ahead of
them. It grew and sank as if being fed irregularly, or as if smoke blew
before it from time to time. Presently they rounded the base of a hill
and came suddenly upon the fire, burning in a gulch, as it seemed,
covering a large area, sending up a vast volume of smoke.

Lambert had seen smoke in this direction many times while riding fence,
but could not account for it then any more than he could now for a
little while as he stood facing its origin. Then he understood that this
was a burning vein of lignite, such as he had seen traces of in the
gorgeously colored soil in other parts of the Bad Lands where the fires
had died out and cooled long ago.

These fires are peculiar to the Bad Lands, and not uncommon there, owing
their origin to forest or prairie blazes which spread to the exposed
veins of coal. As these broad, deep deposits of lignite lie near the
surface, the fire can be seen through crevasses and fallen sections of
crust. Sometimes they burn for years.

At the foot of the steep bank on which Lambert and his captors stood the
crust had caved, giving the fire air to hasten its ravages. The mass of
slow-moving fire glowed red and intense, covered in places by its own
ashes, now sending up sudden clouds of smoke as an indraft of air
livened the combustion, now smoldering in sullen dullness, throwing off
a heat that made the horses draw back.

Kerr drew aside on arriving at the fire, and sat his horse looking at
it, the light on his face. Sim Hargus pointed to the glowing pit.

"That's our little private hell. What do you think of it, kid?" he said,
with his grunting, insulting sneer.

The fire was visible only in front of them, in a jagged, irregular strip
marking the cave-in of the crust. It ranged from a yard to ten yards
across, and appeared to extend on either hand a long distance. The bank
on which Lambert's horse stood formed one shore of this fiery stream,
which he estimated to be four yards or more across at that point. On the
other side a recent settling of earth had exposed the coal, which was
burning brightly in a fringe of red flame. Whether the fire underlay the
ground beyond that point Lambert could not tell.

"Quite a sight by night, isn't it?" said Kerr. "It covers several
acres," he explained, as if answering the speculation that rose,
irrelevantly in the face of his pain, humiliation and anxiety, in
Lambert's mind. What did it matter to him how much ground it covered, or
when it