“No. And nobody else,” grumbled Mr. Stagg. “But it has come—and it’s moving mighty quick now. How came you down here, Mandy—you and Hannah’s Car’lyn?” “We were really badly frightened, Joe,” she replied, smiling up at him. “I’m afraid I became panic-stricken when I saw a tall tree on fire not far from the camp, and we ran down here where there was water, leaving everything at the cabin.” “But there isn’t water enough,” declared the man fretfully. “That’s the trouble with this place. We can’t stay here.” “You know best, Joe,” said Amanda Parlow, with a loving woman’s logic. “What you’ve left at the cabin will have to stay there,” he said. “We can’t go back. I tell you, the fire was coming into the camp when I left.” “Oh, Joe, we must hurry, then!” she murmured simply. “We aren’t going to be burned up now, when Uncle Joe is here, Miss Mandy,” Carolyn May declared with confidence. “See how nice he and Prince found us? Why, they are reg’lar heroes, aren’t they?” “They are, indeed, child,” agreed the woman. She turned to Joseph Stagg, happiness shining in her eyes, and looking prettier than ever before in her life, he thought. The hollow was rapidly becoming filled with smoke. The man did not understand this, but it foreboded trouble. He turned Cherry and the buckboard around, and then he helped Amanda into the seat. “Up you go, too, Car’lyn May,” he said, lifting the little girl into the rear of the buckboard. “Hang on, there! Don’t dare fall off!” “Oh, I’ll be all right, Uncle Joe,” she declared, laughing gaily. Then she said to Prince. “Don’t run off, Princey. You mustn’t get lost from us now, for the fire is coming.” Joseph Stagg felt very serious as he seated himself by Amanda’s side and picked up the reins. The horse quickly retraced his steps up the hill to the tote road. As they came out into this broader path they saw the smoke pouring through it in a choking cloud. The road was like a tunnel through the thick forest, and the breeze, which was rising, drove the smoke on. Behind, there was a subdued murmur and crackling. “Oh, Joe,” gasped Amanda, “it’s coming!” “It surely is,” agreed the hardware merchant. “We’re in a hot corner, my girl. But trust to me——” “Oh, I do, Joe!” she exclaimed, squeezing his arm. “I am sure you know what is best to do.” “I’ll try to prove that so,” he said with a subdued chuckle. “Oh, Uncle Joe!” cried Carolyn May suddenly, “can’t we get out of this awful smoke? It—it chokes me!” “Wait,” whispered Amanda to the man. “I’ll lift her over the back of the seat. I think she had better be in my lap.” “P’r’aps that’s so,” he agreed, and he held in the nervous Cherry for a moment till the change was accomplished. Poor little Carolyn May’s eyes had begun to water, and she complained of a pain in her chest from swallowing the smoke. “I—I thought this was going to be an—an _awfully_ exciting adventure; but I don’t like it a bit now!” the little girl sobbed.