“Down by the lake,” Bob broke in quickly. “That’s the safest spot just now. Later, if we have to, we can come back for it.”
So down to the shores of the lake they bore the apparatus, then turned and, once more, ran in the direction of the fire.
“If this timber burns up,” panted Joe, as the thickened smoke in the air told them they were getting close to the blaze, “it will be an awful loss to Doctor Dale and the Old First Church.”
A few moments more, and they plunged again into the thick of the fight.
CHAPTER XX
A TERRIBLE BATTLE
The Radio Boys found it harder now to fight against the onrushing flames. They had entered the battle full of fresh strength and energy, but now that had been in a large measure spent, and it was on sheer will power that they flung themselves once more into the inferno of heat and smoke.
If it had been bad before, it was almost unendurable now. Terrible blasts of heat smote down upon them, while billows of acrid smoke threatened momentarily to overwhelm them. Gasping and choking, with the hot fingers of fiery destruction clutching at them, they threw themselves face downward on the ground, seeking momentary relief from the searing torment. But even as they lay striving for a breath of pure air, their clothing smoldered and smoked, bursting into tiny flames here and there.
Bob leapt to his feet, beating out patches of flame from his garments, and the others struggled up, looking to him for leadership in their dire extremity. Obviously, the fire was now utterly beyond control, and to attempt to stem its onward rush would be madness. How to save themselves from that red destruction was all they need consider now.
Look where they would, they could see red lines of fire. The tremendous crackle and roar of the oncoming conflagration crashed on their ears. Whatever they were to do must be done quickly, for no man could live long in that scorching, searing heat. The thought of the lake flashed into Bob’s mind, and with a shout to the others to follow, he started off. But he did not go far. Between them and the lake was a towering mass of flaming trees which effectually barred progress in that direction. But it might still be possible to skirt around the fire, and like a flash Bob thought of an old woods road that ran in a rough semicircle through the woods and ended not far from the lake. The smoke was so thick that it was agony to see or breathe, while the heat became more intense every instant.
With a shock and a curious sense of surprise it came to Bob that death was close upon him and his comrades, that they were marked to die in that chaos of falling trees and leaping flame. With the thought came a creeping, paralyzing sense of helplessness and panic and a temptation to surrender to the inevitable. But only for a second. Then he gathered himself together and shook off that nightmare feeling. He was young and strong, and death was not for him. With a gasping shout he started off in the direction where instinct, more than anything else, told him that the old woods road started, and the others staggered after, their failing spirits still clinging to a trust in the leader who had never yet failed them.