Page:Dave Porter in the Gold Fields.djvu/86

74 outside, at the rear, helping to pull the brushwood away and stamp out the flames.

"Firecrackers—a box full!" cried Roger. "We must get it out!"

"A giant firecracker!" added Phil. "Big enough to blow down a house!" And he held up the package and then made a dive for the outer air, for the garage was now full of smoke.

Dave understood on the instant, and stooped to pick up one end of the burning box. Roger took the other end, and thus they ran from the garage.

Crack! crack! crack! It was the small firecrackers in the box that were beginning to go off, the pieces flying through a lower corner of the burning box.

"Into the back yard with it!" cried Roger. "Keep it away from the buildings!"

"All right, this way!" answered Dave, and then the pair made for something of an open lot behind the kitchen of the mansion and there threw the box on the ground. Crack! bang! crack! went the firecrackers, going off singly and in bunches, until all were shot off.

"It's a pity we didn't save 'em," said Roger, mournfully.

"It's a grand good thing they didn't go off in the garage," returned Dave.

"Well, I saved the big cannon cracker anyway," said Phil, as he walked up at that moment.