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 away from the fire, and that must be enough for us now. Can you go any faster, Sandy?"

"I know what it is!" cried the other, his voice trembling under the great 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 run alongside his companion; "but it is certainly advancing very fast and furiously. This wild wind whips it along much quicker than any man can run."

"Look!" cried Sandy, suddenly, "what is that over yonder? Surely it is a buffalo--two, three of them! And see how they gallop along, with their heads lowered, and the hot steam pouring from their nostrils!"

"They smell the smoke and hear the noise," Bob replied, speaking in jerks as he ran. "Perhaps they may never have seen a fire before, but they know what it means. And there goes a stag! Look at the tremendous leaps 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 time of year!" said Sandy, who knew that it was the season when stags lose their antlers, to be replaced with a new pair.

"Too bad we could not get one of those buffalo," observed Bob; "but it would be wicked to kill the poor beast when we could never save the meat. Let them live to another day."

"Yes, we have all we want to do now, trying to save ourselves," panted Sandy, who was not his brother's equal in running, and was already beginning to show evident signs of exhaustion.

Bob noticed this with increasing uneasiness.

"We can never get away by running," he declared, as he shortened his pace; and Sandy hastened to do likewise, with evident relief.

"Would it do to climb high up in a tree?" the latter hazarded at a venture.

"Not at all, for we should be smothered with the smoke, even if we managed to keep from being cured like bacon. But I was thinking that if 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 make objects indistinct around them. It burned their eyes, and caused a shortness of breath that was a sample of what it might be when the full force of the forest fire swept down upon them.

"But suppose the tree caught fire, and burned," said Sandy, in bewilderment; "how could we save ourselves then?"

"You don't understand, Sandy," returned the other, quickly. "The trees will hardly burn at this season of the year, being full of sap. This fire is made up of all the dead leaves and ground stuff. It is fierce while it lasts; but it burns out in a short time. All we need is some shelter 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 fire was in sight, and coming on at headlong speed. The vast amount of dry material waiting to be snatched up by the leaping tongues of flame caused the fire to mount upward fully twenty feet in the air.

"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 of the line. That wind is something terrible. Look out for that herd of deer, brother; they are heading straight for us, crazed with fear!"

Just in time did Bob whirl in his tracks and fire his gun, almost in the faces of the onrushing group of maddened animals, and this action caused them to veer, so that they passed by without doing injury.

"Oh! what a narrow escape!" cried Sandy, who had been almost paralyzed by the nature of the sudden peril confronting them.

And now they saw all manner of frightened animals speeding away as fast as their legs could carry them. Besides, a flock of wild turkeys sprang up with a furious whirring of wings, and were gone like magic. Partridges sailed past the two boys in coveys. Here a pair of red foxes fairly flashed by, making incredible speed.

Everything seemed capable of getting out of the way of those greedy flames 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 peril plunges along toward the wretched dreamer.

"If we could only find a cave of any kind, it might keep us from getting scorched!" ventured Sandy presently, though he found he had to raise his voice considerably in order to be heard, so loud were those terrible 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 and rocks. 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!" Bob shouted, just at that moment, when hope had well nigh deserted poor Sandy.

He dragged his brother over to the left, to where a rather large oak stood.

"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 to keep out the smoke!"

Almost before he knew what Bob was about, Sandy found himself shoved through the rather narrow opening.

"But it is not big enough for two! We can never stay here, Bob. Help me out!" 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? The other 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 be made, what then? There would be only one of them go back to the new cabin 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 ruin all! There is another hollow tree for me! Remember mother, and do what I say!" And, giving Sandy a last push, Bob darted away.

Eagerly the boy, encased in the hollow tree, tried to follow his brother with his smarting eyes; but the smoke was growing very dense as well as pungent now, and he could hardly see at all for the tears that blinded him. So, not daring to disobey that last injunction on the part of Bob, whom he was accustomed to minding, he could only press his back into the cleft, to shut out the choking smoke, and count the seconds as they passed.

The fire was quickly all around him, and he could feel the fierce heat of the burning leaves. Fear for his own safety was almost entirely lost sight of in his anxiety concerning Bob. What if he had not been able to find a hiding-place after all, and was exposed to the full fury of that scorching blast!

The very thought made Sandy feel weak. He groaned in anguish, and, from the very depths of his boyish heart, a prayer went up for the safety of the brother whom he loved so well.

Meanwhile, what of Bob, who took his life in his hand, content to feel assured that at the worst Sandy would be saved?

When Bob declared so vehemently that there was another hollow tree for him near by he said that of which he was by no means certain. He did this in order that Sandy might not push out from his refuge, and insist on sharing his fate.

Of course he still had hopes that he might yet find some friendly shelter from the flames; and, as he rushed along, his eyes sought every tree he passed, hoping thus to discover an opening, into which he might crowd himself, and bid the flames defiance.

But the precious seconds were passing, and, as yet, he had found no shelter.

Twice had he caught sight of what seemed a chance; but upon rushing up to the tree, his heart beating high with anticipation, it was only to discover that the split was not nearly large enough to allow of the passage of his body, and seconds were too valuable just then to dream of trying to slash at the wood with his sharp hunting knife in the hope of enlarging the opening.

Long before he could do this the threatening billow of fire must have reached the spot, and passed over him, so, in despair, he rushed along, his eyes now even scanning the ground for some log behind which he might crawl.

"Oh!" cried Bob suddenly, as his glance caught a dark opening in a half-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 blasted by a wind-storm while in its prime, he believed he might readily reach the friendly crevice ere the flames took hold upon his buckskin garments.

Bob was almost exhausted from his violent exertions; but he certainly gave no evidence of the fact, to judge from the way in which he ran to that tree and commenced to clamber into the lower branches.

Burning leaves were already being swept past him on the breath of the wind, to drop into new magazines of dry tinder, and start additional fires ahead of the main blaze.

Madly did he climb upward, and never would he forget the sight that met his eyes while making for that promised haven of refuge. As far as he could see, both to the east and to the west, that bank of leaping roaring flame held sway. Once Bob had been taken down to the sea by his father, and he had never forgotten how the great waves came sweeping resistlessly on, to break with a crash on the shore. So, in his mind, appeared those onrolling billows of fire.

He could hardly breathe now. That was because of the heat and smoke combined. A great fear possessed him that perhaps after he had reached this dark cleft in the tree he might find it utterly impossible to push his way past the guarding portals. In that case all was lost, and he need not even mind dropping back to the ground, for the end would find him 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 the opening 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, and find the shelter he craved.

"Hurrah!"

Somehow he could not help giving vent to that boyish shout at the prospect of cheating the fire out of its anticipated prey, although he really had little breath to spare just then. He even fixed it in his mind just how he must first of all thrust his lower limbs through the opening, and then allow himself to slide downwards, for he could already see that the hole extended toward the earth.

It was not the first time Bob Armstrong found his nice little calculations upset by circumstances utterly beyond his control. Perhaps it would not be the last, either, since he expected to spend the major portion of his life roving the wilderness, in search of game, and in such labor as became a true pioneer.

Just as Bob reached the hole in the tree he became conscious of the fact that the old stump was being violently agitated, as though some one were climbing up below him. He even glanced down, filled with a dread lest Sandy had after all disobeyed, and chased after him.

Then something else attracted his attention and he raised his eyes, to make a most unpleasant discovery.

The hole in the tree was no longer vacant, but a bristling black head and a pair of very frightened eyes met his startled gaze!