within. The interior of the room was in flames.

To think was to act. Unless help arrived speedily their beloved
gymnasium would soon be a thing of the past. Grace tore through the
corridor like a wild girl, and darted out the door and across the
campus. There was a fire alarm on the street below the High School, and
toward this she directed her steps.

Pausing an instant before the box, she looked about her for something
with which to break the glass. Spying a small boy strolling toward her,
a baseball bat in his hand, she pounced upon him, seized the bat before
he knew what had happened and smashed the glass with one blow. Giving
the ring inside a vigorous pull, Grace shoved the bat into the hands of
the astonished youngster and made for the nearest telephone.

Hurrying into Stillman's, she discovered to her disgust that the
telephone was in use, but a moment later she was at the door and again
out on the street. Her quick ear had caught the clang of the bell on the
fire engines, and the thing to do now was to go back to her chums with
the news--and then off to the fire.

"The gymnasium is on fire!" she cried, as she neared the spot where they
awaited her. "Hurry, all of you! Perhaps we may be of some help."

Her three friends needed no second invitation and throwing all dignity
to the winds, raced down the street in the direction of the burning
building. When they reached the High School smoke was issuing from the
windows of the gymnasium, and from the roof and chimneys, and situated
as it was like a connecting link between the two buildings, it was an
easy matter for the flames to spread in either direction.

Even in the short time it had taken Grace to turn in the alarm, the fire
had made tremendous headway, and great tongues of flame shot up toward
the sky. The roof had caught and was burning rapidly, although the
firemen played a constant stream upon it.

As the fire grew hotter, the other companies were called out, and soon
the entire Oakdale Fire Department was at work.

Ropes had been stretched around the burning part of the building to keep
venturesome citizens outside the fire belt. Grace stood as close as she
dared, Nora, Anne and Jessica at her side.

"Oh, do, do save our gymnasium!" she shrieked, as several firemen
hurried past her.

"Can't do it, miss," replied one of them. "It's a goner. If we save the
school we'll do well, let alone the gymnasium."

Long and strenuously the firemen fought t