e winds that far around with fragments strew the sea. They
have skedaddled," he continued, lapsing into prose.

"I wonder if the captain and Tom have been caught in this fire," I
cried.

A fear struck to my heart. It did not seem possible that anyone could
escape the devouring march of the fire. Not many would be likely to find
the refuge we had.

"You may be sure of one thing," replied Jim, "and that is this, the
captain will take good care of himself and Tom too."

There was ground for Jim's confidence. For the captain was a man of
unlimited resource, backed by a remarkable experience and he was, no
doubt, far more worried about us than we were about them.

For us it was a trying and difficult journey over this burnt section. It
was hard on the horses, and must have burnt their feet cruelly. We
picked our way as carefully as we could, following the gravelly
stretches where it was possible so to do.

Then again, where we could do so, we would take the line of the creek
that ran down the middle of the valley. There was no water in it, for it
had been either choked or dried up. After all that rain of the previous
day this seemed remarkable.

"How much ground do you suppose this fire has swept, Jim?" I asked.

"It's hard telling," he replied, "but it would not surprise me if we
would have to travel several days before we get out of the burnt
district."

We had now arrived at the top of the mountain, from which the valley
sloped down.

"Which way now, Jim?" I asked, stopping a moment for a better view.

For answer he swung his horse north, along the ridge. It was
comparatively clear here and quite gravelly and a cool breeze, unstained
with smoke, swept over the divide, with refreshing life in it for us. It
was the next thing to having a drink.

"How are your lips, Jo?" asked Jim.

"Burnt," I replied.

"It's a whole lot better than having the Apaches catch you," he
reasoned. "Then you would have been burnt all over."

"It's some consolation," I said.

"I don't believe we could have escaped," said Jim, "if the fire had not
helped us. The only thing we could have done was to have tried to make
our escape at night."

"We would have fought our way through, perhaps," I suggested.

"Not more than one chance out of a hundred," replied Jim, "and I'm glad,
for one, we didn't have to take it."

"We get a pretty good view of the conflagration from here," I commented.

This was true, for in both directions we