At that moment Joe saw, or fancied he saw, a tiny curl of blue vapour rising from the corner of the barn, and, as he stood gazing in that direction, uncertain whether his eyes might not have deceived him, another puff of smoke, and yet another, arose slowly in the air, telling unmistakably of what Master Fernald had done. Joe darted into the house, and seized the water-pail, as he cried, excitedly: "Come on quick, Plums! Dan's set the barn a-fire! Get anything that you can carry water in, and hump yourself lively!" "But what'll I do with the princess?" Master Plummer asked, helplessly. "She'll have to take care of herself," Joe cried, as he ran at full speed towards the smoke, which was now rising in small clouds, giving token of flames which might soon reduce aunt Dorcas's little home to ashes. CHAPTER XV. AN UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL. It was really the princess who saved aunt Dorcas's home from destruction. Had she not seen Dan Fernald, as he made his way through the orchard, the barn would most likely have been in a blaze before Joe or Plums were aware of the fact. Thanks to her warning, Joe saw the smoke before the fire gathered headway, and when he arrived on the scene, the flames had but just fastened upon the side of the barn. Plums, aroused to something like activity by the knowledge of danger, followed Joe with remarkable promptness, and the amount of water thus brought by both was sufficient to extinguish what, a few moments later, would have been a conflagration. Not until he had pulled the charred sticks from beneath the end of the barn, and assured himself every spark had been drowned out, did Joe speak, and then it was to relieve his mind by making threats against the would-be incendiary. "It's all well enough for a woman like aunt Dorcas to tell about doin' good to them what tries to hurt you, for she couldn't so much as put up her hands. If you keep on forgivin' duffers like Dan Fernald, you're bound to be in such scrapes as this all the time. What he needed was a sound thumpin', when he begun talkin' so rough to aunt Dorcas; then he wouldn't dared to try a game of this kind. When I get hold of him again, I'll make up for lost time." "I'll bet he's somewhere 'round here, watchin' out, an' when he sees this game didn't work, he'll try somethin' else." "Not much he won't. I know pretty near where he is, an' I'm goin' to make him--" At this moment the voice of the princess could be heard in vehement protest against thus being left alone, and Joe was forced to defer his punishment of the amateur detective until a more convenient season. "Stay here, Plums, an' watch for Dan, while I go and get the princess. He went among them trees over there, so's to have a reserved seat while the house was burnin'; but he's got to come out some time." "Don't stay away too long, for I ain't certain as I'd dare to tackle him alone,--you see I'm too fat to be much of a fighter."