The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1937-08-31

lent reputation of Kay as being
unworthy of him was cold comfort.
Hour after hour passed as Ted
pushed his way south. He could get
a better idea of the extent of the
confagration now, and he mar
veled how it could ever have had
such a start. Marion's father must
have spent several days penetrat-
ing to the spot where he had first
set the blaze. The place had been
chosen with diabolical cleverneSs,
as far as remoteness was con-
cerned.
At last Ted reached the final
ridge but one that separated him
from the fire, and he drew up with
an exclamation at the magnifcence
and terror of the wholesale de-
struction.
It must have been three miles or
so away with an intervening lower
ridge that from this point of van
tage in no way obstructed the view.
Even at this distance, the whole
scene was lighted up, and the air
was filed with smoke and the bit
ter sweet smell OF burning pines.
Ted could see where they were
| fighting it on the western flank,
and trying to restrict the front by
pinching it out. 1t was practically
hopeless task, as the fire had UNI
doubtedly originated as crown
| fire, and they always proved almost
impossible to put out.
For the moment, the wind had
died down, and it almost looked as
though the impossible had chance
Of achievement. The immediate
problem for Ted, however, was not
the putting out of the fire, but the
finding of Marion's father.
Knowing how Old Man Howell
was carried away by his frenzied
craze, Ted hadn't a doubt but that
he was somewhere in the thick of
the fire fighting, gloating with all
a madman's cunning, while he
seemed to be helping to put it out.
The question was, which flank
had he chosen? Deciding that the
western one seemed more spectac-
ular, Ted headed down the slope,
and plunged into the canyon that
divided it from the lower inter-
vening ridge.
He worked his way along, urging
his mount in spite of his increasing
restiveness around windfalls and
up the slope, slippery with pine
needles. He tried to figure out how
long it would be before this, too,
would be ablaze.
A Fatal sBIaze-Fire'
FINALLY Ted topped the inter-
i vening ridge and paused again,
estimating the blaze to be at least
a So or 75-mile fire. He decided to
leave his mount here. Swinging to
the ground, he tethered his horse
to a tree and walked to a bare ledge
of rock from which he could see the
whole panorama.
AS he watched, he suddenly saw
a blaze spring up not half a mile
away. and long distance from the
main conhagration. He muttered a
Mortified oath, realizing he was
witnessing that rare and terrible
phenomenon, "blaze-hre." Gen.
Grated from the heat around it, a
dry part viii sometimes explode
and burst into flames. From this
kind of fire, no one ever gets out to
tell the tale.
Recognizing that this new de-
velopment would probably even
tually doom the ridge on which he
was standing, Ted nevertheless
could not resist the temptation to
run down for nearer view. There
also was the chance that he could
be of assistance to anyone who
might have been caught on the OUT
skirts of the sudden explosion.
AS he ran down the slope, he saw,
outlined against the flames, a man
stagger a few steps and then pitch
headlong TO the ground. He raced
to him, bent over the PROSTATE
form and instantly recognized
Marion's father from the descrip-
ton she had given. The gray hair
and bushy eyebrows were Singed
and he was badly burned about the
face and hands.
Opening his eyes. he stared
straight at Ted, his labored breath
ing coming in slower and slower
gasps Suddenly. with an incred-
ihle display of strength, he pushed
Ted aside and rose to his feet. He
faltered for a moment. then fell
with q crash to the ground. go
One look at the staring eyes, and
Ted knew that his quest was ended.
He stood still a moment, gazing at
the pathetic figure at his feet.
Should he try to take the body back
to Marion?
With a shudder, he turned awav.
No, Il would be cruel TO take back
that body, burned and dis6gured
as it wasl Better for Marion to pic
ture her father as she had always
known him. and to think of him as
having persisted in the element
that, in his madness, had held such
a compelling lure for him.
How much better ii was. after
all. than 10 have him live, and face
either Imprisonment or an insane
asylum for lifei Ted looked down
again az all that was left Of Mar
ions father. lost for a moment in
musing on the StrangeneSS of life
and death, and the fitness Of the
end that had overtaken this poor
old man.
fcopygisAt. 1881. Marss &c Nersaeal
Ted captures his enemy, josh Has
J tingS. tamoFrow.