e cabin." Dick looked haggard,
there was a dark gloom in his eyes, and he gulped. Then I knew why he
avoided certain references to the fire. "To be burned alive... horrible!
I'll never get over it. It'll haunt me always. Of course we had to save
our own lives; we had no time to go to them. Yet--"

"Don't let it worry you, Dick," I interrupted.

"What do you mean?" he asked, slowly.

"Why, I beat the fire up to the cabin, that's all. Buell's horse can run
some. I cut the men loose, and we made up across the ridge, got lost,
surrounded by fire, and then I got Herky to help me start a back-fire in
that big canyon."

"Back-fire!" exclaimed Dick, slamming the table with his big fist. Then
he settled down and looked at me. Hiram looked at me. Jim looked at me,
and not one of them said a word for what seemed a long time. It brought
the blood to my face. But for all my embarrassment it was sweet praise.
At last Dick broke the silence.

"Ken Ward, this stumps me I... Tell us about it."

So I related my adventures from the moment they had left me till we met
again.

"It was a wild boy's trick, Ken--that ride in the very face of fire in
a dry forest. But, thank God, you saved the lives of those fellows."
"Amen!" exclaimed old Hiram, fervently. "My lad, you saved Penetier,
too; thar's no doubt on it. The fire was sweepin' up the canyon, an' it
would have crossed the brook somewhars in thet stretch you back-fired."

"Ken, you shore was born in Texas," drawl Jim Williams.

His remark was unrelated to our talk, I did not know what he meant by
it; nevertheless it pleased me more than anything that had ever been
said me in my life.

Then came the reading of letters that had a rived for me. In Hal's
letter, first and last harped on having been left behind. Father sent me
a check, and wrote that in the event of a trouble in the lumber district
he trusted me to take the first train for Harrisburg. That, I knew,
meant that I must get out of my ragged clothes. That I did, and packed
them up--all except Herky sombrero, which I wore. Then I went to the
railroad station to see the schedule, and I compromised with father
by deciding to take the limited. The fast east-bound train had gone
a little before, and the next one did not leave until six o'clock.
They would give me half a day with my friends.

When I returned to the hotel Dick was looking for me. He carried me off
up-stairs to a hall full of men. At one end were tables litter