Charley Becomes a Fire Patrol
Rapidly the three made their way through the forest. The forester led his
companions up the valley a distance to a fire trail. Along this they
traveled as rapidly as they could have done on a village sidewalk. By
several of these fire trails they made their way through valleys and over
hills, finally reaching the road. The forester's car was there, and an
hour's run brought them to the forester's office at Oakdale.
Charley was intensely interested in everything he saw in this office. On
the wall were huge maps of the forest areas under Mr. Marlin's control.
These maps showed the mountains, big springs, streams, roads, fire trails,
etc., and little tacks with heads of different colors were stuck here and
there in the maps to show where rangers, fire-wardens and game protectors
lived. The telephone was also shown.
Charley was interested to learn that he and Lew had been fully twelve
miles distant from the telephone. It had taken the fire crew, hardy men
experienced in mountain travel, three hours to cover those twelve miles,
even when they had fire trails most of the way. He wondered how much
longer it would have taken them if they had had to travel through the
rough forest. Many hours longer, he was certain. And that meant that it
would have taken one equally as long to get out to the telephone to notify
the forester of the fire. He felt sure there must be many places where one
might be more than twelve miles distant from the telephone; and he
realized more keenly than ever what a big part the wireless could play in
saving the forest. He resolved that he would keep his wireless outfit with
him when he went back into the forest as a fire patrol.
But the maps on the wall were not all that interested Charley. There were
fire-fighting tools of various sorts. There were double-bitted axes and
axes with short handles to be used in one hand. These were of the finest
steel, very sharp, and well balanced. There were implements that were
really potato-hooks, though in the forest they were used for clearing away
brush and leaves rather than for digging potatoes. Then there were
short-handled, four-toothed rakes, for use in back-firing. Also there were
lanterns, and finally a small compressed air sprayer, for wetting the
ground when back-firing. All these tools were painted a bright red. The
forester explained that the sprayer wasn't often used, but that sometimes
it came in very handy. The implements were red so that they could be found
easily. Otherwise many would be lost in almost every fight with a fire.
Particularly was Charley interested in the portable telephone. It was
like the one the ranger had had in the burned valley. Mr. Marlin handed
the instrument to Charley and let him examine it. The battery was
contained in a small box, and the mouthpiece and the receiver were in one
piece, which was held alternately to the ear and the mouth. Then there
were considerable lengths of wire to be attached to the telephone-lines.
If a ranger could not climb a pole and attach his wires to the
telephone-lines, Mr. Marlin explained, he could tie stones to his wires
and throw them over the lines. All that was needed was to have the two
wires touch the two wires of the telephone system. Then a connection would
be made and one could talk with the portable instrument. The battery, the
mouthpiece and receiver, and the connecting wires all could be packed
snugly into a little leather case and slung over the shoulder. It was an
excellent outfit.
At one time Charley would have been wild to try it. Now he could not help
seeing how really inferior it was to the wireless as a means of
communication. In order to talk with it, it must be connected with the
telephone-lines, and they must be in working order. Charley's quick mind
instantly saw that falling limbs or trees, heavy snows or ice-storms in
winter, or a pair of nippers in the hands of a miscreant, could put the
forest telephone out of commission for hours at a time. He rejoiced to
think that no one could tamper with the air and that he could always get
a connection with his wireless. More and more he saw the possibilities of
usefulness for the wireless in protecting the forest.
But the two boys had little time to examine the many interesting things in
the forester's office because their train was due within a short time
after they reached Oakdale. They made the acquaintance of the forester's
assistant, Mr. Franklin Conover, and soon started for the railroad
station, leaving their duffel at the forester's office.
Before they left, Charley called the forester aside. "How much pay am I to
receive as a fire patrol?" he asked.
The forester frowned.
"You mustn't think," said Charley hastily, "that the pay is all that I
care about. I want to be a fire patrol because I love the woods. But I
don't know whether Dad will let me be a fire patrol unless I can make as
much here as I could in the factory with him."
"How much could you earn there?"
"Dad says I ought to get two dollars and a half a day."
"Then you needn't worry. I have some leeway in the matter of pay. You have
already shown your worth, and I am going to pay you the highest rate
within my power. You will go on the payroll at eighty-five dollars a
month, which is as much as many of our rangers get."
Charley was so astonished at this unexpected good fortune that he was
hardly able to answer Mr. Marlin. He did not know how to express his
thoughts. All he could do was to thank the forester warmly and assure him
he would earn every cent he got. Then he and Lew hurried away to their
train.
For some time after the two boys boarded the train Charley was silent. He
sat watching the forest through which they were rushing so fast. Never had
it appeared to him quite as it did now. Always he had known the forest was
an animate growth, but now he realized more vividly than ever before how
truly the forest was alive. Now he thought of the great growths of trees
more as one would think of a flock of animals that must be tended and
cared for. Many, many times he had seen the forest under happy conditions.
But never before this trip had he seen it in agony. Never before had he
heard the cries of fear and pain from the forest animals. Never had he
seen the charred remains of those that had been burned. Never had he
beheld the awful skeletons, not merely of burned trees, but of a burned
forest. He was deeply impressed. A tree had suddenly become in his
consciousness far more than a piece of timber. And a forest had taken on
new meaning. With all his mind he loved the forest and the innumerable
things of life and beauty within it. Beyond expression was his joy at the
thought that he could have a part in protecting and caring for the forest.
And when he thought of all the forest meant to mankind--more than any
other single gift of nature excepting food and water--he saw the forester,
the forest-ranger, and the fire patrol in their true light. He saw them as
real servants of the people, as real promoters and builders of
civilization, which could not have come into existence without wood. He
realized that the man in the forest as truly helps mankind forward and
upward as the statesman in the legislative halls, the chemist at his
test-tube, the physician at his operating-table, the engineer building his
bridges and roads, or any other of the constructive workers who make
civilization what it is; for the forester's work is the foundation for the
work of all the other builders of civilization. When he realized this, his
heart sang with pride to think that he was to have a part in saving and
perpetuating the forests for the countless generations of people who would
follow him in the world.
He tried to tell Lew something of what was in his heart, but words failed
him, and he sat silent until the train was far beyond the limits of the
forest. Then his thoughts drifted into other channels. Before he knew it,
the conductor shouted "Central City," and the two chums left the train.
When Charley told his father that he was to get eighty-five dollars a
month, he had no difficulty in winning his father's consent to the plan he
had in mind. Nor was it much more difficult to secure his release from
further work at school. Charley was a great favorite with his teachers.
Always cheerful and polite, a faithful worker, mentally quick, and liking
his instructors, he had their entire good-will. They wanted to help him
get on in the world as much as they had wanted to see him advance in his
studies. When they understood Charley's position at home, and his need of
earning money to help his father, and especially when they realized what
the present opportunity meant to Charley in the way of personal happiness,
they were more than willing to release him from further school duties.
So it came about that on the following day Charley and Lew took the train
back to Oakdale. The entire Wireless Patrol accompanied them to the
station, each boy carrying some part of the luggage. Thus divided, the
equipment did not seem large; but when it was all assembled, it appeared
entirely adequate. There was a good waterproof tent, a strong tick to be
stuffed with leaves, blankets, a coil of rope, additional cooking
utensils, and generous supplies of food. Charley took a light,
high-powered rifle and his revolver with plenty of ammunition. Their
comrades piled this luggage in a corner of the car, then hustled back to
the station platform and gave the Camp Brady yell, in honor of their
departing friends. In a moment more the train was speeding toward Oakdale,
where they found the forester in his office.
Mr. Marlin expressed his pleasure at the successful outcome of Charley's
effort to secure his release from high school.
"I don't believe much in talk," said the forester who himself was
distinctly a man of deeds, "but I am going to say this to you, Charley:
the fact that you have worked your studies off ahead of your class makes
you twice as valuable to me as another boy would be who was merely keeping
abreast of his class."
Charley looked his surprise. "Why?" he asked. "I don't know any more than
the others know or soon will know."
"What you know has nothing to do with it, young man. It's what you do.
It's your habits. Habit is the strongest force in the world. The mere fact
that you are ahead of your class tells me that it is your habit to be
forehanded, to be prepared. It tells me that you will keep your tools and
your records in their places and in good condition, and that you will be
prepared for almost any emergency that will arise."
"I don't understand," expostulated Charley, "how you can figure that out
from the mere fact that I kept a little ahead of my class."
"Of course you don't," smiled the forester. "They teach you about the laws
of gravity in school, but they don't bother to teach you about the laws of
life. But life has its laws, and one of the strongest is the law of habit.
A good habit is worth a million good resolutions. A man may possibly keep
a good resolution, but he can hardly fail to keep a good habit. Your good
habits are worth just about fifteen dollars a month to you now; for I
wouldn't be paying you the top rate if you were a lad of bad habits. Just
bear that in mind and be careful of the habits you form in future."
Charley was too much astonished for words. He had never thought of his
habits as having any bearing on his possible earning capacity.
But the forester gave him no opportunity to consider the matter just then.
"I want you to hurry back into the forest," he went on. "Get acquainted
with as much of the forest as possible."
He reached in a drawer and pulled out a map, which he gave to Charley.
"This is exactly like the big map on the wall," he said, "excepting that
it is on a smaller scale. Here is where you had your camp."
As he laid his finger on the map, he continued, "That was a good location
for a fisherman's camp, but a poor one for a fire guard. High up on this
hill," and again he laid a finger on the map, "there is a fine spring. A
dense rhododendron thicket surrounds it, and tall hemlocks grow above it.
Make your camp in that thicket. It is so dense that I think nobody could
possibly see a tent there. But make sure. If necessary, put hemlock boughs
or rhododendron branches around it. Nobody but Mr. Morton and I must know
that you are in camp in the forest or that you have any connection with
the forestry department. I will tell him where your camp is and he will
inspect it and give you more detailed instructions. But remember that
yours is a secret patrol. I would rather that nobody should learn of your
presence in the forest. But if you do meet any one, pose as a fisherman.
Don't, under any circumstances, let anybody suspect your real purpose."
The forester paused a moment, in deep thought. "Smoke," he said at last,
"would betray the location of your camp--at least in the daytime. Don't
make any fires unless it be at night. Then be sure they are small, well
concealed, and as smokeless as possible. Do your cooking with this."
He stepped to a closet and returned with an alcohol stove and a can of
fuel, and continued: "From your spring to the summit of the mountain it is
only a short distance. You can get a wide outlook there. Examine the
forest carefully in every direction as often as possible. But leave no
telltale marks to indicate that the place is a lookout point. And be sure
you don't do anything to draw attention to your camp."
The forester then swore Charley in as a fire patrol and gave him his
badge, with instructions to keep it out of sight.
"You'll need this, too," he said with a smile, handing Charley a portable
telephone. "Your friends can't be at the other end of the wireless all the
time, you know."
"Can we fish at all?" asked Charley. "I want Lew to have some fun on this
trip. He's going to help me a lot with the work."
"Fish as much as you like, as long as it does not interfere with your
duty. But remember that your business is to protect the forest. That comes
first. You will have to decide how to do it, according to circumstances."
The boys carried their duffel to the forester's car. Mr. Marlin telephoned
his assistant to look after things during his absence, and in another
minute Mr. Marlin and Lew and Charley were whirling along the highway.
They reached the point at which they were to enter the forest, jumped to
the ground and unloaded their duffel. Mr. Marlin said good-bye, turned his
car, and sped back to his office, leaving the two young fire guards alone
in the heart of the wilderness.