tack had
passed, and we were safe. The rabbit beside me hopped a few feet and
squatted again, and the fat bear sat up and blinked about him with his
piggish eyes. It seemed to me that the animals were growing uneasy and
that perhaps the truce was over with. In that case, unpleasant things
were likely to happen, so we had better move out.

"Shall we try it?" asked Van Sant.

We picked up the packs and sticking close together moved on--dodging
another gray wolf and a coyote, and an animal that looked like a
carcajou or wolverine, which snarled at us and wouldn't budge.

Of course, it was a little doubtful whether we could travel through
burned timber so soon after the fire had swept it. The ground would be
thick with coals and hot ashes, and trees would still be blazing. But
when we came out at the opposite edge of the willows and could see
through the aspens, the timber beyond did not look bad, after all. There
were a few burned places, but the fire had skirted the aspens on this
side only in spots, where cinders had lodged.

So if we had kept going instead of having stopped in the willows we
might have reached the place beyond all right; but it would have been
taking an awful risk, and we decided that we had done the correct thing.

Smoke still hung heavy and the smell of burning pine was strong, as we
threaded our way among the hot spots, making for the ridge beyond. That
bare place would be a good lookout, and we rather hankered for it,
anyway. We had crossed the valley, and as we climbed the slope we could
look back. The fire had covered both sides of the first ridge, and the
top, and if we had stayed there we would have been goners, sure, the way
matters turned out. It was a dismal sight, and ought to make anybody
feel sorry. Thousands of acres of fine timber had been killed--just
wasted.

"What do you suppose started it?" asked Scout Ward.

A camp-fire, probably. Lots of people, camping in the timber, either
don't know anything or else are out-and-out careless, like that gang
from town, or those two recruits who had not made good. And I more than
half believed that the fire might have started from their camps.

All of a sudden we found that we were hungry. I had been hungry before
the fire, because I hadn't had much to eat for twenty-four hours; but
during the fire I had forgotten about it; and now we all were hungry.
However, after that fire we were nervous, in the timber, and we knew
that if we camped th