CHAPTER XIV
RACING THE FLAMES
Hester's car jarred down to a complete stop. The smoke stung her eyesand it began to be difficult for her to breathe. She knew that she hadcome too far on this road. She should have heeded Chet Belding'swarning.
But now she needed all her courage and coolness to get her out of thehot corner into which she had so heedlessly driven the automobile. Theroad was not more than thirty feet wide and the thick woods borderedit on either hand. Out of the covert dashed a flash of rusty brownthat was gone in an instant. Hester knew it to be a fox. Already shehad seen the rabbits running, and not a bird was in sight.
The fire was coming--and coming by leaps and bounds!
It smote upon Hester Grimes's mind that not alone were she and theinnocent animals of the wood in peril; but there were lonely farms,deep in the forest, where the houses were so near the woods that thefire was sure to destroy them.
Who would warn those squatters and small farmers of the danger downhere in the cut? When once the flames rose over the ridge, with thewind behind them, they would descend the other side with the swiftnessof an express train.
Crops, orchards, outbuildings, and dwellings would all be sacrificedto the demon of flame. And some of the families along that far road onwhich the Sitz farm lay would scarcely have time to flee.
But Hester, as she often said herself, "was no namby-pamby girl." Shemade a deal of fun of her chum, Lily, because the latter was always sohelpless--or appeared to be--in time of trouble.
She was alone, at the edge of this burning forest, with this big car.It had to be turned around, and then she must run it out of the lineof the fire. Her father would have something to say--and that to muchpurpose--if she lost this brand new car, which he had not even paid foras yet.
She started the car on the reverse, and twisted the wheel. The carbacked, and shook, and she stopped it just as a rear tire collidedwith a stump. She must go ahead, and back, and go ahead again, andreverse once more, and repeat the operation half a dozen times beforethe car would be headed in the proper direction.
The smoke grew thicker and thicker--and more choking. Her eyes werehalf blinded by tears, for the smoke stung them sadly. But soon shewas free. The car could fly back over the road which it had latelydescended, and once out of the cut her peril would be past.
But on the very moment of starting ahead again Hester heard a greatcrashing in the bushes. Out into the road ahead of the car sprawled onhands and knees a man--or the semblance of one. For the instant Hesterscarcely knew what to make of the figure sprawling there before thecar. But she shut down again so as not to run over it.
Then the individual arose to his knees and waved his arms weakly. Hisclothing was in rags. Indeed, he had only half a shirt and the remainsof his overalls left upon his body, besides his shoes. His hair hadbeen singed from his head. A great angry burn disfigured one side ofhis face, while the beard was crisped to cinders on the other side. Hewas without eyebrows and eyelashes, and his eyes stared from deephollows in his face--or so it seemed.
"For heaven's sake, help me!" he gasped. "Take me aboard! Take me awayfrom here!"
He struggled to his feet and fell again. He had come as far as hecould. Had the road not been right where it was, the man must havefallen in the woods and been swept again by the flames.
Hester sprang up, caught him around the waist and half dragged him tothe car. She was thoroughly scared now; but she was courageous enoughto aid this man who was more unfortunate than herself.
"Get in! Get in!" she cried, flinging open the door of the tonneau."We must hurry."
"You bet we gotter hurry!" gasped the man, as he crawled into the carand she banged to the door so that he would not fall out.
Into her own seat Hester sprang. The car was jarring with the throb ofthe engine. If it should balk now, what would become of them?
The frightened girl turned the switch carefully. The car rolled on. Itmoved faster and faster along the narrow road. The smoke was now sothick that she was running the car blindly. At any moment the wheelsmight hit a stump at the side of the road, for she could not be surethat she was keeping in the main-traveled path.
While they were in the cut she heard nothing from the man behind. Butwhen the car shot up the hill out of the cut to the ridge-ground, andleft the smoke behind, the man struggled up into the seat and leanedover to speak to her.
"You air a brave gal!" he gasped. "Woof! my lungs is burnt to acrisp--I swallered so much smoke. Ye jest erbout saved my life, Miss."
Hester made no reply. She was winking the tears out of her eyes, andthe pressure in her own lungs hurt.
"But there air a lot of folks goin' to be caught similar over theridge, if we can't warn 'em."
"What's that?" she demanded, quickly, but without looking around athim.
"My name's Billson. I live back in the bottoms yonder. I got an acreor two cleared around my cabin; but the bresh warn't burned up. It isnow, by jinks!" added Mr. Billson, with a grim cackle.
"When the wind veered thar so suddent, it caught me. I had to runthrough a wall of fire at one place. Then I got acrost the crick andthat saved me for a while. But the fire would have caught me again ifit hadn't been for you. I am sure mighty much obleeged to ye."
"I--I'm glad I was there with the car," faltered Hester.
"And we've got to warn those other folks over the hill," cried theman, coughing. "Gee! I guess I'll never get this smoke out o' mylungs."
"But how can we get to those other farms?" gasped Hester.
"I'll show ye. There's a crossroad along here a spell. An automobilecan git through it on a pinch. And there's two families live on thatroad, too."
"Do you s'pose they'll be in danger?" asked Hester, slowly.
"In course they are. Say! you ain't afraid, are you?" demanded theman. "I tell ye the fire is coming. It's going to sweep this wholeridge."
"Won't--won't they see it?"
"Did _I_ see it?" demanded the squatter. "Not soon enough, you bet.Drive on, Miss. Surely you ain't goin' to show a yaller streak now?"
"But my--my chauffeur is waiting for me along the road here towardtown."
"Let him wait. He's out of danger. There are plenty of open fields inthat direction. _He_ won't get into no trouble. You drive through thisside road like I tell you, and we'll get clear around by Sitz's farmahead of the fire. But drive hard!"
Inspired by the man's excitement, Hester did as she was told. Theycame to the crossroad, which she remembered, and turned into it. Therewas little smoke here beyond the ridge. Nobody would have suspectedthe raging pit of flame down there in the cut to the southeast.
Yet the flames were advancing on the wings of the wind. Hester hadseen enough to assure her that the case was serious indeed. Once thefire topped the ridge the whole northern slope would be swept by abillow of flame!
The picture of these farmsteads burning and the people being unable toescape with their livestock and sundry possessions began to take formin Hester's mind. She speeded up the car and it rushed through thegathering twilight like a locomotive of a fast express.
At the first house they stopped for only a moment. Hester turned onthe car lamps, for the shadows were gathering in the narrow placesalong the road now. The squatter did not have to urge the danger uponthe farmers. A look at his condition told its own story. A forest fireis a terrible thing, and once it gets under way usual means offire-fighting are of no avail.
On and on raced the motor car. Along the summit of the wooded ridgebehind them the glow of the fire spread to a deep rose--then to acrimson--against the sky. It was an angry light and the smoke thatbillowed up from it began to canopy the heavens.
From certain heights Hester could see far down into the city ofCenterport, with its countless twinkling lights. The forest fire mustburn out long before it reached the edge of the city; but detachedhouses, here and there, were in peril--and many farmers got out theirteams and ploughed fresh furrows around their stacks and buildings.
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They rushed through Tentorville at a speed that made the dogs howl andthe women run to the doors of their houses, leaving their suppers toburn. Beyond this straggling little settlement there were betterfarms. The village was not endangered by the flames, for there wereopen fields all around it.
At the next house the occupants had been warned by telephone; for newsof the advancing fire had been wired from beyond the ridge, towardKeyport.
The better class of farmers were supplied with 'phones, and they werewarned; but the man who had been burned out of his own place wasinterested in the other poor people--the tenant farmer and squatterclass.
"Them fellers can't stand the expense of telephones," he told Hester."And they work moughty hard and will go to bed airly. If they haven'tkalkerlated on the veering of the wind they won't know anything aboutit till the fire's upon 'em."
Thirty-seven of such farmers and settlers did the rushing auto visit.Hester and her comrade must have startled some of these peopledreadfully, for the auto dashed up to the little farmsteads with thenoise of an express train, and the scorched man yelled his loudest tothe inmates:
"Git up! Git up! The fire's comin'. It'll be over the ridge beforemidnight and this hull mountainside'll crackle in flames. Git out!"
Then, at the first word in reply from the aroused inmates, the girland her companion rushed on in their car, and sometimes before thepeople in the house realized what had passed, the car was out ofsight.
For nearly two hours from the time Hester had helped the man into hercar did she speed about the country. By that time both he, and thegirl--and the gasoline--were about exhausted.
They pulled up at a country store where they sold gasoline, and Hesterrefilled her tank. There she telephoned home to her family, too.Joseph had come in on another auto and Hester's father was about tosend out a general alarm for his absent daughter.
"What in thunder are you doing, riding over the country alone?" herfather demanded over the telephone.
"Now, don't you mind. I'm all right," said Hester, tartly. "I'm cominghome now--by the way of the Sitz place and Robinson's Woods. We've doneall we can to rouse up the farmers."
And she shut her angry father off before he could say more, and ranout to the car--to find her companion senseless in the bottom of thetonneau, and a local doctor bending over him.