“It won’t with the wind the way it holds now,” was the reply. “But of course we’d all feel better with the fire out.”
He swung the machine around to take in another angle of the fire.
“Isn’t there anything you can do, Tom?” asked Mary. “This is terrible!”
Tom was himself wondering if he could not be of service instead of merely looking on from his vantage point of safety in the air. He had invented an aerial fire-fighting machine, but this, with its chemical bombs, had been disposed of, and there was none on hand at Shopton.
“I might drop some army bombs down and try to blow up a big, bare area which would bring the fire to a stop,” said Tom. “But it would take some time to get ready for that, and they may have it out in a few hours. No, I’m afraid I can’t do anything just now. But we had better——”
Tom was about to say he had better start back with Mary when, with a suddenness that was startling, the motor of his plane went dead and the machine began to drop toward the heart of the forest fire.
“Oh, Tom!” cried Mary. “Don’t go down so close! It’s dangerous!”
CHAPTER XII
A RING OF FIRE
Knowing little of the actual working of aeroplanes, Mary did not realize what the stopping of the engine meant. She thought Tom had simply shut it off, as he often did, so the noise would not interfere with their hearing of what was going on below.
“Go on back up, Tom!” cried the girl. “I don’t want to go so close.”