here
was no blue haze visible beyond the young hemlock growth.

The sweating men, stripped to their undershirts, swung pick and axe and
drove home their heavy shovels. Burleson, his gray flannel shirt open at
the throat, arms bared to the shoulder, worked steadily among his men;
on a knoll above, the fire-warden sat cross-legged on the pine-needles,
her straight young back against a tree. On her knees were a plate and a
napkin. She ate bits of cold partridge at intervals; at intervals she
sipped a glass of claret and regarded Burleson dreamily.

To make certain, she had set a gang of men to clear the woods in a belt
behind the third ditch; a young growth of hemlock was being sacrificed,
and the forest rang with axe-strokes, the cries of men, the splintering
crash of the trees.

"I think," said Burleson to Rolfe, who had just come up, "that we are
ahead of the trouble now. Did you give my peaceful message to Abe
Storm?"

"No, sir; he wasn't to home--damn him!"

The young man looked up quickly. "What's the trouble now?" he asked.

"There's plenty more trouble ahead," said the keeper, in a low voice.
"Look at this belt, sir!" and he drew from his pocket a leather belt,
unrolled it, and pointed at a name scratched on the buckle. The name was
"Abe Storm."

"Where did that come from?" demanded Burleson.

"The man that fired the vlaie grass dropped it. Barry picked it up on
patrol. There's the evidence, sir. The belt lay on the edge of the
burning grass."

"You mean he dropped it last night, and Barry found it where the grass
had been afire?"

"No, sir; that belt was dropped two hours since. _The grass was afire
again._"

The color left Burleson's face, then came surging back through the
tightening skin of the set jaws.

"Barry put out the blaze, sir. He's on duty there now with Chase and
Connor. God help Abe Storm if they get him over the sights, Mr.
Burleson."

Burleson's self-command was shaken. He reached out his hand for the
belt, flung away his axe, and walked up the slope of the knoll where the
fire-warden sat calmly watching him.

For a few moments he stood before her, teeth set, in silent battle with
that devil's own temper which had never been killed in him, which he
knew now could never be ripped out and exterminated, which must, _must_
lie chained--chained while he himself stood tireless guard, knowing that
chains may break.

After a while he dropped to the ground beside her, like a man dead
t