e last person
from whom he would take advice, but something had to be done.

Puzzling over his course he became aware that the room was no longer
dark. It was not the dim light of dawn, but a reddish, reflected glow.
With the realization he bounded from his bed and into the living room.
There the light was brighter, and through a window which faced the
stables he saw a shaft of flame lick high in the air.

"Gus!" he shouted. "Fire!"

As he dashed for his room and pulled on trousers and moccasins, he heard
the weight of Gus hit the floor above. Not waiting for him, he ran for
the stables.

The stable yard and corrals were drenched in a red glare, and smoke and
leaping sheets of flame were driving with a bitter south wind. The stock
in corrals and sheds was bawling; in the stable horses were stamping and
whinnying. For a moment he thought the stable was on fire, but as he
vaulted a five-foot gate, not waiting to open it, he saw that it was not
the stable but the great stack of hay close to it and directly to
wind-ward.

Nothing could save the stack. The fire had a good hold and the flame
sheets were leaping and smothering in hot smoke with the noise of a
hundred flapping blankets. The fire and the sparks were driving directly
at the stable. Its walls were of peeled logs, which offered little hold
for fire, but its roof was of split shakes and its mow full of hay.

He threw the doors wide and began to turn the horses loose. But
frightened by the glare and the smoke and the roar and crackle of
flames, they hung back snorting, cowering in their stalls.

It was no time for half measures. Gus joined him, a fiendish figure in
red flannel underclothes, which he wore day and night all the year
round, for the big Swede had waited only to pull on a pair of
moccasins. With whip and pitchfork they slashed and prodded the animals
out.

"By the Yumpin' Yudas!" Gus cried, "Ay tank dae stable ban go."

It looked like it. The flames were reaching and snapping back, and
flying streams of sparks were now driving upon the weather-worn, dry
shakes. If the roof caught, or if a vagrant spark reached the hay with
which the mow was filled, nothing could save it. But Angus was not
inclined to lose his stable without an effort.

"Get all the horse blankets and wagon covers, soak 'em, and throw 'em up
to me," he ordered. "I'm going up on the roof. Help me with the ladder."

A ladder hung on the north wall of the stable. Together they sh