was vivid and poignant in her thoughts. Indeed, so utterly miserable
was she that the exquisite relief of sitting down, of a cessation of
movement, of a release from that infernal perpetual-trotting horse,
seemed only a mockery. It could not be true that the time had come for
rest.

Evidently this place had been a camp site for hunters or sheep-herders,
for there were remains of a fire. Dale lifted the burnt end of a log
and brought it down hard upon the ground, splitting off pieces. Several
times he did this. It was amazing to see his strength, his facility, as
he split off handfuls of splinters. He collected a bundle of them, and,
laying them down, he bent over them. Roy wielded the ax on another log,
and each stroke split off a long strip. Then a tiny column of smoke
drifted up over Dale's shoulder as he leaned, bareheaded, sheltering the
splinters with his hat. A blaze leaped up. Roy came with an armful of
strips all white and dry, out of the inside of a log. Crosswise these
were laid over the blaze, and it began to roar. Then piece by piece the
men built up a frame upon which they added heavier woods, branches
and stumps and logs, erecting a pyramid through which flames and smoke
roared upward. It had not taken two minutes. Already Helen felt the
warmth on her icy face. She held up her bare, numb hands.

Both Dale and Roy were wet through to the skin, yet they did not tarry
beside the fire. They relieved the horses. A lasso went up between two
pines, and a tarpaulin over it, V-shaped and pegged down at the four
ends. The packs containing the baggage of the girls and the supplies and
bedding were placed under this shelter.

Helen thought this might have taken five minutes more. In this short
space of time the fire had leaped and flamed until it was huge and hot.
Rain was falling steadily all around, but over and near that roaring
blaze, ten feet high, no water fell. It evaporated. The ground began to
steam and to dry. Helen suffered at first while the heat was driving out
the cold. But presently the pain ceased.

"Nell, I never knew before how good a fire could feel," declared Bo.

And therein lay more food for Helen's reflection.

In ten minutes Helen was dry and hot. Darkness came down upon the
dreary, sodden forest, but that great camp-fire made it a different
world from the one Helen had anticipated. It blazed and roared, cracked
like a pistol, hissed and sputtered, shot sparks everywhere, and sent
aloft