"Come on, boys!" cried Cole, who, with Tom Donnell and several others,
was pulling the long snake-like line of rubber toward the blaze which
had been assigned to them to extinguish.
Cole's forethought proved successful. By the time the Lakeville boys
were at the fire, the fluid had filled the hose, and was ready to
spurt out of the nozzle. The others had waited until the hose was
fully unreeled before putting the apparatus in operation.
"First stream!" yelled Cole with delight, as he saw the whitish fluid
spurting toward the blaze.
They beat the other two companies by at least half a minute, and
seconds count in these fire department contests.
But the fight was only begun. So fiercely were the shacks blazing that
it seemed as if a big stream of water was needed to extinguish them.
The small chemical ones did not appear adequate. But it was science
triumphing over matter.
In less than a minute there was noticed a lessening in the power of
all three blazes. The fourth one, assigned to the unfortunate
Weedsport department, was going fiercely. But, with a shout, the
members of that department, having righted their engine, which was
only slightly damaged, rushed it up, and were soon playing a stream on
the miniature conflagration.
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