Trapped
While Charley was turning the matter over in his mind, the forester
suddenly appeared. Charley gave a glad cry when he saw him.
"Did you get them all out?" he asked anxiously.
"All will be out in a short time," was the reply. "Morton and his big gang
crossed directly into the other valley when I came here with my crew. As
soon as we had finished your job here, we hustled over to the other
valley. The fires there had spread considerably, but as there was little
wind and we had a big force of men, we quickly got them under control. The
minute I was satisfied we had them in hand, I came back to see how you
were. Jim is in charge over there, so everything will be all right. How
are you?"
"All O.K.," said Charley, "but I guess I must have been about all in when
you got here. I don't remember much about it."
"Yes, you were about gone. We got to you just in time. Now tell me what
you know about this fire."
The two men sat down in the shade and Charley told his chief all that had
happened to him since the two had parted on the preceding evening. When
he showed the forester the marks in the clay, the forester was elated.
"He's a pretty clever rascal who doesn't trip himself up somewhere," he
said. "It's an easy guess who your three fire bugs are. I have a very
great suspicion that the thumb-prints in that ball of clay I took from
your secret camp will match up with some of these marks, and that both
sets of prints will correspond with the marks on the thumbs of one Bill
Collins, though I didn't know that he was in the neighborhood at present.
And it's just as safe a bet that another set of those marks will match the
ends of Lumley's thumbs. If only he had been as considerate as his friend
Collins, and left his calling cards behind him, we'd have a complete case
against him."
"We have," cried Charley, leaping to his feet in sudden excitement.
"Lumley left his thumb-prints in the putty he stuck in his window-sash. I
never thought of them until this moment."
"Excellent!" cried the forester. "I suspect we can find the duplicates for
this third set of prints only when we lay hands on Henry Collins. But I
have a strong suspicion we'll have a chance to make that comparison very
soon."
"How?" asked Charley eagerly. "What do you mean? Have the police made any
arrests?"
"I don't know," replied the forester. "But this is the situation. Lumley
will never dare hang around in the forest, for he will know that every
man in the Forest Service is looking for him. Then, too, he can't have
much food with him."
"Only what he took from me, I suspect."
"That makes it certain that he must leave the forest soon. It's a good
many miles from the lumber camp to this neighborhood, so the three
fugitives must be traveling in this direction. If they keep on for fifteen
or twenty miles further, they will come out of the mountains near
Pleasantville or Maple Gap. They can board a train at either place. The
state police already are watching both stations. If Lumley and his fellows
went straight on after they started the fires, and Goodness knows they
wouldn't hang around here, they could reach the railroad in six or eight
hours. That means they would be there by this time. There is a train that
reaches Pleasantville about eleven o'clock. They would have time to make
it. I should not be at all surprised, when I get back to the office, to
find a message saying that the police had caught them."
"Let us hope you do," said Charley.
The forester arose. "Would you like to go see?" he asked.
"Surest thing you know," replied Charley.
"Then we'll hike back to the road and slip out to Lumley's house in my
car. We can get that window-sash and put it in a safe place in my office
and be back here before Jim brings his gang out."
Rapidly the two walked back along the fire trail. "Charley," said the
forester suddenly, "just how did you manage to get that message to Jim?
It's all that saved the forest. The telephone was put as completely out
of commission as your wireless was."
Charley then told the forester how he had used a tree for an aerial. "It
was my last chance," he said. "If it hadn't worked, the forest would have
burned. I had read about the use of trees to receive by, and I thought I
had read that messages had been sent through trees, but I wasn't sure. It
was my only chance and I took it."
"You're a wonder, Charley. I take back everything I ever said about the
wireless. I have telegraphed for the Commissioner to come on from the
capital. I shall put this entire matter before him and urge the
installation of a wireless outfit in every district of the state forests.
No matter what is done elsewhere, we're going on a wireless basis here as
soon as we can get the outfit, just as I told you. If I can't get money
from the state for the outfit, I'll pay for it myself and have your
Wireless Club make it. This coming winter we'll start a radio school and
you shall have charge of it. Maybe Jim can help you now."
"That will be grand," said Charley with sparkling eyes. "If only we had
the money Lumley robbed the state of, we could buy a dozen outfits."
"We'll get every cent of it," said the forester with decision. "Don't you
worry about that. When we went to the lumber camp after Lumley last night,
I stopped all cutting. Before another stick is felled, you and I are going
in there and measure every stump. Then we'll estimate the timber that
came from those stumps and the lumber operators will pay for it or they
will face a criminal prosecution. If we catch Lumley, we've got the
operators dead to rights. He's the kind of a rat that will squeal quick
when he's caught."
They reached the road, jumped into the forester's car and sped away to
Lumley's house. Half an hour later they entered the forester's office,
carefully carrying a window-sash. As the forester reached his desk, the
man in charge handed him a message from the state police at Maple Gap. It
read, "Have arrested three men who came out of the forest here and tried
to board a train. They give fictitious names, but no doubt two of the men
are wanted. Third has gold teeth and scar over right cheek. Do you want
him?"
"Do we want him?" echoed the forester, as he began to write an answer.
"Well, I should say we do."
He dashed off his message, and handed it to his assistant. "Rush that," he
directed.
Then he took a long coil of wire from a closet and led the way back to his
car. "That's for a temporary aerial in case you decide to make one," he
said, as Charley climbed up beside him and they went whirling back to the
fire-tower in the mountains.