goin' t' save my trunk. I've got a new shirt an'
a pair of pants I ain't wore yit!" and he scurried toward the house.

"Water's gone!" cried Tom. "Then there's only one way to save the
barns."

"How?" asked Jack.

"They'll have to pull the stacks to pieces, and throw the hay that
isn't blazing as far off as they can. Scatter it, and then the fire
will eat itself out. It's the only way, and it can be done if they
hurry, and the wind doesn't shift."

"Come on then!" yelled Bert. "It's up to us. No one else seems to
know what to do."

"Grab these pitchforks!" yelled Tom, pointing to several of the
implements standing near the barn. "Tear the stacks apart!"

With the sharp-pointed tools ready for service, Tom and his three chums
rushed toward the burning stacks. The farmer and his men were standing
helplessly by.

"Tear 'em apart! Tear 'em apart!" yelled Tom. "It's the only way!"

The next second, in spite of the intense heat, he and the other lads
were scattering the hay on the side of the stack that was not yet
ablaze.

CHAPTER XII

ACCUSATIONS

"That's the way to do it!"

"Why didn't we think of that before?"

"Get busy, everybody! Scatter the hay!"

These cries greeted the activity of Tom and his three friends, and, a few
seconds later, as many of the crowd of students as could get near were
picking and tearing at the stacks of hay, with whatever they could lay
their hands on--pitchforks, rakes, sticks, clothes-poles--anything that
would serve to scatter the inflammable mass, that was not yet ablaze, far
enough off so that the tongues of fire could not reach it.

It was hot work and disagreeable work, for the smoke and ashes were blown
into the faces of the lads time and again. Yet they persisted, not from
any love for the farmer, since his treatment of Tom was well known, but
because of the lads' inherent desire to do something--especially at a
fire.

Meanwhile, Mr. Appleby, seeing that the blaze was now in competent hands,
turned his attention to the barns, getting out, with the help of some
students and his hired men, the farm machinery, and some sacks of grain.

But there was no need of this, as it developed, for, in a comparatively
short time, Tom's tactics proved effective. The fire, from lack of
material to feed on, gradually died out, and though the greater part of
the two stacks were consumed, the scattering of the remaining hay solved
the problem.

The fierce heat an