The hanging lamp in the front hall was set inside a melon-shaped globe. Finding that, as Ruth pointed out, it could not be used, Pearl made another trip to the village before teatime and in the local department store bought another
lamp.
I am afraid you ought not to use that lamp, Pearl, Ruth said, when she saw that the chimney was not tall enough to stick out of the top of the globe.
Pooh! why not? Guess its just as good as the old chimney was, said Pearl.
Seems to me Mrs. MacCall says that chimneys should always be tall enough to come up through the globe. I dont know just why
Oh, pshaw! interrupted Pearl. Its all right, I fancy.
Neither girl had recourse to applied physics. Had she done so she could easily have discovered just why it was unwise to use a lamp with a short chimney inside such a shaped globe as that hanging in chains in the front hall of the bungalow.
Ruth forgot the matter. It was Pearl herself who lit the hall lamp that evening. As before, they sat on the porch and played games and sang or told stories, all the long, bright evening.
Tess and Dot had gone to bed at half after eight. It was an hour later that Lucy suddenly said:
I smell smoke.
It isnt Mr. Harrod, said Ann. Hes gone down to the Casino.
It isnt tobacco smoke I smell, declared Lucy, springing up.
Oh, Lute! shrieked Agnes. Look at the door!
A cloud of black, thick smoke was belching out of the front hall upon the veranda. One of the other girls shrieked Fire!
Those next few minutes were terribly exciting for all hands at the Spoondrift bungalow. A single glance into the hall showed Ruth Kenway that the hanging lamp had burst, and the place was all ablaze.
There was but one stairway, and the children were in one of the low-ceilinged rooms above. Tess and Dot could only be reached by climbing up the long, sloping roof of the bungalow, and getting in at the chamber window.
While some of the girls ran for water which was useless in the quantity they could bring from the kitchen tap in pots and pans and others ran screaming along the street for help, Ruth shinnied right up one of the piazza pillars and squirmed out upon the shingled roof.
She tore her dress, and hurt her knees and hands; but she did not think of this havoc at the moment. She got to the window of the room in which her sisters slept, and screamed for Tess and Dot, but in their first sleep the smaller girls were completely dead to the world.
There was the screen to be reckoned with before the oldest Corner House girl could enter. It was set into the window from the inside, and she could neither lift the window-sash nor stir the screen. So she beat the tough wire in with her fists, and they bled and hurt her dreadfully! Nevertheless, she got through, falling into the room just as the stifling smoke from below began to pour in around the bedroom door.
Tess! Dot! Hurry up! Get up! she shrieked, shaking them both.
Tess aroused, whimpering. Ruth seized Dot bodily, flung a blanket around her, and put her out of the window upon the roof. Then she dragged Tess to the window and made her climb out after her sister.
Oh, oh! gasped Tess, alive at last to the cause of the excitement. Save the Alice-doll, Ruthie. Save Dots Alice-doll!
And Ruth actually went back, groping through the gathering smoke, for the doll. With it she scrambled out upon the shingles.
By that time the street was noisy with shouting people. Mr. Harrod came with a fire extinguisher and attacked the flames. Other men came and helped the girls down from the roof.
Agnes had fainted when she realized the danger her sisters were in. Some of the other girls were quite hysterical. Neighbors took them all in for the night.
It was quite an hour before the fire was completely out. Then the Spoondrift bungalow certainly was in a mess.
It will take carpenters and painters a fortnight and more to repair the damage, said Mr. Harrod the next morning. Luckily none of your guests lost their clothing, Pearl; but you will all have to go to the hotel to finish your visit to Pleasant Cove.
CHAPTER XI THE LITTLE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE
The Spoondrift cottage was really not fit for occupancy and there seemed nothing else for the girls to do but follow his advice and go over to the Overlook. But Ruth Kenway had her doubts.
After the excitement of the fire, and the general stir-about which ensued, Pearl Harrod had quite forgotten that the Corner House girls were not on terms of intimacy with Trix Severn,
the hotel keepers daughter. It probably never entered her good-natured mind that Trix would behave meanly when all hands from the Spoondrift had escaped the peril of the fire.
The girls trooped over to the hotel, after repacking their baggage, to look at the rooms which had been secured for them. Mr. Severn was not there, nor was the clerk on duty. Their schoolmate, Trix, was behind the desk.
Oh, yes, she said carelessly, I presume we can find rooms for you. But father doesnt care much to take in people who wont stay the season out especially at this time of the year. Its a great inconvenience.