“Come on!” yelled Tucker, giving the Turk a savage jab in the ribs and upsetting the clown by kicking his feet from beneath him. “Get into ’em, fellows! Give ’em fits! They’ve been giving me fits.”
“We’ve got them foul,” declared Dick. “They’ll have to surrender.”
“Surrender?” snarled Satan. “Not on your life! We’ll fight.”
Fight they did. It was a fierce old battle that took place down there in the warehouse basement. Dick signaled out the crimson-clothed leader of the rascals and engaged him. While they were tussling and writhing and squirming, other struggles were taking place amid the boxes and bales and dim shadows of the place.
Merriwell found his antagonist strong as a bull, but was finally getting the best of the fellow when some one kicked over the pot of grease, the “slut” candle. The burning stuff ran flaring into a dry mass of straw and excelsior. Fire leaped up in a twinkling, illuminating the entire basement.
Startled, the boys stopped in the midst of their furious struggles.
“Fire!” yelled one, in a tone of great alarm.
“That’s bad business!” panted Dick, tearing away from his antagonist and leaping toward the flames. “Quick, boys, let’s see if we can’t smother it!”
Satan, enraged by what had happened and utterly reckless of consequences, sprang after Dick and grappled with him again.
“You fool!” exclaimed Merriwell, twisting about. “Let me alone! Don’t you see what’s happening? The building will go up in flames!”
“Let it go!” rasped the disguised fellow. “You’re the cause, and I’m going to soak you.”
He struck Dick in the face, although the force of the blow was partly broken by an upthrust arm. This aroused young Merriwell and made him furious as a wild creature. With a shout, he broke the fellow’s hold upon him, seized the chap, snapped his heels into the air, and whirled him headlong against the stone wall. The crimson figure dropped limply to the cemented floor and lay still.
“Fellows, fellows!” shouted Dick, realizing that a great many of the boys were taking to their heels and getting out as quickly as possible. “Don’t run away. We must smother this fire. We must put it out somehow.”
It was Buckhart who joined him, and they did their best to put out the flames.