“That’s what the lumbermen do to us!” Uncle Billy cried. “It’s worse than what they do to you in the East, because the fire does so much more damage in this dry country. I wonder how long it will be before we wake up and make them lumber properly? I hope you Boy Scouts will always work for conservation and proper forest laws.”
“If they’d left one old tree to the acre for cone bearers, and kept the fire out, I should think the forest would almost start itself again,” said Spider. “But they haven’t left a single tree.”
“They are hogs,” Uncle Billy exclaimed, angrily. “It makes my blood boil every time I go through country like this, and think that the voters of the State let ’em do it.”
The road was hard now, the car went faster, and in a short time they began to see the houses of a town. They swung under a railroad, rolled on to asphalt pavement, and found themselves in the middle of Bend, a brisk, clean little city of 5,000 people.
“Well, what do you know about this!” Bennie laughed. “It just pops right up here in the desert, like a toadstool. And, oh, boy, there’s a soda fountain—and a movie theatre!”
Spider and Uncle Billy laughed. “He’s a great wilderness scout, he is,” said the doctor. “He’s gladder to see a movie theatre than he was to see Crater Lake.”
Bennie grinned a little sheepishly. “No, it isn’t that,” he said, “but as long as we got to be in a town, might as well have something to do.”
“The first thing I’ll do is to get a bath,” the doctor laughed, as he drove right past the drug store, and stopped in front of the hotel.
The other car rolled up behind them, Mr. Stone’s and Dumplin’s clothes and faces covered thick with dust, and the car looking gray-white all over. The boys got out the dunnage bags and carried them into the lobby, while the cars were taken to a garage. As soon as the doctor and Mr. Stone came back, they got three rooms, one for Bennie and Spider, one for Dumplin’ and his father, and one for the doctor. Off came their clothes, and from three bathtubs came the sounds of splashing.
They were a much cleaner and more civilized looking outfit when they came down to dinner.