The crowd gathered more densely as nine o"clock drew near. The mayor himself stepped upon the speaker"s platform. The police had roped off lanes through the crowd from the Red Cross booth to the nearest corners.
Janet Steele came late and she chanced to pa.s.s Laura"s corner, which was in sight of the speaker"s stand and the booth. She halted to speak with Laura a moment.
"Isn"t it just fine?" she said. "I wish mother could see this crowd."
"I imagine you would like to have her see lots of things," returned Laura.
"Our friend at the hospital, for instance."
"Who--who do you mean?" gasped Janet, evidently disturbed.
"The man who was hurt, I mean."
"Oh! He is quite interesting," said the other girl and slipped away.
Laura"s suggestion had seemingly startled her.
The band played, and then the mayor stepped forward to make his speech. At just this moment a motor car moved quietly in beside the curb near which Laura Belding stood guarding her red pot. Somebody called her name in a low tone, and Laura turned to greet Prettyman Sweet"s mother with a smile.
Mrs. Sweet was alone in the tonneau of her car, which Purt himself was driving. The school exquisite, who was so often the b.u.t.t of the boys"
jokes, but was just now an object of suspicion, admired Laura Belding immensely. He got out of the car to come and stand with her on the corner.
"Got your nonskid-chains on, Purt?" asked Laura.
"On the rear wheels? Surely," said Sweet, eyeing the girl in some surprise, because of her question.
"My dear Laura!" cried Mrs. Sweet "Won"t you come and talk to me while we are waiting?"
"Can"t now, Mrs. Sweet. I am on duty," laughed Laura.
They could not hear what the mayor said, for they were two blocks away. But they had an excellent view of the stand and the Red Cross booth, and the crowd that pressed close to the police ropes.
Suddenly the mayor threw up his hand in command, and almost instantly--as though he had himself switched off the light--all the street lamps in the business section of Centerport went out The arc light over the spot where Laura stood blinked, glowed for a moment, and then subsided. Mrs. Sweet cried out in alarm.
"This is all right," Laura called to her. "Now watch."
The mayor, in the half-darkness, stepped down from the platform and threw into the heart of the big bonfire the combustibles that set it off. The flames leaped up, spreading rapidly. The crowd cheered as eight boys, dressed in the knee-length dominos they had worn on the night of the ice carnival, dashed into the ring with resinous torches. They thrust the torches into the flames and the instant the torches were alight, they wheeled and dashed away through the lanes the police had kept open.
The red flames dancing before the Red Cross booth, and the sparking, flaming torches which the boys swung above their heads as they ran through the crowd to the various corners where the red pots hung, made an inspiring picture in the unwonted gloom of the streets.
"See how the Red Cross spreads!" cried Laura. "There"s Nellie"s fire going."
They could see the spark of new fire under the pot a block away. A short figure with flaming torch was approaching Laura"s corner at high speed.
"Here comes Short and Long, I do believe," drawled Prettyman Sweet.
"My pot will soon be boiling," laughed Laura. "What are you going to throw in, Purt? And you, Mrs. Sweet? Give all you can--and as often as you can."
"Oh, I"ll start you off, Laura," declared Purt, pulling out a handful of coins that rang the next moment in the bottom of the iron pot.
"Here"s my purse, Prettyman!" called his mother, leaning from the car. "You put in my offering."
The few bystanders around Laura"s corner began laughingly to contribute before the torch reached the spot. But Short and Long arrived the next moment. He stooped, thrust the blazing torch into the middle of the fuel under Laura"s pot, and wheeled to run to his next comer.
The flames crackled, springing up ravenously. The boy"s cotton gown flapped across the fire and before he could leap away the flames had seized upon the domino!
"Oh, Billy!" shrieked Laura Belding. "You are on fire!"
The short boy leaped away; but he could not leave the flames behind him. He threw down the torch and tried to tear off the domino. In a moment he was a pillar of flame!
"A blanket! A robe! Quick, Purt!" cried Laura, and started toward the victim of the accident, bare-handed.
For once Purt Sweet did as he was told, and did it quickly. He ran with the robe from the front seat of the automobile. Laura grabbed one end and together they wrapped their schoolmate in the heavy folds.
Short and Long was cast to the street and they rolled him in the blanket.
The fire was smothered, but what injury had it done to the boy?
He was unconscious; for in falling he had struck his head, and the wound was bleeding. Mrs. Sweet was crying and wringing her hands.
"Oh, it"s awful! Purt! Purt! Take me home!" she sobbed.
"No, Purt!" exclaimed Laura. "Take him to the hospital"
"Of course we will," gasped the youth. "Help me lift him, Laura. Oh, the poor kid!"
Only the few people near by had seen the accident. Not even a policeman came. Laura and Purt staggered to the car with the wrapped-up body of the smaller lad. His face was horribly blackened, but that might be nothing but smoke. Just how badly Billy Long was injured they could not guess.
Mrs. Sweet shrank back into the corner of the tonneau seat and begged Laura to get in with the injured boy.
"I can"t! I can"t touch him!" wailed the woman. "It"s awful! Suppose he should be dead?"
"He"s not dead," declared Purt. "We won"t let him die--the poor kid! Here, mother, you hold his head and we"ll lay him down on the seat. Let his head and shoulders lie right in your lap."
"Oh, Laura! Do come!" cried the woman.
"I can"t, Mrs. Sweet!" returned Laura, sobbing. "I"ve got to stay and watch my pot boil. Do be quick, Purt!"
She stepped out of the car. Purt slammed the tonneau door and leaped to the steering wheel. In a moment the self-starter sputtered, and then the car wheels began to roll.
Mrs. Sweet was actually forced to do something that she had never done before--personally help somebody in trouble. Perhaps the experience would do her good, Laura thought.
In tears the latter returned to the corner. The fire was brightly blazing underneath her swinging pot. There was already quite a collection of coins and a few bills in the bottom of the receptacle. But although Laura stuck to the post of duty, her heart was no longer in the ceremonies of Ember Night. She wished heartily that she had never suggested the entertainment, even if it did benefit the Red Cross.
CHAPTER XVII
A STARTLING ANNOUNCEMENT