e 'phone," said Charley a little later.

"Tell him to tell my assistant that the fire is out, with little damage
done; that the fire crew is on the way home, and that I have decided to
remain here to look around a little. Tell him that if he needs me he shall
call your friend at Central City. He'd better arrange with the telephone
people for quick connections if he needs to talk to me. I guess that's
about all."

Charley flashed out the message to Willie and soon the assistant
forester's message came back. Everything was O.K. and he would do as
directed. Then Charley talked to Willie on his own account, telling him
they were going to move their aerial and asking Willie to listen in often.
Willie said he would sit by the wireless table and keep the receivers on
his ears so that Charley could get him at any time.

While Charley was talking with Willie, Lew had been collecting and
packing the camp utensils. Now the wireless instruments were quickly
uncoupled and stowed away in a bag, and the aerial taken down and loosely
rolled around the spreaders so that it could be hoisted in a moment's
time. Then the little party set off swiftly down the valley toward the
point at which the fire started.

Walking rapidly, they arrived at the edge of the burned area in half an
hour. Smoke was still rising from smouldering embers at various points in
the burned area; but there was no danger to be feared, for everything
inflammable about these embers had been consumed. Even should the wind fan
them into a flame again they could do no harm, for there was nothing for
them to feed upon. Along the entire edge of the burned area the fire crew
had made sure there was a wide belt of ground in which no spark remained.
Thus, though these glowing embers might continue to smoulder for hours,
they could do no harm. The quantity of smoke arising was still
considerable, but it did not shut off the vision as the dense clouds of
smoke had done during the fire. So the onlookers could get a fair idea of
the extent of the blaze.

The blackened area on which they looked, they were relieved to find, was
not of great width, though it stretched from the edge of the brook on one
side almost to the mountain on the other. Altogether, the fire had swept
over not more than a hundred acres. Had it not been for the presence of
the two boys, it might easily have destroyed thousands of acres. The fire
had started in a cut-over tract just below the edge of the virgin