woods get really ablaze, the fire will
jump half a mile!"

"Oh no, Tom! You don't mean that?"

"Yes, I do," said her cousin, gloomily. "Tobe's in a bad place. You
don't know what a forest fire means, nor the damage it does, Nannie. I'm
right troubled by old Tobe's case."

"But there's no danger for Pine Camp, is there?" asked the girl,
eagerly.

"Plenty of folks there to make a fire-guard. Besides, the wind's not
that way, exactly opposite. And she's not likely to switch around so
soon, neither. I, don't, know"

"The folks at home ought to know about it," Nan interrupted.

"They'll know it, come dark," Tom said briefly. "They'll be looking for
you and they'll see the blaze. Why! After dark that old dead tree will
look like a lighthouse for miles 'n' miles!"

"I suppose it will," agreed Nan. "But I do want to get home, Tom."

"Maybe the storm's not over," said her cousin, cocking an eye towards
the clouded heavens. "If it sets in for a long rain (and one's due about
this time according to the Farmer's Almanac) it would keep the fire
down, put it out entirely, maybe. But we can't tell."

Nan sighed and patted his shoulder. "I know it's our duty to go to the
island, Tommy. You're a conscientious old thing. Drive on."

Tom clucked to the horses. He steered them into the roadway, but headed
away from home. Another boy with the pain he was bearing would not have
thought of the old lumberman and his family. They were the only people
likely to be in immediate danger from the fire if it spread. The cousins
might easily reach the Vanderwiller's island, warn them of the fire, and
return to town before it got very late, or before the fire crossed the
wood-road.

They rumbled along, soon striking the corduroy road, having the thick
forest on either hand again. The ditches were running bank full. Over
a quagmire the logs, held down by cross timbers spiked to the sleepers,
shook under the wheels, and the water spurted up through the interstices
as the horses put down their heavy feet.

"An awful lot of water fell," Tom said soberly.

"Goodness! The swamp is full," agreed Nan.

"We may have some trouble in reaching Toby's place," the boy added. "But
maybe--"

He halted in his speech, and the next instant pulled the horses down to
a willing stop. "Hark-a-that!" whispered Tom.

"Can it be anybody crying? Maybe it's a wildcat," said Nan, with a vivid
remembrance of her adventure in the snow that she had never yet told