Connie, proud that she could be of assistance, dashed back and forth carrying messages for Wilkinson to the different fronts.
From up the mountain-side came a drumming roar and the rending crash of trees as the fire undermined their roots. Sparks from burning tree-tops crossed the fire-break and started other fires. To combat these, water had to be carried up the steep hillside in pails. Andy was among those delegated to this arduous task. For hours he staggered from stream to hill and back again with a brimming pail in either hand. Scorched by sun and fire, the perspiration streaming down his face and stinging his eyes, the little hero stuck gamely to his task.
“I ’ired on this ’ere job as a cook,” he grumbled, “not as a blinkin’ water-spout. Strike me pink, if the water I’ve carried to-day was sprinkled in ’ell the devil’d be out of a job. Oh, well,” he added resignedly as he filled his pails and turned to again ascend the hill, “as Methusalem said, ‘Every little bit ’elps!’ These two buckets myke exactly four million, two ’undred and six gallons that I’ve carried this d’y.” At this instant his foot caught in a root to send him sprawling on his face rolling down the mossy hillside, the pails clattering after. He lay where he had fallen, flat on his back, with arms outstretched. “There,” he soliloquized, “that was the wisp of straw that broke the elephant’s back. To ’ell with the fire. Let the blighter burn.”
Wilkinson came wearily down the hill. His face was blackened and blistered, his hat gone, and his shirt a network from holes burned through the cloth by flying sparks. He sprawled on all fours by the stream, drank sparingly, then plunged his face in the cooling waters.
“ ’Ello, Wilkie!” shouted Andy, “ ’ow would you like to ’ave a cold bottle of beer?”
Wilkinson seized a stone threateningly and glared at his tormentor. “Men have been killed for less,” he growled huskily.
“I s’y, Wilkie,” grinned Andy, “these Forestry jobs are a snap. Do you ’ave the nerve to collect a salary?”
The district ranger was too tired for speech. His swollen face puckered in a smile and he passed on up the hill, and Andy came stiffly to his feet and resumed his never-ending task.
Connie brought reports that the fire was being held on the north and east. The fire-break on the south held, but spot-fires were kept in check only by the almost superhuman efforts of the fire-fighters.
Forest fires reach the peak of their intensity while the sun is hottest. With darkness the wind subsides, and, especially in the mountains the heavy dews are a never-failing help.