yline intently. Perhaps she was simply
over-wrought, but she felt sure that the crimson glow had brightened as
though the fire was nearer their own valley.

"Watch the skyline," she urged Helen. "See if the glow is brightening."

Helen peered through the half-light. Then she shook her head.

"I can't be sure, but I think the fire must be nearer," she said. "Had
we better tell Curt?"

"Yes. He'll want to know."

The girls called the lanky cowboy aside and Janet confided her fears to
him.

Curt spun on his heels and stared into the flame-rent sky.

"Maybe I'm imagining things, but it looks bad," he muttered. Then he
called Billy Fenstow over to him and the rotund little director agreed
that the fire must be getting nearer.

Curt sniffed the smoke. "It's getting thicker. We'd better get out of
here."

"What about the bus?" demanded the director.

"We'll use that as far as we can. There's a trail that goes at least a
mile back in the hills. After that we'll have to go on afoot."

Orders snapped from Curt's lips. Back into the bus piled the company,
Janet and Helen were among the last and they stopped long enough beside
the well for deep drinks of the cool water. It might be many an hour
before they would have such an opportunity again.

Curt took the wheel for he knew the trail into the hills. The motor
roared with a heavy song of power and they were away once more, fleeing
before the ever-hungry flames.

Janet and Helen sank back on the cushions of the rear seat. The trail
was soft and sandy and although the bus lurched heavily at times, they
had an opportunity to relax a little.

Helen slipped off her oxfords and rubbed her aching feet.

"Oh, for a good, hot bath," she moaned. "My feet will never be the same
again."

"Mine ache a little even with my boots on," admitted Janet. She would
have liked to have slipped out of her boots and wriggled her toes but
they were too hard to lace up again.

Curt was driving with a desperate intentness as the going became more
difficult. The trail had faded into two thin tracks and it was rougher
now.

Sharp rocks protruded and at any moment a tire might give way. But they
kept on boring into the hills. The engine was working hard now as they
ascended a grade and Janet looked back through the broad, rear window of
the bus.

The valley they had just left was plainly visible and topping the ridge
above the ranchhouse were the first racing tongues of flame. They had