"A few grenades! Say, you must have turned a whole river of them loose!" cried the delighted chief."It doused the fire quicker than I ever saw one put out in all my life!""I'm glad I was successful," said Tom."But was any one in the building?""Yes, a few," answered a policeman, who was trying to keep the crowd back from the airship."They're bringing them out now.""Killed?" gasped Tom.
"No.But some of them are badly hurt," the officer answered."There was one young lady and a man named Barton Keith--""Barton Keith!" shouted Tom, springing forward."Was he--Who was the young lady? I--I--"But at that moment there was a stir in the crowd about the building, in which only a little fire flow remained, and through the throng came a disheveled and smoke-blackened young lady and a man whose clothing was also greatly disarrayed.
"Mary!" cried the young inventor.
"Tom!" gasped Mary Nestor."How did you get here?""I came to put out the fire," was the answer, and Tom cooled down now that he saw Mary was unharmed."How did you happen to be in the building?""I was in Uncle Barton's office when the fire broke out," answered Mary, "and we were trapped.We had to stay there, with two men from the floor above.""Yes, and if they had stayed with us they wouldn't have been hurt," said Mr.Keith."But, as it was, they rushed out and tried to get down the stairs.They were caught in the draft and badly burned, I believe.They are bringing them out now."Two stretchers, on which lay inert forms, were borne through the now silent crowd by firemen and police officers, and taken to waiting ambulances.
"That's Field and Melling," said Mr.Keith to Tom."They had offices just above me, and they were trapped, as were Mary and I.They acted like big cowards, too, though I hope they're not badly hurt.We stayed inside my office, and we were just giving up the hope of rescue when the fire seemed suddenly to die down.""I should say it was sudden!" cried the enthusiastic local chief."It was the chemicals from this young man's airship that did the trick!""Oh, Tom, was it your new machine?" asked Mary.
"Yes," was the answer."I was on my way to give a test tomorrow in Denton when I saw this fire.I didn't know you were in it, though, Mary.""Oh, but I'm glad you came," she said."It was just--awful!" and she clung to Tom's arm, trembling.
When Field and Melling, whose rash conduct had caused them to be severely but not fatally burned, had been taken to a hospital and the fire was declared to be practically out, Tom made arrangements to leave his airship in the city field all night.
"And you and your friends can come to Uncle Jasper's house," said Mary.
"Of course!" said Uncle Jasper himself, who had arrived on the scene, attracted to the fire by the news that his niece and Mr.Keith were in danger."Lots of room! Come along! We'll celebrate your rescue So the crew of the fire-fighting Lucifer went with Mary, while the firemen, after again thanking Tom most enthusiastically, kept on playing, as a precaution, their streams of water on the still hot building.
Only the central portion of the structure, the stairs and elevator shafts, were burned away.The strong upward draft had kept the fire from spreading much to either side.
"It certainly was a fierce blaze, and I'm glad my chemicals took such prompt effect," said Tom."I shall not fear any test after this."It was the day following the night of excitement, and Tom and his friends, at the invitation of the fire department of Newmarket, were inspecting what was left of the Landmark Building --and there was considerable left--though access to the upper floors was to be had only by ladders, down which Mary and her uncle, Barton Keith, had been carried.
"Here are my offices," said Mr.Keith, who accompanied Tom, Ned, Mr.Damon and Mr.Baxter, as he ushered them into his suite of rooms.
"Bless my fountain pen! nothing is burned here," cried the eccentric man.
"No, the flames just shot upward," explained the fire chief, who was leading the party."But I think those chemicals of yours would have been just as effective, Mr.Swift, if the fire had mushroomed out more.""It was hot enough as it was," answered Tom, with a grim laugh."Bless my thermometer, too hot--too hot by far!" exclaimed TomSwift's eccentric friend, and to this Ned nodded an amused agreement.
An exclamation from Mr.Baxter attracted the attention of all in Mr.Keith's office.The chemist picked up from the floor a bundle of papers.
"Here is a bundle of documents that some one has dropped, Mr.Keith," he said."I guess you forgot to put it in your safe.Why --why--no-- they aren't yours! They're mine.Here are my missing dye formulae! The secret papers I've been searching for so long! The ones I thought Field and Melling had!" cried Mr.Baxter."How--how did they get here?" and, wonderingly, he looked at the bundle of papers he had discovered in such a strange manner.
