Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-03-10
The Spirit OF the East.
CHAPTER XVI.

The Spirit OF the East.
Company H, under Captain Donald
son, they trotted swiftly up with the
quickstep Of hard-trained infantry
and stood in column of fours while
The officers sought the head of at
fairs. Daily promptly sent for the
young forest ranger, and in less than
it takes in the telling these two keen
witted Westerners, the woodsman
and the soldier. were ready to Crap
pie with the enemy. Light-marching
kits were dumped upon the ground
and the hard-muscled men took to
The hills and the timber under quick,
decisive orders. Two hours later
wagons arrived with commissary sup
plies and the smoky, blackened val
ley took on a military air.
1t was a Titan struggle, and it was
indicative of the force that has con-
quered nature-the human atoms toll
ing in semidarkness beneath the
threatening forest, choked by the
smoke, f1ayed by the almost unbear-
able heat, menaced by the flames that
at any moment might sweep here or
there among the rocks and declivities
Of the uneven hills and cut off escape.
That was the great danger they
guarded against-the possibility Of
getting hemmed in. Guards were de-
tailed to watch the vanguards of the
foe, to(note the speed Of the flames,
the lieI OF the timber. the lines that
were likely to go fastest. following the
Different growths. but in the mysteri
GUS dusk and the silence of vast
mingled sounds they were impotent
and each man had to take care of him
self.
The mighty boom of falling patri.
archs of the forest. hOary with thou
sand years Of age, crashing through
Obstructing branches, shook the earth
each moment. With each such stu
pendOus fall wealth and world-econ-
omy and prudence trembled at the
sacrilege 1t was carnival of waste,
a sacrifice of the gifts of God-and
among all those who fought it with
heart and hand and brain there was
none who knew its worldwide import
so we'll, who lamented it so keenly
as the lean, brown forest rangers
whose special foe ut was.
And to think a, dozen miles of gov
eminent trails would have prevented
it," cried the leader with an oath
Out in the valleys beyond, the heavy
smoke had obscured the setting sun
entirely. Over the crest of the Coast
RRange it had spread up to the heav.
ems, drifted afar on the changing wind
and all the distant valley of the Viii.
lamette knew that the forest fires
were burning in the hills.
The papers throughout the state
told of it that day, and it awakened
no more interest than would have at
tended the announcement of heavier
run Of salmon than was usual in the
Columbia
They were too common, those fires
that sported with the national wealth
each year, too much part of every
day life, and they did not know that
this was to be a marker of time in
the coast country.
Time was when they were unknown
these monsters of destruction--a long
past time it was, when those first for
est rangers, the silent Red Men Of
the hills, had burned out the under
brush each year so that pony might
go anywhere unhindered.
The silent rangers had gone with
the years-passed to the Hunting
Grounds and the reservations, via civ
ilization, and now the great timber
had shed its dry foliage and its pitch
the little growths had sprung up sea
son after season, the vines had creep
between and a man might not pene
trate the Businesses without bull
trails.
So Destiny took up the land anC
played with it that hot, dry August
All through the early hours of tn,
long night they labored, dirty, black
ened, tattered scarecrows of men, run
ming here and there, digging like MAJ
in the wide trench that was to stol
the surface flames, saving unceas
ingly at the towering trees, while tn
guards brought twenty-minute tiding
OF the approaching fire.
High against the dun, smokelight
ened sky the dark canopy of the Eas
Belt whispered and moaned as If II
fear, and from time to time Sandry.
haggard, grim-lipped specter of a man
lifted his bloodshot eyes toward It. |
was still his own, his future of tn
Dillingworth, despite the tangle o
Hampden's threats, the unrecorde,
deed and the unfinished trail of tn
Yellow Pines at the south, and |
pulled at his heart pathetically.
There was still a stretch of almos
impenetrable timber near the SUNNI
of the big ridge which must be Gu
through before the flames reached Il
or all would be lost.
Shall we make it, John?' aske
the owner desperately of Daily. VIII
ran by in the smoke with wet rags t
lie over the mouths of the men.
Ought to if the wind stays wher
it is"
n was two o'clock and that hour 4