Page:Bedford-Jones--Boy Scouts of the Air at Cape Peril.djvu/169

 his head, grabbed up the basket, hurried into the living room, and assisted Jimmy in creating a small hurricane as the two bustled and scrambled about, harvesting the papers.

"Now—double quick!" was Turner's order to Miller.

Man and boy hurried out into the wind and darkness, and, guided by the rays of the flashlight, made for the trail back of the sandhills. The stiff wind behind them aided their speed as they struck into the path, and it took but a short time to reach the ramshackle cottage. Windowless and doorless it stood, a flimsy skeleton. How it had so long resisted being swept away entirely seemed little short of a miracle.

At the entrance, Turner set down his burden, and, seizing the axe, set to work slashing at the decaying weather-boarding that splintered like tinder under his efforts. By the time Luke and Jimmy arrived panting, a considerable pile of kindling had accumulated.

In a few minutes more paper, tow and wood heaped near the central partition was saturated with the contents of the can, and, on the application of a match, burst into sputtering and