“What?  Where?” asked Will, staring around.

A deep bellow of near-by thunder answered him.  Then the rain began to fall in torrents.  Will always carried a piece of waterproof cloth, to be used for wrapping around his precious camera on occasions when it was threatened with rain.  This he brought into use, and at the same time tried to keep the little black box sheltered as much as possible under his coat.

From one extreme they had jumped to the other.  First it was a superabundance of fire, and now water began to trouble them.

“I’m soaked through again,” announced Jerry dolefully, as he allowed the wind to carry him along through the blackened timber.

“And I just bet that old fire has been squashed out before this,” spluttered Bluff.  “Don’t you say so, Frank?”

“If it hasn’t, it soon will be.  Did you ever see it come down harder?”

“Must be trying to make up for the drouth of the last two months.  Mr. Mabie said that when it did come we’d likely get a drencher.  We’re getting it, all right,” declared Jerry.

For another half hour they kept on, though the walking was very hard.

“A fine-looking crowd we are,” declared Frank, as he surveyed his blackened leggings and sodden coat.

“But it seems to me things don’t look quite so bad around here,” observed Will.

“Well, they don’t, for a fact.  Frank, we’ve reached the fire limit, I do believe!” cried Bluff.

Everybody was glad to know it, for many reasons.  The walking would be better, they could by degrees wash off the black stains that had been covering their clothes, and last, but far from least, the camp would be safe.

“I’ll never forget this day’s experience, that’s sure,” Jerry was saying, half an hour later, as, they still plodded on, with some miles still ahead of them that must be gone over before they reached camp.

“And every time I look at the picture of the fire it’ll bob up before me and make me shudder,” remarked Will.

“Talk to me about that, will you!  Do you mean to say you had the nerve to stop and snap off some views of that hot old fire while the rest of us were shinning it as fast as we could?” demanded Jerry.

“Why, of course I did!  What do you take me for?  Who else would have preserved that exciting episode for future generations to enjoy, if I hadn’t?  That’s what I’m here for,” replied Will in surprise.

“And I suppose that was what made you so late Frank had to go back and hunt you up, eh?”

“I suppose it was, Bluff; but don’t you scold now.  I guess you’ll enjoy those views as much as any one.  There’s only one thing I regret, fellows.”

“And I can guess what that is.  You wish you had taken the rest of us up to our chins in the drink,” remarked Frank, whereat Will nodded eagerly, crying out: 

“Oh! it would have been a great sight!  Think how many times it might chase the blues away when some of us felt downcast!  I wish, now, I had asked you to go back and give me the chance.”