o give Mr. Briggs much satisfaction,"
remarked Frank. "There he is running back and forth between the store
and the stack of goods we piled up in the street."

"I reckon he is afraid the police will steal some of the silks,"
chuckled Bobolink.

"The fire is going down right fast now," Tom Betts affirmed. "What's
left of the Briggs' store may be saved. But Mr. Briggs is bound to
lose a heap, and it cuts the old man to the bone to let a dollar slip
away from him."

"To think of such a smart business man allowing his insurance policy
to lapse, and to lie unrenewed for a whole month!" exclaimed Bluff.

"Got tired paying premiums for so many years and never having a fire,"
explained Jack.

As the crowd stood there the last of the blaze yielded to the efforts
of the firemen. Most of the building was saved, though the business
was bound to be crippled for some time, and Mr. Briggs' loss would run
into the hundreds, perhaps thousands, for all any one knew.

"Listen to him scolding the foreman of the fire company, will you?"
demanded Bobolink. "He seems to think a whole hour elapsed after the
alarm before the boys got here. Why, it was the quickest run on
record, I should say."

"Here they come this way," observed Tom Betts, "and the foreman is
trying to convince Mr. Briggs he is mistaken. He knows how excited Mr.
Briggs is, and excuses anything he may say. Mr. Forbes is a big man in
more ways than bulk."

"Perhaps Mr. Briggs may want to scold us for not getting more stuff
out before the water was turned on," chuckled Bobolink.

"Don't answer him back if he does," Jack warned them, "because we know
he's nearly out of his mind just now."

Still, even practical Jack was shocked when the old storekeeper,
coming face to face with the group of scouts, suddenly pointed a
trembling finger at Bobolink and exclaimed in a vindictive voice:

"I knew this fire was started in revenge, and there's the boy who did
it!"

CHAPTER XI

FRIENDS OF THE SCOUTS

Everybody came crowding around at hearing Mr. Briggs make such a
startling accusation. Bobolink seemed to have had his very breath
taken away, for all he could do was to stare helplessly at the angry,
little, old storekeeper. The magnitude of the crime with which he was
accused stunned him.

Some of the other scouts managed to find their tongues readily enough.
Flushed with indignation they proceeded to express their feelings as
boys might be expected to do under s