THE WAR OF THE ELEMENTS
"This way, Frank! Turn a little to the left!"
"That's Jerry shouting! Do you hear him, Will? Keep up your heart! We're
going to cheat the old fire yet!" cried Frank.
His companion seemed to pluck a little new spirit from the encouraging
shout, and his lagging feet began to show more animation. In this way
they hurried out of the already burning forest, and found themselves on
the brink of the swift current of the valley stream.
"Jump in! The water's fine!" shouted Jerry, who, with Bluff, had
submerged himself up to his shoulders.
"But my camera! I can't ruin it in the water!" shouted the obstinate
Will, as he looked eagerly around for some place to conceal the object
which he held in so much reverence.
"Under those rocks! We chucked our guns there!" called Bluff, pointing
out the spot, in his eagerness to help matters along.
Will hastened to thrust the beloved camera into the cavity that lay
beneath the rocks, and Frank, nothing loth, also pushed his rifle into
the same place. Then it was ludicrous to see how quickly they made a
plunge into the river.
Their immersion did not come a minute too soon. Frank knew that Will's
garments were on fire in several places, and did not doubt but that his
own must be in the same condition, for the sparks were raining all
around them.
"This is all right," said the irrepressible Jerry, jumping up and down
as he tried to hold out against the strong current.
"All I know is that we are in luck to have this blessed old river
handy," said Frank, with more or less feeling in his voice, as he
watched the fire flash from tree to tree in pursuing its course.
"Yes, it's a queer world. Only a few days ago it came near ending my
life up at the cataract, and now it makes amends by saving it," remarked
Jerry.
"The fire doesn't seem to jump across the river," observed Will.
"No; and I don't think it will, unless the wind changes quickly," said
Frank.
"But it seems bound to get to our camp inside of an hour or two. What
d'ye suppose they'll do with all the duffle?" inquired Bluff uneasily.
"I'm not worried about that. Mr. Mabie will scent trouble a long way
off, and find a refuge among the rocks, if necessary; but I'm inclined
to think the fire will never get to him," replied Frank.
"Do you believe the wind will shift, then, and blow back on us?" asked
Will.
"I'm not a wind prophet. What I had in mind was that the fire would be
put out before it got three miles from here."
"Put out! Do you mean to say they've a fire department up here?"
demanded Will.
"Why, certainly; but it doesn't cost them a cent to maintain it.
Somebody just pulls the string, and the water comes down," laughed
Jerry.
"Oh! I see now what you mean! It's going to rain!"
"Hear! hear. He's tumbled to it at last! Sometimes it seems to me that
we'll just have to get out a special dictionary for Will, so he can find
the answers to conundrums without waste of time or energy," declared
Bluff.
"That's the penalty every genius has to pay," remarked Will composedly.
Every now and then the boys were compelled to duck their heads beneath
the surface of the river, for the heat became unbearable. When the worst
of the fire had gone by on the wings of the furious wind, things began
to change a bit for the better.
"Say! don't you think we might be getting out of here now?" demanded
Will, whose teeth, strange to say, were rattling together with the chill
of the mountain stream even while the air was still heated around them.
"I suppose it will be safe, and we can stand the heat if it will assist
to dry our clothes. Though for that matter, fellows, it's ten to one we
will be soaked through and through again before we get to camp."
"This is mighty unhealthy, I think. Such rapid changes always encourage
dangerous ailments," remarked Will, whose father, now dead, had been a
physician.
"All the same, I know several fellows who were very much pleased to make
a sudden change a little while back," asserted Jerry.
They crawled out on the bank. Will, of course, made straight for the
rocky niche toward which he had cast many an anxious look while standing
in the river.
"Good! Everything is all right, boys! Not a bit of damage done, that I
can see!" he called out.
They kept close to the river in making their way along. Perhaps the main
idea in this was to have a handy refuge in case a sudden need arose.
"There she comes!" remarked Bluff, in less than ten minutes.
"What? Where?" asked Will, staring around.
A deep bellow of near-by thunder answered him. Then the rain began to
fall in torrents. Will always carried a piece of waterproof cloth, to be
used for wrapping around his precious camera on occasions when it was
threatened with rain. This he brought into use, and at the same time
tried to keep the little black box sheltered as much as possible under
his coat.
From one extreme they had jumped to the other. First it was a
superabundance of fire, and now water began to trouble them.
"I'm soaked through again," announced Jerry dolefully, as he allowed the
wind to carry him along through the blackened timber.
"And I just bet that old fire has been squashed out before this,"
spluttered Bluff. "Don't you say so, Frank?"
"If it hasn't, it soon will be. Did you ever see it come down harder?"
"Must be trying to make up for the drouth of the last two months. Mr.
Mabie said that when it did come we'd likely get a drencher. We're
getting it, all right," declared Jerry.
For another half hour they kept on, though the walking was very hard.
"A fine-looking crowd we are," declared Frank, as he surveyed his
blackened leggings and sodden coat.
"But it seems to me things don't look quite so bad around here,"
observed Will.
"Well, they don't, for a fact. Frank, we've reached the fire limit, I do
believe!" cried Bluff.
Everybody was glad to know it, for many reasons. The walking would be
better, they could by degrees wash off the black stains that had been
covering their clothes, and last, but far from least, the camp would be
safe.
"I'll never forget this day's experience, that's sure," Jerry was
saying, half an hour later, as, they still plodded on, with some miles
still ahead of them that must be gone over before they reached camp.
"And every time I look at the picture of the fire it'll bob up before me
and make me shudder," remarked Will.
"Talk to me about that, will you! Do you mean to say you had the nerve
to stop and snap off some views of that hot old fire while the rest of
us were shinning it as fast as we could?" demanded Jerry.
"Why, of course I did! What do you take me for? Who else would have
preserved that exciting episode for future generations to enjoy, if I
hadn't? That's what I'm here for," replied Will in surprise.
"And I suppose that was what made you so late Frank had to go back and
hunt you up, eh?"
"I suppose it was, Bluff; but don't you scold now. I guess you'll enjoy
those views as much as any one. There's only one thing I regret,
fellows."
"And I can guess what that is. You wish you had taken the rest of us up
to our chins in the drink," remarked Frank, whereat Will nodded eagerly,
crying out:
"Oh! it would have been a great sight! Think how many times it might
chase the blues away when some of us felt downcast! I wish, now, I had
asked you to go back and give me the chance."
"Tell me about that, will you! Was there ever such an
indefatigable--hey, Bluff! Is that the word I want?--artist as our meek
little pard here? Sometimes he seems so timid, and then again he shows
more nerve than the whole bunch put together. I thought I knew him to a
dot, but I confess I'm puzzled," grunted Jerry.
"The rain has stopped, fellows," announced Frank a little later.
"But just look at the river! Must have been a cloudburst, as they call
it out in the Rockies, Mr. Mabie says. It's just rising right before our
eyes!"
"Then they'll have to change the camp, because by this time the water
must be up to where the tents were pitched. Why, see there, Frank! Isn't
that water over yonder, too, on the right of us?" asked Bluff, pointing
through the woods.
"As sure as you live, and rushing madly on, too. We are between two
rivers, it seems, with the water rising like a tidal wave. Perhaps we
may have to take to a tree yet, fellows," announced Frank after a long
look.
"H'm! These trees are sure handy to have around! We shin up one to avoid
all sorts of dangers, it seems to me. And by the looks of that wall of
water coming down on us just now, the sooner we climb, the better for
us!" cried Jerry, suiting his actions to his words, and seizing the
lower limb of a friendly oak, into which he clambered hastily, followed
by his three chums, just as a five-foot wave swept under them, for all
the world resembling a "curler" rolling in from the ocean and up the
beach.