Chapter XVII: Fire!

Watching the fire engines from the porch, it was easy to see which way they were going. The Beverly Inn overlooked the valley beyond the crossroads. Here and there a house and a piece of cleared land broke the green carpet of trees that covered the hills in every direction.

It was a quiet scene except for the red fire engines streaking past, their sirens screaming. Judy had expected them to turn to the west toward Ulysses. The straight road ahead would take them to the house with the boarded-up windows. To Judy’s surprise and momentary relief, they took the road to the east.

“It can’t be too bad. There aren’t any towns in that direction, are there?” she asked.

“Not for quite a distance,” Peter began. “It may be some country place—”

“Not ours?” Danny wailed.

Thinking he meant his old home, Judy started to reassure him. But first she knew she must reassure herself. She liked excitement, but not the excitement of fires. Memories rushed back—her old school burning, the crackling flames when a fire was deliberately set to halt the rebuilding of Roulsville.

“We’ll find out where it is,” Peter promised. “Come on, Judy. We have to go that way to take Danny back to the orphanage. We may as well see what’s burning.”

“Could it be a forest fire?” Judy questioned when they were in the car.

“It could be. I hope it isn’t. We’ve had too much dry weather lately. Whatever it is,” Peter declared, “the firemen will have to work fast to keep it from becoming a forest fire.”

“What’s that funny cloud?” Danny asked, peering out of the car window.

Peter slowed down to let more fire engines pass and then followed them. Now Judy could see the cloud Danny had mentioned. But was it a cloud? White wisps of smoke curled into the sky like scrawny ghosts.

“That must be where the fire is,” she began. “Right there in the valley beyond the trees—”

“But that’s where the orphanage is!” Danny objected.

Judy gasped. She didn’t want to believe the orphanage was burning. The thought of all those children losing the one home they had was too much. Other thoughts, still more terrifying, quickly followed. Peter, not having any word of reassurance, drove on in silence. Suddenly Danny screamed.

“I can see it now. It is the orphanage! We have to get Ma out of there. She’ll go in after the babies and never come out!”

“Oh, Danny! Don’t say that,” cried Judy. “The firemen will make sure that Ma and all the children are safe, won’t they, Peter?”

“They’ll do their best,” he replied, heading straight for the burning building, “but they can use all the help we can give them.”

Judy agreed. As soon as Peter stopped the car she sprang out and started toward the orphanage. The windows glowed with a weird red light. The whole interior must be ablaze. Oh, Judy hoped all the children were out! Her one thought was to find Meta Hanley and tell her Danny was safe.

“Where’s the matron?” she asked a group of frightened orphans who were huddled together watching the firemen as they worked to keep the fire from spreading to the woods. They had been too late to save the building. Tongues of flame leaped through the upper windows and suddenly burst through the roof.

“It’s going to burn to the ground!” one small girl wailed. “Then where will we live?”

“I don’t know. Miss?” The group turned to Judy without answering the child’s question. “What’ll we do if the firemen can’t save anything? All our clothes are in there. We were in the dining room when it happened. Ma wouldn’t let us go back upstairs.”

“It’s a good thing she wouldn’t,” an older boy put in. “We’re all safe, but where will we live?”

“They’ll find you a place,” Judy replied hopefully.

“That’s right,” the orphans agreed. “Ma will think of something.”

“Where is she?” Judy asked.

“Over there!” The oldest orphan pointed. “She’s trying to keep that man from going back into the building. He helped carry the babies out. Why do you think he wants to go back?”

“I’ll find out,” Judy promised.

Suddenly the wind changed, and a dense cloud of smoke swirled downward from the burning orphanage. When it cleared Judy found, to her dismay, that she had lost sight of the matron and the man who had helped rescue the babies. She glanced back at Peter and saw that he was busy keeping people away from the fire. He didn’t seem to be paying any attention to her.

“Peter!” she called above the crackling and roaring of the fire. “I’m afraid there’s a man in there. He was trying to go back. Leave Danny there and help me find him.”

“We’ll find him, miss,” one of the firemen reassured her. “That is, if he’s in there.”

He started toward the orphanage. Judy hesitated a moment. Peter hadn’t heard her call. Should she follow the fireman? The smoke was so dense she could hardly see which way he had gone.

Suddenly she was startled by someone brushing past her. At the same moment she saw the matron. Two firemen were with her. Judy and the man who was trying to pass her were jerked back just in time. A heavy beam crashed in what would have been their path.

“See what would have happened if we’d let you go in there!” Meta Hanley pointed out. “Oh! There goes the roof!”

“Keep away!” the firemen warned as the flames roared upward, shooting sparks in every direction.

It was surprising how quickly people gathered to watch the fire. The crowd surged back, Judy along with them. Shaken by her narrow escape, she was glad to follow the advice of the firemen. Only the man resisted. It took all three firemen to hold him. The one who had gone ahead of Judy returned from another direction.

“Let me go!” the man shouted. “There’s a boy in there. He’ll burn to death if I don’t get him out.”

“You’re wrong, sir,” the fireman insisted. “There isn’t a living soul in that building. I counted heads, and everyone is out here.”

“Everyone except my son! Where is he?” the distraught father demanded. “Why are you trying to deceive me?”

“_I_ wouldn’t deceive you, George,” Meta Hanley replied quietly. She spoke as if continuing an earlier conversation. “I told you he didn’t come home for lunch. He went over to the beaver dam early this morning.”

“He may have come back! He may have gone inside! Danny! Danny!” the man shouted.

Judy stepped up to him. She had heard enough. “Your son is too far away to hear you, Mr. Anderson, but he’s safe,” she said, sure now that the man really was Danny’s father. “The fireman is right. All the children are accounted for. Your son is with my husband. Wait here, and I’ll bring him over.”

Judy hurried off to where Peter and Danny stood.

“What happened to you?” Peter demanded. He had not seen her follow the fireman toward the burning building, but he could tell, from her sooty face, that she had been too near the fire.

“I was going to try to keep a man from going back in. Peter, it was Danny’s father,” she rushed on, “and he wants to see Danny right away.”

“Well, I don’t want to see _him_, not if he’s a thief,” Danny spoke up unexpectedly. “I’m going to stay with Ma. No house at all is better than a house with stolen furniture in it. And if he cares so much about me, why didn’t he come to see me instead of sneaking around looking for the stuff the beavers stole?”

“That’s a good question, Danny,” Peter told him seriously.

“Well, if it’s such a good question, why aren’t we over there finding out the answers?” Judy urged. “Come on!”