“Clang!  Clang!  Clang!” rang the fire alarm bell.

CHAPTER XVII

FREDDIE’S REAL ALARM

“I hope nothing has happened—­that the boat isn’t on fire,” said Mrs. Bobbsey to her husband.  “That would be terrible!”

“I hardly think that is it,” he said.  “There may be a small fire, somewhere on the boat, but, even if there is, they have a way of putting it out.  I’ll go and see what it is.  You stay with the children.”

But just then, after another clanging of the bell, some one was heard to laugh—­the ringing, hearty laugh of a man.

“There!” exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey, “I guess everything is all right.  They wouldn’t be laughing if there was any danger.”

“Let’s go to the fire!” cried Bert.  “I want to see it!”

“So do I!” chimed in his new chum, Billy, eagerly.

“Oh, can’t we see it; whatever it is?” begged Nan.

“First I’ll have to make sure there is a fire,” replied Mr. Bobbsey.  “I hope there isn’t.  But, if there should be a small one, and the firemen on the boat are putting it out, and if they let us get near enough to see, and if the smoke isn’t too thick—­”

“Oh, Daddy!  Not so many ‘ifs’ please!” laughed Nan.

The Bobbseys all laughed at this, as did Nell and Billy.

“Freddie would like to see the fire, if there is one,” remarked Nell Martin.

“Oh, that’s so!  Where is Freddie?” cried Bert.

Then, for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey noticed that the little blue-eyed and light-haired boy was not with them.

But at that moment around the corner of a deck cabin came a man wearing a cap with gold braid around the edge.  He was smiling and leading by the hand a little boy.  And the little boy was Freddie!

“Oh, there he is!” cried Flossie.  “Freddie, where were you?” she asked.  “And did you been to see the fire?”

“Well, I rather guess he did!” exclaimed the man, who was the captain of the boat.  “He Was the whole fire himself!”

“The whole fire?” cried Mr. Bobbsey.  “Do you mean to say that my little boy started a fire?”

“Oh, nothing as bad as that!” said the captain, and he smiled down on Freddie who smiled up at him in return.  “No, all your little boy did was to ring the fire alarm bell and then call out ‘Fire!’ But of course that was enough to start things going, and we had quite a good deal of excitement for a time.  But it’s all right now, and I think he won’t do it again.”

“Just what did he do?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as Freddie came over to stand beside his mother.  He looked rather ashamed.

“Well, on the deck, back of the wheel-house, which is the little place where I or my men stand to steer the boat, there is a fire alarm bell.  It’s there for any one to ring who finds the boat on fire, and when the bell is rung all my firemen hurry to put out the blaze,” said the captain.