Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/210

 "We can’ put it out—we can’t put it out—there is so little water!” he caught himself gasping aloud as he ran.

Fortunately Dick, when he came from the spring, had set down his full pail by the doorstep  when he went to rescue Hulda. Dashing inside, Hugh dragged the blankets from the bunks,  plunged them into the water and then swung himself up over the eaves to the burning roof. Blindly and furiously he beat at the flames, choking in the dense smoke, feeling sparks and coals burn through his coat, yet caring for nothing but that he must quench the fire. Dick handed him up pail after pail of water from below; how  he ever went and came from the spring so quickly  was impossible to understand.

It was Hugh who had the presence of mind to realize that the water must be husbanded and  thrown upon the fire in well-aimed dipperfuls  rather than poured pell-mell across the roof. It was Dick who shouted up to him that he must  try to drive the flames back from the cabin proper,  since saving the blazing shed behind it was