CHAPTER XVI
CHASED BY THE FLAMES
"BUT this way is not the way home, Bob!" expostulated the younger lad,even as he clung close to the flying feet of his brother.
"True," Bob flung over his shoulder, while he ran on; "but it is awayfrom the fire, and that must be enough for us now. Can you go anyfaster, Sandy?"
"I know what it is!" cried the other, his voice trembling under thegreat strain; "you mean that the noise is getting louder all the while!Then the fire must be gaining on us! We will be caught!"
"Oh! I do not say that," and Bob fell back a trifle so as to runalongside his companion; "but it is certainly advancing very fast andfuriously. This wild wind whips it along much quicker than any man canrun."
"Look!" cried Sandy, suddenly, "what is that over yonder? Surely it isa buffalo--two, three of them! And see how they gallop along, withtheir heads lowered, and the hot steam pouring from their nostrils!"
"They smell the smoke and hear the noise," Bob replied, speaking injerks as he ran. "Perhaps they may never have seen a fire before, butthey know what it means. And there goes a stag! Look at the tremendousleaps he is taking! No danger of his being caught by the flames!"
"Don't I wish we could run as fast! What a pair of horns for this timeof year!" said Sandy, who knew that it was the season when stags losetheir antlers, to be replaced with a new pair.
"Too bad we could not get one of those buffalo," observed Bob; "but itwould be wicked to kill the poor beast when we could never save themeat. Let them live to another day."
"Yes, we have all we want to do now, trying to save ourselves," pantedSandy, who was not his brother's equal in running, and was alreadybeginning to show evident signs of exhaustion.
Bob noticed this with increasing uneasiness.
"We can never get away by running," he declared, as he shortened hispace; and Sandy hastened to do likewise, with evident relief.
"Would it do to climb high up in a tree?" the latter hazarded at aventure.
"Not at all, for we should be smothered with the smoke, even if wemanaged to keep from being cured like bacon. But I was thinking thatif only we could run across a hollow tree we might find refuge in it,"said Bob, looking eagerly to the right and left.
Already the smoke, driven ahead of the flames, was beginning to makeobjects indistinct around them. It burned their eyes, and caused ashortness of breath that was a sample of what it might be when the fullforce of the forest fire swept down upon them.
"But suppose the tree caught fire, and burned," said Sandy, inbewilderment; "how could we save ourselves then?"
"You don't understand, Sandy," returned the other, quickly. "The treeswill hardly burn at this season of the year, being full of sap. Thisfire is made up of all the dead leaves and ground stuff. It is fiercewhile it lasts; but it burns out in a short time. All we need is someshelter that can hold out against that wall of flame coming down on us."
Something in his brother's words caused Sandy to glance back just then.What the alarmed lad saw was a terrifying spectacle indeed. The firewas in sight, and coming on at headlong speed. The vast amount of drymaterial waiting to be snatched up by the leaping tongues of flamecaused the fire to mount upward fully twenty feet in the air.
"THE FIRE WAS ... COMING ON AT HEADLONG SPEED."]
"It lies in both directions as far as I can see!" gasped Sandy,surprised at the extent of the conflagration that menaced them.
"Yes. I knew it, and that was why we could not get beyond the end ofthe line. That wind is something terrible. Look out for that herd ofdeer, brother; they are heading straight for us, crazed with fear!"
Just in time did Bob whirl in his tracks and fire his gun, almost inthe faces of the onrushing group of maddened animals, and this actioncaused them to veer, so that they passed by without doing injury.
"Oh! what a narrow escape!" cried Sandy, who had been almost paralyzedby the nature of the sudden peril confronting them.
And now they saw all manner of frightened animals speeding away as fastas their legs could carry them. Besides, a flock of wild turkeys sprangup with a furious whirring of wings, and were gone like magic.Partridges sailed past the two boys in coveys. Here a pair of red foxesfairly flashed by, making incredible speed.
Everything seemed capable of getting out of the way of those greedyflames save the two young pioneers. It appeared at times to poor,impatient Sandy that they were having one of those ugly nightmares,where one's feet are glued to the ground, and all the while the perilplunges along toward the wretched dreamer.
"If we could only find a cave of any kind, it might keep us fromgetting scorched!" ventured Sandy presently, though he found he had toraise his voice considerably in order to be heard, so loud were thoseterrible noises that accompanied the rush of the fire wall.
"But there are none around here, for I have been looking," answered Bob.
"I saw lots a while ago, all sorts of queer holes in the ground androcks. Oh! don't I wish we could find just one now!" cried the other.
"Ha! here is what we are looking for, a hollow tree trunk!" Bobshouted, just at that moment, when hope had well nigh deserted poorSandy.
He dragged his brother over to the left, to where a rather large oakstood.
"I just happened to look back, and saw the opening. The tree is hollow,brother! Push in, and try to close the opening all you can, so as tokeep out the smoke!"
Almost before he knew what Bob was about, Sandy found himself shovedthrough the rather narrow opening.
"But it is not big enough for two! We can never stay here, Bob. Help meout!" for all at once the lad realized what his brother meant to do.
Did he not know only too well the self-sacrificing devotion of Bob? Theother meant that he should find possible safety in this snug retreat,while he took chances of discovering another hole in which to burrow.And if the fire rushed down upon him before this discovery could bemade, what then? There would be only one of them go back to the newcabin in the clearing that looked out on the clear waters of the Ohio.
"Stay where you are, and do not move, on your life, or you will ruinall! There is another hollow tree for me! Remember mother, and do whatI say!" And, giving Sandy a last push, Bob darted away.
Eagerly the boy, encased in the hollow tree, tried to follow hisbrother with his smarting eyes; but the smoke was growing very dense aswell as pungent now, and he could hardly see at all for the tears thatblinded him. So, not daring to disobey that last injunction on the partof Bob, whom he was accustomed to minding, he could only press his backinto the cleft, to shut out the choking smoke, and count the seconds asthey passed.
The fire was quickly all around him, and he could feel the fierce heatof the burning leaves. Fear for his own safety was almost entirely lostsight of in his anxiety concerning Bob. What if he had not been able tofind a hiding-place after all, and was exposed to the full fury of thatscorching blast!
The very thought made Sandy feel weak. He groaned in anguish, and, fromthe very depths of his boyish heart, a prayer went up for the safety ofthe brother whom he loved so well.
Meanwhile, what of Bob, who took his life in his hand, content to feelassured that at the worst Sandy would be saved?
When Bob declared so vehemently that there was another hollow tree forhim near by he said that of which he was by no means certain. He didthis in order that Sandy might not push out from his refuge, and insiston sharing his fate.
Of course he still had hopes that he might yet find some friendlyshelter from the flames; and, as he rushed along, his eyes sought everytree he passed, hoping thus to discover an opening, into which he mightcrowd himself, and bid the flames defiance.
But the precious seconds were passing, and, as yet, he had found noshelter.
Twice had he caught sight of what seemed a chance; but upon rushing upto the tree, his heart beating high with anticipation, it was only todiscover that the split was not nearly large enough to allow of thepassage of his body, and seconds were too valuable just
then to dreamof trying to slash at the wood with his sharp hunting knife in the hopeof enlarging the opening.
Long before he could do this the threatening billow of fire must havereached the spot, and passed over him, so, in despair, he rushed along,his eyes now even scanning the ground for some log behind which hemight crawl.
"Oh!" cried Bob suddenly, as his glance caught a dark opening in ahalf-dead tree trunk.
It was some little distance from the ground, possibly ten feet or more,but as a few limbs remained on the decayed forest monarch, once blastedby a wind-storm while in its prime, he believed he might readilyreach the friendly crevice ere the flames took hold upon his buckskingarments.
Bob was almost exhausted from his violent exertions; but he certainlygave no evidence of the fact, to judge from the way in which he ran tothat tree and commenced to clamber into the lower branches.
Burning leaves were already being swept past him on the breath of thewind, to drop into new magazines of dry tinder, and start additionalfires ahead of the main blaze.
Madly did he climb upward, and never would he forget the sight thatmet his eyes while making for that promised haven of refuge. As far ashe could see, both to the east and to the west, that bank of leapingroaring flame held sway. Once Bob had been taken down to the seaby his father, and he had never forgotten how the great waves camesweeping resistlessly on, to break with a crash on the shore. So, inhis mind, appeared those onrolling billows of fire.
He could hardly breathe now. That was because of the heat and smokecombined. A great fear possessed him that perhaps after he had reachedthis dark cleft in the tree he might find it utterly impossible to pushhis way past the guarding portals. In that case all was lost, and heneed not even mind dropping back to the ground, for the end would findhim where he was.
But at least that fear was quickly laid to rest.
"It's plenty big enough!" he cried aloud in his new delight, for theopening was now only a couple of feet away from his hands.
After that all he had to do was to cram his body through the hole, andfind the shelter he craved.
"Hurrah!"
Somehow he could not help giving vent to that boyish shout at theprospect of cheating the fire out of its anticipated prey, althoughhe really had little breath to spare just then. He even fixed it inhis mind just how he must first of all thrust his lower limbs throughthe opening, and then allow himself to slide downwards, for he couldalready see that the hole extended toward the earth.
It was not the first time Bob Armstrong found his nice littlecalculations upset by circumstances utterly beyond his control. Perhapsit would not be the last, either, since he expected to spend the majorportion of his life roving the wilderness, in search of game, and insuch labor as became a true pioneer.
Just as Bob reached the hole in the tree he became conscious of thefact that the old stump was being violently agitated, as though someone were climbing up below him. He even glanced down, filled with adread lest Sandy had after all disobeyed, and chased after him.
Then something else attracted his attention and he raised his eyes, tomake a most unpleasant discovery.
The hole in the tree was no longer vacant, but a bristling black headand a pair of very frightened eyes met his startled gaze!