanced at him doubtfully. The cowering youth was in marked contrast to Zorn who sat erect, and whose expression was determined, if not defiant. The pair had a story to tell, a story the club was eager to hear, but how was it to be begun?

Step precipitated matters.

“Say, Sam! Picked up company, didn’t you? We—Poke and I—we figured somebody was in the woods besides our crowd.”

At that Jack raised his head. “Look here, you fellows!” he began. “You—you’ve got to know things. I’ll start at the beginning. You know all the trouble started when the Latin book—Trojan’s book—was found in the desk after the examination. Well, I put it there—and I left it there!”

“You did—you!” Step blurted incredulously. “Why, I supposed——” There he broke off, and glanced significantly at Zorn.

“I put it there, and I left it there,” Jack repeated.

“And then let Trojan stand the blame?”

“I—I, somehow, couldn’t help letting him stand it.”

“But one word from you——”

“I know, I know! Only I—I couldn’t manage to say it, because—because——”

“Because I wouldn’t let him,” Zorn put in. “That’s my part of the business; I shoulder the responsibility.”

There was a stir among the club members. Tom Orkney edged nearer Zorn, but Sam spoke quickly:

“Let Jack tell the story—his end of it, anyway.”

Zorn shrugged his shoulders. “All right! Let him go ahead. I won’t try to stop him.”

“Here’s what happened,” Hagle went on. “Every fellow in the class knew the bully, good notes written in the Trojan’s Cicero. Out in the hall, before we went into the room, I saw Sam borrow the book, and give it back to Trojan. Then I saw him put it against the wall. Now, there was one special passage—I just had to have a look at it. So I slipped over and grabbed the book. But then the crowd started into the room, and I—well, before I knew it I was going in, too. And there was the book! I couldn’t let it be seen. So I slipped it under my coat. I’ll be honest—maybe I had a notion of getting a peek at it after we received the question paper. Anyway, I shifted it to the desk as soon as I could. And I left it there. I—I got frightened. The teacher seemed to be keeping a close watch, and when the hour was over and we were dismissed, I didn’t dare risk getting it out of the desk and back under my coat. And I didn’t think—didn’t dream—there’d be trouble for anybody. And I meant to go back for it after school, when nobody was around. I did go back, but the door of the room was locked. And then—then—well, then, I sort of let things slide. But I didn’t mean to bring harm to anybody.”

His voice rose shrilly as he repeated this claim of lack of malicious intention. He waited a moment, as if in hope that some of the club would express acceptance of this view, but none of them spoke. Then he went on, hurriedly and not too coherently:

“Of course, I didn’t want to get anybody else into a mess. I—I wouldn’t have helped to do it if—if I could have helped myself. He—he made me, though. And the way it all happened—why, somehow, I couldn’t seem to do anything right. He—he had seen me take the book in. He just joked me a little about it at first, but afterward—after the faculty began to poke around—he came down on me like a thousand of brick. The things he’d do to me if I didn’t follow his lead! I—I’d always been sort of afraid of him, but now—well, he was different and worse—a lot worse. And then he mixed in soft soap and promises. He’d do things for me, all sorts of things. I’d be right in with the right crowd. And we’d run the school! And the way it all worked—you saw that?” He turned appealingly to Sam, who nodded. “It was queer. When the principal was asking his questions, it seemed as if all I had to do was to say as little as I could, and let everything drift. And then he got me in a corner and——”

“Oh, out with it!” said Zorn. “You’re talking about me, now. Make it plain. I got you in a corner, you say. Well, go on.”

Hagle’s voice trembled, but he obeyed. “Ed put it this way: he went light on the Trojan, and heavy on Parker and the club. He declared Sam had as good as given Trojan away, and said a lot about your crowd being yellow. And he said you had played into our hands. And he told me he could straighten everything out after a while, when we’d got what we wanted.”

There the Shark intervened. “How was he going to straighten things without showing you up?”

“I—I don’t know—I never understood.”

“No; I don’t think he did,” Zorn corroborated. “I had him bluffed. He was afraid of me. As it was, though, once or twice I had to rough him to keep him up to the mark.”

“Look here!” It was Poke’s turn to question. “Remember that day I was trying the flying machine and ended by almost running into you two? It seemed to me as if I was breaking into one of those thrashing bees.”

“I remember—and you were right,” Hagle testified. “He hadn’t trusted me altogether after I voted for Trojan at the election. But I—I just had to do that! I was mighty sorry for Trojan. And the more I thought it over, the worse I felt. Ed kept a close watch on me. He made me trail ’round with him; he made me do things with him.”

“Like starting that?” Sam asked sharply; and waved a hand at the great fire.

“No!” cried Jack and Zorn in a breath.

“We had nothing to do with starting it,” Zorn added emphatically.

Hagle was shaking his head. “No, we didn’t set that going, Sam. Ed woke up and saw the glow, and came over to our house, and threw pebbles at my window till I woke up. Then we took the boat and crossed the lake to see what was happening. The boat drifted off. It was gone when we came back to where we had landed. Then you came along, and—well, we didn’t want you to see us; for you’d think, of course, we’d set the woods afire. And it wouldn’t have been easy for us to explain being there. And so we ran—and, well, you know the rest of it.”

Sam reflected a moment. “Jack,” he said, “if I take your word about the second fire, and agree that it must have been the first breaking out again when the wind rose, how about the first itself? That first fire was very close to our camp. All of us had been away all day. And that fire wasn’t due to spontaneous combustion.”

“I—I don’t know how it started.”

“Were you—you and Zorn, or either of you—on this side of the lake this afternoon?”

Hagle cast an unhappy glance at Zorn, who made answer for him:

“Yes, we were across—both of us.”

A murmur rose from the club.

“We were across; we saw the fire,” said Zorn steadily. “But we didn’t start it. It was going when we came along. Who set it, then? Nobody—intentionally; at least, that’s my idea. You see, there are people going through every now and then; sometimes the workmen take an afternoon off and wander around. Then there are fellows on fishing trips. Some of them are careless with matches and cigar stubs. Somebody was careless to-day—anyway, that’s my theory.... And the fire wasn’t much of a blaze when we saw it.”

“Did you try to put it out?” Sam asked.

Hagle hung his head, but Zorn spoke as steadily as before.

“No; Jack made some motions, but I stopped him. Don’t need to tell me it was near your camp. I saw that. Yes, and I knew it was on my father’s land. And if you’d like the whole truth, you can have it. All along I’d been letting appearances count against you fellows. Well, here was just another chance of the same sort. I figured the fire couldn’t do much damage in almost a calm, and probably you could put it out when you happened along. But the burned-over place would make a fine exhibit to show to my father, to prove the danger of having campers in the woods.... Anything more you’d like to know?”

“Yes, there’s a million things!” cried Step impetuously. “You—you tell us——”

Sam stopped him with a sharp, “Wait a minute, Step!” then turned to Zorn.

“You’ve gone out of your way to cause us a lot of trouble. What was all the scheming for?”

There was frank surprise in Zorn’s face. “Why, I told you once, Parker! Didn’t you understand? I wanted your backing—your club’s backing. I couldn’t get it by favor, so I tried to capture it by force.”

Sam recalled Lon’s suggestion. “You thought you’d work a sort of crooked political game on us, didn’t you?”

“That’s it!” shrilled Jack Hagle. “Ed always is talking about stories he’s heard about political tricks!”

There was light enough to see the red come into Zorn’s cheeks.

“Well, hasn’t a fellow got to have some interest in life?” he demanded. “And if I have heard how things are worked, why shouldn’t I make use of the hints? Politics? Why, yes—if you want to call it that.”

“But there’s such a thing as straight politics, honest politics,” said Sam.

“Certainly! If there wasn’t the right kind, the country’d go to smash,” the Shark contributed. “Just like mathematics! You may make mistakes, but if you stick to it and keep to the rules, you’ll get the right answer in the end. Same way with parties. After all’s said and done they’ve got to play fair and work straight, or they go to smash.”

“Same as Zorn’s schemes!” Step put in, bluntly.

Zorn sat straighter; he faced the club, and spoke with a curious deliberation:

“I’ve got to take my medicine—I know it. What’s more, I want to. You don’t understand, maybe, but it’s the fact.... Now, things have hit me hard to-night. See here! I have had schemes, as you call them. What was I after? Why, to be top-notcher, first all around, head of the school. And I saw how to make it. I must get backing; I needed yours. I saw I couldn’t have it by favor, but luck gave me a chance to put on the screws.... Then to-night Sam Parker thrashed me—out-fought me. It was a fair fight. He beat me, and I’m not whining. I didn’t think he had it in him, but he had.... When I went down, though, everything went down with me. Look here! Maybe, when you were youngsters, you played with toy soldiers. You stood ’em in line. If one was knocked over, all of them tumbled. It’s the same thing in my case now. Don’t you see it? I set out to be cock of the walk. I figured I could whip any fellow in school, if I had to. Well, Sam Parker whips me—and down plump all my play-things! I can’t be the all-round top-notcher; for I’ve met a better man. The whole school gets the story; the crowd quit me. There you have it! First in everything, or first in nothing. That’s the game, as I’ve played it. I’m down and out.”

“So—so am I—but I’m glad of it!” cried Jack Hagle. “You don’t think, do you, I’ve been having a good time? You don’t think I haven’t been miserable? I don’t care what’s done to me! It can’t worry me as awfully as what I’ve been through has worried me—day and night! Expulsion—jail—anything’ll be better!”

Sam glanced at the Trojan. The fellow who had suffered most by the plot had said not a word, while the trickery, of which he had been the victim, was being revealed. Others of the club, too, were looking at Walker, questioningly, wonderingly. Sam cleared his throat.

“Ahem, ahem! I—I say, Trojan, what’s your idea—of the right thing, you know?”

But the Trojan shook his head. “Sam,” he said slowly, “Sam, I leave it to you and the crowd. You know, all along I’ve felt I didn’t have a fair deal—it’s been that that cut me worst. Whatever’s done now, I want to be the square thing—no more, no less. And what’s fair and square I’m not the one to say—I’ve been hit too hard. I leave it to you, Sam—you and the club.”

“And so do I!” cried Jack Hagle.

Sam’s glance went to Orkney, to the Shark, to Step and Poke, and to Herman Boyd. But it was Zorn who put their verdict into words.

“It’s up to Hagle and me to undo the harm, so far as we can. We’ll have to clear Trojan—that’ll mean going to the principal.”

“I’ll do it!” Hagle declared.

“We’ll let the class have the straight story—that’ll be my job, I guess. And about the fire—both of us will be ready to testify you could have had nothing to do with starting it. Anything else?”

Sam shook his head slowly. “I don’t think of anything else now. But”—he paused, conscious of a new feeling for Zorn, not a liking but a feeling lacking much of the old bitterness—“but this is going to be pretty tough for you, Ed.”

“That’s my affair,” said Zorn. He said it simply, evenly, with no trace of gruffness. And Sam understood. They had found the admirable part of Zorn’s code: as he himself might have said, he’d take his medicine without whimpering.