"If it hasn't, it soon will be. Did you ever see it come down harder?"
"Must be trying to make up for the drouth of the last two months. Mr. Mabie said that when it did come we'd likely get a drencher. We're getting it, all right," declared Jerry.
For another half hour they kept on, though the walking was very hard.
"A fine-looking crowd we are," declared Frank, as he surveyed his blackened leggings and sodden coat.
"But it seems to me things don't look quite so bad around here," observed Will.
"Well, they don't, for a fact. Frank, we've reached the fire limit, I do believe!" cried Bluff.
Everybody was glad to know it, for many reasons. The walking would be better, they could by degrees wash off the black stains that had been covering their clothes, and last, but far from least, the camp would be safe.
"I'll never forget this day's experience, that's sure," Jerry was saying, half an hour later, as, they still plodded on, with some miles still ahead of them that must be gone over before they reached camp.
"And every time I look at the picture of the fire it'll bob up before me and make me shudder," remarked Will.
"Talk to me about that, will you! Do you mean to say you had the nerve to stop and snap off some views of that hot old fire while the rest of us were shinning it as fast as we could?" demanded Jerry.