their voices to Dick's, and
with Haskin to help them, they managed somehow to restore some sort of
order. They fought their way through the packed aisles, and, though
the fire was gaining, back by the film, they made the people pass out
in good order. Great as was the peril, not one of them flinched.

Jack Danby, in the center aisle, had to bear the brunt of the wild rush
for the door, but he managed to keep the people from piling up against
the door, and so making a human dam that would have kept everyone from
safety. One or two men, and the braver of the women, inspired by the
actions of the Scouts, pulled themselves together, and helped them, and
before the flames had made much headway, everyone, it seemed, was out.
But Jack Danby remembered seeing a child fall just before the last
group had gone through the door. He did not see it outside, and,
despite protests from all who saw him, he made his way back.

The lights had gone out for good now, but there was plenty of chance to
see even in that grimy, smoke-filled place, by the fitful glare of the
flames that were reaching out and licking up the seats and the tawdry
decorations now. And he had not very far to go before he found what he
was looking for--the body of a little girl who had fallen and been
overcome by the smoke. He picked her up and with little difficulty
carried her out to the street, where a fireman took her from him.

The firemen made short work of the blaze, and Haskin, with the four
Scouts, walked away and reached the automobile, which had been forced
to move several blocks on account of the fire.

"That fire wasn't any accident," said Haskin, gravely. "Now I know why
those fellows were following me. They were afraid of something of this
sort. My heavens, what cold-blooded scoundrels they are! They were
willing to wreck that train--now they took the chance of killing
everyone in that little theatre to keep me from seeing that film--and,
I suppose, with the idea that they could get rid of me and the most
dangerous witness against them at the same time, and by a single blow."

"Do you really think they did that?" cried Dick, shocked by the idea.

"I think so, yes. But it's one thing to think so, and to say that I
think so, and it's quite another to prove it. That's the trouble! But
I'm going to try pretty hard, and I'll fix the blame on them and see
that they go to jail for it if there's any human way of doing it. It's
a pity they suc