walk up-stream. After all, it
was not so very hot, but I felt queer. I did not seem to be able to step
where I looked or see where I stepped. Still, that caused me no worry.
The main thing was that the fire had not yet crossed the brook. I wanted
to feel overjoyed at that, but I was too tired. Anyway I was sure the
fire had crossed below or above. It would be tearing down on this side
presently, and then I would have to crawl into the brook or burn up.
It did not matter much which I had to do. Then I grew dizzy, my legs
trembled, my feet lost all sense of touching the ground. I could not go
much farther. Just then I heard a shout. It was close by. I answered,
and heard heavy steps. I peered through the smoky haze. Something dark
moved up in the gloom.

"Ho, kid! Thar you are!" I felt a strong arm go round my waist. "Wal,
wal!" That was Herky. His voice sounded glad. It roused a strange
eagerness in me; his rough greeting seemed to bring me back from a
distance.

"All wet, but not burned none, I see. We kinder was afeared.... Say,
kid, thet back-fire, now. It was a dandy. It did the biz. Our whiskers
was singed, but we're safe. An' kid, it was your game, played like a man."

After that his voice grew faint, and I felt as if I were walking in a
dream.

XVIII. CONCLUSION

That dreadful feeling of motion went away, and I became unconscious of
everything. When I awoke the sun was gleaming dimly through thin films
of smoke. I was lying in a pleasant little ravine with stunted pines
fringing its slopes. The brook bowled merrily over stones.

Bud snored in the shade of a big boulder. Herky whistled as he broke
dead branches into fagots for a campfire. Bill was nowhere in sight. I
saw several of the horses browsing along the edge of the water.

My drowsy eyelids fell back again. When I awoke a long time seemed to
have passed. The air was clearer, the sky darker, and the sun had gone
behind the peaks. I saw Bill and Herky skinning a deer.

"Where are we?" I asked, sitting up.

"Hello, kid!" replied Herky, cheerily. "We come up to the head of the
canyon, thet's all. How're you feelin'?"

"I'm all right, only tired. Where's the forest fire?"

"It's most burned out by now. It didn't jump the canyon into the big
forest. Thet back-fire did the biz. Say, kid, wasn't settin' off them
pines an' runnin' fer your life jest like bein' in a battle?"

"It certainly was. Herky, how long will we be penned up here?"

"Only