er the mountain a circular ring proclaimed the spreading
fire.

"Gee, that looks like some fire, Jack," said Pete Stubbs, a Tenderfoot
Scout, to his chum, Jack Danby, head office-boy in the place where he
and Pete both worked.

"I'm afraid it is," said Jack, looking anxiously toward it.

"I never saw one as big as that before," said Pete. "I've heard about
them, but we never had one like that anywhere around here."

"We used to have pretty bad ones up at Woodleigh," returned Jack. "I
don't like the looks of that fire a bit. It's burning slowly enough
now, but if they don't look out, it'll get away from them and come
sweeping down over the fields here."

"Say, Jack, that's right, too! I should think they'd want to be more
careful there in the farmhouses. There's some of them pretty close to
the edge of the woods over there."

Scout-Master Thomas Durland, who was in charge of the Troop, came up to
them just then.

"Danby," he said, "take your signaling flags, and go over toward that
fire. I want you to examine the situation and report if there seems to
be any danger of the fire spreading to the lowlands and endangering
anything there."

"Yes, sir," said Jack at once, raising his hand in the Scout salute and
standing at attention as the Scout-Master, the highest officer of the
Troop of Scouts, spoke to him. His hand was at his forehead, three
middle fingers raised, and thumb bent over little finger.

"Take Scout Stubbs with you," said the Scout-Master. "You may need
help in examining the country over there. I don't know much about it.
What we want to find out is whether the ground is bare, and so likely
to resist the fire, or if it is covered with stubble and short, dry
growth that will burn quickly."

"Yes, sir!"

"Look out for water, too. There may be some brooks so small that we
can't see them from here. But I'm afraid not. Every brook around here
seems to be dried up. The drought has been so bad that there is almost
no water left. A great many springs, even, that have never failed in
the memory of the oldest inhabitants, have run dry in the last month or
so. The wind is blowing this way, and the fire seems to be running
over from the other side of Bald Mountain there. From the looks of the
smoke, there must be a lot of fire on the other side."

No more orders were needed. The two Scouts, hurrying off, went across
the clear space at the Scout pace, fifty steps running, then fifty
steps w