The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-08-18
CHAPTER II.

wind which he had faced in mounting
the grade had changed and was now
blowing at his back. His experience
of forest fires had already taught him
that this was too often only the cold
air rushing in to fill the vacuum made
by the confagration, and it needed not
his sensation of an acrid smarting in
his eyes. and an unaccountable dry
ness in the air which he was now fac
ing to convince him that the fire was
approaching him. 1t had evidently
travelled faster than he had expected
or had diverged from its course He
was disappointed, not because it would
oblige him to take another course to
SINNERS, as Collinson had suggested,
but for a very different reason. Ever
since his vision Of the preceding night
he had resolved to revisit the hollow
and discover the mystery. He had
Kept his purpose a secret, partly be-
cause he wished to avoid the testing
remarks of his companions, but par
gicularly because he wished to go
alone, from a very singular feeling
that while they had witnessed the in
cident, it was something vaguely per-
sonal to himself To this was also
a0OC0 lllC GllCdSJ CSo4OA 1lE ldQ
experienced during the night, that this
mysterious habitation and its occu-
pants were in the track of the con-
Migration. He had not dared TO dwell
upon it on account of Uncle Dicks
evident responsibility for the origin of
the fire and the reflection that the in
mates Of the dwelling would have had
ample warning in time to escape. But
he and his companions might have
helped them, and then-but here he
stopped. Preble Key had not passed
the age of romance, but, like other
romancistS, he thought he had evad-
ed 1t by treating it practically.
He had reached a point where the
trail diverged to the right, and he
must take that direction if he wished
to make a detour of the burning
woods to reach SINNERS. His momen-
6ary indeciSion communicated itself to
the horse, who halted. Recalled to
himself he looked down mechanically
when his attention was attracted by
an unfamiliar object lying in the dust
of the trail. 1t was a small slipper
so small that it must have belonged
to some child. He dismounted and
picked it UP. 1t was worn and shaped
10 the foot. 1t could not have lain
there long, for it was not filed or
covered with the wind-blown dust of
the trail as ali other adjacent objects
were. II it was dropped by passing
traveller; that traveller must have
passed Collinson's going or coming
within the last twelve hours. 1t was
scarcely possible that the shoe could
have dropped from the foot without
the wearer knowing it, and it must
have been dropped in an urgent flight
or it would have been recovered. Thus
practically Key treated his romance
And having done so he instantly
WhnplnH hiC 10TGa and 71lIInCn6 into
the road in the direction Of the fire.
But he was surprised after twenty
minutes riding to find that the course
Of the fire had evidently changed. 1t
was growing clearer before him; the
dry heat seemed TO come more from
the right, IN the direction of the de-
tour he should have taken to Skin
ners. This seemed almost providen-
tial. and in keeping with his practical
treatment of his romance, as was also
the fact that in all probability the fire
had not visited the little hollow that
he intended to explore. He knew he
was nearing it now; the locality had
been strongly impressed upon him
even in the darkness of the previous
evening. He had passed the rocky
ledge; his horses hoofs no longer rang
out clearly; slowly and preceptibly
they became deadened and lost in the
springy MOSES and finally the netted
grasses and tangled vines that indi-
Gated the vicinity of the densely
wooded hollow. Here, too, were al
ready some of the wider spaced van
guards of that woodruff here a. pc
culiar circumstance struck him. He
was already descending the slight de-
clivity, but the distance, instead of
deepening in leafy shadow, was actu-
ally growing lighter Here were the
outskirting SentinelS of the wood, but
the wood itself was gone. He spurred
his horse through the tall gums be-
tween the opened columns and pulled
up in amazement.
The wood indeed was gone, and the
whole hollow filled with the already
black and dead stumps Of the utterly
consumed forest. More than that,
from the indications before him the
catastrophe must have almost inme-
diately followed their retreat from the
hollow on the preceding night. 1t was
evident that the fire had leaped the
intervening shoulder of the spur in
one of those unaccountable but by no
means rare phenomena of this form
of disaster The circling heights
around were yet untouched; only the
hollow and the ledge of rock beside
it, against which they had blundered
with their horses when they were
seeking the mysterious window in the
darkness of the evening before, were
calcined and destroyed. He dis
mounted and climbed the ledge, still
warm with the spent fire. A large
mass of grayish outcrop had evidently
been the focus of the furnace blast
of heat that must have ragged in this
spot He was skirting its crumbling
debris when he started suddenly at
discovery which made everything else
fade into utter insignifcaice. Be
fore him, in the upheaved strata, lay
the charred and calcined remains of
a dwelling house, levelled to the earth.
Originally half hidden by a natural
abatis of growing myrtle and ceano-
thus that covered this counterscrap Of
stood within hundred feet Of them
during their halt
Even in its utter and complete oblit-
GRAFTON by the furious furnace blast
that must have swept across it the
evening before, here was still to be
seen the unmistakable ground plan
and outline of a feur-roomed house.
While everything that was combusti-
be had succumbed to that intense
heat, there was still enough half-fused
and warped metal, fractured iron
plate ard twisted and broken bars to
indicate the kitchen and tool shed.
Very little had evidently been taken
away; the house aud its contents were
consumed where it stood. With feel
ing of horror and desperation Key at
last ventured to disturb two or three
Of the blackened heaps that lay be
fore him. But these were only yes
,+iges of clothing, bedding and
Cfockery-there was no human
trace that he could detect