"What do you suppose started it?" I asked.
"It could happen in several ways," replied Jim. "It might be by some wandering Indians or a trapper. Then again a stroke of lightning might have started it."
"They are not uncommon anyway," I remarked. "You can tell that by the thousands of dead trees that are fallen in the mountains."
"The new growth comes on quick, that"s one good thing," said Jim.
We stood watching the rolling columns of smoke with fascinated interest.
It seemed as if the whole south range had burst into a dozen eruptive volcanoes.
"Is that roaring sound the fire?" I asked.
"No, that must be the wind that is driving it," replied Jim.
"It won"t do a thing to this valley," I said. "Just look at the thick brush that covers the mountain side."
"Yes," remarked Jim, "and those pine trees, my! won"t they burn?"
"I bet it will beat a prairie fire," I said.
"That"s the one thing that we missed in Kansas," remarked Jim.
"But this will make up for it," I commented quickly.
"Yes, I reckon it will be more exciting than that cyclone twister that came near wafting us away," Jim said.
It was a lurid night when the sun went down in the clouds of smoke like a great red ball. Then as night came on we saw the glare of the fire in the smoke and the rolling clouds were great red columns flowing in white capitals.
"Here she comes," cried Jim.
As he spoke a great pine on the upper crest was transformed into a pillar of flame. The first crackle became a whole roaring volley as the charging fire swept to the summit, its red chargers spurred on by the furious winds. Nothing could stop its victorious onslaught.
Not only were the old warrior pines that had stood the attacks of countless storms and bitter winters overcome, but the tenderer children of the younger growth were devoured and the maiden saplings with them.
"It"s grand," exclaimed Jim in wild enthusiasm. "I"m so glad we came.
Wouldn"t have missed this for a good deal, I can tell you."
"I don"t care for the panorama," I replied. "I should like to have my money back and go home."
"The horses are beginning to wake up too," said Jim. "They don"t like it."
"That"s where they show their good sense," I observed.
They certainly were becoming nervous. At first they regarded the fire with their heads up and ears p.r.i.c.ked forward. Then Piute began to stampede around the corral, snorting and plunging. I thought that he was going to rear over the fort.
"He must think that he is a circus horse," laughed Jim. "Whoa, my wild Arab!"
But the wild Arab was not be cajoled, and Jim had to strong arm him by the means of a rope. Then he stood trembling, crazy eyed and with flaming nostrils.
It was indeed a terrible sight as the flames swept down the whole mountain slope towards our isolated hill. The entire valley was illuminated with one brilliant glare of flame. However, the fire did not roll down in one solid wave, the pines stood too isolated for that.
But each pine rose in a single blaze with a swish, a crackle and a roar, but there were hundreds of them and it was a splendid but awful sight--a riot of fire and the flying embers were like stars in the smoke.
"We have only a few minutes now," suddenly announced Jim, "quick, get the saddles."
"What for?" I asked. "We surely can"t ride through the fire."
"It"s the very luck I was looking for," he exclaimed. "It"s our chance to escape, don"t you see?"
We got the saddles and flung them on the ponies, cinching them good and tight, and then put on the bridles.
"We are going to run for it," I cried in sheer amazement.
"No," said Jim in disgust, "what chance would we have. That fire would catch us before we got fairly started and I don"t trust those Indians till they have been burned over once. They can scheme as well as we."
"Don"t you think they have skipped out before this?" I asked.
"I wouldn"t trust "em to do what any white man might expect. Look out, Jo, she"s coming now."
The embers began to fall all around us, but there was nothing for them to catch, as we had taken good care, you may be sure, to have every bit of brush cleared from our fort. Fortunately for us our hill was wooded only around the base.
Even then the heat was intense. It seemed to me as though my skin was shriveling up, and every once in awhile the waves of smoke would almost submerge us in their acrid, stifling vapor.
Then we were in the midst of it as it swept around our hill on all sides and the great pines below were turned into flaming spears that seemed to thrust themselves at our stronghold.
It was like being in the thick of a great battle, the crackling, the roar of the flames and stifling smoke, the crash of falling trees. It seemed like an endless time, but it could only have been a few minutes.
Gasping, only half-alive, like survivors of a wreck who reach the sh.o.r.e only after having been overwhelmed with terrible seas, we leaned against our cowed ponies (they were originally cow ponies) with our heads down.
I hardly recognized Jim, his face was blackened with smoke and his eyes reddened, his eyebrows and eyelashes scorched. There was nothing familiar about him, but the white grin of his teeth.
"You look like a hunk of smoked beef," he remarked. "It"s time we were out of this."
The center of the fire had swept in advance down the valley, but the left wing was still fighting along the upper slopes on the opposite side of the valley.
"One drink for me at any rate before we start," I cried.
My thirst was something awful and I raised the canteen to my lips, but I threw it down with a yell. The very metal seemed hot.
"That"s a cursed shame, Jo," said Jim in sympathy. "You wait, we will get water before we camp again. We are going to get out of this hades of a place." This was not profanity but description.
"All ready now, Jo?"
I nodded, for I could not speak, and we started to attempt to escape in the wake of the fire. We made our way slowly down the rock trail and then out on the slope of the hill.
A scene of desolation lay around and above us. Nor was it all over.
There were many blazing trees that had not fallen and there was plenty of light to guide us on our fiery journey.
The undergrowth was burnt off and nothing left but black bushes and grey smouldering ashes everywhere.