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The back-fire which I had started swept up over the slope and down the brook like a charge of red lancers. Spears of flame led the advance. The flame licked up the dry surface-grass and brush, and, meeting the pines, circled them in a whirlwind of fire, like lightning flashing upward. Then came prolonged reports, and after that a long, blistering roar in the tree-tops.
But what is the matter, Mr. Jenkins? Is anybody sick?" "Matter, woman! Don't you see that prairie-fire yonder? You'll be burnt out if you don't stir round lively." "Burnt out, Mr. Jenkins! What do you mean? What shall we do?" "Do? Why, we must go to work right away and set a back-fire, as quick as we can, too. Call your girl there, and come out both of you as soon as possible!"
"It's most burned out by now. It didn't jump the canyon into the big forest. Thet back-fire did the biz. Say, kid, wasn't settin' off them pines an' runnin' fer your life jest like bein' in a battle?" "It certainly was. Herky, how long will we be penned up here?" "Only a day or two. I reckon we'd better not risk takin' you back to Holston till we're sure about the fire.
He trailed the mules, The Squaw, the troopers. He followed those moccasin prints that came across the draw and went again. He found the last behind the lean-to, along the side nearest the coulée, on the back-fire strip in front. And declared they had been made by a white man.
"Come on," called Lew. "We've got to do it." Again they went along the line of their back-fire. For rod after rod the fire was conquered. In other places it still burned; but the back-fire had now eaten its way so far to windward of the cleared space that there was no longer any danger of the flames leaping past the barrier. So they covered the entire length of their line and found it safe.
We speak of them only as among the elements to be gravely considered by the fanatics who may render it necessary for those who value the continued existence of this Confederacy as it deserves to be valued to kindle a back-fire, and to use the desperate means which God has put into their hands to be employed in the last extremity of free institutions.
They were not alone. Another figure yes, this same menacing figure now so near was on the walk below them, his broad-brimmed hat in his hand, but leaving. Florence was speaking; a smile was upon her lips. Like a flash of lightning the images of fancy passed, the present returned. At last came the solution once before suggested, the back-fire! Sidwell straightened, every nerve in his body tense.
"How do you set a back-fire?" "Well, Annie, we light another fire, nearer the house or fence which we are trying to save, and then, with a brush or broom, or sometimes a little stick, whip it out, so that it cannot burn very fast. When the grass is burnt off in this way there is nothing left for what we call the 'prairie-fire' to burn, you see.
We speak of them only as among the elements to be gravely considered by the fanatics who may render it necessary for those who value the continued existence of this Confederacy as it deserves to be valued to kindle a back-fire, and to use the desperate means which God has put into their hands to be employed in the last extremity of free institutions.
Now I want you to tell me how you worked that back-fire, and, if you can, mark the line you fired." This appeared to me an easy task, and certainly one I was enthusiastic over. I told him just how I had come to the canyon, and how I saw that the fire would surely cross there, and that a back-fire was the only chance.
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