One or two made a faint-hearted attempt to stop him, put out a hand or a leg to trip him. The men who had been his captors started in pursuit, but the hot breath of the fire enveloped them and drove them toward the safety of the water.
Darry—for there was no doubt now that it was he—kept on running in the direction of the lodge, and the girls and boys, forgetful of everything but joy at the sight of him, dropped everything and ran to meet him.
It was Amy who reached him first, and she flung herself into his arms and clung to him, sobbing hysterically.
“Darry, Darry, where have you been? We thought they had killed you! We looked for you everywhere!”
Darry patted her reassuringly and gently unclasped her arms from about his neck. The others had reached them by this time and had flung themselves upon Darry with a score of eager questions.
He held them off laughingly and motioned toward the scene of the fire.
“Never mind about me,” he said. “I can tell you my experiences later, after the fire is conquered. Looks as if we were pretty badly needed over there.”
It needed only one hasty glance over their shoulders to assure them that he was right. The fire, with the impetus of the wind behind it, was sweeping onward with renewed vigor. Once more the lodge and all the buildings along the lake front were menaced.
Led by Darry, the young folks returned once more to the fight. They longed to ask him questions and have them answered, but during that next strenuous hour there was time for nothing but concerted desperate effort to fight off the encroaching flames.
Where the fire had crept forward steadily, but slowly, before, it now leaped ahead, seeming to mock at the puny efforts of the men who sought to defeat it.
It ran up into branches of trees over their heads, reached scorching fingers across the trenches dug to stay its advance, crackled gleefully in the dry and brittle underbrush.
Once Jessie felt a touch on her arm and looked up to see Darry standing beside her.
“Better get back to the lodge,” he said. “It won’t be long before we’ll have to take to the water.”
“Things are all packed and ready to put into the boats,” she told him gaspingly. “Don’t want to go back—till we have to, Darry.”
“Good sports, you girls,” muttered Darry, and reached for the pick with which he had been helping dig a new trench.
It was all of no use. The girls realized that even before Miss Alling gave definite orders to return to the lodge. The fire was gaining so rapidly that it was only a matter of a short time before they would be forced to abandon the lodge.
Wearily they turned away while the forest rangers still fought on with grim determination. They would not give up the battle until the last defense had fallen.
Once within the lodge, Burd sank into a chair with a groan of pain he could no longer suppress. But even then, when the girls wanted to take off his boot and examine the injured ankle, he would not let them.
“Time enough for that,” he said, in almost the same words Darry had used, “when the fire is out.”
The dancing flames of the fire filled the interior of the lodge with a weird red glow. The air was heavy and thick with the stifling smoke.
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CHAPTER XXI A TERRIBLE BATTLE
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CHAPTER XXIII SUSPICION
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