“Fireworks!” added Elmer. “It’s a pretty sight, but—whoof!”
A great sphere, all ablaze, landed against the speaker, burst like fluffy thistle down, and scorched him slightly.
“All aboard!” ordered Dave, sharply. “Don’t waste a second, fellows!”
“Yes, high time, I’m thinking,” declared Hiram, making a run for some cooking utensils he had been using in preparing their lunch.
The Comet as usual was in perfect shape for a speedy flight. Dave, at the pilot post, his assistants in their accustomed places, a touch of the self-starter sent them off on a sharp tangent away from the hill and across the tinder-like fields of weeds.
“Just in time,” spoke Hiram, as they arose to a higher level, above the crest of the hill. “There’s a grand sight for a fellow, if there ever was one.”
Each of the aviators was enwrapt in the vivid panorama beneath them. Far as they could look—south, north, and west—acres and miles of flame-swept surface greeted their vision. By this time the sparks had ignited the swamp. A solid wall of flame seized upon the dry stalks with a roar. The hill was now the center of a glowing caldron of fire.
“That was pretty quick,” remarked Dave. “We were lucky to get warning in time.”
In places where little thickets beneath them were burning, entire sight of the ground was shut out for the heat or smoke. They were now too high for the heat or smoke to reach them. The fire, however, was of considerable extent, and even on the distant horizon there seemed no end or beginning to the great conflagration.
They passed over a long lake. It was shallow, but at that spot the body of water had presented a barrier to the immediate forward progress of the flames.