Supervisor.

"I reckon not," said Rifle-Eye. "You can't hold it here; there's a blaze
down over yonder and another below the hill."

"Who set that fire?" said Merritt suddenly. Wilbur jumped. It had not
occurred to him that the fire could have started in any other manner
than by accident, and indeed he had not thought of its cause at all.

The old Ranger looked quietly at his superior officer.

"It's allers mighty hard to tell where a fire started after it's once
got a-going," he said, "and it's harder to tell who set it a-going."

"I want to stop it at the river."

The old woodsman shook his head.

"You ain't got much chance," he said; "I reckon at the ridge on the
other side of the river you can hold her, but she's crept along the
gully an' she'll just go a-whoopin' up the hill. I wouldn't waste any
time at the river."

"But there's the mill!"

"We ain't no ways to blame because Peavey Jo built his mill in front of
a fire. An', anyhow, the mill's in the middle of a clearing."

The Supervisor frowned.

"His mill is on National Forest land, and we ought to try and save it,"
he said.

"I'm goin' clear to the ridge," remarked the Ranger, "an' I reckon
you-all had better, too. I ain't achin' none to see the mill burn, but
I'd as lieve it was Peavey Jo's as any one else."

"I'd like to know," Merritt repeated, "who set that fire."

The Ranger made no answer, but walked off to where his horse was
tethered and rode away. The other party without a moment's delay struck
off to the trail leading to the mill. The distance was not great, but
Wilbur had lost all count of time. It seemed to him that he had either
been fighting fire or riding at high speed through luridly lighted
forest glades for years and years, and that it would never stop.

At the mill they found a wild turmoil of excitement. All the hands were
at work, most of them wetting down the lumber, while other large piles
which were close to the edge of the forest were being moved out of
danger. The horses all had been taken from the stables, and the various
sheds and buildings were being thoroughly soaked. The big mill engine
was throbbing, lines of hose playing in every direction, for although
the timber around the mill had been cleared as much as possible,
negligence had been shown in permitting some undergrowth to spring up
unchecked. Owing to the conformation of the land, too, the bottom on
which the mill stood was smaller than customary.

In the