A DASH THROUGH THE FLAMES.
The object thus indicated by Cal was in fact about as alarming a thing
as they could have encountered. It was nothing more or less than the
smoking summit of a big tree a few hundred feet ahead of them. As
they gazed it broke into flame, the resinous leaves igniting with a
succession of sharp cracks like pistol shots. In a second the tree was
transformed into the semblance of an immense torch. Driven by the wind
the flames went leaping and rioting among its neighbors till all above
the Motor Rangers was a fiery curtain stretched between them and the
sky.
To make matters worse, the smoke, as acrid and pungent as chemical
vapor, was driven in Nat's eyes, and he could hardly see to drive.
His throat, too, felt hot and parched, and his gloves were singed and
smoking in half a dozen places.
"Get out that big bucket and fill it from the tank," he ordered as he
drove blindly onward.
"Guess it's about time," muttered Cal as he, guessing the rest of Nat's
order, dashed the water right and left over the party, "we'd have bin
on fire ourselves in a few seconds."
Nat drove as fast as he dared, but the fire seemed to travel
faster. The roar now resembled the voice of a mighty waterfall, and
occasionally the sharp cracks of bursting trunks or falling branches
filled the air.
"The whole forest is going," bawled Cal, "put on more steam Nat."
The boy did as he was directed and the beleaguered auto forged forward
a little more swiftly. Suddenly, however, a happening that bade fair
to put a dead stop to their progress occurred. Directly in front of
them the chaparral had blazed about a tree, till it had eaten into the
trunk. Weakened, the monster trembled for a moment and then plunged
downward.
"Lo-ok ou-t!"
Cal bellowed the warning, and just in time. Nat, half blinded as he
was, had not seen the imminent danger.
With a crash like the subsidence of a big building, the tree toppled
over and fell across the track, blazing fiercely, and with a shower of
sparks and embers flying upward from it.
[Illustration: As if it had been a leaping, hunting horse, the big car
bounced and jolted over the log.]
A new peril now threatened the already danger-surrounded lads, and
their Western companion. The tree lay across their path, an apparently
insurmountable object. A glance behind showed that the flames had
already closed in, the fire, by some freak of the wind, having been
driven back from their temporary resting place. But they knew that the
respite was only momentary.
Suddenly, the car surged forward, and before one of the party even
realized that Nat had made up his mind they were rushing full tilt for
the blazing log.
"Wow!" yelled Cal carried away by excitement, as he sensed Nat's daring
purpose, "he's going ter jump it--by thunder!"
Even as he spoke the auto was upon the log and its front wheels
struck the glowing, blazing barrier with a terrific thud. Had they not
been prepared for the shock the Motor Rangers would have scattered out
of the car like so many loose attachments.
As if it had been a leaping, hunting horse, the big car bounced and
jolted over the log, which was fully six feet in diameter. It came down
again beyond it with a jounce that almost shook the teeth out of their
heads, but the lads broke into a cheer in which Herr Muller's and Cal's
voices joined, as they realized that Nat's daring had saved the day for
them.
Behind them lay the fiercely blazing forest, but in front the road was
clear, although the resinous smell of the blaze and the smoke pall lay
heavily above them still. A short distance further a fresh surprise
greeted them. A number of deer, going like the wind, crossed the road,
fleeing in what their instinct told them was a safe direction. They
were followed by numerous wolves, foxes and other smaller animals.
As they went onward they came upon a big burned-out patch in which an
ember must have fallen, carried by some freak of the capricious wind.
In the midst of it, squirming in slimy, scaly knots, were a hundred or
more snakes of half a dozen kinds, all scorched and writhing in their
death agonies. The boys were glad to leave the repulsive sight behind
them. At last, after ascending a steep bit of grade they were able to
gaze back.
It was a soul-stirring sight, and one of unpassable grandeur. Below
them the fire was leaping and raging on its way eastward. Behind it lay
a smoking, desolate waste, with here and there a charred trunk standing
upright in its midst. Already the blaze had swept across the trail,
stripping it bare on either side. The lads shuddered as they thought
that but for good fortune and Nat's plucky management of the car, they
might have been among the ashes and débris.
"Wall, boys," said Cal, turning to them, "you've seen a forest fire.
What do you think of it?"
"I think," said Nat, "that it is the most terrible agent of destruction
I have ever seen."
"I t-t-t-think we need a w-w-w-ash," stuttered Ding-dong.
They burst into a laugh as they looked at one another and recognized
the truth of their whimsical comrade's words. With faces blackened and
blistered by their fiery ordeal and with their clothes scorched and
singed in a hundred places, they were indeed a vagabond looking crew.
"I'll bet if old Colonel Morello could see us now we'd scare him away,"
laughed Joe, although it pained his blistered lips to indulge in
merriment.
"Wall, there's a stream a little way down in that hollow," said Cal,
pointing, "we'll have a good wash when we reach it."
"And maybe I won't be glad, too," laughed Nat, setting the brakes for
the hill ahead of them.
Suddenly Ding-dong piped up.
"S-s-s-s-say, m-m-m-may I m-m-m-make a remark?"
"Certainly, boy, half a dozen of them," said Cal.
"It's a go-g-g-g-good thing we lost Bismark," grinned Ding-dong, in
which sage observation they all perforce acquiesced.
"I've got something to say myself," observed Joe suddenly, "maybe you
other fellows have noticed it? This seat is getting awfully hot."
"By ginger, so it is," cried Cal suddenly, springing up from the easy
posture he had assumed.
"L-l-l-ook, there is s-s-s-smoke c-c-c-coming out from back of the
car!" cried Ding-dong alarmedly.
As he spoke a volume of smoke rolled out from behind them.
"Good gracious, the car's on fire!" yelled Nat, "throw some water on it
quick!"
"Can't," exclaimed Cal, "we used it all up coming through the flames
yonder."
"We'll burn up!" yelled Joe despairingly.
Indeed it seemed like it. Smoke was now rolling out in prodigious
quantities from beneath the tonneau and to make the possibilities more
alarming still, the reserve tank full of gasolene was located there.
The tonneau had now grown so hot that they could not sit down.
"Get out, everybody," yelled Joe, as badly scared as he had ever been
in his life.
"Yep, let us out, Nat," begged Cal. The Westerner was no coward, but he
did not fancy the idea of being blown sky high on top of an explosion
of gasolene any more than the rest.
"Good thing I haven't got on my Sunday pants," the irrepressible
Westerner remarked. "Hey, Nat," he yelled the next minute, as no
diminution of speed was perceptible, "ain't you going ter stop?"
"Not on your life," hurled back Nat, without so much as turning his
head.
He evidently had some plan, but what it was they could not for the
life of them tell. Their hearts beat quickly and fast with a lively
sensation of danger as the burning auto plunged on down the rough
slope.
All at once Joe gave a shout of astonishment.
"I see what he's going to do now!" he exclaimed.
So fast was the auto travelling that hardly had the words left his lips
before they were fairly upon the little rivulet or creek Cal's acute
eyes had spied from the summit of the hill.
The next instant they were in it, the water coming up to the hubs.
Clouds of white steam arose about the car and a great sound of hissing
filled the air as the burning portion encountered the chill of the
water.
"Wall, that beats a fire department," exclaimed Cal, as, after
remaining immersed for a short time, Nat drove the car up the opposite
bank which, luckily, had a gentle slope.
As Cal had remarked, it did indeed beat a fire department, for the
water had put out the flames effectually. An investigation showed that
beyond having charred and blistered the woodwork and paint that the
fire had fortunately done no damage. It would take some little time
to set things to rights, though, after the ordeal they had all gone
through, and so it was decided that they would camp for a time at the
edge of the river.
"Hullo, what's all that going on over there?" wondered Joe, as he
pointed to a cloud of dust in the distance.
Cal rapidly shinned up a tree, and shading his eyes with his hand,
gazed for some moments in the direction of the cloud.
"Sheep!" he announced as he slid down again, "consarn thet Jeb
Scantling, now I know who set thet fire."
The boys looked puzzled till Cal went on to explain.
"You know I told you fellows that cattlemen was dead sore at sheepmen,"
he said, "and that's the reason."
He jerked one brown thumb backward to indicate that "that" was the fire.
"Do you mean to say that Jeb Scantling started it?" gasped Nat. The
idea was a new one to him.
"Wall, I'd hate to accuse any one of doing sich a thing," rejoined Cal
non-committally, "but," he added with a meaning emphasis, "I've heard
of sheepmen setting tracts on fire afore this."
"But whatever for?" inquired Joe in a puzzled tone.
"So's to burn the brush away and hev nice green grass in the spring,"
responded Cal.
"Well, that's a nice idea," exclaimed Nat, "so they burn up a whole
section of country to get feed for a few old sheep."
"Yep," nodded Cal, "and that's what is at the bottom of most of the
sheep and cattlemen's wars you read about."
At first the boys felt inclined to chase up Jeb, but they concluded
that it would be impracticable, so, allowing the sheepman to take
his distant way off into the lonelier fastnesses of the Sierras,
they hastened to the stream and began splashing about, enjoying the
sensation hugely. Suddenly a voice on the bank above hailed them.
Somewhat startled they all turned quickly and burst into a roar of
laughter as they saw Herr Muller, who had slipped quietly from among
them "holding them up" with a camera.
"Lookd idt breddy, blease," he grinned, "a picdgure I take idt."
Click!
And there the whole crew were transferred to a picture for future
development.
"I guess we won't be very proud of that picture," laughed Nat, turning
to his ablutions once more.
"No, we must answer in the negative," punned Joe. But the next minute
he paid the penalty as Cal leaped upon him and bore him struggling to
the earth. Over and over they rolled, Cal attempting to stuff a handful
of soapsuds in the punning youth's mouth.
"Help! Nat!" yelled Joe.
"Not me," grinned Nat, enjoying the rough sport, "you deserve your
fate."
Soon after order was restored and they sat down to a meal to which they
were fully prepared to do ample justice.
"Say," remarked Cal suddenly, with his mouth full of canned plum
pudding, "this stream and those sheep back yonder put me in mind of a
story I once heard."
"What was it?" came the chorus.
"Wall, children, sit right quiet an' I'll tell yer. Oncet upon a time
thar was a sheepman in these hills----"
"Sing ho, the sheepman in the hills!" hummed Joe.
"Thar was a sheepman in these hills," went on Cal, disdaining the
interruption, "who got in trouble with some cattlemen, the same way
as this one will if they git him. Wall, this sheepman had a pal and
the two of them decided one day that ef they didn't want ter act as
reliable imitations of porous plasters they'd better be gitting. So
they gabbled and got. Wall, the cattlemen behind 'em pressed em pretty
dern close, an' one night they come ter a creek purty much like this
one.
"Wall, they was in a hurry ter git across as you may suppose, but the
problem was ter git ther sheep over. You see they didn't want ter
leave 'em as they was about all the worldly goods they had. But the
sheep was inclined to mutiny."
"Muttony, you mean, don't you?" grinned Joe, dodging to safe distance.
When quiet was restored, Cal resumed.
"As I said, the sheep was inclined ter argify"--this with a baleful
glance at Joe--"and so they decided that they'd pick up each sheep in
ther arms and carry them over till they got the hull three thousand
sheep across ther crick. You see it wuz ther only thing ter do."
The boys nodded interestedly.
"Wall, one of ther fellows he picks up a sheep and takes it across and
comes back fer another, and then ther other feller he does the same and
in the meantime ther first feller had got his other across and come
back fer more and ther second was on his way over and----"
"Say, Cal," suggested Nat quietly, "let's suppose the whole bunch is
across. You see----"
"Say, who's tellin' this?" inquired Cal indignantly.
"You are, but----"
"Wall, let me go ahead in my own way," protested the Westerner. "Let's
see where I was; I--oh yes, wall, and then ther other feller he dumped
down his sheep and come back fer another and----Say, how many does that
make, got across?"
"Search me," said Joe.
Nat shook his head.
"I d-d-d-d-on't know," stuttered Ding-dong Bell.
"Diss iss foolishness-ness," protested Herr Muller indignantly.
"Wall, that ends it," said Cal tragically, "I can't go on."
"Why not?" came an indignant chorus.
"Wall, you fellers lost count of ther sheep and there ain't no way
of going on till we get 'em all over. You see there's three thousand
and----"
This time they caught a merry twinkle in Cal's eye, and with wild yells
they arose and fell upon him. It was a ruffled Cal who got up and
resumed a sandy bit of canned plum pudding.
"You fellers don't appreciate realism one bit," grumbled Cal.
"Not three thousand sheep-power realism," retorted Nat with a laugh.