While the boy was still at his breakfast he smelled a faint odour of
smoke coming from the north. He turned and saw a tiny spiral, white as a
mist, rise from a forest ridge--not from the one nearest him, but from
the one beyond it. It looked strange to see smoke in the wild forest,
but it might be that a mountain stock farm lay over yonder, and the
women were boiling their morning coffee.
It was remarkable the way that smoke increased and spread! It could not
come from a ranch, but perhaps there were charcoal kilns in the forest.
The smoke increased every moment. Now it curled over the whole mountain
top. It was not possible that so much smoke could come from a charcoal
kiln. There must be a conflagration of some sort, for many birds flew
over to the nearest ridge. Hawks, grouse, and other birds, who were so
small that it was impossible to recognize them at such a distance, fled
from the fire.
The tiny white spiral of smoke grew to a thick white cloud which rolled
over the edge of the ridge and sank toward the valley. Sparks and flakes
of soot shot up from the clouds, and here and there one could see a red
flame in the smoke. A big fire was raging over there, but what was
burning? Surely there was no large farm hidden in the forest.
The source of such a fire must be more than a farm. Now the smoke came
not only from the ridge, but from the valley below it, which the boy
could not see, because the next ridge obstructed his view. Great clouds
of smoke ascended; the forest itself was burning!
It was difficult for him to grasp the idea that the fresh, green pines
could burn. If it really were the forest that was burning, perhaps the
fire might spread all the way over to him. It seemed improbable; but he
wished the eagle would soon return. It would be best to be away from
this. The mere smell of the smoke which he drew in with every breath was
a torture.
All at once he heard a terrible crackling and sputtering. It came from
the ridge nearest him. There, on the highest point, stood a tall pine
like the one in which he sat. A moment before it had been a gorgeous red
in the morning light. Now all the needles flashed, and the pine caught
fire. Never before had it looked so beautiful! But this was the last
time it could exhibit any beauty, for the pine was the first tree on the
ridge to burn. It was impossible to tell how the flames had reached it.
Had the fire flown on red wings, or crawled along the ground like a
snake? It was not easy to say, but there it was at all events. The great
pine burned like a birch stem.
Ah, look! Now smoke curled up in many places on the ridge. The forest
fire was both bird and snake. It could fly in the air over wide
stretches, or steal along the ground. The whole ridge was ablaze!
There was a hasty flight of birds that circled up through the smoke like
big flakes of soot. They flew across the valley and came to the ridge
where the boy sat. A horned owl perched beside him, and on a branch just
above him a hen hawk alighted. These would have been dangerous
neighbours at any other time, but now they did not even glance in his
direction--only stared at the fire. Probably they could not make out
what was wrong with the forest. A marten ran up the pine to the tip of a
branch, and looked at the burning heights. Close beside the marten sat a
squirrel, but they did not appear to notice each other.
Now the fire came rushing down the slope, hissing and roaring like a
tornado. Through the smoke one could see the flames dart from tree to
tree. Before a branch caught fire it was first enveloped in a thin veil
of smoke, then all the needles grew red at one time, and it began to
crackle and blaze.
In the glen below ran a little brook, bordered by elms and small
birches. It appeared as if the flames would halt there. Leafy trees are
not so ready to take fire as fir trees. The fire did pause as if before
a gate that could stop it. It glowed and crackled and tried to leap
across the brook to the pine woods on the other side, but could not
reach them.
For a short time the fire was thus restrained, then it shot a long
flame over to the large, dry pine that stood on the slope, and this was
soon ablaze. The fire had crossed the brook! The heat was so intense
that every tree on the mountain was ready to burn. With the roar and
rush of the maddest storm and the wildest torrent the forest fire flew
over to the ridge.
Then the hawk and the owl rose and the marten dashed down the tree. In a
few seconds more the fire would reach the top of the pine, and the boy,
too, would have to be moving. It was not easy to slide down the long,
straight pine trunk. He took as firm a hold of it as he could, and slid
in long stretches between the knotty branches; finally he tumbled
headlong to the ground. He had no time to find out if he was hurt--only
to hurry away. The fire raced down the pine like a raging tempest; the
ground under his feet was hot and smouldering. On either side of him ran
a lynx and an adder, and right beside the snake fluttered a mother
grouse who was hurrying along with her little downy chicks.
When the refugees descended the mountain to the glen they met people
fighting the fire. They had been there for some time, but the boy had
been gazing so intently in the direction of the fire that he had not
noticed them before.
In this glen there was a brook, bordered by a row of leaf trees, and
back of these trees the people worked. They felled the fir trees nearest
the elms, dipped water from the brook and poured it over the ground,
washing away heather and myrtle to prevent the fire from stealing up to
the birch brush.
They, too, thought only of the fire which was now rushing toward them.
The fleeing animals ran in and out among the men's feet, without
attracting attention. No one struck at the adder or tried to catch the
mother grouse as she ran back and forth with her little peeping
birdlings. They did not even bother about Thumbietot. In their hands
they held great, charred pine branches which had dropped into the brook,
and it appeared as if they intended to challenge the fire with these
weapons. There were not many men, and it was strange to see them stand
there, ready to fight, when all other living creatures were fleeing.
As the fire came roaring and rushing down the slope with its intolerable
heat and suffocating smoke, ready to hurl itself over brook and
leaf-tree wall in order to reach the opposite shore without having to
pause, the people drew back at first as if unable to withstand it; but
they did not flee far before they turned back.
The conflagration raged with savage force, sparks poured like a rain of
fire over the leaf trees, and long tongues of flame shot hissingly out
from the smoke, as if the forest on the other side were sucking them in.
But the leaf-tree wall was an obstruction behind which the men worked.
When the ground began to smoulder they brought water in their vessels
and dampened it. When a tree became wreathed in smoke they felled it at
once, threw it down and put out the flames. Where the fire crept along
the heather, they beat it with the wet pine branches and smothered it.
The smoke was so dense that it enveloped everything. One could not
possibly see how the battle was going, but it was easy enough to
understand that it was a hard fight, and that several times the fire
came near penetrating farther.
But think! After a while the loud roar of the flames decreased, and the
smoke cleared. By that time the leaf trees had lost all their foliage,
the ground under them was charred, the faces of the men were blackened
by smoke and dripping with sweat; but the forest fire was conquered. It
had ceased to flame up. Soft white smoke crept along the ground, and
from it peeped out a lot of black stumps. This was all there was left of
the beautiful forest!
The boy scrambled up on a rock, so that he might see how the fire had
been quenched. But now that the forest was saved, his peril began. The
owl and the hawk simultaneously turned their eyes toward him. Just then
he heard a familiar voice calling to him.
Gorgo, the golden eagle, came sweeping through the forest, and soon the
boy was soaring among the clouds--rescued from every peril.