“The fire’s come over to this side. I saw the flames myself. And Aaron Crummit drove through and says that you can’t git by on the main road. The fire’s followed the West Brook right down and is betwixt us and Adams’ old camp.” “Bless me!” gasped the hardware dealer, paling under his tan. “Wal?” snarled Parlow. “Goin’ to stand there chatterin’ all day, or be you goin’ to do something?” CHAPTER XXV—THE FOREST FIRE “Somebody must get over to that cabin and bring them out,” Joseph Stagg said, without taking offence at the crabbed old carpenter. “Wal!” exclaimed Parlow, “glad ter see you’re awake.” “Oh, I’m awake,” the other returned shortly. “I was just figuring on who’s got the best horse.” “I have,” snapped Parlow. “Yes. And I’d decided on taking Cherry, too,” the hardware dealer added, and swung into the lane towards the carpenter’s barn. “Hey, you! Needn’t be so brash about it,” growled the carpenter. “He’s my hoss, I s’pose?” Joseph Stagg went straight ahead, and without answering. Having once decided on his course, he wasted no time. He rolled back the big door and saw Cherry already harnessed in his boxstall. Mr. Parlow had got that far, but knew that he could not attempt putting the spirited creature into the shafts of the light buckboard that was drawn out on the barn floor. “You be as easy as ye can be with him, Joe Stagg,” groaned the carpenter, hanging to the doorframe. “He’s touchy-and I don’t want him abused.” “You’ve never driven a better horse than I have, Jedidiah Parlow,” snapped the hardware merchant as he led Cherry out of the stall. Together they backed the animal between the shafts, fastened the traces, and Mr. Stagg leaped quickly to the seat and gathered up the reins. “You’ll hafter take the Fallow Road,” the carpenter shouted after him. “And have a care drivin’ Cherry——” Horse and buckboard whirled out of the yard and his voice was lost to the hardware merchant. The latter looked neither to the right nor the left as he drove through The Corners. On the store porch a dozen idle men were congregated, but he had no time for them. He did not even stop to warn Aunty Rose. Cherry stepped out splendidly, and they left a cloud of dust behind them as they rolled up the pike, not in the direction of the abandoned camp. Forewarned, he did not seek to take the shortest way to the cabin where Amanda Parlow and Carolyn May were perhaps even now threatened by the forest fire. The Fallow Road turned north from the pike three miles from The Corners. Flecks of foam began to appear on Cherry’s glossy coat almost at once. The air was very oppressive, and there was no breeze. This last fact Mr. Stagg considered a blessing. With no movement of the air, the fire could not spread rapidly.