He grunted.
"How did it start?"
"A camp-fire, we think."
He fairly snorted. He was pretty well disgusted and angered, we could see.
"Of course. There are more blamed fools and down-right criminals loose in these hills this summer than ever before. I"ve done nothing except chase fires for a month, now. Who are you fellows?"
"We"re a detail of the Elk Patrol, 14th Colorado Troop, Boy Scouts of America."
"Well, I suppose you"ve been taught about the danger from camp-fires, then?"
"Yes, sir," I answered.
"Bueno," he grunted. "Wish there were plenty more like you. Every person who leaves a live camp-fire behind him, anywhere, ought to be made to stay in a city all the rest of his life." (Note 52.)
He straightened in his saddle and lifted the lines to ride on. But his horse looked mighty tired and so did he; and as a Scout it was up to me to say: "Stop off and have supper. We"re traveling light, but we can set out bread and tea."
"Sure," added Kit Carson and Jed Smith.
"No, thanks," he replied. "I"ve got a few miles yet to ride, before I quit. And to-morrow"s Sunday, when I don"t ride much if I can help it.
So long."
"So long," we called; and he pa.s.sed on at a trot.
We had supper of bread and bacon and tea. The bread sopped in bacon grease was fine. Jed felt better and drank some tea, himself, and ate a little. It was partly a hunger headache. We pulled dead gra.s.s and cut off spruce and pine tips, and spread a blanket on it all. The two other blankets we used for covering. Our coats rolled up were pillows. We didn"t undress, except to take off our shoes. Then stretched out together, on the one-blanket bed and under the two blankets, we slept first-rate. Jed had the warm middle place, because he was the littlest.
As I was commander of the detail I woke up first in the morning, and turned out. After a rub-off at the creek I took the twenty-two and went hunting for breakfast. I saw a rabbit; but just as I drew a bead on him I suddenly remembered that this was _Sunday morning_--and I quit.
Sunday ought to be different from other days. So I left him hopping and happy, and I went back to camp. Jed and Kit had the fire going and the water boiling; and we breakfasted on tea and bread and bacon.
Then we policed the camp, put out the fire, every spark, and took the burro and horse trail, to the rescue again. We must pretend that this was only a little Sunday walk, for exercise.
After a while the trail crossed the creek at a shallow place, and by a cow-path climbed the side of a hill. Before exposing ourselves on top of the hill we crawled and stuck just our heads up, Indian scouts fashion, to reconnoiter. The top was clear of enemy. Sitting a minute, to look, we could see old Pilot Peak and the snowy range where we Scouts ought to be crossing, bearing the message. We believed that now the gang with prisoners were traveling to cross the range, too. They had the message, of course, and that was bad, unless we could head them off. So we sort of hitched our belts another notch and traveled as fast as we could.
The hill we were on spread into a plateau of low cedars and scrubby pines; the snowy range, with Pilot Peak sticking up, was before. After we had been hiking for two or three hours, off diagonally to the left we saw a forest fire. This was thick timber country, and the fire made a tremendous smoke. It was likely to be a big fire, and we wondered if the ranger was fighting it. As for us, we were on the trail and must hurry.
We watched the fire, but we were not afraid of it, yet. The plateau was too bare for it, if it came our way. The smoke grew worse--a black, rolling smoke; and we could almost see the great sheets of flame leaping. We were glad we weren"t in it, and that we didn"t know of anybody else who was in it. But whoever had set it had done a dreadful thing.
The trail of the burros and of the horses, mixed, continued on, and left the plateau and dipped down into a wide flat, getting nearer to the timber on the slope opposite. Then out from our left, or on the fire side, a man came riding hard. He shouted and waved at us, so we stopped.
He was the Ranger. I tell you, but he looked tired and angry. His eyes were red-rimmed and his face was streaked with sweat and dirt, and holes were burned in his clothes and his horse"s hide.
"I want you boys," he panted, as soon as he drew up. "We"ve got to stop that fire. See it?"
Of course we"d seen it. But--it wasn"t any of our business, was it?
"I want you to hurry over there to a fire line and keep the fire from crossing. Quick! Savvy?"
"I don"t believe we can, sir," I said. "We"re on the trail."
"What difference does that make?"
"We"re after a gang who have three of our men and we want to stop them before they cross the range."
"You follow me."
"I"m sorry," I said; "but we"re trailing. We"re obeying orders."
"Whose orders?"
"Our Patrol leader"s."
"Who"s he?"
"General Ashley--I mean, Roger Franklin. He"s another boy. But he"s been captured and two of our partners. We"re to follow and rescue them. We"ve got to go."
"No, you haven"t," answered the Ranger. "Not until after this fire is under control. You"ll be paid for your time."
"We don"t care anything about the pay," said Kit Carson. "We"ve got to go on."
"Well, I"m giving you higher orders from a higher officer, then,"
retorted the Ranger. "I"m giving you orders from the President of the United States. This is Government work, and I"m representing the Government. I reckon you Boy Scouts want to support the Government, don"t you?"
Sure we did.
"If that fire goes it will burn millions of dollars" worth of timber, and may destroy ranches and people, too. It"s your duty now to help the Government and to put it out. Your duty to Uncle Sam is bigger than any duty to private Scouts" affairs. And it is the law that anybody seeing a forest fire near him shall report it or aid in extinguishing it. Now, are you coming, or will you sneak off with an excuse?"
"Why--coming!" we all cried at once. We hated to leave the trail--to leave the general and Fitz and Jim Bridger and the message to their fate; but the Government was calling, here, and the first duty of good Scouts is to be good citizens.
"Pa.s.s up your blanket rolls," ordered the Ranger. "You smallest kid climb behind me. Each of you two others catch hold of a stirrup. Then we can make time across."
In a second away we all went at a trot, heading for the timber and the fire.
"I rode right through that fire to get you," said the Ranger. "I saw you. I"ve got two or three guards working up over the ridge. Your job is to watch a fire line that runs along this side of the base of that point yonder. One end of the fire line is a boggy place with willows and aspens; and if we can keep the fire from jumping those willows and starting across, down the valley, and those fellows on the other side of the ridge can head it off, in their direction, then we"ll stop it by back-firing at the edge of Brazito canyon."
He talked as rapidly as we moved--and that was good fast Scouts" trot, for us. The hold on the stirrups and latigos helped a lot. It lifted us over the ground. We all crossed the flat diagonally and struck into a draw or valley full of timber and with a creek in it, at right angles to the flat. Up this we scooted, hard as we could pelt.
"Tired? Want to rest a second?" he asked.
We grunted "No," for we had our second wind and little Jed Smith was hanging on tight, behind the saddle. Besides, the fire was right ahead, toward the left, belching up its great rolls of black-and-white smoke.
And at the same time (although we didn"t know it) the gang who had started it were fleeing in one direction, from it, and the general and Fitzpatrick were loose and fleeing in another direction, and Jim Bridger was smelling it and with the Red Fox Patrol was drawing near to it and not knowing, and the beaver man was tying up his leg and about to run right into it.
But we were to help stop it.
"Here!" spoke the Ranger. "Here"s the fire line, this cleared s.p.a.ce like a trail. It runs to those willows a quarter of a mile below. When the fire comes along this ridge you watch this line and beat out and stamp out every flame. See? You can do it. It won"t travel fast, down-hill; but if ever it crosses the line and reaches the bottom of the valley where the brush is thick, there"s no knowing where it will stop. It will burn willows and everything else. One of you drop off here; I"ll take the others further. Then I must make tracks for the front."
We left Kit Carson here. Jed Smith climbed down and was left next, in the middle, and I was hustled to the upper end.