w it caging with inconceivable
fury. The earth rift seemed to be roofed with flame. Great billows
of black smoke poured out laden with sparks and live coals carried by the
wind. It was plain at the first glance that the fire was bound to leap
from the canon to the brush-covered hills beyond. His business now was
to hold the ridge he had chosen and fight back the flames to keep them
from pouring down upon the Jackpot property. Later the battle would have
to be fought to hold the line at San Jacinto Canon and the hills running
down from it to the plains.

The surface fire on the hills licked up the brush, mesquite, and young
cedars with amazing rapidity. If his trail-break was built in time, Dave
meant to back-fire above it. Steve Russell was one of his party. Sanders
appointed him lieutenant and went over the ground with him to decide
exactly where the clearing should run, after which he galloped back to
the mouth of Bear.

"She's running wild on the hills and in Cattle Canon," Dave told
Crawford. "She'll sure jump Cattle and reach San Jacinto. We've got to
hold the mouth of Cattle, build a trail between Bear and Cattle, another
between Cattle and San Jacinto, cork her up in San Jacinto, and keep her
from jumping to the hills beyond."

"Can we back-fire, do you reckon?"

"Not with the wind there is above, unless we have check-trails built
first. We need several hundred more men, and we need them right away. I
never saw such a fire before."

"Well, get yore trail built. Bob oughtta be out soon. I'll put him over
between Cattle and San Jacinto. Three-four men can hold her here now.
I'll move my outfit over to the mouth of Cattle."

The cattleman spoke crisply and decisively. He had been fighting fire for
six hours without a moment's rest, swallowing smoke-filled air, enduring
the blistering heat that poured steadily at them down the gorge. At least
two of his men were lying down completely exhausted, but he contemplated
another such desperate battle without turning a hair. All his days he had
been a good fighter, and it never occurred to him to quit now.

Sanders rode up as close to the west edge of Bear Canon as he could
endure. In two or three places the flames had jumped the wall and were
trying to make headway in the scant underbrush of the rocky slope
that led to a hogback surmounted by a bare rimrock running to the summit.
This natural barrier would block the fire on the west, just as the
burnt-over area woul