oks, saws, and axes. To each
one he gave also a gunnysack.

The foot party followed Crawford into the chaparral, making for the hills
that led to Bear Canon. A wind was stirring, and as they topped a rise it
struck hot on their cheeks. A flake of ash fell on Bob's hand.

Crawford met them at the mouth of the canon.

"She's rip-r'arin', Bob! Got too big a start to beat out. We'll clear a
fire-break where the gulch narrows just above here and do our fightin'
there."

The sparks of a thousand rockets, flung high by the wind, were swept down
the gulch toward them. Behind these came a curtain of black smoke.

The cattleman set his crew to work clearing a wide trail across the gorge
from wall to wall. The undergrowth was heavy, and the men attacked with
brush-hooks, shovels, and axes. One man, with a wet gunnysack, was
detailed to see that no flying sparks started a new blaze below the
safety zone. The shovelers and grubbers cleared the grass and roots off
to the dirt for a belt of twenty feet. They banked the loose dirt at the
lower edge to catch flying firebrands. Meanwhile the breath of the
furnace grew to a steady heat on their faces. Flame spurts had leaped
forward to a grove of small alders and almost in a minute the branches
were crackling like fireworks.

"I'll scout round over the hill and have a look above," Bob said. "We've
got to keep it from spreading out of the gulch."

"Take the horse," Crawford called to him.

One good thing was that the fire was coming down the canon. A downhill
blaze moves less rapidly than one running up.

Runners of flame, crawling like snakes among the brush, struck out at the
fighters venomously and tried to leap the trench. The defenders flailed
at these with the wet gunnysacks.

The wind was stiffer now and the fury of the fire closer. The flames
roared down the canon like a blast furnace. Driven back by the intense
heat, the men retreated across the break and clung to their line. Already
their lungs were sore from inhaling smoke and their throats were
inflamed. A pine, its pitchy trunk ablaze, crashed down across the
fire-trail and caught in the fork of a tree beyond. Instantly the foliage
leaped to red flame.

Crawford, axe in hand, began to chop the trunk and a big Swede swung an
axe powerfully on the opposite side. The rest of the crew continued to
beat down the fires that started below the break. The chips flew at each
rhythmic stroke of the keen blades. Presently the