CHAPTER XX
MR. WEBSTER'S SLASHING
A month passed, which the boys spent quietly in grubbing up stumps andchopping. Then Mr. Oliver suggested that they go over to Mr. Webster'sranch and burn off his slashing, as he had promised its absent owner tosend them. He added that they could camp there for the night and get alittle hunting when they had done the work. There was a nipping air whenthey started early in the morning, each with a packet of provisions anda blanket upon his shoulder, and the newly turned clods in the clearingwere iron-hard. The Pacific Slope is warmer in winter than the Atlanticcoast, but there are times when the cold snaps are sharp enough in itsnorthern part, and the boys were glad to plunge into the shelter of thewoods where the frost was less stinging.
They reached the ranch without much trouble, and when they stopped atthe slip rails Frank, who had not been there before, looked about him.The bush clearings are much alike, but this one was smaller than Mr.Oliver's. A little, very rudely built log house stood at one end withthick timber creeping close up behind it. There was also an unusualquantity of underbrush among the stumps near the door, which Frank hadoccasion to notice more particularly later. In the meanwhile it struckhim that the place had an uncared-for look and Harry seemed to share hisopinion.
"Webster's a very ordinary rancher," he remarked. "He can't stay with athing and finish it. When he's about halfway through he lets up andstarts something else. Any other man would have grubbed out all thatwithered stuff about the house and chopped back the bush behind it. It'snot safe to have big trees growing so close."
"Why?" asked Frank.
"Because of the fires. They come along every now and then. It's luckythere's no wind to speak of, because I wouldn't put a light to thisslashing if there was."
Frank glanced at the belt of fallen timber behind the fence on one sideof the clearing. It had been badly cut and some of the trees lay acrosseach other, while only a few of the branches had been sawed off and theundergrowth had not been mowed. If the fall had not been a dry one itwould have been difficult to burn the slashing. Then he glanced up atthe leaden-gray sky above the pine tops and fancied that it lookedthreatening. The dense wall of somber sprays seemed unusually harsh ofaspect, and there was something curious about the light. Everything wasgray and raw-edged, and he shivered, for the faint wind had blown acrossa wilderness of snowy mountains.
"It's not the kind of day for hanging round," he said. "Let's get towork."
Entering the house they found a can of coal oil and plenty of rags, fora heap of worn-out clothing lay in a corner.
"They'll hold oil and that's about all they're good for," Harryremarked. "I expect it's months since Webster pitched them there withthe idea that he might mend them sometime."
Frank carried out one or two of the duck garments, and when they hadtorn them up and soaked them in coal oil he and Harry set about lightingfires here and there in the slashing, after which they stood near thedoor of the house and watched the conflagration. The fires spreadrapidly, and one side of the clearing was soon wrapped in cracklingflame that worked backward from the neighborhood of the fence, lickingup branches and undergrowth as it neared the bush. That did not stop it,for the fire had flung out advance guards which leaped forward swiftlythrough the withered fern and hurled themselves in crimson waves uponthe standing trunks. They seemed to splash upon them, flinging upfountains of blazing brands and sparks that seized upon the lower spraysand sprang aloft until each assaulted tree was wrapped in fire from baseto summit. The conflagration made the draught it needed, and by and byit roared in what seemed to Frank malicious triumph as it pressed onwardinto the forest under a cloud of rolling smoke. Where it would stop hedid not know, but he was almost uncomfortably impressed by thespectacle.
"It's a full-power burn," said Harry approvingly. "Guess it's going toclean up this slashing. And now we'll look around and see if Webster'sleft anything we can make our dinner in."
There was a stove in the house, but they soon discovered that it did notburn well, and Harry glanced disgustedly at the spider Frank discovered.
"A hole in the bottom of it!" he said contemptuously. "That's the kindof thing Webster uses. I'll be astonished if you don't find another holein the kettle. You had better go along to the well and fill it."
In a few minutes Frank came back with the kettle, which fortunately didnot leak, and Harry set it on the stove and laid a piece of pork in thespider, which he tilted on one side.
"It's going to be about an hour before that kettle boils, and, though Ifeel like doing it, there's no use in straightening up this shack in themeanwhile because the man would muss it up again as soon as he comesback. There's a slough beyond the rise yonder, and as it lies towindward we might get a shot at something. We could be back beforedinner's ready."
Frank would have preferred to stay where he was, as he had already donea good morning's work. He assented, however, and accompanied Harry up asteep and very rough slope and down the opposite side of it. When theyreached the bottom they plunged into a waste of tall grass andhalf-decayed vegetation among the roots of which the frost had notpenetrated. As the result of this they sank to the knees here and there,and Frank more than once fell down. He soon had enough of it, but he wasbeginning to realize that there was very little worth doing in the bushwhich could be accomplished, so to speak, with one's gloves on. Thesmall rancher and hunter must expect to get wet and ragged, as well asweary and dirty, and must face the unpleasantness cheerfully and mendhis clothes afterward. The only other course was to stay in the cities.
Presently Harry discovered the tracks of a deer leading out of thevalley and pointed them out to his companion.
"You won't mind waiting for your dinner?" he asked.
"No--not very much," Frank answered dubiously.
This satisfied Harry, who led the way up the hillside, and it seemed toFrank that they scrambled over fallen logs and branches and throughthick undergrowth for the greater part of an hour before they creptcarefully down again to another hollow. Though they floundered allaround it there was no sign of the deer, and Frank was relieved when hiscompanion intimated that they might as well go back to the ranch. Dinnerwas the first thought in both their minds when they reached it, but itstruck Frank that the fire had become a tremendous conflagration and henoticed that a dense cloud of smoke was blowing across the clearing.
"It's a real fierce burn and there's more wind than there was, butwe'll get a meal before we look around," Harry remarked.
There were, however, one or two difficulties in the way of their doingthis. The kettle had boiled nearly dry, and the pork had disappearedthrough the burned-out bottom of the spider. Harry said that he couldmanage to fry another piece on the rim of it if Frank would refill thekettle, and eventually they sat down to dinner and spent a long whileover it. Then Harry got up reluctantly.
"I guess we had better see what the fire's doing," he observed.
Frank was almost appalled when he reached the doorway. The wholeclearing was thick with smoke, out of which there shot up a furious wallof fire that rose and fell with a crackle resembling volleys of rifleryand a roaring even more disconcerting. What was worse, it seemed to becreeping into the thick bush behind the house, and Harry, running a fewpaces toward the corner of the building, stopped aghast with the redlight flickering on his dismayed face.
"Dad promised he'd get Webster's slashing burned, but it wasn't in thecontract that we'd burn off his house," he said. "We'll have to hustle.See if there's an ax and grubhoe in that woodshed."
Frank found the tools, and while he attacked the larger bushes near theback of the house, Harry began to cut down the undergrowth in front ofit. By and by Frank came back and they dragged the brush away toward theclearing where it could burn harmlessly, but the smoke grew moreblinding and every now and then a shower of sparks fell about the boys.Fires sprang up among the underbrush, and falling upon them with the axand spade they savagely thrashed them out. Frank burned his hands indoing so, but there was
no time to trouble about that and he toiled on,coughing and choking, until at last they were forced to stop forbreath.
They stood close in front of the house, with a mass of withered fern andhalf-burned brush smoldering in front of them, while a sheet of firerose and fell amidst dense clouds of smoke behind the building. Thedaylight appeared to be dying out, but Frank could not be sure of that,because it was almost dark one moment as the smoke rolled about them andthe next they stood dazzled by a flood of radiance.
"We have done 'most all we can," said Harry wearily. "It was the windgetting up that made the trouble--I should have noticed it--but if itstands for the next half hour we ought to save the house. The fire'seating back into the bush all the while."
"Should we get any of the things out?" Frank asked.
"I'm not smart at handling hot stoves, and there's mighty little else inthe place," Harry answered with a laugh. "I wouldn't bid a dollar forWebster's pans and crockery, and he made the table and the two chairs.Still, I don't know any reason why we shouldn't sling them out."
Just then the smoke rolled down about the boys in a blinding cloud;there was a great snapping and crackling, and a shower of blazingfragments drove them back thirty or forty yards across the clearing.Presently the smoke thinned, and a row of stripped trunks behind thehouse was outlined against a tremendous sheet of flame. Frank took offhis hat and shook a few red embers from the crown of it.
"When we were getting those rags I noticed a keg behind them," he said.
"A keg?" said Harry sharply.
"A little keg. It looked thick and strongly made."
The red light struck full upon Harry's face, and Frank saw thatconsternation was stamped upon it.
"Then," he said, "it's full of coarse, tree-splitting powder. Some ofthe ranchers use it for blowing out stumps. Did you notice whether ithad been opened?"
"The head seemed loose and one of the hoops had been started."
"Sure!" said Harry with dismay in his voice. Then he broke out in quickanger: "It's just the kind of thing Webster would leave lying aroundnear his stove, without taking the trouble to head it up again. He'llhave some detonators lying loose, too--I've heard he uses giant powder.We've got to bring them out."
They looked at each other with set faces while the sparks whirled aboutthe house, and both were conscious of an almost uncontrollable impulseto vacate the clearing with the greatest possible speed. It was to theircredit that they mastered it, and in a moment or two Harry spoke again:
"The sparks shouldn't get at the keg if we put a jacket over it, and oneof us could carry all the detonators Webster's likely to have in hispocket."
Frank had heard that the big copper caps which are used to fire giantpowder will contain a tremendously powerful fulminate, and he wasconscious of a very natural reluctance to carry a number of them abouthis person through the showers of fiery particles that fell about thebuilding. Indeed, he afterward confessed that if Harry had not been withhim nothing would have induced him to approach it. How he screwed up hiscourage he did not know, but as the flame leaped up again the sight of astrip of blazing fence had its effect. The rest of it had beendestroyed, and he felt they must make an effort to save the house.
"It wouldn't take us long to get the powder out," he said with a note ofuncertainty in his voice.
Harry sprang forward and Frank was glad that he did so. He realized thatthis was not a matter for calm discussion, and vigorous action was arelief. Another cloud of smoke met them as they drew near the house,and the sparks that came flying out of it fell thick about them. Theheat scorched their faces and they gasped in the acrid vapor, whileFrank's eyes were smarting intolerably when he staggered into thebuilding. There was, however, less smoke inside it, and a fierce lightbeat in through one window. Flinging the old clothes about they cameupon the keg and found that the head was lying loose. Working indesperate haste they forced the top hoop upward and Harry wrapped awoolen garment over the top of the keg. After that he flung everythingin a lidless wooden case out upon the floor and pounced upon a littlebox that fell among the rest.
"Detonators!" he shouted. "What's in the packet near you?"
Frank tore the paper savagely. "It looks like thick black cord."
"Fuse," said Harry. "It's harmless. I don't see any giant powder. Holdon. I'll look around his sleeping room."
He vanished through an inner door and Frank soon heard him throwingthings about. The suspense of the next few moments was almostunbearable. A pulsating radiance alternately lighted up the room andgrew dim again, and the roar and crackle of the fire set his nervestingling. Then Harry ran back toward him.
"I can't find any giant powder," he reported, and added, "get hold ofthe keg. We'll carry it between us."
Frank set his lips as they sprang out of the door with it. The keg wasnot remarkably heavy, but it was an awkward shape and too big for eitherof them to carry on his shoulder or beneath his arm. Indeed, Frank felthis hands slipping from its rounded end and he was horribly afraid ofdropping it among the patches of smoldering undergrowth and glowingfragments which lay all about him. A few moments later thick smokewhirled about him, and he hardly breathed as he struggled through ituntil it blew away again. Then, to his relief, he saw that the house wassome distance behind them and they were clear of the worst of thesparks. They went on, however, to the opposite side of the clearing,where they deposited the powder, and then dropped the detonators alittle farther on, after which Harry sat down on the frozen groundpanting heavily.
"It's done and I want to get my breath," he said. "The next time I burna slashing I'll see there's no powder about the place before I begin."
Frank made no answer. He was glad to sit still and recover, for thestrain had told on him. Indeed, he was almost sorry when his companionstood up again.
"Perhaps we had better get back and pitch some water on the roof," hesuggested. "I was too busy to think of that before."
The wind seemed to be dropping and the sparks were not quite so bad whenthey reached the house. They found a bucket, and after smashing more ofthe ice upon the shallow well Frank climbed up on the woodshed whichreached to the low roof. The latter was covered with cedar shingles andhe wondered why it had not ignited, because the sparks were stilldropping upon it and there were several charred spots. This, however,was not a question of much consequence, and Harry kept him busy duringthe next half hour sluicing the roof with water which he passed up inthe bucket. Some of it went over Frank's hands and clothing and it wasicy cold, but they worked on steadily while the fire worked back fartherfrom them into the bush. It had burned most fiercely when it had the drybranches in the slashing to supply it, but these were all licked up, andthough the small stuff blazed the great standing trunks would not burn.There were already rows of them rising, charred and blackened columns,behind the slashing.
At last Harry called Frank down from the roof.
"You can let up," he said. "It's hardly likely we'll have any moretrouble. There's a lamp and some canned stuff in the shack, and as we'llhave to camp here I'll make some coffee. It's quite dark now."
Frank concluded that it had been dark some time, though he had notnoticed when dusk crept down. He was glad to find the stove stillburning when he entered the house, very wet, and aching in every limb.The kettle was soon boiling, and, as there was no bottom in the spider,Harry, who had found a bag of flour and a can of syrup, contrived tomake some flapjacks and what he called biscuit on the top of the stove.He said that this would be no drawback because Mr. Webster never blackedthe thing, and Frank found no fault with the cakes when they ate themhot with syrup.
Then they filled up the stove with the full draught on and loungedcontentedly beside it while their clothing dried on them. They had had aheavy day, but now that the danger was over they were no more thancomfortably weary and the thrill of the last stirring hours remainedwith them. Frank felt that they had done something worth while thatafternoon.
When he diffidently pointed it out Harry laughed.
br /> "Sure!" he agreed. "Still, it's quite likely that Webster will getjumping mad when he sees his fence, though it won't take him many daysto split enough rails for a new one."
A little later Frank walked across the room and opened the door. Theundergrowth on one side of the clearing gleamed white with frost. On theother side a few big branches still snapped and glowed, and there was ared glare behind the black rows of trunks, but it was now broken bypatches of darkness and he could see that the fire was rapidly dyingout. He came back with a shiver and sat down in his warm seat beside thestove.