“Run in a chemical line!” shouted a battalion chief through a small megaphone he carried. “It’s only a pile of rubbish on fire. We don’t need any water.” Quickly a small hose from the chemical engine was unreeled. The engineer turned a crank at one end of a big cylinder, and a bottle inside which contained vitriol was smashed, allowing the contents to mingle with a strong solution of soda water. This created carbonic-acid gas, and forced the mingled liquids out through the hose at high pressure. On to the blazing pile of rubbish the chemicals were turned, and the little blaze, which was more of smoke than of fire, was soon out. “It’s all over!” cried the battalion chief, five minutes later. “You can go back to bed!” The people began to laugh hysterically, so sudden was the relief from anxiety. Several could not believe but what the house was doomed. The firemen, however, assured them there was no danger. Through the open windows the smoke was soon blown away. The engines started back to quarters. “Come on, mother,” said Larry. “I guess we can go back now.” “Golly! Wasn’t that just like a circus!” exclaimed Jimmy. Up the stairs the Dexters went. On the way they were joined by scores of other tenants, all talking at once. “I wonder if my papers and that deed are safe,” thought Larry. As soon as he got back to his bedroom he looked for the box. He crawled under the bed, and felt about. “That’s queer,” he mused. “I’m sure it was here!” He made a hurried search of the room. The box had disappeared. “We’ve been robbed during the fire!” exclaimed Larry. CHAPTER XIV A STRANGE OFFER “Robbed!” cried Mrs. Dexter. “I hope no one has taken my gold breastpin and my ring!” “I hope they didn’t take my book of fairy stories!” came from Jimmy. “Do you mean thieves have been in here during the fire?” asked Lucy, as she sat down on a chair in the kitchen. “That’s what I mean,” replied Larry. “The box of papers, in which the deed to the Bronx land was kept, is gone.” “Perhaps you took it out with you, in your excitement,” suggested Mrs. Dexter. “No,” replied Larry. “I know we have been robbed. The more I think of it the more I believe the fire was only a make-believe one, started to scare us so we would get out and give the thief a chance to work.” Mrs. Dexter could hardly credit this, but Larry insisted he was right. The firemen went through the building to make sure there were no lurking sparks, and some of them said the blaze had amounted to nothing more than a small bit of rubbish on fire in the cellar, which confirmed Larry’s belief. He said nothing more to his mother, however, as she was much excited over the fire. Soon they returned to bed, though Mary and Jimmy were the only ones who slept much afterward, as the others were too nervous.