ll, I guess you're a pretty good scout, too," Harry said; "hike around,
only _hustle!_" In about two minutes we found the spring, about a hundred
feet from the house.

"Lucky it's there," one of those new fellows said.

"It had to be there," Will answered him; "because people drink water. Where
there are people, there is water."

Gee whiz, I never knew Will Dawson till that night. And I was mighty proud
that he was in my patrol, you can bet.

That girl said, "Isn't he just _wonderful?_" I said, "You're wonderful,
too, and I'd like to have you in my patrol."

But, one thing, there wasn't any time to talk, because the sparks were
blowing across the clearing and dropping all around the house. The fire
that we had started back toward the other one had cleared some land between
us and the blaze, but not enough.

The water from the spring trickled down over the rocks and we followed it.
It went through a kind of cavern on the top of the mountain, and when we
got through there, we could see plain enough that we were on the west
slope. The mountain wasn't all down hill right there, but the trickle of
water flowed down through hollows and anybody could see now that Will
Dawson was right. He was right for three reasons.

First, because as long as we followed the brook there wouldn't be any going
up and down, like there was climbing up the east side of the mountain.
Second, because it took us down the quickest way. And third, because we'd
always be near water. In some places we had to scramble down steep
precipices where the water fell, but we always managed it, and every time
we did that, we knew we were saving space.

After we got about half a mile, we could see points of flame up over the
top of the mountain and we knew the fire had reached the spot where we had
been. Harry said he guessed the shanty was on fire. Maybe it would come
down the east side a ways, we didn't know, but anyway it wouldn't have such
a breeze to drive it, and we were coming into open land, so we should
worry. The west slope of that mountain was easy, once we got down a ways
from the top. That's the way it is with most all the mountains near the
Hudson; the steep side faces the river. Pretty soon we were hiking across
pastures and then we came to a road. We didn't bother with the brook after
we passed the steep part. I don't know where it went, but it did us a good
turn, that's one thing. Some fellows like fire better than water, and I'm
not sayin