“What is it, Frank—­you know?” demanded Will, who, in this time of need, somehow turned to the one whose cool head had many times managed to extricate them from some impending danger.

“We’ve just got to head another way, and try and get out of the path of the fire, if we can.  Besides, the river lies to the left,” he answered, as cheerily as he could.

“The river!  Hurrah!” shrieked Will in sudden elation, for the very thought of water was a blessed relief when threatened by fire.

“We can duck under, and save our bacon!” cried Jerry.

“There you go, confessing to the swine again,” declared Bluff.

But in spite of their light words the boys were by this time thoroughly alarmed.  The appearance of the burning woods in their immediate rear was appalling, to say the least.  High sprang the flames, and their crackling could now be plainly heard.  Indeed, the sound began to assume the proportions of a continuous roar, such as a long freight train might make in passing over a trestle and down a grade.

Now that they were running almost sidewise to the advancing fire, it approached much faster than before.

“I felt a spark on my face, fellows!”

Frank was not at all surprised to hear Will say this, for he, too, had experienced the same thing not half a minute before.  He had not mentioned the fact, for fear of alarming his chums still more.

“Keep on, fellows!” was all he said, for he needed every bit of breath he could muster.

Desperately they tried to increase their pace, but found it hard work with so many obstacles confronting them.  Will tumbled more than any of the others, somehow or other.  Perhaps it was because he was carrying his camera so carefully, and thinking more about it than his own person.

Finally Frank missed him entirely.

“Where’s Will gone?” he demanded.

The others, turning, were horrified to find their chum missing.

“Keep right on, you fellows!  Don’t you dare stop, or follow me!  I’ll get Will!  The river’s close by!” he called out, and then turned around, retracing his steps directly toward the advancing fire.

Never had Will seemed so precious in the sight of the boy who thus placed his own life in jeopardy in order to save that of his chum.  In imagination Frank pictured his agony of mind if he had to tell Violet that her twin brother had perished miserably in a forest fire, while he escaped.

“Will!  Will!” he was shouting frantically, as loud as he could, and this was not anything to boast of, for the smoke choked him, and he could hardly keep from coughing almost constantly.

“Hi!  Here I am!  Lost like the babes in the woods!” sang out a voice.

Frank pounced on his friend, who, with smarting eyes, was fairly staggering about, hardly knowing which way he was trying to go, having become more or less rattled by the impending peril and the state of his own feelings.