Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-09-17

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her dripping head over his smarting
eyes and parched muzzle. And they
pushed on again with a fresh burst
of speed, the calf seeming to have
gained new strength through that mo
mentary halt and the cooling drops in
his nostrils.
Then suddenly came a series of
fercer and hotter gusts which steadied
into a gale, and the smoke thickened.
The far off mutter of the cOnflagratiOn
swelled into a roar, punctuated with
the crash of heavy branches falling. A
crimson brand came hurting through
the air and fell into a dead fir bush not
fifty yards behind. The bush burst into
kissing yellow flame.
The shortest way to the water led
due south, but the wind and the fire
were coming from somewhat west Of
north; so there was the danger that
they might be cut off. But that had to
be risked. Suddenly the mother saw a
tuft of dead grass just ahead Of them
wink into pale flame, flare up, and die.
A wind blown scrap of lighted bark
had dropped in it.
Away off to her right and fairly
abreast of her, she saw the lofty top of
a half dead pine transform itself into
a nest of writhing scarlet snakes. Two
or three more live bits Of bark and
gummy twig fell about them. One land
ed on the calf's back and bit through
the short, dry hair. He jumped and
gave a startled bleat. She brushed it
off with her wet muzzle and desperately
urged him on to greater speed. If he
should fail now it was the end for both
of them. And yer the smoke grew more
suffocating, the pursuing roar grew
louder, the heat grew more ominously
intense.
Then, through a lift in the smoke,
she saw the waters Of the lake gleam-
ing ahead, whipped to an angry blue
under the offshore wind and not more
than a couple of hundred yards away.
But those last two hundred yards!
The roar, the crashing of branches,
the scorching heat, the little spurts Of
flame that shot up around and before
their feet as sparks fired the tufts Of
short, dead grass-all these had now
struck panic to the Misunderstanding
brain Of the calf, and from time to
time he bleated hoarsely and crowded
against his mothers flank. But he still
ran gamely, though stumbling now and
again over some unevenness in the
ground which his half blinded eyes
failed to perceive. Terrified lest he
should fall-and not get up again
the mother kept nuzzling his neck and
mumbling her encouragementS.
Then the lake opened wide before
them, darkened by the smoke clouds
v~olleying low above it. The shore at
this point was low and muddy, the
water shallow and fringed with rushes.
Straight into it the mother dashed,
with a huge splashing, till she was
belly deep. Then she lay down in the
blessed GOODNESS, wallowing and gulping
and ~snorting. The calf fell, from sheer
exhaustion and fright, close beside her,
which was just what she wanted him
to do. The sharp cold and the shock
revived him instantly and he struggled
to his feet , spluttering and gasping
but refreshed.
Half q dozen PAGES down the shore
a naked shoulder Of granite, almost
overhanging, Isl some thirty or forty
feet from near the waters edge. Here
was temporary shelter from the direct
thrust Of the heat and from the fall
ing brands. To this refuge the wise
mother now led the way, knowing that
the calf must nurse and rest a few
minutes to- gain strength for the long
swim to the island.
(To be continued)