Once his feet were planted on top of this, Ty gave a sudden move, and they saw him slipping down until his ready hands caught the upper edge of the heavy blind. After that he dropped to the ground in a heap, to quickly stagger to his feet once more.
"Hurrah for Ty!" shouted Landy, making the high sign of fellowship in the direction of his chum; for he was too busily engaged just then to think of abandoning his buckets in order to rush to Ty's side so as to shake hands with the hero of the occasion.
What if it was only a miserable little woolly pup that he had managed to save from possible destruction; it would have been all the same had it been the real baby that the child had given him to understand was in peril. And Ty need never feel ashamed of his brave act. It shed new luster on the name of the Hickory Ridge Boy Scout troop; and Elmer was determined that when the account was written up, there should be no hint of humor in the same that might reflect in any way on Ty's act.
Immediately Ty got busy again, and proceeded to fight the fire with renewed vigor, though the poor fellow did look as though he had almost reached the end of his resources. Twice did Elmer tell him to drop out, and try to recover; but for once Ty refused to obey orders, under the plea that, as they were not really in uniform, it was not obligatory on his part.
"Now something is going to happen!" said Landy, as he brushed past Elmer while warmly engaged; and at the same time he pointed across the open space to where a party of stout farm hands had burst into view, running as fast as they could toward the fire.
"More bucketh coming, boyth!" called Ted, who had seen that each one of the newcomers was armed with at least one big pail; which fact proved that they must have suspected the cause of the wild alarm before they left home, and had provided in this wise manner against a dearth of vessels for fighting the flames.
When those fellows got busy, hurrying up from the friendly creek, each with a fresh supply of energy, and a pair of big buckets that were filled to the brim with the liquid so needful in order to check the spread of the flames, things began to look more cheerful.
"Now we've got it on the run, fellows!" cried Landy, almost hysterical through sheer weakness, and his grim determination not to give up so long as he could put one foot before the other.