Show THE HEART NIGHT winf wa A story OF THE GREAT N RT eat oy icy vincie e cis roe ILLO ay woe WAS aia idi fir CHAPTER 13 to the spirit of the east company it 11 under captain donald von on they trotted swiftly up with quickstep of hard trained infantry end and stood in column ot of fours while the officers bought sought the head of af at fair dilly promptly sent for tho the young forget ranger and la in leys less than it takes taps in the colllns these two keen wilted westerners the woodsman and the soldier eold lor were ready to grap plu raj with the enemy light kite kits were dumped upon tho the ground and the hard muscled men took to be the bills mile and t 0 1 e timber under quick decisive elvo orders two houra hours later wagons arrived with commissary supplies and tho smoky blackened val loy ley took on a military air it was a titan struggle and it waa was indicative of the force that haa has con nat nature urethe the human atoms toll las ing tu fit semidarkness beneath tho the threatening forest choked by tle ale moke woke flayed by the almost unbearable heat by the clamce that at any moment night sweep here or there among the rocks and ot of the uneven hills and cut off escape that waa was the great danger they guarded against the possibility of getting hemmed in guards were de felled to watch the vanguards r the foe toe to note the speed of the dames james the lie of the timber the u that were likely to go fastest following the tile different growt growths ba bui bu in the ous dusk and tho silence of vast mingled sounds they were impotent tm potent and each man dan r bad to take care of him self t the mighty boom of falling patr I 1 archa of ho the forest hoary with a thou and sand years of age crashing through obstructing branches bran choa shook tho the earth jacb moment with each euch such stu nondous fall tall wealth and world econ eron omy and prudence trembled at ut iho jh sacrilege it was a carn carnival lyal of waite waste a sacrifice anc of the gifts of god and among all those who fought it aitu heart and hand end and brain thero was wan cono none who knew ite its import 0 80 o well who lamented it 0 so o keenly as tho the lean brown forest rangers ranger whose special foe it was and arid to think a ft doxen dozen miles of gov guv eminent trails would have prevented W ill cried the leader with an oath nath out in the valleys b the heavy moko had obscured tho the setting gun un entirely over the crent crest of at the coast brange it had spread up to the a hear wis drifted afir on the changing wind vind mid and all tho distant valley of tho the lamette knew that th 1 I the forest fires were burning in the bills hills the papers throughout tho state told of it that day and it awakened more interest than thin would hare have at sit derided teri ded the announcement of a heavier inin of ealmon salmon than was usual la to the codur afa they wore too common tl tj se fires that sported with the national wealth each eich year too much a part of at every day life and they did not know that this wee was to 0 bo be a marker of time in the coast country time waa was when they were unknown these monsters of destruction a lone long pait past timo it war wet when hen those fira foreit or rangers the silent hed red men of 0 abe hills had burned out pie 08 under brugli each year so that a pony pour might co 0 o unhindered the client silent rangers bad had gone gona with the year years passed to the hunting Gro grounds unda and uio me reservations via chiv and now the L rest timber had shed its it dry foliage and its pitch tho little growths had sprung up sea so eon n after reason the vines had crept between and owa MAD might not penetrate do rho fastnesses without built trails so 80 destiny took up the land and P played with it that hot dry august all through the tho early boura of the lomg DC night they labored dirty black ened good tattered scarecrows of men run ning here and there digging like mad in the wide trench tat at waa was to top stop the flames sawing loggy at the towering trees while the guards brought twenty minute of the approaching fire high against the aln smoke light tight ened sky the dark canopy of the east delt belt whispered and moaned as if it IQ tear fear anil and troal from tine time to iliae sandry haggard grim lipped specter of at a man lifted his bloodshot byc toward it ij it was till still hta his own hia his future of the tho despite the tangle of threats tho the unrecorded deed and the hed trail of the yellow pines at the south and it fillod at hie his heart pathetically there was wa till still a stretch of at almost impenetrable timber near the estat t of th big ridge which muff mutt be cut through before the flames reached it tor or ell all would be lost shall we make mako it the owner desperately ol 01 dally daily who ran by the wet rags to tio over the mouth ot of 06 men ought to it if tho the wind tan where it bk it VM two a clock and that hour la in the sleeping pIng bof word d outside orlien all iho the ele elemente mentis are at an a 06 nhsin all suddenly ud denly destiny laughed and avd destiny laugh was we 1 whooping wind that rose as a tho the elemental ebb I 1 1 tide turned hell broke loose upon tho the land and heaven was not fire encompassed the world ita its increased roar changed to the thunder of the spheres it appalled the hearts of men stared stayed their handa hands in fright all throughout tho the darkness of rolling wherein they worked between the raging torrent and the vast belt that mighty voice commanded cossa cessa tion instantaneously without orders as one man where there wae was no comma Di catlon save between those a few feet apart they dropped thel that spades their tattered blankets their axes they straightened from their labor leaving the crosscuts cross cute cuts in taj th trunks here and there above the solemn thunder hoarse voices began to call it was the time to quit and they realized it instinctively outi outi outi they cried to each other in the dusk get act outi get got outi walter fandry working near the ipox ot at the pushing line saw men be ginning ty tv run past him back alone along the trench and the cutting lie ile lifted des petete eyes to the riago a whose dim crest bo he could see between the boles pa ra near hd had they won to victory ilc tory only a bew ew more big ainoa a dozen saplings A scant few yards of trench and it would be donecho do done netho tho long lane la ne of at safety stretched across the neck of the east beitl stop estopi he cried with a great bof cofie e that camo came from the very depths nf of bis his lungs lung with borrowed power stand by me men ment I 1 for gods god a lake take stand by byl lie ito saw dim shapes falter halt turn toward him and start on again be he raised hta his stentorian cry and eying figurea baited halted a ino mont stopped against their will by ite its compelling power 1 I im M johnny eastern Kae tern ail ait right but im going to start who II 11 stay with me rue I 1 I 1 out ot of the dense obscurity came col una line a huge fantastic figure and stood beside him without a word in the ten slon stan of the time tima sandry reached out a hand and gripped grf pred the giants about der A dozen men and were weve wont cried he lie saw the halting shapes tura turn rather another and another retrace their steps and erring spring back into the every man a of 4 ilem em we was western bora bom and the taunt had homo home lie ile I 1 leaped for the handle of a s saw aw sticking out from the bole of a ISO foot foat sugar pim pins and the whining song of the crosscuts rose again under the dwarfing roar fourteen men bad had beard heard and an that call and they were alone tn in the purgatory of heat beat and ant smoke all the rest were running runn laa for their lives down the cleared fall tall toward the valley beyond the dip fiam time to time sandry glanced upward at the increasing light the sugar pine fell with a roar and with harris barris who he saw for the th first time had been pulling with him be he ran to the next lie saw ai as be bc ran that one ono of at the con men working se e a fury tb if fell the saplings was who had greeted bis his pompous poin with etch grinning irony in phd old days lie had a mo mounts baue w wonder at this odd stripe of humanity stat child bold hold such prejudice tight fight with clamp dens mon men in to savage enmity to joto join their rank ranks inter later with happy Irre apon spon sivility lity it the call of gold and vs was still willing to turn back to fight light with him on deaths brink because he bail returned their taunt of east and we west at t one by one tn in silence in g tension that drew the akin skin tic tig on their trees they MW SAW the 1014 10 1 14 rama remaining maint ining ng monarchs monir ch fallt tall too kindling saplings laid on earth the trench much narrower and shallower creep upward tu the ridge a against time against heat beat that scorched their bare arma arms and tortured their starting arting at eyeballs against ming tl tt it A drove them nearer and nearer to the earth tor for breath they drew ik t last blade sent the last big pine the north the ridge we wa I 1 alar in the tu increasing clow now newt 1 cried sandry with the this tri of a general ou S victorious field now for the ridge and over overlook loo dut but even as an he dropped his saw and ran caning calling men Coll lne big vo voice ce mme r nie through the rolling smoke w with ith the calm CAIM of finality fills litY aint no lie over its it a ninety toot foot drop oa on to bard rock beyond that ridge sanday topped in his tracks his hi head cleared A 01 it vita a whiff of at alt wt alry that call a tia men had closed in with the in of their kind to be bit together la in dancer danger as if it so the danger were ere lea bened but the tha easterner wits und undaunted aLuta aben ben troll well take to the kaat east belt he be cried ren even though it la is a crown fire lira and coming fast ast I 1 think our trench will wd hold it if with all confidence be he turned to be the coutil instinctively the men bad had drawn tn in behind bim toe tile neck of the east belt was ax a waver loc wall of iamo he lie whirled and glanced back alone along the fall and the trench streamers of flamo flame were licking across it the half loomed toasted for bad had happened the little bunch ot at tic betters titers were beamed hemmed in ringed around by fire death faced them on every bide side then as the owner seat a searching look to every quarter he sprang for ward I here lerel he cried herel beret into ul itt every man of you in I 1 bayl at the crest of the sheer ridge an old abandoned tunnel biped in the gloom a dim baren haven of refuge its mouth was overhung by tines vines its recess mysterious in the blackness san dry sprang to ita its edge and turned back tor for the men to pass they stood a email small ellent silent bunch eating gazing in wordless word les consternation at the red canopy now how in hell bell did it got across the fall tall said colllns collins hoarsely but ono one by ona they stooped and entered the email small black bole in the earth it ran backward into the ridge scarce the height of at a tall man its floor uneven with the heaps of at earth fallen from tho the roof since some lone long forgotten prospector had carved it out here for a moment they breathed mure m vre easily standing close together a sweating panting waiting mass of humanity sandry stood at the mouth f the last to enter lie looked out in hushed amaze at the unchained mad nesa of the burning world the great fire had reached its zenith it camo came booming and roaring to the fall and the trench its sound was indescribable the beat grew until the flesh on arms and face rose in bits bile tore A sheet of at flame shot sheer across tho the tunnel a mouth smoke rolled into it and here and there a gasping breath ended in n a moan there was no do air to breathe like trapped animals the men jumped here and there feeling for an opening a crevice to crawl into away from the agony of at beat heat and suffocation and then they lost control of themselves my aly god I 1 cried murphy shrilly 1 I 1 can cant t stand let me out an die an get ut overt lie ile came groping to the entrance facing the increasing heat beat lira face was a mad mans bla his mouth open bis his fingers crooked like talons dut but at the mouth that was as the gate of hell be he me met t the easterner a straight figure against the light beyond ho said sandry sternly go back and lie ile down what he ho shrieked what you damned johnnel you tenderfoot i and he be flung himself forward A smooth black muzzle came forth and pushed its brazen menace into bla his face boot shoot the first man that attempts t to pass me said sandry hoarsely having and cursing be he backed more than one of the begged to be allowed to pass and one of he the lumberjacks from sacramento muttered deliriously of calling III his bluff but tho the awful moments dragged dragged by and sandry stood at the entrance the th flames passed all 11 measurement of light and heat beat he ile lost sight of the figures at his feet ilo ila felt himself eo go ing out to the darkness he muttered little slot when he came to himself again men were crawling across him lie could breathe better and the light had lessened he lie sat oat up wincing at the a ing IDS of his scorched skin over the muscles underneath crawled out with the rest and one by ono one they rose to their feet the great timber of at the east delt belt farther down stood serried and green the effort bad had not been in vain the holocaust was checked the belt was safe back toward the north stretched a forest of tall black spikes picked out here and there by b Y heavy spots pots of fire n K collins big voice came carns through the rolling smoke where fallen logs log dry and pitch laden bu burned rood itea steadily dily the tho groen cartopy 1 was gone ron every vine 1 and bit of bruin brush every sapling and fern tern only thin edgo edge UH still crackled and snapped with it reamus ot at flame alone along the trench mr sandry aid said harris the saw a w flier it youre an easterner I 1 hope h 0 pe to god the breed fills up the co coun antry tryl ho ile extended a hand which sandry an me eald said murphy his grimy features distorted in an express ez presson lon of at mingled gratitude trall tude and contrition 1 take it all back ayery damn word I 1 ever said wd you an its it if s a lot lone Z list forget it said sandry lie jig was no to iunger johnny eastern Eai tero he lie had won tile fight to live and light amoni among them B la Is it over collins he aked asked steadying his voice votes over look der fed feel tb th wind its changie again tb th cireo back crai crawled Aled toward the siletz basin miles III bet while we wove ve ben eavin savin this end we ye only begun to feighl 1 CHAPTER the shot in the hill hills at camp they met a party beaded headed by the foreman just starling starting out in search of them their absence had been discovered only when dally daily corn com int ing in from the north where his work had been laid out had asked for san dry at eight light of him the three women standing together at the foot log gave evidence each in her ray of those emotions which the sus piLlon of bis his fate bad had stirred on maa alas face waa was an unbounded pride that he had come through a man of parts abundantly able to caro for himself among a hardier crew on miss bliss a there lay a vast relief while siletz played with the collar of ber blue shirt with trembling fingers bus au moistened her dry lipa lips sandry turned and looked up at the darkened east cast with a profound joy he lie swept his eyes north to where the red heaven beaven flared and staggered to bis his ao office three hours ma Ms he croaked in a voice of warning only three hour sleep for all of us if it yon you give us longer III never forgive you it was |