Dalzell shivered. Nor could Dan understand how such a course would serve to save their camp. But he saw the others following their leader's orders.
"Get over the ground, Dan!" bellowed Dick, as he sprinted to another point. "Start a lot of blazes!"
So Danny Grin fell in line with the movements of the others, though he felt not a little doubt as to the wisdom of the course.
Flame was now spurting up over more than an acre of the sun-baked strip of grass.
"Get a lot more of the grass going, fellows!" panted Dick, who was working like a beaver and dripping with perspiration. "It's our only hope. Hustle!"
With the flames arose a dense cloud of smoke. As the wind was from the southwest the smoke was in the faces of the onrushing cattle.
"There! We've done all we can!" bellowed Dick, running down the line formed by his chums. "Now, get back out of this roasting furnace."
Close to the edge of the burning strip of grass the six high school boys now stood side by side gazing at their work.
"We'd better scoot!" counseled Danny Grin.
"Where can we go?" Dick shouted, in order to make himself heard over the crackling flames and the greater noise of the pounding hoofs. "If we're not safe behind a curtain of flame, there is no other place near where we'd be safer."