She knelt down next to Randy, who was sitting on the concrete, his head in his hands. Ned was on Randy’s other side. Nancy’s jacket was on the concrete beside him. She could hear the wail of a siren in the distance as she asked, “Are you okay?”
Randy focused on her, a haunted look in his eyes. “I think so. That was so weird. I’ve never seen anything catch fire so fast.” He shook his head as if to clear away the confusion.
Nancy opened her mouth to agree, but was interrupted when Dean Jarvis rushed over, followed by the coach, who was lugging a heavy fire extinguisher.
“Fire trucks are on the way, and so is an ambulance,” said the dean. The coach was already dousing the fire.
The dean leaned down to Randy. “How do you feel?”
“I feel all right,” Randy insisted. “I’m all right,” he repeated, smiling weakly, “thanks to this girl’s quick thinking.”
Dean Jarvis smiled as he recognized Nancy. “If it isn’t Nancy Drew. I should have known that Emerson’s favorite private detective was responsible for saving the day.” He gave her an appreciative smile. “Thanks for helping us out—again.”
“It’s the least I could do,” Nancy told him. She was going to thank him for arranging the suite for her and Bess, but the husky dean was already rushing off to greet the fire fighters who were arriving.
Nancy became suddenly aware of the groups of students who were clustered around the parking lot, talking anxiously. She’d been so intent on helping Randy that she’d forgotten all about them. A handful of fire fighters were keeping everyone back from the cordoned-off area, while others used a hose to douse the flames.
“Please move on to the gymnasium for the victory party,” Dean Jarvis’s amplified voice boomed out. He was speaking through a bullhorn that he’d apparently borrowed from the fire chief.
As the students were dispersing, an ambulance arrived. Nancy, Bess, and Ned lingered nearby while Randy was checked out. Although the hair on his hands was singed, he had managed to escape without injury.
“You were lucky, kid,” Nancy heard one of the medics tell Randy.
“That’s for sure,” Nancy whispered to her friends. “That platform burst into flame so suddenly, you’d think it was—”
Her words were cut off as Kristin Seidel pushed past her and Ned to make her way over to Randy. Nancy noticed that Kristin had tears in her eyes.
“I’m so sorry!” Kristin said in a trembling voice. “I’ve done that routine dozens of times, and I’ve never had any problem.”
Although Randy was still shook up, he tried to reassure Kristin. “Hey, I’m okay. Don’t worry about it.”
Her mind racing, Nancy turned from Kristin to the fire fighters, who were searching through the embers of the platform. In all the excitement she hadn’t had time to really consider what had happened. But now that she did, something seemed odd to her.
“It doesn’t seem normal for wood to burn so quickly,” she murmured to Ned. “I’m going to ask.” Leaving her friends, she went over to a fire fighter who was poking at a piece of charred wood with a rake.
“Excuse me,” she said, “but isn’t it unusual for a wooden platform this large to burn in a matter of minutes?”
The man didn’t answer right away. “It’s hard to say. Depends on what type of wood it was, whether it was dry—things like that.”
“But what about—” Nancy broke off as something shiny in the embers caught her eye. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing at the object.
The fire fighter leaned forward and prodded it with the tip of the rake. “It’s made of glass.” He rolled the object toward him, then picked it up with a gloved hand. “A glass jar,” he said thoughtfully, turning it over. “The chief should see this.”
He went over to the medical van, where a uniformed fire official stood talking with Dean Jarvis. Curious, Nancy followed him.
“Chief, we found this jar in the embers of the fire,” the fire fighter said.
“That—that’s mine!” cried a distressed voice from behind them. Nancy turned as Kristin left Randy’s side and rushed over to the fire fighter holding the jar. “At least, I think it is. It looks like the jar I keep kerosene in to soak the ends of my baton.”