Chapter XIII: Fighting Fire with Fire

Anxiously the four men watched the fire they had kindled, and as it grew larger and stronger, and rushed onward more rapidly, a loud cheer came from their lips, for they saw that they were saved.

All they had to do now was to mount their horses and ride in the wake of the second fire. When the one behind them got to the spot where the second had been started, it would have to die out for want of fuel, which to it was the same as breath to a human being.

The old hunter had literally _fought fire with fire_, and the experiment had proved a complete success.

It was getting terribly warm now, and the four decided to change their position. Mounting their horses, they rode after the fire which had been started by them. After going some distance, they were forced to stop, as the ground was nearly red hot, such was the heat of the fire that had just swept over it. The fire behind them was only a few moments in reaching the black spot which told where Ralph had kindled the rival flame. It quickly died away, and our friends turned their attention to the other fire, which, in sailor’s parlance, was bowling away over the prairie at a rapid rate.

The river was soon reached, and then the second fire also went out. Had the river been narrow, it would probably have leaped across the stream, and continued to ravage both forest and prairie.

The whites camped on the spot, for the ground was too hot for them to ride or walk over it. There was no wood around with which to build a fire. Everything that would burn had been swallowed up by the fierce flames, and the prairie was now black and had a very desolate look about it.

There was no need of the whites’ building a fire, even had there been plenty of wood around. Here and there, where grass had been of an unusual length, were heaps of red-hot cinders, if such we may call the remains of the prairie-grass.

All they had to do was to cook their meat by one of these ready-made ovens, and then proceed to munch it.

They cleared a round space of the burnt grass, and lay down upon the bare ground with only blankets around them.

The trapper and circus-rider smoked their pipes, and the whole four talked together in low tones.

Then, feeling kind of tired, they lay over and slept, each one taking his turn as sentinel. The horses were hoppled, but there was no danger of their trying to get away, or of their straying, for there was no sweet grass to lure them on. Poor animals! they had to go supperless that night, but Ralph had resolved that they should pay up for it the next morning, for they should stay in among the trees on the other side of the river for a day or two, reds or no reds.

Morning broke at last, and as the gray light in the east began to herald its approach, the four whites mounted their steeds.

They found that during the night a cool wind had sprung up, and the baked ground had lost most of its heat; in fact, it was no hotter than it generally was in the middle of the day.

Away they started, heading directly for the river. The horses seemed to scent grass and water, for they exerted themselves to get forward a great deal more than they would have voluntarily done had their heads been turned in the opposite direction. The forest on the river bank was in plain view, and the four were rapidly approaching it.

The fire had burned down to the very edge of the water, and the contrast between the two shores was very striking; the one so bleak, black, and uninviting; the other so green and beautiful.

Upon reaching the water, the horses rushed in and began to drink heartily. Their riders were not long in following the example set by the horses, and they drank their fill too.

The stream was a branch of the Pecos, which the four whites had crossed just a few miles from the Comanche village.

They waded as far across as it was possible, and the horses gallantly swam the remaining distance with their riders upon their backs.

Upon reaching the other bank the four made haste to take the saddles from their horses, and after hoppling the animals, they were left alone to eat the rich grass which was plentiful underneath the trees, and which was not dry and withered like that on the prairie, for the simple reason that the sun did not get at it so much.

A fire was quickly started, and soon Ralph heard the crack of the young hunter’s rifle a short distance away.

The latter soon came into sight with his rifle slung across his back, and dragging the carcass of a young buck he had shot.

Ralph carved out a dozen fine steaks, and as the fire was progressing finely and without hardly any smoke, the four were soon busily engaged in cooking their steaks over the flames.

When the meat was done to a turn, they proceeded to make it disappear, and as only four steaks out of the twelve were left, when all were done, we might safely say that the appetites of the whites had not suffered any on account of the terrible death from which they had escaped the evening before.

The horses seemed to be enjoying themselves hugely, if one might judge by the way they “went for” the sweet grass.

They needed a good rest, and all four of the men decided to remain in the grove the whole of that day, and to start off the next morning. And even had the others wanted to go that day, Monsieur Tierney would have refused point blank to move until the next morning.

He wanted to take a look around the woods, and would not forego that exquisite pleasure (to him at least), for any Comanches.

So immediately after he had finished his breakfast, he started off with his case in his hand, his umbrella fastened to his back, and his tiny revolver in his belt.

He promised to come back before dark, and to be sure that if he did get lost he could follow up his own tracks, or failing to do this, the others could track him, he stepped heavily and left a plain trail behind him, which any Indian boy able to walk could follow. The others remained near the fire, for they had no curiosity to examine the woods as the French naturalist had.

The trapper told the others that this was a good time to clean their firearms, and the whole three set about it.

The rifles and revolvers were cleaned and oiled well, and new loads put in, in the place of those that had been drawn.

Whenever Ralph, or for that matter either of the others, thought of the coolness of the naturalist, the evening before, in making use of his umbrella even when death seemed to stare him in the face, they could not help laughing.

They all admired the pluck of the Frenchman, and concluded that the umbrella, which they had always looked upon with disdain, was not such a bad thing to carry after all.

Little did the three men think that before the sun had set again, they would witness the little naturalist display a degree of nerve and cunning that would have shamed them all.

Little did they think, that the humble umbrella was to be put to a use which for adaptability and a ludicrous sight had never been equaled before. All unconscious of what they were to see, and of the amount of fun in store for them, the three men whiled away the morning as well as they possibly could.

The young hunter explained more fully to his comrades, how he had come to be captured by the Comanches.

The two others applauded him when he told how he had saved the Donna Iola from the panther, and afterward from the Indians.

“Jest like a romance, fur all the world. But ye say that the Donna Iola war from the South. I knew a little gal down thar named Iola Montgomery. Her daddy’s an American, an’ her mother’s dead. That’s a singular name, an’ I don’t doubt but what your Donna an’ mine are the same. If they are, then ye may be sure thet Don Carlos, az the American is called by the Mexicans, will follow up the trail with his peons and vaqueroes.

“Ye say the Donna told ye that Red Buffalo took a roundabout way to the village to bamboozle the pursuers, if there war any. Now I bet we’re on the very trail they made, an’ if so, we can look for the Don an’ his men at any time, fur if the Donna does meet ’em she’ll hurry ’em up, ye bet,” said the hunter guide.

About two hours after noon, as the three men were sitting near the fire, Ralph put up his hand, and told the others to listen.

They did so, and heard five little cracks which sounded strangely like the discharge of the naturalist’s revolver.

“The mounseer’s in trouble. Come, let’s go an’ help him,” said Ralph.