years. It would be impossible to say where the
last sparks would burn themselves out. It was another of the tragedies
to be set at the door of man's quest of gold.

"Makes you feel Nature's score against man's mounting big," he said, in
a tone there could be no mistaking. "Seems that's going to hurt her
mighty bad. She'll hit back one day. Centuries it's taken her
building that way. She's nursed it in the hollows, and made it strong
on the hills. She's made it good, and set it out for man's use. And
man's destroyed her work because he's got a hide he guesses to keep
whole. It's all a fearful contradiction. There doesn't seem much
sense to life anyway. And still the scheme goes right on, and I don't
guess a single blamed purpose is lost. Gee, I hate it."

The truth of Bill's words struck home on Kars. But he had no reply.
He hated it, too.

The roar of flame went on all night. The boom of falling trees. The
splitting and rending. The heat was sickening. Those who sought sleep
lay bare to the night air, for blankets were beyond endurance. Then
the smoke which clung to the open jaws of the gorge. The night breeze
seemed powerless to carry it away.

With the outbreak of fire the Indian workings further up the river
awoke, too. A few stray figures foregathered at the water's edge.
Their numbers were quickly augmented. Long before the night was spent
a great crowd was watching the fierce destruction of the haunts which
it had known for generations. Fire is the Indian terror. And in the
heart of these benighted creatures a superstitious awe of it remains at
all times. Now they were panic-stricken.

Towards morning the fire passed out of the gorge. It swept over the
crests of the enclosing hills and passed on, nursed by the fanning of
the western breeze. And as it passed away, and the booming and roaring
became more and more distant, so did the smoke-laden atmosphere begin
to clear. But a tropical heat remained behind for many hours. Even
the northland chill of spring failed to temper it rapidly.

Kars had achieved his purpose. No cover remained for any lurking foe.
The hills across the river were "snatched" bald. Charred and
smoldering timbers lay sprawling in every direction upon the red-hot
carpet. Blackened stumps stood up, tombstones of the splendid woods
that once had been. There was no cover anywhere. None at all. No
lurking rifle could find a screen from behind which to pour death