Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-12-10

out and the summer silence hung
upon the cook-shack and the desert
ed cabins, empty ever since their for
mer occupants had turned their coats
fol Hampden's two-year contracts.
Suddenly Coosnah, lying on the
step, got up and shifted the air. ST.
letz looked at him, her fingers ar
rested. Then he sat down on his
launches, threw up his muzzle, and
began to bay, a melancholy, lonesome
sound.
Hush" said Siletz, hush, Coos
nah!" And she, too, lifted her head
after the fashion of wild things,
smelling the sultry atmosphere.
"Mother!" she cried swiftly, tits
fre!"
The general creaked up and hur-
ried to the steps, but already Siletz
was off and running up the valley
toward the cutting. When she reached
the donkey Sandry was standing be-
side it, but the girl passed him with
out a glance, running to where the
foreman set a choker.
"John!" she cried; "John-there's
a fire on the west ridge!"
Every man within hearing dropped
his work instantly and stood up.
Call in tn men," said Daily as he
passed the donkey-engineer, AN send
'em along. We'd better all go, Mr..
Sandry. 'Tain't likely it's much, but
we got to stomp it out, whatever It's.
] ben a lookin' fer EN-"
They all trailed down the valley on
a dogtrot. 1t took them the better
part of an hour, but when they went
down there was not a spark left
alight.
what do you suppose started it,
John?" asked Sandry.
ooh, some darned little college
snipe from Corvallis, likely, with a
gun an a cigarette. Or mebbe it was
some camper stayin' overnight on
the ridge--some greenhorn. An it's
mighty dry-mighty dry"
They went back to the cutting.
though every jack Of them lifted up
his eyes from time to time to the
ridges around. At supper the loggers
discussed the forest fires of other
years, the topic opened by the Incl
dent. 1t was a close night with a
dark sky, though the heat had given
way to the sweet GOODNESS of the
coast under the mysterious ocean
wind, and Sandry from his old seat
at table looked out at the western
ridge.
"John!" he cried, rising suddenly,
"it's broken out again!"
Sure enough. Against the upper
darkness little red tongues licked fit
fully up and the men, white and In
dian, tumbled out of the c~ook-shack.
It was twelve o'clock when they
turned in, and Sandry was puzzled.
The next day nothing happened.
Then at dawn of the day following
the camp awoke to see a fine, fairy
white haze all through the valley and
the crest of the west ridge, for half
a mile, sending up fanciful pearl
plumes in the soft morning. This
time it had gained a start and the
camp turned out in earnest.
Scattering fires were burning slowly
in the lower growth, all linked to-
gether by creeping trails. 1t was as
If a light wind had blown in the latter
part of the night, bearing a brand
here and there. Daily set his men in
groups, all along the burning strip,
and they attacked it with spade and
shovel, ak and blanket wet from the
five-gallon oilcans they had filled at
the slough and carried up the noun
tain with heavy labor. This time they
worked increasingly all day, going
down to dinner in relays, and night
found them a weary crew with grimy
faces, while a narrow, black scar ran
along the high shoulder of the ridge.
John" said Sandry solemnly, that
is no college boy with his cigarette.
Could 1t be Hampden?"
The foreman turned upon the
owner.
you hain't a real westerner, yet,
Mr. Sandry," he said with a smile.
"You think Hampden'd resk his yella
pine-as fine timber as there is in tn
whole state? He'd bury tn Ratchet
an come fight with us like a brother
first"
Then what's setting those fires? p
for it looks as if they are being set
My God! Look there! There's an.
other!"
Amerry, red eye winked and leaped
and died, to leap again across the
early twilight at the valleys head.
That's damned close to our cut.
tint" cried Daily starting down the
mountain on a sliding run.
And that last fire, burning strongly
where no brand could have dropped
even with a wind, marked the begin.
ming of such a time of anxiety, of fear
that grew and mounted to heart-still-
ing panic, of superhuman labor, as
Sandry, a year before, could not have
believed possible-a time to be long
remembered IN the coast country.