FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92  
93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>  
ed to remark, almost joyously. Evidently they had emptied the pail of cold water over his head in the effort to revive him, and with more or less success. Jack was considerably relieved. It was not so bad as he had feared, though Fred certainly looked weak, and next door to helpless. "I hope he'll not be knocked out from playing that game with us Saturday," Steve took occasion to say. "Oh! Fred's made of tough stuff," asserted Toby, the wish being father to the thought; "he'll recover all right. I only hope they've got their goods covered by insurance. It'd be pretty rocky if they didn't, let me tell you. Nearly everything is gone, I'm afraid. Fred did manage to drag a little out, but that fire is bound to eat up the balance, no matter what the firemen can do to throw water inside." Jack suddenly discovered that the man whom he had seen talking with Fred was pushing his way through the group. He acted too as though he might be deeply interested in matters, for he shoved folks aside with an air that would not stand for a refusal to allow him free passage. Toby discovered him at about the identical moment. "Look who's here, Jack!" he muttered, tugging at the other's coat sleeve. "Now, what under the sun's gone and fetched that duck out here to bother Fred again? We really ought not allow such a thing, Jack. The nerve of the slick sport to push his way in to where Fred lies there." "Just hold your horses, will you, Toby?" Jack told him. "As yet we don't know anything about that man, who or what life is, and the nature of his business with Fred. There, you see the boy seems to be glad to have him around. Why, the man has gripped his hand. He seems to be a whole lot excited, for he's questioning Fred as if he wanted to make sure everybody was safe out of the cottage." "I wonder if they are?" remarked Toby. "I've seen little Barbara, and here's our comrade, while I reckon I glimpsed Mrs. Badger over there among those women; but how about the crippled girl, Jack? Anybody seen her around?" A fresh thrill seized Jack's heart in a grip of ice. Of course it was almost silly to suspect that the cripple could have been forgotten in all the excitement; but anything is liable to happen at a fire, where most people lose their heads, and do things they would call absurd at another time. "Fred would be apt to know, I should think," suggested Steve, anxiously, casting an apprehensive glance in the direction of the burni
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92  
93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   >>  



Top keywords:
discovered
 

excited

 

gripped

 
nature
 
horses
 
questioning
 

business

 

liable

 

excitement

 

happen


people
 
forgotten
 

suspect

 

cripple

 

things

 

casting

 

anxiously

 

apprehensive

 

glance

 

direction


suggested
 

absurd

 

Barbara

 
comrade
 

glimpsed

 
reckon
 
remarked
 

cottage

 

bother

 

Badger


thrill

 

seized

 
Anybody
 
crippled
 

wanted

 
matters
 

asserted

 

Saturday

 

occasion

 

father


covered

 

insurance

 
pretty
 

thought

 
recover
 
playing
 

effort

 

revive

 
remark
 

joyously