Читать книгу Camping in the Winter Woods: Adventures of Two Boys in the Maine Woods - Elmer Russell Gregor - Страница 9

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When the boys awakened it was daylight; and, to their surprise, Ben was missing from the camp. They looked for him outside, but, not finding him, decided he had gone to skin and quarter the deer. They busied themselves with making a fire, that it might be ready for the guide to cook breakfast over when he returned.

“It looks foggy,” suggested Ed, gazing off between the trees.

“That’s not fog, it’s smoke!” George declared, sniffing the air suspiciously. “Don’t you smell it?”

“Right you are, son,” said Ben, coming into camp at that moment carrying the head, skin, and fore quarters of the deer. “It’s smoke, and I don’t like it a little bit. There’s a forest fire not a great ways off, and we better mosey toward the cabin. We’ll hustle through breakfast and then travel on,” he declared, uneasily.

The boys helped get breakfast, and when it was ready they ate rapidly and in silence. From the way Ben consulted the sky they knew he was anxious and worried. The sun had risen, but was obscured by a purplish haze which he told them was smoke. Then they smelled it. The distinct odor of burning pine was borne to them on the scant morning breeze.

The dishes were hurriedly washed and stowed away in the packs. Each of the boys packed up as much of the deer meat as he could stagger under; Ben added another quarter to his load, and the remainder was covered with boughs and hung high in a tree, to be called for later. Then, eager and anxious, Ben led them away through the smoky woods, at a brisk pace, toward the distant cabin.

As they hurried along, the air seemed to grow heavier, and all through the forest there drifted a hazy fog. The smell of smoke became stronger with each mile they traveled, until Ben, in his anxiety, set a pace that his young companions found it hard to follow.

On the top of a small mountain, which they were obliged to cross, the guide stopped a moment and pointed out a heavy, black cloud of smoke. It was curling up from behind a distant ridge in a direct line with the cabin.

Then, with great strides, he raced down into the valley, the boys stumbling along after him as best they could. Their faces and hands were torn and scratched from thorns and briers, and their feet and legs were bruised from contact with sharp-pointed rocks. They went on uncomplainingly, however, for they feared that the cabin was in danger, and they were anxious to help Ben in its defense against the oncoming fire.

Thicker and more dense grew the smoke-clouds in the woods, and the air became oppressive and suffocating. Tears ran down the boys’ cheeks, and they coughed violently as the pungent smoke filled their lungs.

“Come on, you’ll get used to it soon,” called Ben, encouragingly.

They got a glimpse of the cabin through the smoke, and cried out with delight. In the doorway stood Bill, the trapper, and down the trail came old Moze. They were compelled to laugh when every few feet the hound was obliged to stop and sneeze.

“I’m glad you’re here,” said Ben, greeting the trapper.

“Well, you see, there’s a nasty fire coming this way, and I knew you’d be glad to have help to save the shack before morning; so I hustled over.”

“If the wind would only shift around, we’d be all right,” said Ben, gloomily.

“There’s not much wind to shift,” the trapper replied, shaking his head.

The boys sat listening while the two experienced woodsmen consulted as to the best way of keeping the fire off. They finally agreed that the safest course would be to back-fire the woods on all four sides of the cabin. It would be dangerous, for the dry forest, when once kindled, would burn like tinder. The fighters would have to work hard to prevent their fire from turning back and consuming the cabin. To make matters worse, the wind was momentarily strengthening, so that on two sides at least they would be obliged to drive their back-fire into the face of it. But nothing was to be gained by delay, and they began the fight at once.

Ed and George were sent to the lake for pails of water, while Ben and the trapper cut a supply of white-pine boughs for use as beaters. When the boys returned they were each given one of these pine branches and told to wet them and beat out any encroaching patch of flame. Ed was then detailed to the roof to beat out any sparks that might light there. George was ordered to follow along the line of fire started by the men, and told to keep it away from the dry log walls.

FIGHTING A FOREST FIRE

By this time the smoke was so dense that they could not see one another, and Ben cautioned George against wandering away. Great black cinders and bits of charred wood were flying through the woods and dropping all about them. Birds and animals, fleeing from the fire, went by within easy reach. A deer, in its wild panic, almost ran into the cabin, and they heard the frightened creature jump into the lake a few seconds later. Grouse whizzed past close to their heads, and rabbits and smaller things scurried by almost beneath their feet.

Then they heard the roar of the fire, the crackling of undergrowth, and the crash of falling timber as the great wall of flame drew nearer. Twilight fell early, on account of the smoke, and it was soon quite dark. The roar of the approaching flames sounded like the noise of an express-train. The smoke grew still thicker, and they gasped for breath, as scorching heat-waves, like blasts from an open furnace, swept over them.

They had started their back-fire, and George and the woodsmen were compelled to work like demons to keep it from blowing back toward the cabin. The wind blew the smoke and flames full into their faces as they pounded and stamped to force the lengthening line of flame on its windward course to grapple with the onrushing flames of the forest fire.

Ed, too, was soon in the thick of the fight, for in beating at the fire below, the fighters on the ground sent aloft a constant shower of sparks which found their way to the dry log roof on which he crouched. Staggering about through the choking smoke, he beat out several patches of fire which had started from the glowing cinders. Fiery embers seemed to fill the air. They lit on his face and hands, and burned their way into the flesh before he could brush them off. He was unable to see his comrades below, and so loud had the roar of the fire become that he did not even hear their voices. Several times he found himself on the very edge of the roof, and he barely escaped falling off, for, blinded as he was by the smoke, he could not see where he was.

Suddenly he felt a hand clutch his arm, and turned abruptly to find George beside him. His eyebrows were singed, and his face streaked and sooty.

“I’ve been calling you till I’m hoarse,” he gasped. “Thought you might have smothered up here. Ben says the forest fire will be over that hill in a few minutes. Say, isn’t this an experience and a half?” he chuckled, wiping his inflamed eyes.

“What about the cabin?” Ed inquired, anxiously.

“Ben thinks it’s safe, except for the sparks and embers which he says will be dropping like hail when the real fire goes by. He and Bill will watch the walls, and you and I are to guard the roof. You see, our back-fire has burned everything off around the cabin, so the forest fire will have nothing to feed on and must go round us. Ben thinks it will travel around the lake. Say, it’s fierce work holding that back-fire.”

Then the woods were lighted as vividly as if thousands of great electric lights had been suddenly turned on. The boys looked toward the distant pine ridge in alarm, and saw a great barrier of leaping, red-tongued flame rushing toward the little cabin, whose sole protection was the thin line of wavering fire they had sent up the hill to meet and combat the destroying furnace bearing down upon them.

The roar of the flames through the trees and the crackling of burning brush echoed in their ears. Then the awful heat swept over them and stifled their very breath as they groped their way uncertainly about through the yellow pall of smoke.

“Here she is—lie low!” yelled Ben, from somewhere below them; but the rest of his orders were drowned by the noise.

A host of burning embers came glowing through the smoke and alighted on the cabin. A jet of flame started up near the peak of the roof, and the boys dashed water on the spot. Birds struck against them, cinders lit in their hair, and their heads reeled from the intense heat and suffocating smoke.

“Look! Oh, look!” screamed George, hysterically, as a solid sheet of flame flew from the top of a pitch-pine and caught again in a neighboring tree, which it consumed with a sullen roar.

Smoke began to twist up over the edge of the roof, and they realized that the cabin was on fire. With blanched faces and set teeth they crawled to the spot, but were driven back by a tongue of flame which leaped in their faces.

“She’s going, sure!” cried George, in dismay.

“Water, quick!” gasped Ed.

“The roof is on fire, too,” warned George, as he made his way boldly toward the tiny flame that showed redly through the smoke.

“Watch the top, boys; we’ve put the fire out down here,” cried Ben.

The boys went to work with the energy of desperation, and after much effort finally subdued the flames on the roof.

Then the two fires met, and the forest fire was checked, but in no wise conquered. Since nothing was left to burn in front, the fire ran around the blackened circle which protected the cabin, and went roaring and crackling through the woods. It burned down to the water’s edge, and they could hear it hissing with baffled rage at the shore of the lake.

When it had passed, the sparks ceased; and the boys, thoroughly exhausted, dropped on the hot roof of the cabin, thankful for their deliverance.

Ben crawled up and helped them down, and they staggered feebly into the smoke-filled room below. Neither could see, and Bill and the guide brought fresh cold water and put wet cloths over their aching eyes. They could still hear the fire raging in the distance, and weakly asked if it might come back. Ben hastily assured them that this was impossible. Gradually they were able to open their eyes, and the woodsman led them to the lake, where the air was somewhat clearer. The ground felt hot to their feet, and on every side were black, charred tree-trunks and glowing stumps.

Ben and the trapper were also burned and blistered, but made slight of their ills; and, following their splendid example, the boys soon declared that they, too, were all right.

The fire burned fiercely around the shores of the lake, and the weary group of fighters sat in awesome silence and watched it vent its wrath. The flames were reflected in the water, and George declared it looked as if the whole world was afire, water and all. They saw great flame-wrapped trees topple and fall hissing into the lake.

A deer, driven out by the approaching flames, jumped into the lake from the opposite shore and swam directly toward them. The boys wondered if it was the same one they had seen during the fire. The startled creature emerged within a rod of them and staggered away in the blackness.

They remained there until the fire, having completely circled the lake, came together at the lower end. Joining forces, it swept up the side and over the top of an adjoining ridge.

“Nothing to stop it for a hundred miles,” said Bill, sadly.

“Nothing,” added Ben, stooping to cool his fevered face in the water at his feet.

They went solemnly back to the cabin, where they found Moze sound asleep under one of the bunks.

“Don’t seem to bother him much,” laughed Bill.

The air was still densely laden with smoke, but it began to clear when the wind freshened. Ben said they had better go to bed. The boys tossed about for a long time, unable to close their eyes without causing severe pain. Ben and Bill were equally restless, and only Moze seemed able to slumber peacefully.