When they reached the High School smoke was issuing from the windows of the gymnasium, and from the roof and chimneys, and situated as it was like a connecting link between the two buildings, it was an easy matter for the flames to spread in either direction.
Even in the short time it had taken Grace to turn in the alarm, the fire had made tremendous headway, and great tongues of flame shot up toward the sky.

The roof had caught and was burning rapidly, although the firemen played a constant stream upon it.
As the fire grew hotter, the other companies were called out, and soon the entire Oakdale Fire Department was at work.
Ropes had been stretched around the burning part of the building to keep venturesome citizens outside the fire belt.

Grace stood as close as she dared, Nora, Anne and Jessica at her side.
"Oh, do, do save our gymnasium!" she shrieked, as several firemen hurried past her.
"Can't do it, miss," replied one of them.

"It's a goner.

If we save the school we'll do well, let alone the gymnasium." Long and strenuously the firemen fought the hungry flames.