"That's what it needs!" exclaimed Tom. "Now there's some chance to save the shop."
"We'll be there ourselves to take a hand in a few seconds!" cried Mr. Damon, forgetting to bless anything.
"The scoundrel who started this fire, and those back of him, ought to be imprisoned for life!" declared Mr. Nestor.
A moment later Ned had landed the airship within a short distance of the shop. In an instant the occupants of the craft had leaped out, and Tom, after a hasty glance to see that his valuable camera was safe, dashed toward the building crying:
"Never mind the pails, dad! Use the hose! There's a nozzle at the back door. Go around there, and play the water on from that end."
Eradicate, with his line of hose, had disappeared into the shop through the front door, and the others pressed in after him, heedless of the dense smoke.
"Is it blazing much, Rad?" cried Tom.
"Can't see no blaze at all, Massa Tom," replied the colored man. "Dere's a heap of suffin in de middle ob de flo', an' dat's what's raisin' all de rumpus."
They all saw it a moment later, a smouldering heap of rags and paper on the concrete floor of
