“What for?” asked Simmons.
“I left my campfire burning this morning when I left my camp, and that airplane patrol flew over a little later,” replied the camper. “I know that he saw the fire, and I also know that he saw me coming down the trail. He would catch me sooner or later, so I am giving myself up.”
“We will go right back and put out that fire,” said Earl.
As it happened, the airplane observer had caught the fire and reported it by radio. Simmons and the camper returned to the camp site and the camper extinguished the fire. Then Earl escorted him to the county seat, where a judge fined the camper for not extinguishing his fire. It was all over within a few hours, but the camper had learned a lesson.
The airplane observer might or might not have been able to see the camper going down the trail in his automobile, but that did not enter into the case. The whole proceeding showed that the average camper knew of the airplane patrol and was accordingly more careful.
Some time later Goldy was on patrol from Medford. He had not been out for more than twenty minutes when he picked up the smoke of a new fire. The location and size were sent in by radio and picked up by an amateur at the supervisor’s headquarters in the Umpqua Forest. The warden left immediately for the location reported and found a homesteader burning slashings.
After extinguishing the fire, the warden escorted the woodsman to the nearest judge. The case was tried, the man found guilty and the fine imposed without delay.
The airplane observers picked up the smoke five minutes after the fire was lighted. The amateur operator picked up the message and notified the warden almost immediately. Twenty minutes later the warden was on the scene and the fire was extinguished. Another half hour and the case was being heard in court and sentence pronounced. Thus within an hour after the fire was started the man had been convicted and had paid his fine. He never knew how the fire was discovered and why the warden had arrived so quickly until it was all over. It mystified him, for things had happened so quickly. The warden explained to him how the observers were flying overhead with all-seeing eyes and could discern even the smallest of slashing fires. It was rather a bitter pill for the woodsman to swallow, but he had learned that when forest regulations were published it was expected that they would be obeyed.
“Bruce,” said Captain Smith one day, “I want you to go out on a special patrol. There are a few fires along the crest of the Cascades which we are not getting. Fly a course from here to Mount Thielsen, turn there and then go direct to Medford. Return over the same route. If you start now, you will get into Medford about eleven o’clock.”
“Who will I take along as observer?” asked Bill.