Wearily they turned away while the forest rangers still fought on with grim determination. They would not give up the battle until the last defense had fallen.
Once within the lodge, Burd sank into a chair with a groan of pain he could no longer suppress. But even then, when the girls wanted to take off his boot and examine the injured ankle, he would not let them.
“Time enough for that,” he said, in almost the same words Darry had used, “when the fire is out.”
The dancing flames of the fire filled the interior of the lodge with a weird red glow. The air was heavy and thick with the stifling smoke.
“Better take to the boats right away,” said Darry, coming in from a last survey of the burning forest. “The air in here is getting pretty rank.”
“The radio first, girls,” said Jessie, gathering up as much of the dismantled apparatus as she could carry. “We can come back for our clothes later on.”
They were carrying the first load of things into the open when Amy noticed that the air was not so thick with smoke. With a cry of elation she called Jessie’s attention to the fact that once more the wind had shifted.
“And it is starting to rain!” exclaimed Fol, showing them a large drop on the back of his hand. “Now, that is what I call luck!”
The rain fell gently at first, but finally came down in a sheeting torrent that hissed into the boiling caldron of the fire and eventually reduced it to a sea of smoldering embers.
Forest Lodge was saved! In the grip of reaction and utter weariness, the girls and boys reentered the lodge, dropped into the big chairs, and propped weary heads on blistered and blackened hands.