On and on came Bert's bob, the _Flier_. It was a little ahead of Danny's now, and the latter, seeing this, steered over, thinking the going was better there.

"Look out!" warned Bert "Who's crowding over now?"

"Well, I've got a right here!" snarled Danny.

But Bert knew his rights also, and would not give away. He held to his place, and Danny dared not come too close. Then, as Bert found himself on smooth, hard-packed snow, he steered as straight as he could. More and more ahead of Danny he went, until he was fully in front of him.

"We're going to win! We're going to win!" cried Bert's friends.

"We're going to win the race!"

Danny was wild with anger. He steered his sled over sharply, hoping to get on the same track as was Bert and so pa.s.s him. But it was not to be. Danny took too sudden a turn, and the next instant his bob overturned, spilling everyone off.

There was a cry of surprise at the accident, and some of those on Bert's sled looked back. Bert himself looked straight ahead as a steersman always should.

"Danny's upset!" cried Charley.

"I'm sorry!" said Bert "Now he'll claim the race wasn't fair."

And that is what Danny did when he picked himself up, and walked down to meet Bert, whose bob got safely to the foot of the hill, and so won the race.

"Aw, I'd have beaten if you hadn't gotten in my way so I had to steer over," cried Danny.

"Don't talk that way now," said Irving, who, with Frank Cobb had come to the end of the hill. "Bert beat you fair and square."

"Aw, well--" grumbled Danny.

"I'll race over again, if you like," offered Bert.

"Yes, and do the same thing," grumbled Danny. "I will not. I know my sled is the best."

But few others, save those who hoped for a ride on it, agreed with the bully, and Bert's home-made bob was held to be champion of the hill.

Then came many more coasts, Bert giving Nan and Flossie and Freddie, and a number of their little girl and boy friends, several rides.

Until late that evening the coasting kept up, and Bert and Charley were congratulated on all sides for the fine bob they had made. And what fun Bert had home after supper, telling of how he had won the race!

It was in the middle of the night, when the Bobbsey household was awakened by the ringing of fire bells. They all heard the alarm, and as Papa Bobbsey counted the number, he said to his wife:

"That must be near here. Guess I'll look. It's a windy night and a fire in my lumber yard would be very bad."

As he went to the window he saw a glare on the sky in the direction of the lake.

"It _is_ near here!" he said. "The engines are going past our house! I'd better take a look."

"Can I come?" asked the little "Fat Fireman" from his cot. "Take me, papa!"

CHAPTER XIX

WHO WAS SMOKING?

Mr. Bobbsey laughed, though he was worried about the fire. It seemed so odd for Freddie to want to go out in the cold, dark night.

"Not this time, my Fat Fireman!" said Freddie's papa, "It may be only a pile of rubbish on fire. I'll tell you about it when I come back."

"Where does it seem to be?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.

"Down near the lake," answered her husband. "I'm afraid," he added in a lower voice, "that it may be our boathouse. It seems to be about there."

"Oh, I hope not!" she exclaimed. "Still, better that than our own house."

"If it's near the lake, papa," said Flossie, who heard part of what her father said, "it will be easy to put it out, for there is plenty of water."

"Pooh! engines have their own water!" exclaimed Freddie, who had rather hazy notions as to how fire engines work. He was getting over his disappointment about not being allowed to go with his father, and had again cuddled down in his warm crib.

Another engine dashed by the Bobbsey house, and the ringing of the alarm bell increased. The voices and footsteps of many persons, as they rushed on to the blaze, could also be heard, and there resounded the cry of:

"_Fire! Fire! Fire!_"

Bert, who had been aroused with the others of the household, was dressing in his room. He felt that his father would let him go to the fire. At any rate he intended to be all ready when he made his request, so as not to cause delay.

"Are you going, Bert?" asked Nan, as from her room, next to that of her brother, she heard him moving around.

"I am, if father will take me," he said,

"It's too cold for me!" Nan exclaimed with a shiver, as she went back in bed again. She bad gotten up to peer from the window at the red glare in the sky.

From the third floor, where Dinah slept, the colored cook now called down:

"Am anybody sick, Mrs. Bobbsey? What am de mattah down dere?"

"It's a fire, Dinah!" answered her mistress.

"Oh good land a'ma.s.sy! Don't tell me dat!" she cried. "Sam! Sam!

Wake up. De house is on fire an' you'se got t' sabe me!"

"No, no, Dinah!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, to calm the cook. "It isn't this house. It's down by the lake. If you look out of your window you can see it."

Dinah hurried across to her window, and evidently saw the reflection of the blaze, for she exclaimed:

"Thank goodness it ain't yeah! Mah goodness, but I suah was skarit fo' a minute!"

By this time Mr. Bobbsey had dressed, and had started downstairs.

Bert came out of his room, also ready for the street.