The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1916-05-04
CHAPTER XVI.
-13-
The Spirit Of the East.

son, tney trOtted Swlttly up Win the
quickstep Of hard.trained infantry
and stood in column OF fours while
the officers sought the head of az
fairs. Daily promptly sent for the
young forest ranger, and In less than
II takes in the telling these two keen.
witted Westerners. the woodsman
and the soldier, we're 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.
II was Titan struggle, and II was
indicative Of the force that has con-
quered nature-the human atoms tcu-
ing in semidarkness beneath the
threatening forest, choked ly the
smoke, flayed by the almost "a. bear
able heat, menaced by the flames that
at any moment might sweep hero 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 lie 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 patrl-
archs of the forest, hoary with a 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. II was carnival of waste,
sacrifice Of the gifts of God-and
among all those who fought 1t with
heart and hand and brain there was
none who knew its worldwide import
80 well. who lamented II 80 keenly
as the lean, brown forest rangers
whose special foe II was.
And to think a dozen miles of gov.
hhfo
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
Range It had spread up to the heav-
ems, drifted afar on the changing wind
and all the distant valley OF the vii.
lamette knew that the forest fires
were burning in the hills.
The papers throughout the state
told OF It that day. and II 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 q part of every.
day life, and they did not know that
this was to be marker of time In
the coast country.
Time was when they were unknown
these monsters Of DISTINCTIONS 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 nigh,
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 r. dry foliage and its pitch
the little gro wths had sprung up sea
son after season, the vines had crept
between and a man might not pene
trate the Businesses without bull
trails.
So Destiny took up the land ant
played with 1t that hot, dry August
All through the early hours of thu
long night they labored. dirty, black
ened, tattered scarecrows of men, run
ming here and there. digging like mat
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. smoke-light
ened sky the dark canopy of the Eas
Belt whispered and moaned as II II
fear, and from time to time Sandry,
haggard. grim-lipped specter of a man
lifted his bloodshot eyes toward 1t. |
was still his own, his future of tn
Dillingworth, despite the tangle O
Hampden's threats, the unrecordet
deed and the unfinished trail of tn
Yellow Pines at the south. and 1
pulled at his heart pathetically.
There was still a stretch of almos
impenetrable timber near the summit
of the big ridge which must be Gu
through before the flames reached 4
or all would be lost.
"Shall we make 1t. John?" aske
the owner desperately of Daily. VIII
ran by in the smoke with wet rags I
tie over the mouths Of the men.
Ought to il the wind stays wher
It is."
1t was two o'clock and that hour
the sleeping world outside when a