" urged Betty. "Where is it? When did it
start? Have you seen it?"

"I guess it is pretty bad," said Bob soberly. "It's the north
section, Betty. Just what Thorne has been afraid of."

"The north section!" Betty looked startled. "But, Bob, we were there
this morning. Everything was all right."

"Well, when I came back with the record book Thorne sent me with and
found you and Clover had dashed off, everything was all right, too. I
hung round for an hour or so, hoping you'd ride back, and then
MacDuffy asked me to take a message to Thorne. They were having
dinner at the mess house, and Uncle Dick came in before we had
finished. He was feeling great over some leases they'd signed that
morning, and he thought he'd get home to-night. He didn't seem to
worry about you--said he knew Clover was a sensible and well-broken
horse and that he guessed you'd come out none the worse for wear.
Somebody called Thorne outside just as the Chink brought in the pie,
and he was back in a few minutes, looking as if the bottom had
dropped out of the world.

"'Two wells afire in the north section, Mr. Gordon,' he said, and at
that every man shot from the table out into the air. We could just
see the two thin spirals of smoke--that section must be four miles
from the bunk house.

"Everybody ran for their horses, and Uncle Dick for his car. He
cranked it and then saw me getting in with him.

"'You go back and stay with Betty,' he cried to me. 'Stay with her
every minute till I come back. If I'm gone three hours or three days
or three years, don't leave her. And keep her away from the oil
fields. We'll be overrun as soon as news of this gets out, and the
kind of crowd that will be here is no place for a girl. Promise me,
Bob.'

"So of course I promised," concluded the lad earnestly. "He got into
the car, and maybe he didn't make that tin trap speed. All I saw was
a cloud of dust. This afternoon all of Flame City has gone past here
on foot, in cars, and on horseback. They say more wells have caught."

"Do you think Uncle Dick is in danger?" faltered Betty. "Aren't the
fire fighters surrounded sometimes and suffocated with smoke?"

"What have you been reading?" demanded Bob with a stoutness he was
far from feeling. "Uncle Dick knows too much to be caught like that.
No, he may not get home for a couple of days more, but there is no
need for you to lie awake and worry. Take my advice and go to bed the
minute you've had supper; you look ti