The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1916-01-06
fol Hampden's two-year contracts.

| TeBL6O. ncu A0 Bat uOWA Oh LII
launches, threw up his muzzle. an
began to bay. melancholy, lonesom
sound.
Hush" said Siletz, hush. Coos
nah!" And she. too, lifted her hea'
after the fashion of wild things
smelling the sultry atmosphere.
"Mother!" she cried swiftly, 1T,
fret
The general creaked up and hur
ried to the steps, but already Silet;
was OF and running up the VALLEY
toward the cutting. When she reached
the donkey Sandry was standing be
side 1t, but the girl passed him with
out a glance. running to where the
foreman set a choker.
joint" she cried; "John-theres
. 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 1t out, whatever tbs.
ben a lookin fer EN-"
They all trailed down the valley on
q dogtrot. 1t took them the better
part OF an hour. but when they went
down there was not = spark left
alight.
What do you suppose started 1t.
joint" asked Sandry.
"Oh. some darned little college
snipe from Corvallis. likely, with q
gun an a cigarette. Or mebbe 1t 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
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,
"its 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 cook-shack.
1t 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 fine, fairy
white haze all through the valley and
the crest of the west ridge, for half
a mile, sending up fenciful pearl
plumes in the soft morning. This
time it had gained 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
II light wind had blown in the latter
part of the night, bearing a brand |
here and there. Daily set his men in
all along the burning strip, |
and they attacked it with spade and
shovel, ak and blanket wet from the
ive-gallon oilcans they had filled at
The slough and carried up the noun
-ain with heavy labor. This time they
worked increasingly all day, going
Town to dinner in relays, and night
'ound them weary crew with grimy
aces. while a narrow. black scar ran
llong the high shoulder of the ridge.
John" said Sandry solemnly, that
$ no college boy with his cigarette.
Gould 1t be Hampden?"
The foreman turned upon the
,wner
you hain't real westerner, yet,
dr. Sandry," he said with smile.
You think Hampden'd resk his yella
'ine-as fine timber as there is in tn
Whole state? He'd bury tn Ratchet
n come fight with US like brother
rst."
Then what's setting those fires p
or 1t looks as II they are being set
dy God! Look there! There's an
ther!"
A merry, red eye winked and leaped
nd died, to leap again across the
arly twilight at the valleys head.
That's damned close to our cut
mi" cried Daily starting down the
on sliding run.
And that last FIRE, burning strongly
here no brand could have dropped
ven with wind, marked the begin
Ing OF such time OF anxiety. of fear :,
lat grew and mounted to heart-still-
lg panic, OF superhuman labor. as
andry. year before, could not have
elieved possible-a time to be long
IN the coast country.
Daily sent Siletz on Black Bolt to
oledo. to ask for a dozen men to
clip in the fight.
He abandoned the one on the q
dye, for fire goes down hill slowly. /
I'D set his men again in the valley. q
Daily abandoned the one on the r
dge, for fire goes down hill slowly Il
nd set his men again in the valley. b
ere the bed OF dry needles was 1
lick and rotted into ideal condition t
II that most treacherous of fires, the
which gets into the pow v
srlike mat OF packed deadfall and a
-eeps hither and thither like thief