“What can we do?” It was the director asking the question.
“We can start a backfire and burn off as much ground around here as possible. While some of us are doing that the others can see what they can do in getting the bus fixed. If it’s done in time, we’ll run for it; if it isn’t this is as good a place as any.”
Helen came close to Janet.
“Is it that bad?” she whispered.
“I’m afraid it is,” admitted Janet. “Scared?”
“Scared to death,” confessed Helen.
“So am I,” admitted Janet. “But maybe there is something we can do to help the men.”
Every member of the company was anxious and willing to do whatever they could and Curt Newsom snapped directions at them. Most of the men raced out into the brush and almost instantly small fires sprang up. They ate their way rapidly through the undergrowth and as they neared the bus itself were beaten out, the men using coats, blankets or whatever article they could find in the bus. In less than ten minutes there was a growing blackened area around the stalled vehicle. Their object was to create a large enough burned over area so that the main wall of the advancing fire would move around them.
Curt told them frankly that the heat would be bad, almost unbearable, but they could live through it.
The ridge from which Janet and Helen had discovered the fire was outlined against a sky shot with crimson for it was quite dark now. Small animals, scurrying before the red menace, were racing past almost constantly.