Chapter 10 SOME EXCITEMENT

"But why 'Spoondrift'?" demanded Lucy. "What does it mean?"

"'Spoondrift' is the spray from the tops of the waves," explained Pearl. "We think the name is awfully pretty."

"And so is the bungalow-and the Cove," sighed Ruth.

"And we're going to have a scrumptious time here!" declared Agnes.

Tess and Dot were frankly sleepy, and Lucy begged the privilege of seeing them to bed.

"That's real kind of you, I'm sure, Lute," said Agnes.

"Don't you praise her," sniffed Carrie. "I know Lute. She's sleepy, herself. You won't see her downstairs again to-night."

"I don't care," yawned Lucy Poole, following Tess and Dot. "I sleep so slowly that it takes a long time for me to get a good night's rest."

"Well! of all things!" ejaculated Carrie, as her cousin departed, following the two smaller girls. "What do you know about that?"

"Almost as stupid as the inhabitants of London," chuckled Agnes.

"What do you mean by that, Ag?" demanded Ann Presby. "The people of London aren't any more stupid than those of other cities, are they?"

"I don't know," returned Agnes; "but the book says 'the population of London is very dense.'"

"Fine! fine!" cried Carrie Poole, laughing. "Oh! these 'literal' folk. You know, my Grandfather Poole has an awfully bald head. He was telling us once that in some famous battle of the Civil War in which he took part, his head was grazed by a bullet. My little brother Jimmy stared at his head thoughtfully for a minute, and then he said:

"'My, Grandpa, there's not much grazing up there now, is there?'"

These stories began the evening. Everybody had some story or joke to relate, and finally the girls began to guess riddles. Somebody propounded the old one about the wind: "What is it that goes all around the house and yet makes no tracks?" and Agnes had a new answer for it:

"Germs!" she shouted. "You know, Miss Georgiana gave us a lecture about them, and I bet we're just surrounded by deadly bacilli right now."

"Those aren't germs-they're mosquitos, Ag!" laughed Pearl, slapping vigorously at one of the pests. "Pleasant Cove isn't entirely free from them."

"And they are presenting their bills pretty lively, too," yawned Ruth. "The bedrooms are screened. I believe we'd all better seek the haven of bed unless we want to be splotchy to-morrow from mosquito bites."

In the morning the older girls divided the housework between them, and so got it all done in short order. The baggage had come up from the station the evening before, and they unpacked.

Then they set forth to explore the fishing port, as well as the more modern part of Pleasant Cove.

As they brisked along the walk past Mr. Terrence Severn's Overlook House, they spied Trix and her party on the big veranda. The girls hailed each other back and forth; only Trix and the Corner House girls did not speak.

"We can't speak to her if she won't speak to us," said Ruth to Agnes. "Now, never you mind, Aggie. She'll get over her tantrum in time."

The party from Spoondrift bungalow got back in season to get luncheon; after which they rested and then bathed. It was the Corner House girls' first experience of salt water bathing and they all enjoyed it-even Dot.

"It does make you suck in your breath awfully hard when the waves lap upon you," she confessed. "But there was the Alice-doll sitting on the shore watching me, and so I couldn't let her see that I was afraid!"

Ruth, more than the other girls, aided Pearl in looking after housekeeping affairs. It was she who discovered the broken lamp in the front hall.

The bungalow was lighted by oil-lamps, and they used candles in the bed chambers; while there was a marvelous "blue-flame" kerosene range in the kitchen.

Not all of the girls understood the handling of kerosene lamps, and Pearl told a funny story about her own little sister who had never seen any lights but gas or electric.

"When she came down here to Uncle Phil's bungalow for the first time, she was all excited about the lamps. She told mamma that 'Uncle Phil had his 'lectricity in a lamp right on the supper table. It's a queer kind of a light, for they fill it with water out of a can.'"

The hanging lamp in the front hall was set inside a melon-shaped globe. Finding that, as Ruth pointed out, it could not be used, Pearl made another trip to the village before teatime and in the local "department store" bought another lamp.

"I am afraid you ought not to use that lamp, Pearl," Ruth said, when she saw that the chimney was not tall enough to stick out of the top of the globe.

"Pooh! why not? Guess it's just as good as the old chimney was," said Pearl.

"Seems to me Mrs. MacCall says that chimneys should always be tall enough to come up through the globe. I don't know just why--"

"Oh, pshaw!" interrupted Pearl. "It's all right, I fancy."

Neither girl had recourse to "applied physics." Had she done so she could easily have discovered just why it was unwise to use a lamp with a short chimney inside such a shaped globe as that hanging in chains in the front hall of the bungalow.

Ruth forgot the matter. It was Pearl herself who lit the hall lamp that evening. As before, they sat on the porch and played games and sang or told stories, all the long, bright evening.

Tess and Dot had gone to bed at half after eight. It was an hour later that Lucy suddenly said:

"I smell smoke."

"It isn't Mr. Harrod," said Ann. "He's gone down to the Casino."

"It isn't tobacco smoke I smell," declared Lucy, springing up.

"Oh, Lute!" shrieked Agnes. "Look at the door!"

A cloud of black, thick smoke was belching out of the front hall upon the veranda. One of the other girls shrieked "Fire!"

Those next few minutes were terribly exciting for all hands at the Spoondrift bungalow. A single glance into the hall showed Ruth Kenway that the hanging lamp had burst, and the place was all ablaze.

There was but one stairway, and the children were in one of the low-ceilinged rooms above. Tess and Dot could only be reached by climbing up the long, sloping roof of the bungalow, and getting in at the chamber window.

While some of the girls ran for water-which was useless in the quantity they could bring from the kitchen tap in pots and pans-and others ran screaming along the street for help, Ruth "shinnied" right up one of the piazza pillars and squirmed out upon the shingled roof.

She tore her dress, and hurt her knees and hands; but she did not think of this havoc at the moment. She got to the window of the room in which her sisters slept, and screamed for Tess and Dot, but in their first sleep the smaller girls were completely "dead to the world."

There was the screen to be reckoned with before the oldest Corner House girl could enter. It was set into the window from the inside, and she could neither lift the window-sash nor stir the screen. So she beat the tough wire in with her fists, and they bled and hurt her dreadfully! Nevertheless, she got through, falling into the room just as the stifling smoke from below began to pour in around the bedroom door.

"Tess! Dot! Hurry up! Get up!" she shrieked, shaking them both.

Tess aroused, whimpering. Ruth seized Dot bodily, flung a blanket around her, and put her out of the window upon the roof. Then she dragged Tess to the window and made her climb out after her sister.

"Oh, oh!" gasped Tess, alive at last to the cause of the excitement. "Save the Alice-doll, Ruthie. Save Dot's Alice-doll!"

And Ruth actually went back, groping through the gathering smoke, for the doll. With it she scrambled out upon the shingles.

By that time the street was noisy with shouting people. Mr. Harrod came with a fire extinguisher and attacked the flames. Other men came and helped the girls down from the roof.

Agnes had fainted when she realized the danger her sisters were in. Some of the other girls were quite hysterical. Neighbors took them all in for the night.

It was quite an hour before the fire was completely out. Then the Spoondrift bungalow certainly was in a mess.

"It will take carpenters and painters a fortnight and more to repair the damage," said Mr. Harrod the next morning. "Luckily none of your guests lost their clothing, Pearl; but you will all have to go to the hotel to finish your visit to Pleasant Cove."

Ruth actually went back, groping through the gathering smoke, for the doll. With it she scrambled out upon the shingles.