"It's Mosher's lumber yards!" was repeated, from lot to lot, and from corner to corner.
The bell of the Congregational church pealed forth its clamorous warning.
Two streams of people were set in motion--the one flowing tumultuously toward the cloud of smoke, the other speeding frantically for the nearest hose house, headquarters of the Pole Star Volunteers.
Ned, with Bob barking and leaping about him, fell in with the latter current. Very soon, you may be sure, he arrived at the hose house. He found a large throng of men and boys collected before the door.
"Where's the key? They can't find the key!" he heard announced from every side.
The town marshal mounted the steps of the outside stairs, so that he could look over the crowd.
"Does any one know where the key is?" he bellowed, searching the faces of the jostling mob which, brimming with excitement, was constantly increasing.
"Where's the key? Who knows where the key is?" echoed the people, to each other, screaming the query as loud as they could.
"I know--it's hanging behind the door in Fleischmann's grocery!" volunteered a youngster of ten years, barefooted, in faded blue overalls and dingy checked waist. And off he scurried, importance showing in every flap of his overalls against his bare ankles.
"It's in Fleischmann's grocery--the boy's gone to get it," volleyed a chorus, to the marshal.
"Here it comes!" was shouted, in a moment. "Let the lad through--you fellows out there!"
A dozen hands reached to grasp the urchin by the shirt and pull him ahead.
"But I ain't got it--it wasn't there," explained the boy, as rapidly as he could. "They said they didn't have it any more!"
"Sold it for old iron, I bet you," remarked a joker. His hearers laughed, and as this hit at Fleischmann went from mouth to mouth guffaws went, too.
"Break in the door! Bust the padlock!" suggested a stout, white-aproned man--Schmidt, the butcher.
"Smash a window and climb in," suggested somebody else.
"What good would _that_ do?" inquired Mr. Schmidt, scornfully.
"Here's the key--here's the key!" arose the cry, and the throng eddied and swirled as a man elbowed his path through to the door, and applied a key to the lock.
The crowd pressed forward when, with an impatient motion, the man jerked open the padlock, and hurled aside the sliding door. So many zealous helpers offered themselves that much confusion resulted.