d been set on fire by the heat
of the blazing stream by its side, and the flames were moving rapidly
toward the two other large tanks in the immediate vicinity.

CHAPTER XIII.

A FRUITLESS SEARCH.

Many conflagrations, caused by the lightning striking an oil-tank, have
been known since the discovery of petroleum; but none had ever been so
disastrous as the one of which the reader has had but an imperfect
account.

Forty-five thousand barrels of oil had been consumed or wasted up to the
time as narrated in the previous chapter, and fully as much more was now
threatened by the overflow, which had taken fire, and was shooting forth
flames most dangerously near the other two large tanks.

At the first alarm the entire force present left whatever they were
working at to combat the new danger, when George and several of those
who, with him, were directing the work, saw at once the peril to which
the town was exposed by this sudden abandonment of the labor which had
been performed for the purpose of presenting an impassable barrier to
the angry flames.

It was impossible that the now nearly exhausted workers could prevent
the flames from attacking the two tanks upon which they were sweeping,
and if vain labor was spent upon that quarter, the enemy would, beyond
a doubt, gain possession of the town.

To keep the men from neglecting the safety of their homes to try
uselessly to save property which could easily be replaced, was
absolutely necessary, and the length of time required to persuade them
to return to the work they had first been engaged in would decide the
fate of the village.

Leaping directly in front of what had almost become an unreasoning mob,
George and Ralph tried by their strength to resist the impulsive dash
forward, at the same time that they shouted at the full strength of
their lungs the reason why the work nearer the town should not be
neglected.

For some moments it seemed as if they would be trampled under the feet
of the frightened multitude, and then their coolness won the victory
over unreasoning fear, as it always will whenever displayed.

The people returned to the more important labor the moment they
understood how fruitless would have been their work in the other
direction, and George aided them by his efforts and advice, while Ralph,
with a dozen assistants, began a cannonading of the other two tanks that
were just beginning to add their fuel to the fearful blaze.

The breez