A RIDE FOR LIFE
Quickly the horses swam for the shore, and as the Elkhorn was only
deep for a few rods, it was not many minutes before the cowboys
were shaking and removing their wet garments. But the boys were
oblivious of their condition.
In open-mouthed wonder they stared at the spectacle presented by
the flames from whose devouring fury they had so narrowly escaped.
The wall of fire had in reality been farther away than it had
seemed. For several minutes it advanced, the tongues of flames
towering in the air. A moment the livid wall paused as it reached
the brink of the river, while jets of fire reached out as though
striving to clutch the men who had escaped. Then seemingly bent on
overtaking them, the flames leaped over the edge, devouring the
brush and grass to the water's edge, where, loath to admit defeat,
the flames flickered uncertainly and then died away, leaving
nothing but a pall of smoke to mark their course of destruction.
"They came mighty near getting us that time," exclaimed Pete,
looking back over the still glowing plains.
"Too near," assented Mr. Wilder. "But Megget's men will suffer for
this trick, never fear."
"They'll sure be surprised when they see us," chimed in the owner
of the Three Stars.
"That's just it," returned Mr. Wilder. "Of course, they think we
have perished in the flames, and when they see us riding in on them
they will be so scared it will take all the fight out of them."
None the worse for their experience, the cowboys were eager to be
under way again that they might exact satisfaction upon the raiders
for their unwilling flight. But Mr. Wilder curbed their
impatience by saying:
"It's all right to want to get on the trail again, but if we should
start now, while the plains are still hot, we run the risk of
crippling some of our ponies. We'll eat breakfast here and then in
an hour I guess we can start. What do you think, Jim?"
"It will be all right to take grub and we can tell about the ground
when we've eaten."
Fate, however, was still on the side of the ranchers, for while
they were at their meal it began to rain.
With a shout the cowboys greeted the first drops, but their masters
grew serious.
"This rain will make it mighty hard to pick up the trail," observed
the owner of the Three Stars.
"But we won't need to search for it," interposed Tom.
At his words all eyes were turned upon him, and Mr. Wilder voiced
their sentiments by asking:
"Why?"
"Because I know the very place where Horace and Larry and I rode
into the mountains. I thought I might want to remember it, so I
broke off some branches and cut a half moon in one of the trees
with my jackknife."
"That's all right, but why should we follow that trail?" demanded
Bill. "The men who set the fire were all of--how far, Horace, from
Tom's trail?" and he looked at his brother.
"A good twenty miles."
"Why should we ride twenty miles when we can start right in at the
hills back where the fire started?" continued Bill.
Some of the cowboys laughed at this seeming evidence of Tom's lack
of understanding of the situation, but the younger of the chums had
his good reasons, as he quickly proved by replying:
"Because that is where they drove fifty cattle in. Mr. Jeffreys
said it was a short cut. Besides, it stands to reason the men
wouldn't have gone that way unless the trail led to the mine where
they could join the rest of the gang. I may be from the East," and
he glanced at the boys who had laughed at him, "but I'm not so much
of a tenderfoot as not to know four men aren't going on a pleasure
trip with a herd of fifty steers."
"I reckon the kid is right," said the owner of the Half-Moon after
the merriment this jibe evoked had subsided. "Even if the
'rustlers' didn't know we had started when they lifted the cattle
from the pool, they'd know something was up when all the boys were
away and that we could follow the trail to the mountains.
Consequently, they being only four, would take the shortest route
to join the main body."
"That argument would have been all right before the fire, Jim, but
things are different now," rejoined Bill.
"Certain. But the difference is the raiders will take more time in
driving the cattle in the thought that there's no one to pursue 'em
till the fact of the prairie fire reaches Tolopah."
"And then that bow-legged sheriff will set out," grunted Skinny.
"He couldn't catch a prairie dog. There's only one man I'd like to
see on the job besides the bunch we've got here."
"Name him," cried several of the cowboys.
"Shorty Jenks."
"Why, that's our friend!" exclaimed Tom and Larry.
"I don't know about his being a friend of yours, but there's
nothing on two or four legs he's afraid of. And he's great on
tricks. He'd think up a scheme in no time to land Megget."
"I think Tom's idea is the right one," said Mr. Wilder. "By riding
that trail we can reach the Lost Lode probably in a few hours,
while it might take days to find where the gang that set fire rode
into the hills. This rain has cooled off the ground, so we can
start right away."
No direct command to pack the food and saddle up did the cowboys
need and as day dawned they again entered the Elkhorn River.
Tom had been provided with an extra rifle Mr. Wilder had been
carrying and great care did he and the other lads take to keep
their arms and ammunition from getting wet a second time.
Arrived at the top of the bank from which they had leaped to
safety, the party beheld a long stretch of blackened ground. As
far as they could see, it stretched away to the north and in width
it was about four miles.
"Why didn't it burn everything, instead of cutting a sort of path?"
asked Larry after a survey of the scene.
"That's one of the things you can't explain," replied the owner of
the Three Stars. "It just don't, that's all. Of course, the wind
has to be right--that is, stay in the same direction as when the
fire was started. And when it does you can count on the fire's
following pretty close to its lines. You see this one was set in a
sort of semi-circle, with the ends burning toward one another. If
you want a fire to spread, start it fan-shaped."
"There's one way the fire helped us," said Horace. "We can travel
faster than we could through the grass, and it doesn't tire the
horses so."
"Just another proof it's an ill wind that doesn't do somebody
good," quoted Mr. Wilder, smiling.
"Maybe, but I'd rather go without the wind than have another
experience like last night's," returned the owner of the Three
Stars.