CHAPTER XI.
A FIERY GIRDLE.

I

N less than twenty minutes the leaders of the approaching party were within plain sight of the conflagration, and paused for a hurried survey of the wild scene. The fire had gained great headway, and every moment was of priceless value. Starting in a piece of brushwood to the south of the small stream, it had spread to the right and left, crossing the Cohas in half a dozen places, and now was menacing the homes of several colonists in the vicinity.

The foremost of the comers, as cool and collected as at the outset, was the Woodranger, and it was he who first comprehended the situation and formed a plan of action.

" Half a dozen o' you come with me to the defence o' the houses," he said, in a tone heard plainly above the roar of the fire. " The rest divide into two parties, and going ahead of the columns o' fire, on the east and west, dig trenches, so as to stop the flames both ways. A few men along the road ought to keep the fire from crossing it."

Captain Goffe quickly led a gang to do the fighting of the fire on the east, while Alexander McMurphy, with as many more men, went to the south on the Londonderry line. Others remained to guard the road, while the Woodranger and ten others rushed to save the threatened houses.

Norman, Rob Rogers, and Johnny Goffe joined this last party.

It was soon found that the owners of the dwellings had already left them, taking with them to a safe distance all they could of their household effects. With such rude tools as the colonists had to work with, home-made hoes and shovels, the rescuers began to dig trenches around the menaced homes, and to clear away whatever combustible matter lay in the way.

They had barely begun, however, when the wind shifted, so as to drive the fire directly down upon them. A portion of the men retreated back into the woods, unable to stand the heat.

Seeing that the Woodranger showed no signs of giving up, Norman held to his post, digging with renewed vigour, though the smoke encircled him and the heat fairly took away his breath. It was terrible working there, but so long as any of his companions stood the test, he was determined not to give up. He knew Robert and Johnny were keeping stubbornly at their digging.

The fire licked up the underbrush like chaff, hissing, crackling, roaring with demoniac glee, as it spread through the dwarf pitch-pines, or leaped up the tall monarchs of the forest faster than the most nimble wildcat or the swiftest bird, until the doomed giant would be enveloped in a fiery shroud, the crimson folds of which twisted and fluttered in fantastic shapes, or leaped high into the air, making a grand, but terrible, spectacle.

The air was filled with bewildered birds driven from their retreats in the woods, while snakes and other creeping things glided hither and thither in a wild race away from the pursuing flames. The cries and hisses of the terrified creatures added to the horror of the conflagration.

In the midst of the exciting work the Woodranger called to his companions to seize the pine brushes they had provided themselves with in case of an emergency, and go with him to help fight back the fire which was crossing the danger line below them.

The three boys quickly obeyed the forester, and some of those who had previously sought flight now returned to battle manfully beside them. In this way the flames were baffled in their attempt to reach the houses. As if maddened by this repulse, the conflagration suddenly swerved to the right.

"The wind didn't change any too soon," declared the Woodranger, as he stopped to wipe his perspiring brow. " Rest a bit, lads; you did nobly. Unless I'm mistaken, and no man has the knack o' telling what a fire may do next, there is leetle to fear here now. If the wind does take a notion to send it back, it cannot make the showing it did before. It is swinging around toward Perham's. Lads, you had better run out to that opening and make a stand. The rest o' you may come with me. If we can hold it in check fifteen minutes longer, I opine the worst will be over."

The opening in question was a clearing of about three acres in extent, which had been sown with barley, and the grain was then ripe for the scythe. Norman led the way to the upper side of this field, where the three found themselves with their hands full. A manful fight enabled them to keep back the encroaching flames, until a shrill scream rang in their ears, and caused them to pause in their wild work long enough to glance around for the object of the alarm.

The flames beat down upon them so at that moment that they were obliged to retreat toward the centre of the opening. As soon as the smoke had cleared from their eyes sufficiently for them to look about, they found themselves beside a big rock-pile, which Mr. Perham had heaped up in clearing his land.

Upon the top of the stone heap they were startled to find a girl, about a dozen years old, crouching on the rocks, too terrified to move or speak, except to utter her heartrending screams. She had started to cross the clearing, and suddenly found herself surrounded by the conflagration; for, unnoticed by the boys in their excitement, the fire had swept around to the lower side of the clearing, so they were all encircled by a fiery girdle. Licking up the ripe barley, like shavings strewn in its pathway, the flames were rushing toward them with the speed of a race-horse.

"We are lost ! " cried Johnny Goffe. "We shall be burned to death ! "

Knowing that they could not long remain there, though it would be equally futile to try to break through the fiery circle, Norman sprang up the rock-pile, and caught the trembling girl in his arms. If he could escape himself he was determined to save her. How it was to be done he had no idea.

As he descended with his burden, wild shrieks of despair came from outside the circle of flames. It was the child's mother calling for her lost little one! It was a moment none of them would ever forget. Under the dark pall of the lowering smoke, Rob and Johnny gazed on each other in silent terror. But a most unexpected way of deliverance was opened to them.

In reaching little Alice Perham, Norman dislodged a round stone from the pile, which went bounding down to the edge of the fire. Then into the fiery girdle it went, making for itself a narrow pathway, as it crushed down the grain and extinguished the blaze where it tore up the loose earth.

Norman saw the effect, and, seating Alice safely one side, with a glad shout he began to roll other stones that way, calling on his companions to do the same.

" Keep them in one track as much as you can, and we will soon have a path for us to follow."

The second stone rolling through the gap of the first, crushing more of the barley into the light earth, made the rent wider. Robert and Johnny quickly followed Norman's example, and for a brief while a perfect shower of rocks went bounding down the hillside, until a considerable opening had been torn in the blazing band. But the flames were getting so near on other quarters that it was impossible for the boys to remain there longer.

" Now's our time ! " cried Norman, catching Alice again in his arms. " Follow me !"

Running at the top of their speed, they soon burst through the burning barrier into the group of excited women and children which had huddled together just out of reach of the conflagration.

Their clothes torn and burned in places and their hair pretty badly singed and skin blistered, the boys presented a sorry appearance. As Norman had protected her somewhat by his jacket, Alice had escaped with the least injury. But no one had received any serious harm, and, like the rugged boys they were, they thought little of their slight burns.

Mrs. Perham, who, a minute before, had been wringing her hands and shedding scalding tears of grief, was now crying with joy, as she held Alice in her arms.

The women and children had nearly all gathered in this vicinity, and as the wind continued to carry the fire away from that quarter there was little trouble in stopping its advance. In other places, too, the men were getting control of the conflagration, so fifteen minutes later the fighting was practically over, unless the fire should break out in some new section.

Though of brief duration, it had been hot work while it had lasted, so one and all were glad to drop upon the ground wherever they might be, or seek some more comfortable resting-place, until they should regain something of their wasted vigour.

The shooting-match was quite forgotten for the time being, and even the rancorous feeling, resulting from it, unheeded as the rival colonists talked of the great danger which had been barely averted by their timely and almost superhuman efforts.

" It was well we came to the fire in a body," declared the Woodranger, who had suffered less from his exertions than any one else, though no man had equalled him in effective work. " So many coming at once fresh for the fight could do more than four times the number coming singly or in pairs. I 'low continual dropping will wear away a stone, but fire isn't to be worn out in that way. It is a matter of thanksgiving that no lives were lost," and every one agreed with him.

Norman was generously praised for his rescue of Alice Perham, and he was urged to remain until he had entirely recovered from his exertions. But he knew his grandfather and Rilma would be anxiously awaiting him, so he started homeward at once. As it was not considered safe to leave the fire without watchers, to see it did not catch in some new place, the Woodranger volunteered his services.

Having escaped so easily the charges brought against him by Gunwad, Norman felt in good spirits, notwithstanding his recent experience. He often found himself thinking of his new-found friend, the Woodranger, and he could not help wondering why the singular man had taken such an interest in him. The pleasant reflections filling his mind made him poorly prepared to meet the startling intelligence his grandfather was trembling to communicate to him the moment he should appear. That Rilma should not hear it, he had stood for an hour anxiously awaiting him by the river's bank where he had parted from him in the morning.
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