"Keep right on, you fellows! Don't you dare stop, or follow me! I'll get
Will! The river's close by!" he called out, and then turned around,
retracing his steps directly toward the advancing fire.

Never had Will seemed so precious in the sight of the boy who thus
placed his own life in jeopardy in order to save that of his chum. In
imagination Frank pictured his agony of mind if he had to tell Violet
that her twin brother had perished miserably in a forest fire, while he
escaped.

"Will! Will!" he was shouting frantically, as loud as he could, and this
was not anything to boast of, for the smoke choked him, and he could
hardly keep from coughing almost constantly.

"Hi! Here I am! Lost like the babes in the woods!" sang out a voice.

Frank pounced on his friend, who, with smarting eyes, was fairly
staggering about, hardly knowing which way he was trying to go, having
become more or less rattled by the impending peril and the state of his
own feelings.

"Run for all you're worth, Will!" he said, as he clutched the sleeve of
the other almost fiercely, for they had little chance of eluding those
hungry flames now.

Together they rushed along, Frank's eyes doing double duty, for Will
seemed by this time half blind, and the one free hand was constantly
rubbing his smarting orbs.

"A little further, and we're safe!" he kept calling in the ear of his
nearly exhausted chum.

The heat was beginning to be terrific now. Blazing branches flew through
the air, and set trees on fire all around them.

"It's like the fiery furnace!" Will said three times running, and Frank
really began to fear his companion's mind was getting unsettled from the
fright of their desperate condition.

Oh! if the river would only show up ahead! No doubt the others had, ere
now, gained the glorious haven, and were settled up to their necks in
the water, ready to defy the power of the opposing element. But it was
an open question whether the halting pair could ever make the shelter of
the friendly stream.

"Let me go, Frank! You can make it alone!" pleaded Will.

"Shut up! Keep on running! I tell you we're going to get there, and
don't you think for a minute we ain't!" replied Frank furiously, as he
pulled Will along.

CHAPTER XXII

THE WAR OF THE ELEMENTS

"This way, Frank! Turn a little to the left!"

"That's Jerry shouting! Do you hear him, Will? Keep up your heart! We're
going to cheat the old fire yet!" cried Frank.

His