“Good work, Scout!” he said roundly. “Doctor, my Scout brings big news and bad news—fire in Lost Valley, coming this way with a high wind.” It was the new Ranger’s first fire, every one knew.
“And coming fast!” said Elmer Bunty, importantly.
Gayety fell from the camp, slipping from its shoulders like a bright cape. The doctor, veteran fire fighter himself, mobilized his forces to join the regulars of the vicinity—seasoned soldiers at Pfeiffer’s, at Post’s; it was said that Mateo Golinda moved on the creeping flames like a wave rolling up from the sea. The women put away their pretty needlework and made stacks of hearty sandwiches and gallons of coffee, and the boys and Ginger rode up to the first fire line and carried them to the men.
Ginger’s Aunt Fan thought the most sensible thing for them to do was to take the stage back to Monterey—agony as the trip would be for her—but she found her niece adamant. “I can help the doctor,” she said. “I’m not going to leave, Aunt Fan.”
She knew that the doctor had a double anxiety; beside and beyond the red terror that menaced his camp and the country he loved, there was his concern for Dean Wolcott. He had stood sponsor for him to these people, persuading their own tried Ranger to go away on leave and give his friend a chance, and now they were waiting and watching to see him make good.
“Doctor,” said Ginger to him on the third day, riding up to meet him with supplies, “I wish you would let me help you! I know how—I’ve fought fire at home a dozen times with Aleck and Estrada.”
“You are helping me, Ginger, bringing up our food, looking after things at camp— It’s a great comfort for me to know that you are in charge there.”
“But I’m not really needed there, doctor. In case of danger they could all walk over to Pfeiffer’s—even Aunt Fan”—she smiled a little—“and be taken in to Monterey. And I am needed here; you’re terribly short-handed.”
“I know we are, just now, Ginger, but Dean has telephoned in to King City to the Chief; he’ll be coming in to-morrow himself, with twenty men, bringing their own supplies.”