The first intimation of trouble came to me in my sleep. I dreamed we were back on the Porcupine, and that the stream was in flood. I could distinctly hear the roar of it, as it swept by; and I remember Johnny and myself were trying desperately to climb a big pine tree in order to get above the encroaching waters. A wind sprang up and shook the pine violently. I came slowly to waking consciousness, the dream fading into reality. Yank was standing by my cot, shaking me by the shoulder. He was fully dressed, and carried his long rifle. "Get up!" he told me. "There's a big fire one or two doors away, and it's headed this way." Then I realized that the roar of the flames had induced my dream. I hastily slipped on my clothes and buckled my gold belt around my waist. The fire was humming away in a steady crescendo, punctuated by confused shouts of many men. Light flickered redly through the cracks of the loosely constructed hotel building. I found Johnny awaiting me at the door. "It's a hummer," he said; "started in Denison's Exchange. They say three men have been killed." The Plaza was black with men, their faces red with the light of the flames. A volunteer crew were busily darting in and out of the adjacent buildings, carrying out all sorts of articles and dumping them in the square. "There's no water nearer than the bay," an acquaintance shouted in our ears. "There ain't much to do. She'll burn herself out in a few minutes." The three buildings were already gutted. A sheet of fire sucked straight upward in the still air, as steadily as a candle flame, and almost as unwavering. It was a grand and beautiful spectacle. The flimsy structures went like paper. Talbot saw us standing at a little elevation, and forced his way to us. "It will die down in five minutes," said he. "What do you bet on Warren's place? Do you think she'll go?" "It's mighty hot all around there," said I doubtfully. "Yes, but the flames are going straight up; and, as you say, it will begin to die down pretty soon," put in Johnny. "The walls are smoking a little," commented a bystander judicially. "She's a fine old bonfire, anyway," said Talbot. Fifteen or twenty men were trying to help Warren's place resist the heat. They had blankets and pails of water, and were attempting to interpose these feeble defences at the points most severely attacked. Each man stood it as long as he could, then rushed out to cool his reddened face. "Reminds me of the way I used to pop corn when I was a kid," grinned a miner. "I wouldn't care for that job." "Just the same, they'll save it," observed Talbot judicially. Almost coincident with his words a long-drawn _a-ah_! burst from the crowd. A wandering gust of wind came in from the ocean. For the briefest instant the tall straight column of flame bent gracefully before it, then came upright again as it passed. In that instant it licked across the side wall of Warren's place, and immediately Warren's place burst into flame.