The Huttig news., 1916-03-11

passed the donkey engineer. an' send em along We'd better all go Mir Sandry. Faint likely it's much but we got to stomp it out, whatever tis l ben lookin' fer 'em."
 They all trailed down the valley on a dogtrot. It took them the better part of an hour but when they went down there was not spark left alight
 What do you suppose started it, John? ?" asked Sandry
 "Oh. some darned little college snipe from Corvallis, likely, with gun an a cigarette Or mebbe il 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 10 time to the ridges around At supper the loggers discussed the forest fires of other years the topic opened by tue ,nei- dent. It was a close night with dark sky. though the heat had given way to the sweet coolness of the coast under the mysterious ocean wind. and Sandry from his old seat at table looked out at the western ridge.
 John.' he criea rising suddenly, its broken out agaln!4
 Sure enough. Against the upper darkness little red tongues licked fit. fully up and the men, white and ln- dian, tumbled out of the cook shack.
 1t was twelve o'clock when they turned in. aud 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 faneiful 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. It was as if a light wind had blown in the latter part of the niglt 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, ax and blanket wet from the five-gallon oilcans they had filled at the slough and carried up the meun tain with heavy labor. This time they worked increasingly all day going l 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 it be Hampden?' ?'
 The foreman turned upon the owner
 You hain't real westerner, yet. MT. Sandfy,' he said with a sraile You think Hampden'd resk his yella pine-as fine timber as there is in tb whole state? Hg'd bury tn hatehet I an come fight with us like a brother | first.'
 ~"Then what's setting those fires = for it looks as if they are being set My God! Look there! There's aa otherl"
 
 4 merry. red eye wirked and leaaed and died, to leap again across tie early twilight at the valleys head.
 That's damned close to our cut tin'!" cried Daily starting down the mountain en 9 sliding TUE.
 And that last fire. burning strongl, where no brand could have dropped /, even with a wind, marked the begin | aing Of such a time of anxiety. of fear that grew and mounted t. heart-still- ing panic, Of superhuman labor, as l Sandry, year before, could Tot have believed possible-a time to be long remembered Ill the coast country.
 Daily sent Siletz on Black Bolt to Toledo, to ask for dozen men to ] help in the fight.
 He abandoned the one cn the 'idge. for fire goes down hill slowly md set his men again in the valley Daily abandoned the enc on the ridge, forsfre goes down hill slowly and set his men again in the valley. Here the bed of dry needles was nick and routed into ideal condition I or lHdI EiOSL lredcnefOuS or HrGS, the ground-fire, which gets into the pow ierlike mat of packed deadfall and creeps hither and thither like a thief n the night, breaking out, nnexpect- edly, al unseen. insidious enemy.
 There had been two years of unusu ally heavy foliage and the rains had ceased early, so that the time was l opportune for forest fire.
 The timber at the valleys head was smaller than on the hills consequent l ly there WAS more urdergrowth, little. young pines and frs, slender and branchy, each one of which was a res. inous torch ready to flare into splen did kindiing for it's greater brothers l These it was that took the fire run. l ming with the little wind, skimmiae swiftly along the surface, catching here and there q sapling, which in it's turn, if it was not telled quickly by a blow from a broadax, reached up for i tho fnupr branches If GOmp f,Ilf orrsy,,,,