Flame was now spurting up over more than an acre of the sun-baked
strip of grass.
"Get a lot more of the grass going, fellows!" panted Dick, who
was working like a beaver and dripping with perspiration. "It's
our only hope. Hustle!"
With the flames arose a dense cloud of smoke. As the wind was
from the southwest the smoke was in the faces of the onrushing
cattle.
"There! We've done all we can!" bellowed Dick, running down the
line formed by his chums. "Now, get back out of this roasting
furnace."
Close to the edge of the burning strip of grass the six high school
boys now stood side by side gazing at their work.
"We'd better scoot!" counseled Danny Grin.
"Where can we go?" Dick shouted, in order to make himself heard
over the crackling flames and the greater noise of the pounding
hoofs. "If we're not safe behind a curtain of flame, there is
no other place near where we'd be safer."
Danny Grin turned to bolt, but Darry reached out, catching him
by the collar and throwing him to the ground.
"Don't be a fool, Danny, and don't be panic stricken," Darrin
advised. "We're safer here, at least, than we can be anywhere
else within a quarter of a mile."
The bellow of a bull through the forest---a bellow taken up by
other bulls---made all of the boys quake in their shoes.
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