CHAPTER XXII.
A DASH THROUGH THE FLAMES.
The object thus indicated by Cal was in fact about as alarming a thingas they could have encountered. It was nothing more or less than thesmoking summit of a big tree a few hundred feet ahead of them. Asthey gazed it broke into flame, the resinous leaves igniting with asuccession of sharp cracks like pistol shots. In a second the tree wastransformed into the semblance of an immense torch. Driven by the windthe flames went leaping and rioting among its neighbors till all abovethe Motor Rangers was a fiery curtain stretched between them and thesky.
To make matters worse, the smoke, as acrid and pungent as chemicalvapor, was driven in Nat's eyes, and he could hardly see to drive.His throat, too, felt hot and parched, and his gloves were singed andsmoking in half a dozen places.
"Get out that big bucket and fill it from the tank," he ordered as hedrove blindly onward.
"Guess it's about time," muttered Cal as he, guessing the rest of Nat'sorder, dashed the water right and left over the party, "we'd have binon fire ourselves in a few seconds."
Nat drove as fast as he dared, but the fire seemed to travelfaster. The roar now resembled the voice of a mighty waterfall, andoccasionally the sharp cracks of bursting trunks or falling branchesfilled the air.
"The whole forest is going," bawled Cal, "put on more steam Nat."
The boy did as he was directed and the beleaguered auto forged forwarda little more swiftly. Suddenly, however, a happening that bade fairto put a dead stop to their progress occurred. Directly in front ofthem the chaparral had blazed about a tree, till it had eaten into thetrunk. Weakened, the monster trembled for a moment and then plungeddownward.
"Lo-ok ou-t!"
Cal bellowed the warning, and just in time. Nat, half blinded as hewas, had not seen the imminent danger.
With a crash like the subsidence of a big building, the tree toppledover and fell across the track, blazing fiercely, and with a shower ofsparks and embers flying upward from it.
As if it had been a leaping, hunting horse, the big carbounced and jolted over the log.]
A new peril now threatened the already danger-surrounded lads, andtheir Western companion. The tree lay across their path, an apparentlyinsurmountable object. A glance behind showed that the flames hadalready closed in, the fire, by some freak of the wind, having beendriven back from their temporary resting place. But they knew that therespite was only momentary.
Suddenly, the car surged forward, and before one of the party evenrealized that Nat had made up his mind they were rushing full tilt forthe blazing log.
"Wow!" yelled Cal carried away by excitement, as he sensed Nat's daringpurpose, "he's going ter jump it--by thunder!"
Even as he spoke the auto was upon the log and its front wheelsstruck the glowing, blazing barrier with a terrific thud. Had they notbeen prepared for the shock the Motor Rangers would have scattered outof the car like so many loose attachments.
As if it had been a leaping, hunting horse, the big car bounced andjolted over the log, which was fully six feet in diameter. It came downagain beyond it with a jounce that almost shook the teeth out of theirheads, but the lads broke into a cheer in which Herr Muller's and Cal'svoices joined, as they realized that Nat's daring had saved the day forthem.
Behind them lay the fiercely blazing forest, but in front the road wasclear, although the resinous smell of the blaze and the smoke pall layheavily above them still. A short distance further a fresh surprisegreeted them. A number of deer, going like the wind, crossed the road,fleeing in what their instinct told them was a safe direction. Theywere followed by numerous wolves, foxes and other smaller animals.
As they went onward they came upon a big burned-out patch in which anember must have fallen, carried by some freak of the capricious wind.In the midst of it, squirming in slimy, scaly knots, were a hundred ormore snakes of half a dozen kinds, all scorched and writhing in theirdeath agonies. The boys were glad to leave the repulsive sight behindthem. At last, after ascending a steep bit of grade they were able togaze back.
It was a soul-stirring sight, and one of unpassable grandeur. Belowthem the fire was leaping and raging on its way eastward. Behind it laya smoking, desolate waste, with here and there a charred trunk standingupright in its midst. Already the blaze had swept across the trail,stripping it bare on either side. The lads shuddered as they thoughtthat but for good fortune and Nat's plucky management of the car, theymight have been among the ashes and debris.
"Wall, boys," said Cal, turning to them, "you've seen a forest fire.What do you think of it?"
"I think," said Nat, "that it is the most terrible agent of destructionI have ever seen."
"I t-t-t-think we need a w-w-w-ash," stuttered Ding-dong.
They burst into a laugh as they looked at one another and recognizedthe truth of their whimsical comrade's words. With faces blackened andblistered by their fiery ordeal and with their clothes scorched andsinged in a hundred places, they were indeed a vagabond looking crew.
"I'll bet if old Colonel Morello could see us now we'd scare him away,"laughed Joe, although it pained his blistered lips to indulge inmerriment.
"Wall, there's a stream a little way down in that hollow," said Cal,pointing, "we'll have a good wash when we reach it."
"And maybe I won't be glad, too," laughed Nat, setting the brakes forthe hill ahead of them.
Suddenly Ding-dong piped up.
"S-s-s-s-say, m-m-m-may I m-m-m-make a remark?"
"Certainly, boy, half a dozen of them," said Cal.
"It's a go-g-g-g-good thing we lost Bismark," grinned Ding-dong, inwhich sage observation they all perforce acquiesced.
"I've got something to say myself," observed Joe suddenly, "maybe youother fellows have noticed it? This seat is getting awfully hot."
"By ginger, so it is," cried Cal suddenly, springing up from the easyposture he had assumed.
"L-l-l-ook, there is s-s-s-smoke c-c-c-coming out from back of thecar!" cried Ding-dong alarmedly.
As he spoke a volume of smoke rolled out from behind them.
"Good gracious, the car's on fire!" yelled Nat, "throw some water on itquick!"
"Can't," exclaimed Cal, "we used it all up coming through the flamesyonder."
"We'll burn up!" yelled Joe despairingly.
Indeed it seemed like it. Smoke was now rolling out in prodigiousquantities from beneath the tonneau and to make the possibilities morealarming still, the reserve tank full of gasolene was located there.
The tonneau had now grown so hot that they could not sit down.
"Get out, everybody," yelled Joe, as badly scared as he had ever beenin his life.
"Yep, let us out, Nat," begged Cal. The Westerner was no coward, but hedid not fancy the idea of being blown sky high on top of an explosionof gasolene any more than the rest.
"Good thing I haven't got on my Sunday pants," the irrepressibleWesterner remarked. "Hey, Nat," he yelled the next minute, as nodiminution of speed was perceptible, "ain't you going ter stop?"
"Not on your life," hurled back Nat, without so much as turning hishead.
He evidently had some plan, but what it was they could not for thelife of them tell. Their hearts beat quickly and fast with a livelysensation of danger as the burning auto plunged on down the roughslope.
All at once Joe gave a shout of astonishment.
"I see what he's going to do now!" he exclaimed.
So fast was the auto travelling that hardly had the words left his lipsbefore they were fairly upon the little rivulet or creek Cal's acuteeyes had spied from the summit of the hill.
The next instant they were in it, the water coming up to the hubs.Clouds of white steam arose about the car and a great sound of hissingfilled the air as the burning portion encountered the chill of thewater.
"Wall, that beats a fire department," exclaimed Cal, as, afterremaining immersed for a short time, Nat drove the car up the oppositebank which, luckily, had a gentle slope.
As Cal had remarked, it did indeed beat a fire department, for thewater had put out the flames effectually. An investigation showed thatbeyond having charred and blistered the woodwork and paint that thefire had fortunately done no damage. It would take some little timeto set things to rights, though, after the ordeal they had all gonethrough, and so it was decided that they would camp for a time at theedge of the river.
"Hullo, what's all that going on over there?" wondered Joe, as hepointed to a cloud of dust in the distance.
Cal rapidly shinned up a tree, and shading his eyes with his hand,gazed for some moments in the direction of the cloud.
"Sheep!" he announced as he slid down again, "consarn thet JebScantling, now I know who set thet fire."
The boys looked puzzled till Cal went on to explain.
"You know I told you fellows that cattlemen was dead sore at sheepmen,"he said, "and that's the reason."
He jerked one brown thumb backward to indicate that "that" was the fire.
"Do you mean to say that Jeb Scantling started it?" gasped Nat. Theidea was a new one to him.
"Wall, I'd hate to accuse any one of doing sich a thing," rejoined Calnon-committally, "but," he added with a meaning emphasis, "I've heardof sheepmen setting tracts on fire afore this."
"But whatever for?" inquired Joe in a puzzled tone.
"So's to burn the brush away and hev nice green grass in the spring,"responded Cal.
"Well, that's a nice idea," exclaimed Nat, "so they burn up a wholesection of country to get feed for a few old sheep."
"Yep," nodded Cal, "and that's what is at the bottom of most of thesheep and cattlemen's wars you read about."
At first the boys felt inclined to chase up Jeb, but they concludedthat it would be impracticable, so, allowing the sheepman to takehis distant way off into the lonelier fastnesses of the Sierras,they hastened to the stream and began splashing about, enjoying thesensation hugely. Suddenly a voice on the bank above hailed them.Somewhat startled they all turned quickly and burst into a roar oflaughter as they saw Herr Muller, who had slipped quietly from amongthem "holding them up" with a camera.
"Lookd idt breddy, blease," he grinned, "a picdgure I take idt."
Click!
And there the whole crew were transferred to a picture for futuredevelopment.
"I guess we won't be very proud of that picture," laughed Nat, turningto his ablutions once more.
"No, we must answer in the negative," punned Joe. But the next minutehe paid the penalty as Cal leaped upon him and bore him struggling tothe earth. Over and over they rolled, Cal attempting to stuff a handfulof soapsuds in the punning youth's mouth.
"Help! Nat!" yelled Joe.
"Not me," grinned Nat, enjoying the rough sport, "you deserve yourfate."
Soon after order was restored and they sat down to a meal to which theywere fully prepared to do ample justice.
"Say," remarked Cal suddenly, with his mouth full of canned plumpudding, "this stream and those sheep back yonder put me in mind of astory I once heard."
"What was it?" came the chorus.
"Wall, children, sit right quiet an' I'll tell yer. Oncet upon a timethar was a sheepman in these hills----"
"Sing ho, the sheepman in the hills!" hummed Joe.
"Thar was a sheepman in these hills," went on Cal, disdaining theinterruption, "who got in trouble with some cattlemen, the same wayas this one will if they git him. Wall, this sheepman had a pal andthe two of them decided one day that ef they didn't want ter act asreliable imitations of porous plasters they'd better be gitting. Sothey gabbled and got. Wall, the cattlemen behind 'em pressed em prettydern close, an' one night they come ter a creek purty much like thisone.
"Wall, they was in a hurry ter git across as you may suppose, but theproblem was ter git ther sheep over. You see they didn't want terleave 'em as they was about all the worldly goods they had. But thesheep was inclined to mutiny."
"Muttony, you mean, don't you?" grinned Joe, dodging to safe distance.When quiet was restored, Cal resumed.
"As I said, the sheep was inclined ter argify"--this with a balefulglance at Joe--"and so they decided that they'd pick up each sheep inther arms and carry them over till they got the hull three thousandsheep across ther crick. You see it wuz ther only thing ter do."
The boys nodded interestedly.
"Wall, one of ther fellows he picks up a sheep and takes it across andcomes back fer another, and then ther other feller he does the same andin the meantime ther first feller had got his other across and comeback fer more and ther second was on his way over and----"
"Say, Cal," suggested Nat quietly, "let's suppose the whole bunch isacross. You see----"
"Say, who's tellin' this?" inquired Cal indignantly.
"You are, but----"
"Wall, let me go ahead in my own way," protested the Westerner. "Let'ssee where I was; I--oh yes, wall, and then ther other feller he dumpeddown his sheep and come back fer another and----Say, how many does thatmake, got across?"
"Search me," said Joe.
Nat shook his head.
"I d-d-d-d-on't know," stuttered Ding-dong Bell.
"Diss iss foolishness-ness," protested Herr Muller indignantly.
"Wall, that ends it," said Cal tragically, "I can't go on."
"Why not?" came an indignant chorus.
"Wall, you fellers lost count of ther sheep and there ain't no wayof going on till we get 'em all over. You see there's three thousandand----"
This time they caught a merry twinkle in Cal's eye, and with wild yellsthey arose and fell upon him. It was a ruffled Cal who got up andresumed a sandy bit of canned plum pudding.
"You fellers don't appreciate realism one bit," grumbled Cal.
"Not three thousand sheep-power realism," retorted Nat with a laugh.