upon the rearmost of them and ran
aloft from spray to spray, while the snapping of the smaller branches
resembled volleys of riflery. After that the smoke drove down again
and blotted out everything.

Weston, however, was not unduly alarmed. He concerned himself most
about the possibility of their work being delayed during the next day
or two. As a rule, an active man has little difficulty in avoiding a
forest fire, unless it is of unusual extent, or is driven by a strong
wind, and there was a wide space already burned clear to which they
could remove their possessions. It appeared advisable to set about the
latter task at once, for the conflagration was by this time
uncomfortably close to them.

"Hand me the big flour-bag," he said.

Saunders hoisted it on his shoulders, and he stumbled away with it,
coughing in the smoke, until he could deposit it in the cleared track
where the fire had passed the previous afternoon. Then he went back
for another load, and had some difficulty in reaching the shack, for
the vapor filled his eyes and almost suffocated him. He fell down once
or twice among the half-burned branches as he retraced his steps with
his burden; but pork and flour and picks and drills were precious
commodities in the bush, and he made a third journey, upsetting
Saunders as he plunged into the shack. In the meanwhile, the other
also had been busy, and at length they sat down gasping beside the
pile of blankets, clothing, tools and provisions, with several other
men who had hastily removed their possessions from adjacent claims.

"Where are the rest of the boys?" Saunders asked one of them.

"Some of them are in the workings, some of them on the range, but I
guess it was for Vancouver the Fraser crowd started out. Seemed to me
they meant to get there before they stopped."

Just then a shower of sparks fell about them and charred a hole or two
in Devine's clothes, while they had a momentary vision of the front of
the conflagration. It was not a reassuring spectacle, for the rolling
sea of fire flung itself aloft in glittering spray to the tops of the
highest firs, and the valley rang with the roar it made.

"Well," said Saunders, reflectively, "I don't know that I blame the
Fraser crowd, and one of the boys was telling me not long ago that the
settlement he came from was burned out. A thing of that kind makes a
man cautious. Anyway, it's quite hot enough here, and we'll hump this
truck along to the adit."