"I am tremendously glad to meet you," he said. "My wife has told me the particulars of how you rescued my son and daughter from the forest fire. It was a brave and noble thing to do."
"We didn't do so very much—at least, no more than others would have done," said Dale, who felt bound to say something, since Owen kept silent.
"Oh, yes, you did, young man. You did much better than the man I left in charge up there."
"You mean Jasper Nown?"
"Yes. At the first intimation of danger he was scared to death, and he was of no particular use to anybody. I had to discharge him."
"Well, the combined fire and heavy storm were enough to scare anybody," put in Owen. "The lightning laid low more than one big tree around there."
"So I was told. It was a bad combination, although the fire, if left alone, might have been worse. My preserve is about half ruined, and my wife says she doubts if she will care to go back there another season."
There was a pause, and Jefferson Wilbur looked at both Dale and Owen hesitatingly.
"I—er—I feel that I ought to do something for both of you," he went on. "I don't know exactly how you feel about it, but——"
"We don't expect anything," came from both of the young lumbermen.