The Outdoor Chums After Big Game; Or, Perilous Adventures in the Wilderness
Page 21
CHAPTER XXI
NEVER GIVE UP
At first, the boys made light of the flight. All of them were prettyfair runners, and although the weather was warm for such exertion, theydid some clever work.
"It's getting worse back there!" said Will, who brought up the rear.
Frank had known this for several minutes, and was correspondinglyworried.
The wind had risen to such an extent that it rushed through thetree-tops like an express train, making a doleful sound. Nor was thisall, for they could plainly hear a crackling from the rear that wasgradually becoming a subdued roar.
"Oh! I saw the fire then!" called Will a minute or two later.
Looking over their shoulders as they ran, all of them had glimpses ofthe flames leaping hungrily upward. What Mr. Mabie had feared all alonghad actually come to pass. All of them were glad, however, that it hadnot been through any fault of theirs, since they had built no fire thatday.
"Frank, it's catching up with us! Whatever shall we do?" panted Bluff,close beside the one he addressed.
Frank had been considering this same question. He at first thought theymight outrun the fire, but now he changed his mind. The woods were sodense, and the vegetation so thick, that whenever they tried to makefast time they kept tripping over trailing vines, or else banging upagainst the trunks of the forest monarchs, sometimes damaging theirnoses by the contact.
"What was he telling us about fighting fire with fire?" asked Jerry, whowas by this time feeling not quite so jaunty as usual, but ready toseize upon any opening that promised safety.
"That was out on the prairie. I don't think the scheme would work herein the woods. It would take too long for the second blaze to get astart, and we'd be caught between the two fires," was Frank's reply.
"But we must do something pretty soon!" cried Will.
"FRANK, IT'S CATCHING UP WITH US!"--_Page 192_. _The Outdoor Chums After Big Game_.]
Indeed, it would appear so. They were now enveloped in a pall ofsmoke, that, entering their eyes, made them smart fiercely. Not onlythat, but the fire could be seen in a dozen places behind them, leapingup into the trees as the dried foliage offered such a splendid torch,and the wind urged the conflagration along.
"Will's right. The old thing's running us neck and crop. I believe it'sgaining on us right along!" exclaimed Bluff.
"Look for a hollow tree!" cried Jerry.
"Humbug! Just because you once got in one during a storm you think ahollow tree can be used for nearly anything. Why, we'd be smothered in ajiffy, even if we didn't get burned to a crisp! Say something else!"shouted Bluff.
"What is it, Frank--you know?" demanded Will, who, in this time of need,somehow turned to the one whose cool head had many times managed toextricate them from some impending danger.
"We've just _got_ to head another way, and try and get out of the pathof the fire, if we can. Besides, the river lies to the left," heanswered, as cheerily as he could.
"The river! Hurrah!" shrieked Will in sudden elation, for the verythought of water was a blessed relief when threatened by fire.
"We can duck under, and save our bacon!" cried Jerry.
"There you go, confessing to the swine again," declared Bluff.
But in spite of their light words the boys were by this time thoroughlyalarmed. The appearance of the burning woods in their immediate rear wasappalling, to say the least. High sprang the flames, and their cracklingcould now be plainly heard. Indeed, the sound began to assume theproportions of a continuous roar, such as a long freight train mightmake in passing over a trestle and down a grade.
Now that they were running almost sidewise to the advancing fire, itapproached much faster than before.
"I felt a spark on my face, fellows!"
Frank was not at all surprised to hear Will say this, for he, too, hadexperienced the same thing not half a minute before. He had notmentioned the fact, for fear of alarming his chums still more.
"Keep on, fellows!" was all he said, for he needed every bit of breathhe could muster.
Desperately they tried to increase their pace, but found it hard workwith so many obstacles confronting them. Will tumbled more than any ofthe others, somehow or other. Perhaps it was because he was carrying hiscamera so carefully, and thinking more about it than his own person.
Finally Frank missed him entirely.
"Where's Will gone?" he demanded.
The others, turning, were horrified to find their chum missing.
"Keep right on, you fellows! Don't you dare stop, or follow me! I'll getWill! The river's close by!" he called out, and then turned around,retracing his steps directly toward the advancing fire.
Never had Will seemed so precious in the sight of the boy who thusplaced his own life in jeopardy in order to save that of his chum. Inimagination Frank pictured his agony of mind if he had to tell Violetthat her twin brother had perished miserably in a forest fire, while heescaped.
"Will! Will!" he was shouting frantically, as loud as he could, and thiswas not anything to boast of, for the smoke choked him, and he couldhardly keep from coughing almost constantly.
"Hi! Here I am! Lost like the babes in the woods!" sang out a voice.
Frank pounced on his friend, who, with smarting eyes, was fairlystaggering about, hardly knowing which way he was trying to go, havingbecome more or less rattled by the impending peril and the state of hisown feelings.
"Run for all you're worth, Will!" he said, as he clutched the sleeve ofthe other almost fiercely, for they had little chance of eluding thosehungry flames now.
Together they rushed along, Frank's eyes doing double duty, for Willseemed by this time half blind, and the one free hand was constantlyrubbing his smarting orbs.
"A little further, and we're safe!" he kept calling in the ear of hisnearly exhausted chum.
The heat was beginning to be terrific now. Blazing branches flew throughthe air, and set trees on fire all around them.
"It's like the fiery furnace!" Will said three times running, and Frankreally began to fear his companion's mind was getting unsettled from thefright of their desperate condition.
Oh! if the river would only show up ahead! No doubt the others had, erenow, gained the glorious haven, and were settled up to their necks inthe water, ready to defy the power of the opposing element. But it wasan open question whether the halting pair could ever make the shelter ofthe friendly stream.
"Let me go, Frank! You can make it alone!" pleaded Will.
"Shut up! Keep on running! I tell you we're going to get there, anddon't you think for a minute we ain't!" replied Frank furiously, as hepulled Will along.