Читать книгу Grace Harlowe's Overland Riders on the Lost River Trail - Josephine Chase - Страница 5

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“Wet down the roofs of all the houses. Keep your heads or you’re goners!” shouted Ham White.

The Overlanders had grabbed pails and filled them from the creek, running with them to points where water soon would be needed. Stacy, however, with his usual disinclination to work, took it upon himself to boss the villagers, which he did very well. He appeared to be not at all disturbed by the peril that menaced them.

The sky was now heavily overcast. To add to the gloom, daylight was fading with the prospect of a night of terror for the people of Silver Creek. The air grew hot and the pungent odor of smoke sent many into paroxysms of coughing.

Hamilton White, cool and collected, was giving terse orders here and there, and working with tireless energy. Hot puffs of wind drove through the village streets, and that, he knew, was the vanguard of what was to come.

Men were working under difficulties but to good purpose, for the guide was directing the work of covering roofs with wet blankets, which were wet down as fast as water could be brought. The smoke grew more dense, more suffocating with the moments, and, somewhere off to the south, a roar like that of an approaching storm was plainly heard. Ham White, hearing, understood.

“Look! Oh, look!” cried Nora Wingate.

Great tongues of flame were seen leaping into the air high above the tree-tops of the forest. Sparks and burning embers were now falling in the village streets. Overhead the air itself seemed to be on fire. Sheets of flame were curling and rolling through the forest like breakers on a reef. At one moment the sky would be lighted up brilliantly, and in the next deep, impenetrable darkness covered all.

The terror of the villagers increased, and the Overland girls, on their way to and fro for water, did what they could to calm the women, but without great success. To add to the terror and the peril, the village was now surrounded with fire on three sides. It seemed to be growing more threatening with the moments, and the clouds of soot became denser.

“Oh, how terrible!” cried Nora to Grace Harlowe.

“Yes, but one of the most tremendous spectacles I have ever seen,” answered Grace, whose face, like all others about her, was so black as to be almost unrecognizable.

In all the excitement, however, the two girls found time to observe and marvel. They saw streamers of fire appear to die out, and then charge forward toward the village at race-horse speed, threatening to envelop and devour it.

The villagers started to run as their panic increased.

“Stay where you are! You are safer here!” Ham White shouted in warning to all.

Houses were now catching fire, despite all efforts, and men worked in a frenzy, for, if the fire once got a good start in the village, they now knew that it would be destroyed. Some of the cooler heads among the women lent much assistance to the Overlanders, but most of them were too terrified to give any assistance at all.

“Some of these women surely will perish unless something is done at once,” said Miss Briggs. “Suggest something, Grace, for the love of heaven.”

“The creek! Help me herd them down on its bank,” answered Grace with ready resource. “Nora! You and Emma must assist. Don’t hesitate. Jump to it! There are men enough to carry water. Lives are of more account than houses.”

The girls sprang to their task with energy. It was not an easy task to which they had assigned themselves, and the first of the women sent to the stream had to be forced there. There were choking protests, but the Overland girls gave no heed, as there was no time for argument, and seconds wasted might mean loss of lives.

“If your clothes catch fire, duck into the creek,” was the advice shouted over and over again to the village women by Grace and her companions. “Keep close to the shore or you may be swept off your feet and carried downstream.”

The latter part of the Overlanders’ advice was not heeded in every instance, and now and then one of the girls found it necessary to haul ashore some woman who was in danger of being carried away by the current.

As the heat in the village increased in intensity, shivering women and children were standing in the creek’s cold waters, protecting themselves from the burning air by covering their heads with wetted articles of clothing.

Another peril found them there. Logs, broken, charred tree-limbs, were rolling and tumbling down with the stream. Something hit Elfreda, who was dragging a woman to safety, and pushed the girl under. Struggle as she would, Miss Briggs was unable for some time to extricate herself, though she did manage to keep her head above water. Her skirts had caught on the branches of what proved to be the bushy top of a tree, and she was swept away on the current.

After what seemed hours Elfreda succeeded in freeing herself, and permitted herself to float while she rested, breathing hard from her exertions.

The village of Silver Creek had disappeared in the distance. A roaring sound came to Elfreda’s ears, which she soon discovered was caused by the rushing current of a turbulent river.

“Mercy! What am I coming to?” cried the girl in her extremity. Elfreda was frightened, but by no means panic-stricken. “Oh, this surely is the end!” gasped the girl as she found herself suddenly whirled into wild waters.

It was Roaring River into which Miss Briggs had been swept from the creek, and now her last hope seemed gone, for the stream was wide and full of floating logs and brush, and here and there dark objects brushed past her. The girl drifted on and on, chilled and exhausted, but still possessing a strength of will that kept her from letting go, as many another would have done in her circumstances.

Of how long she had been in the water Elfreda had not the slightest idea, but it seemed to have been hours, when suddenly she was halted by the roots of a tree on the bank of the river, from which the dirt had been washed away.

Grasping at the roots, Miss Briggs clung there resting. After a little she dragged herself over the roots and finally reached soft yielding earth.

“Thank God!” breathed Elfreda fervently, and stretching out she sank into a deep sleep of exhaustion.

When Miss Briggs awakened from that sleep the sun was shining, but there was a yellow haze in the air, and the odor of smoke was wafted to her on the morning breeze. Birds were singing in the trees, and the earth seemed at peace.

“J. Elfreda, you have done it this time!” she rebuked herself. “Why did you ever go into that terrible water? Oh, what has become of the others? This will never do. I must do something!” she cried, rousing herself and standing up to look about her.

What to do, was the perplexing question. It was then that Elfreda discovered a trail. Trees along the trail had been blazed, but the blazes were not new. The path had been used frequently, she observed, and led into the forest. For that the Overland girl was thankful.

After brief reflection, Miss Briggs decided to follow the trail that Fate had offered to her. It must lead somewhere, she reasoned. Had Elfreda been more familiar with life in the forest she would have known that this was either a trapper’s or a fisherman’s trail, but to her all forest blazes looked alike, so she plodded on slowly, keeping a sharp lookout for slashes on sides of the trees, and for signs of human habitation.

When an hour had passed, and the trail still led on, the girl began to lose heart. She sank down to rest and think, but as she peered underneath the low-hanging branches of under-brush and saplings, Elfreda made a discovery that set her pulses beating. There, less than fifty yards ahead of her, she saw a shack, and about it was a hedge of evergreens that undoubtedly had been placed there by human hands.

“Saved!” cried Elfreda, springing to her feet, forgetful of the aches and pains of a few moments before.

The Overland girl caught her breath suddenly, and a rush of color leaped to her cheeks, for Elfreda Briggs had made another discovery, and with it came the realization that a most amazing thing had occurred.

Uttering a shrill little cry, Elfreda started forward at a run.