them out.

"Done! But it will have to be watched. You girls go back to camp and
make some coffee. I don't believe that much of our belongings have been
destroyed," said Tom.

Instead of starting for camp, the girls sank down in their tracks, and
dropped instantly into a sleep of exhaustion. Neither man made an effort
to arouse them.

"I wish I might do that too. What do you say if we take just one little
cat-nap, Tom?" urged Hippy.

"Can't be done. The fire might start again."

"Oh, hang the fire!" growled Lieutenant Wingate.

"It might 'hang' you; in other words, we should be in danger of being
burned, for we surely would sleep all day, once we permitted ourselves
to drop off!"

"All right. Carry on! If I could have a nip of sleep I know I should
dream of food, which would fix me up all right. How long are we going
to let them sleep?" asked Hippy, pointing to the sleeping Overland
girls.

"Until we make certain that the fire isn't going to break out afresh. We
will then shake the girls up and go back to camp. It doesn't look as
though I should get away to-day, does it?" grinned Tom.

"We can sit down, can't we?"

"Not yet! Not for another two hours."

The men separated and began a steady patrol of the fire-line, dragging
themselves along wearily until the two hours had lengthened into three.
Hippy then declared himself and announced his intention of going
straight back to camp for something to eat and a sleep.

Tom, after a final look about, agreed. It took some little time to get
the girls sufficiently awake to enable them to stand on their feet, but
finally the men had marshalled them all and the journey to camp began.

It was blackened and cheerless acres of bare and fallen trees that their
swollen eyes gazed upon on the way back to camp. Thousands of feet of
virgin timber had been burned. Tom Gray, whose love of the forest was
almost a passion with him, gazed on the wreckage sadly.

"Let this be a lesson to all of you. Always be careful with your
campfires," he warned.

The girls were too tired to eat when they reached camp. All they desired
was sleep and rest. Hippy's crying need was food, and that was what he
proposed to get first, but Tom would not hear to either of them sitting
down until the horses had been looked after and watered.

While they were doing that, the forest woman made coffee and fried
bacon, which was ready for Tom and Hippy upon their return. The Overland
girls had found t