the floor was still protesting sleepily
when O'Rourke slammed down a switch and heard a voice answer promptly
from an instrument on the wall. Danny shouted out his bearings on the
fire:

"Thirty-nine-G! O'Rourke speaking for Morgan. Reporting fire on a wide
front--bearing Two-O-Seven to Two-Four-Nine! And for God's sake,
Chief, get a line on this quick. The whole thing shot up in a
second--fifty miles of fire!"

Another voice broke in excitedly. "Station
Fourteen-Fourteen-Fourteen!" The voice was stammering in evident
confusion. "The whole earth has exploded--it's on fire now! I--I--"

The Chief's voice broke in with a quiet, "Bearing, please! Report your
bearing, Fourteen!"

And the stammering voice steadied to give a figure.

"Headquarters speaking," said the quiet voice. "Orders for O'Rourke.
For the love of Pete, get on that fire, Danny. Every instrument in the
office is chattering. Every patrol ship has spotted that blaze. You
can't all be crazy. It's in Section Eight--never mind the exact
bearings--you'll find it without any trouble I imagine. Now beat it!
And let me know what kind of a fire this is that starts on a
fifty-mile front! You're in charge till I come."

* * * * *

Ten seconds later, had the Infant been watching, which he had not--for
his eyes were all on the distant smoke--he would have seen the
beautiful curving sweep of a scarlet projectile, whose screaming
propeller swept her off and up; he would then have seen it lie back
flat as the great stern exhaust made a rocket of the ship to send it
roaring into the heights.

And in the air-tight cabin of the newest fire-fighting machine of the
A. F. F., Danny O'Rourke pulled his body out of the slumped position
into which his quick acceleration had forced him; then set his ship on
her course to where a distant smoke made puffballs of gray against a
cloudless sky. And, like his Chief, he was wondering with a wonderment
that bordered upon disbelief what manner of fire this was that shot
like a fifty-mile serpent across mountains and valleys.

He was over it in less than ten minutes, flying high to clear the tiny
dots slipping swiftly across his view-finder. They were other
firecraft; he saw them darting in and down from all sides. For
himself, he took the line of smoke at its western end where it had
begun. Here it would be at its worst, perhaps, although no reports
were in as yet.

The radio had been bringing in