MYSTERY IN THE FALL OF A TREE
"Run to the river!" It was Hippy's voice, this time raised in warning.
He feared that the wide-spreading branches of the falling tree might hit
some of the party of Overlanders.
A branch from a smaller tree, knocked down by the larger one in its
fall, gave Hippy a sidewipe and sent him flying down the bank.
"Jump inter the river!" screamed the forest woman. "It ain't deep." Joe
led the way, shouting as she leaped for the water. Had there been light,
it would have been easy to see which way the tree was falling, but in
the darkness one could only guess from the sound the direction in which
the tree was falling. It landed with a mighty crash just as the Overland
Riders leaped into the river, and for a few seconds it sounded as if the
forest itself were going down. The girls listened to the crashings and
the reports in awesome silence.
"All over!" announced Tom, in a tone of relief.
"I--I don't see anything about a falling tree that necessitates scaring
a person out of a year's growth," complained Emma.
"You don't, eh? Then you have something to learn," answered Tom rather
shortly.
"At least there is nothing to prevent our going back and getting to
sleep, is there?" questioned Nora.
"There is!" said Tom.
"Wha--what do you mean?" demanded Hippy, but Tom made no reply.
Grace found herself wondering what had caused the tree to fall. There
was no wind, other than a gentle zephyr; the ground was dry and the tree
was not a dead tree, as she discovered when she found that its foliage
had blotted out the campfire. Either she had not heard the explosion as
the tree burst from the ground, or else she had forgotten that
circumstance altogether in the excitement of the moment.
"All right. We can go back now," said Tom.
"And to bed for mine," promised Elfreda.
"If my eyes serve me right, you have no bed," answered Grace laughingly.
"I don't understand," wondered Miss Briggs.
"From its position, I should say that the fallen tree pretty well covers
our camp," replied Grace.
"Yes, it fell on the lean-tos," Tom informed them.
The Overland girls groaned.
"The voices of nature seem to be trying to tell us something. Perhaps
they are inviting us to get out," suggested Hippy whimsically. "What is
your interpretation of the tree's fall, you Nature-Cult Person?" he
questioned teasingly, nodding at Emma.
"I think they are seeking to advise us to rid ourselves of one
Lieutenant Wingate if we expect to be permitted to proceed in peace,"
answered Emma. "Why don't you go home?" teased the little Overland girl.
"My wife won't let me. Of course you are not bound by any such
restrictions," reminded Hippy.
Tom suddenly broke into a run. The others followed, calling to him to
know what was wrong, but the forester did not at first answer, as he
sped towards their camp, leaping logs and other obstructions in his
path.
"Hurry!" he shouted, upon reaching the scene.
"What is it?" called Hippy.
"We have set the woods on fire!" answered Tom.
What the party had supposed to be only the campfire blazing under the
tree that had fallen across it, in reality was a forest fire in the
making. In falling, the tree had scattered the burning embers of the
campfire, and set fire to the leaves and pine boughs that covered the
ground. By the time Tom Gray reached the scene the fire was running up
the little saplings, tracing out their limbs until they resembled
decorated Christmas trees, and leaping from tree to tree.
"Isn't it beautiful!" exclaimed Emma enthusiastically, as the spectacle
burst into view.
"You won't think so before many hours have passed," answered Grace, who,
as well as her husband, fully understood what this blaze with so good a
start might mean.
"Grab those spruce boughs near the lean-tos and follow me!" shouted Tom.
"Every one of you get to work. Stamp out what is left of the campfire,
Hippy, so that it doesn't spread towards the river and get away from us
along the bank. Stir yourselves!"
Through the smoke, the flying sparks and the pungent, almost
overpowering odors, the Overland Riders ran with their arms full of
spruce boughs.
"What are we to do?" cried Elfreda. "I feel as helpless as a child."
After they had hurried around the outer edge of the fire, which was
rapidly reaching towards them in little wriggling, snake-like streams of
fire, Tom directed the girls to spread out, each taking several rods of
front to protect.
"Beat it out as fast as you can. When you see a wriggler reaching for a
tree, beat it out with your spruce boughs," he ordered. "Don't try to
put out a tree on fire. You can't do it, and may set yourselves on fire.
Grace, you take the lower end of the line and keep the girls at work. I
will look after this end. Should assistance be needed at any one point,
shout and we will all concentrate on it. All of you be careful that you
don't get burned."
The girls quickly took up the positions assigned to them, and began
beating and whipping the "golden serpents," as Nora characterized them.
In a few moments each member of the party was coughing and choking,
their arms were aching and tears were running from their eyes. In spite
of their efforts, however, the advancing fire drove them steadily back.
The big trees soon began to char, and, within an hour, were glowing
pillars of fire, as one after another broke into flames that mounted
higher and higher. Had there been leisure to view it as a spectacle, the
sight would have been a magnificent one, but the Overlanders had other
things to occupy their attention. While in no way to blame for the fire,
they felt that this was their responsibility, theirs the duty to stop
it, and so they worked and fought, gasping for breath, now and then
retreating for fresh air.
"Lie down every little while!" shouted Tom. "The air is better near the
ground. Pass the word along."
His orders were shouted from one to the other and so reached the extreme
end of the fighting front.
What at first had seemed an easy task had grown to an almost
insurmountable one. Now they would check the fire at one point, only to
discover that it had leaped over the line at another. By the time they
had conquered the second one, the first blaze generally would be found
to have taken a new start.
A canopy of fire and smoke covered the scene high overhead. Tom hoped
that a forest lookout might discover the blaze and send assistance to
them, though he knew that much territory might be burned over before
help could reach them.
Leaving his own position for a survey of conditions, Tom ran along the
line of fire-fighters, giving an encouraging word here and there while
his experienced eyes sized up the situation.
"How is it?" gasped Grace when he reached her end of the line.
"Serious! We must fight as long as we have an ounce of strength or a
breath left in our bodies," he added, starting back towards his
position.
"Keep it up! It's getting the best of you!" he shouted to each
Overlander in turn as he passed.
"Can't we send to Forty-three for assistance?" called Hippy.
"No. You or I would have to go. Neither of us can be spared."
"We'll have to be spared if this keeps up much longer. Do you think the
horses are safe?"
"Yes. They are on the river side of the fire. The breeze is carrying the
fire the other way," answered Tom.
Three hours after the discovery of the fire found the Overland Riders
still fighting, to all appearances, just as stubbornly as when they
began. Their faces were almost unrecognizable, blackened as they were
with smoke and streaked with perspiration. In places, their clothing
showed black where it had been seared or scorched. Emma Dean had, for
the time being, forgotten to listen to the voices of nature, even though
they were sizzling and roaring at her from the far-flung tops of the
giant pines.
At the end of the fourth hour, a great tree came crashing down with a
ripping, rending roar. Another followed it soon after, and at intervals
still other trees lost their foothold and surrendered to their
implacable enemy, _fire_!
It was an awesome sight and the air was full of thrilling sounds. There
was not one of that party of fire fighters that did not feel the awe.
Henry disappeared, and his mistress had no thought for him. She had
been through other forest fires, and, though she worked desperately, she
did so without emotion so far as external appearances indicated.
Hindenburg, on the contrary, was very much in evidence, running up and
down the line, barking at each individual fire fighter and sneezing as
he breathed in the pungent smoke.
The graying dawn found the Overlanders still beating at the flames that
still kept them on the retreat, driving them deeper and deeper into the
forest.
About this time Tom Gray made his second survey. What he found raised
his hopes and his spirits.
"We've flanked it!" he cried. "That old cutting to the left has saved us
on that side."
"Thank Heaven!" answered Grace in a choking voice. "Te--ell the others!"
"We aren't through yet," reminded Tom, hurrying back to give the others
the encouraging news and to urge them to continue their efforts.
Shouts, choking, gasping shouts, greeted the announcement. Then how they
did work, the girls with handkerchiefs stuffed in their mouths, and
Hippy Wingate with a piece of his khaki shirt gripped between his teeth
and partly covering his nostrils as an aid in keeping the smoke out of
his lungs. The throats of all were parched and aching for water, but
there was none to be had near at hand, and no time to go to the river
for it.
At nine o'clock in the morning the forest fire was conquered, after
having burned over several acres of timber. Here and there little blazes
were fanned into life by the morning breeze, but alert eyes discovered,
and ready hands quickly whipped them out.
"Done! But it will have to be watched. You girls go back to camp and
make some coffee. I don't believe that much of our belongings have been
destroyed," said Tom.
Instead of starting for camp, the girls sank down in their tracks, and
dropped instantly into a sleep of exhaustion. Neither man made an effort
to arouse them.
"I wish I might do that too. What do you say if we take just one little
cat-nap, Tom?" urged Hippy.
"Can't be done. The fire might start again."
"Oh, hang the fire!" growled Lieutenant Wingate.
"It might 'hang' you; in other words, we should be in danger of being
burned, for we surely would sleep all day, once we permitted ourselves
to drop off!"
"All right. Carry on! If I could have a nip of sleep I know I should
dream of food, which would fix me up all right. How long are we going
to let them sleep?" asked Hippy, pointing to the sleeping Overland
girls.
"Until we make certain that the fire isn't going to break out afresh. We
will then shake the girls up and go back to camp. It doesn't look as
though I should get away to-day, does it?" grinned Tom.
"We can sit down, can't we?"
"Not yet! Not for another two hours."
The men separated and began a steady patrol of the fire-line, dragging
themselves along wearily until the two hours had lengthened into three.
Hippy then declared himself and announced his intention of going
straight back to camp for something to eat and a sleep.
Tom, after a final look about, agreed. It took some little time to get
the girls sufficiently awake to enable them to stand on their feet, but
finally the men had marshalled them all and the journey to camp began.
It was blackened and cheerless acres of bare and fallen trees that their
swollen eyes gazed upon on the way back to camp. Thousands of feet of
virgin timber had been burned. Tom Gray, whose love of the forest was
almost a passion with him, gazed on the wreckage sadly.
"Let this be a lesson to all of you. Always be careful with your
campfires," he warned.
The girls were too tired to eat when they reached camp. All they desired
was sleep and rest. Hippy's crying need was food, and that was what he
proposed to get first, but Tom would not hear to either of them sitting
down until the horses had been looked after and watered.
While they were doing that, the forest woman made coffee and fried
bacon, which was ready for Tom and Hippy upon their return. The Overland
girls had found their blankets, and, rolled tightly in them, lay sound
asleep on the bare ground.
"Poor kids! Aren't you proud of each and every one of them, Hippy?"
glowed Tom.
"Oh, I suppose so. That is, I presume I should be if I weren't
famished."
Henry came ambling in at this juncture and, sitting down, began washing
his face with his paws, giving not the slightest heed to the tirade that
Joe Shafto was hurling at him.
"Ye git no breakfast to-day," raged the forest woman.
"Oh, don't be so hard-hearted," begged Hippy. "Give the poor fish a rind
of bacon at least. You don't know what it means to have an appetite."
Hippy's urgings bore fruit, and Henry got his breakfast, as did Tom and
Hippy, and their appetites fully equalled that of the bear.
"Come along, Hippy," urged Tom after they had finished breakfast.
"Wha--at? Where?"
"Let's have a look at the tree that so mysteriously fell on our camp."
"Have a heart! Have a heart, Tom! I want to lie down and sleep."
"So do I, but I cannot until I have learned why that tree came down as
it did, and what caused the report just before it fell. Come! The sooner
we start, the quicker we shall be in dreamland."
Hippy followed his companion begrudgingly.
"Look at that, will you?" demanded Captain Gray, pointing to the ground
about the hole which had so recently held the roots of the great tree
that had fallen on the lean-tos. The ground had been torn up for some
yards from the true base of the tree, and dirt and pieces of roots
hurled in all directions.
Lieutenant Wingate was instantly galvanized into alertness. The scene
reminded him of France where he had seen so many similar holes, the
result of the explosion of shells. He was down on his knees in a second,
crawling about in the hole, feeling and smelling the ground.
"Smell this, Tom," he said, handing up to his companion a bit of
cardboard. "What does it suggest to you?"
"Powder, I should say," answered Tom.
"Exactly. It is my opinion that our tree was dynamited. That's what
caused the explosion!" cried Hippy. "I wonder I didn't recognize it at
the time. Now what do you make of that?"
"I suspected as much, old man. I knew when I heard it that there had
been an explosion, and I suspected the reason," answered Tom gravely. "I
am glad the girls are not awake. This is serious, and the end is not
yet!"
Tom Gray's prophecy came true before the end of that already eventful
day.