CHASED BY THE FLAMES
"BUT this way is not the way home, Bob!" expostulated the younger lad,
even as he clung close to the flying feet of his brother.
"True," Bob flung over his shoulder, while he ran on; "but it is away
from the fire, and that must be enough for us now. Can you go any
faster, Sandy?"
"I know what it is!" cried the other, his voice trembling under the
great strain; "you mean that the noise is getting louder all the while!
Then the fire must be gaining on us! We will be caught!"
"Oh! I do not say that," and Bob fell back a trifle so as to run
alongside his companion; "but it is certainly advancing very fast and
furiously. This wild wind whips it along much quicker than any man can
run."
"Look!" cried Sandy, suddenly, "what is that over yonder? Surely it is
a buffalo--two, three of them! And see how they gallop along, with
their heads lowered, and the hot steam pouring from their nostrils!"
"They smell the smoke and hear the noise," Bob replied, speaking in
jerks as he ran. "Perhaps they may never have seen a fire before, but
they know what it means. And there goes a stag! Look at the tremendous
leaps he is taking! No danger of his being caught by the flames!"
"Don't I wish we could run as fast! What a pair of horns for this time
of year!" said Sandy, who knew that it was the season when stags lose
their antlers, to be replaced with a new pair.
"Too bad we could not get one of those buffalo," observed Bob; "but it
would be wicked to kill the poor beast when we could never save the
meat. Let them live to another day."
"Yes, we have all we want to do now, trying to save ourselves," panted
Sandy, who was not his brother's equal in running, and was already
beginning to show evident signs of exhaustion.
Bob noticed this with increasing uneasiness.
"We can never get away by running," he declared, as he shortened his
pace; and Sandy hastened to do likewise, with evident relief.
"Would it do to climb high up in a tree?" the latter hazarded at a
venture.
"Not at all, for we should be smothered with the smoke, even if we
managed to keep from being cured like bacon. But I was thinking that
if only we could run across a hollow tree we might find refuge in it,"
said Bob, looking eagerly to the right and left.
Already the smoke, driven ahead of the flames, was beginning to make
objects indistinct around them. It burned their eyes, and caused a
shortness of breath that was a sample of what it might be when the full
force of the forest fire swept down upon them.
"But suppose the tree caught fire, and burned," said Sandy, in
bewilderment; "how could we save ourselves then?"
"You don't understand, Sandy," returned the other, quickly. "The trees
will hardly burn at this season of the year, being full of sap. This
fire is made up of all the dead leaves and ground stuff. It is fierce
while it lasts; but it burns out in a short time. All we need is some
shelter that can hold out against that wall of flame coming down on us."
Something in his brother's words caused Sandy to glance back just then.
What the alarmed lad saw was a terrifying spectacle indeed. The fire
was in sight, and coming on at headlong speed. The vast amount of dry
material waiting to be snatched up by the leaping tongues of flame
caused the fire to mount upward fully twenty feet in the air.
[Illustration: "THE FIRE WAS ... COMING ON AT HEADLONG SPEED."]
"It lies in both directions as far as I can see!" gasped Sandy,
surprised at the extent of the conflagration that menaced them.
"Yes. I knew it, and that was why we could not get beyond the end of
the line. That wind is something terrible. Look out for that herd of
deer, brother; they are heading straight for us, crazed with fear!"
Just in time did Bob whirl in his tracks and fire his gun, almost in
the faces of the onrushing group of maddened animals, and this action
caused them to veer, so that they passed by without doing injury.
"Oh! what a narrow escape!" cried Sandy, who had been almost paralyzed
by the nature of the sudden peril confronting them.
And now they saw all manner of frightened animals speeding away as fast
as their legs could carry them. Besides, a flock of wild turkeys sprang
up with a furious whirring of wings, and were gone like magic.
Partridges sailed past the two boys in coveys. Here a pair of red foxes
fairly flashed by, making incredible speed.
Everything seemed capable of getting out of the way of those greedy
flames save the two young pioneers. It appeared at times to poor,
impatient Sandy that they were having one of those ugly nightmares,
where one's feet are glued to the ground, and all the while the peril
plunges along toward the wretched dreamer.
"If we could only find a cave of any kind, it might keep us from
getting scorched!" ventured Sandy presently, though he found he had to
raise his voice considerably in order to be heard, so loud were those
terrible noises that accompanied the rush of the fire wall.
"But there are none around here, for I have been looking," answered Bob.
"I saw lots a while ago, all sorts of queer holes in the ground and
rocks. Oh! don't I wish we could find just one now!" cried the other.
"Ha! here is what we are looking for, a hollow tree trunk!" Bob
shouted, just at that moment, when hope had well nigh deserted poor
Sandy.
He dragged his brother over to the left, to where a rather large oak
stood.
"I just happened to look back, and saw the opening. The tree is hollow,
brother! Push in, and try to close the opening all you can, so as to
keep out the smoke!"
Almost before he knew what Bob was about, Sandy found himself shoved
through the rather narrow opening.
"But it is not big enough for two! We can never stay here, Bob. Help me
out!" for all at once the lad realized what his brother meant to do.
Did he not know only too well the self-sacrificing devotion of Bob? The
other meant that he should find possible safety in this snug retreat,
while he took chances of discovering another hole in which to burrow.
And if the fire rushed down upon him before this discovery could be
made, what then? There would be only one of them go back to the new
cabin in the clearing that looked out on the clear waters of the Ohio.
"Stay where you are, and do not move, on your life, or you will ruin
all! There is another hollow tree for me! Remember mother, and do what
I say!" And, giving Sandy a last push, Bob darted away.
Eagerly the boy, encased in the hollow tree, tried to follow his
brother with his smarting eyes; but the smoke was growing very dense as
well as pungent now, and he could hardly see at all for the tears that
blinded him. So, not daring to disobey that last injunction on the part
of Bob, whom he was accustomed to minding, he could only press his back
into the cleft, to shut out the choking smoke, and count the seconds as
they passed.
The fire was quickly all around him, and he could feel the fierce heat
of the burning leaves. Fear for his own safety was almost entirely lost
sight of in his anxiety concerning Bob. What if he had not been able to
find a hiding-place after all, and was exposed to the full fury of that
scorching blast!
The very thought made Sandy feel weak. He groaned in anguish, and, from
the very depths of his boyish heart, a prayer went up for the safety of
the brother whom he loved so well.
Meanwhile, what of Bob, who took his life in his hand, content to feel
assured that at the worst Sandy would be saved?
When Bob declared so vehemently that there was another hollow tree for
him near by he said that of which he was by no means certain. He did
this in order that Sandy might not push out from his refuge, and insist
on sharing his fate.
Of course he still had hopes that he might yet find some friendly
shelter from the flames; and, as he rushed along, his eyes sought every
tree he passed, hoping thus to discover an opening, into which he might
crowd himself, and bid the flames defiance.
But the precious seconds were passing, and, as yet, he had found no
shelter.
Twice had he caught sight of what seemed a chance; but upon rushing up
to the tree, his heart beating high with anticipation, it was only to
discover that the split was not nearly large enough to allow of the
passage of his body, and seconds were too valuable just then to dream
of trying to slash at the wood with his sharp hunting knife in the hope
of enlarging the opening.
Long before he could do this the threatening billow of fire must have
reached the spot, and passed over him, so, in despair, he rushed along,
his eyes now even scanning the ground for some log behind which he
might crawl.
"Oh!" cried Bob suddenly, as his glance caught a dark opening in a
half-dead tree trunk.
It was some little distance from the ground, possibly ten feet or more,
but as a few limbs remained on the decayed forest monarch, once blasted
by a wind-storm while in its prime, he believed he might readily
reach the friendly crevice ere the flames took hold upon his buckskin
garments.
Bob was almost exhausted from his violent exertions; but he certainly
gave no evidence of the fact, to judge from the way in which he ran to
that tree and commenced to clamber into the lower branches.
Burning leaves were already being swept past him on the breath of the
wind, to drop into new magazines of dry tinder, and start additional
fires ahead of the main blaze.
Madly did he climb upward, and never would he forget the sight that
met his eyes while making for that promised haven of refuge. As far as
he could see, both to the east and to the west, that bank of leaping
roaring flame held sway. Once Bob had been taken down to the sea
by his father, and he had never forgotten how the great waves came
sweeping resistlessly on, to break with a crash on the shore. So, in
his mind, appeared those onrolling billows of fire.
He could hardly breathe now. That was because of the heat and smoke
combined. A great fear possessed him that perhaps after he had reached
this dark cleft in the tree he might find it utterly impossible to push
his way past the guarding portals. In that case all was lost, and he
need not even mind dropping back to the ground, for the end would find
him where he was.
But at least that fear was quickly laid to rest.
"It's plenty big enough!" he cried aloud in his new delight, for the
opening was now only a couple of feet away from his hands.
After that all he had to do was to cram his body through the hole, and
find the shelter he craved.
"Hurrah!"
Somehow he could not help giving vent to that boyish shout at the
prospect of cheating the fire out of its anticipated prey, although
he really had little breath to spare just then. He even fixed it in
his mind just how he must first of all thrust his lower limbs through
the opening, and then allow himself to slide downwards, for he could
already see that the hole extended toward the earth.
It was not the first time Bob Armstrong found his nice little
calculations upset by circumstances utterly beyond his control. Perhaps
it would not be the last, either, since he expected to spend the major
portion of his life roving the wilderness, in search of game, and in
such labor as became a true pioneer.
Just as Bob reached the hole in the tree he became conscious of the
fact that the old stump was being violently agitated, as though some
one were climbing up below him. He even glanced down, filled with a
dread lest Sandy had after all disobeyed, and chased after him.
Then something else attracted his attention and he raised his eyes, to
make a most unpleasant discovery.
The hole in the tree was no longer vacant, but a bristling black head
and a pair of very frightened eyes met his startled gaze!