“But if we could find the spring,” Will said, “we could follow the trickle and get into a brook lower down. How are we going to find our way down the other side of the mountain? It’s worse than this side. The west side of the mountain is always worse.” “The fire won’t climb down as fast is it climbs up,” Harry panted; “it doesn’t work that way. The mountain itself acts as a wind shield. We’ve got to get over the top blamed quick. I’ll find a way down. Don’t let’s waste time here!” Will just said, “The best trail in the world is a brook. It goes the quickest way. If it takes us fifteen minutes to find the spring, even then it’s best. It’s better than getting lost. The brook knows its way and we don’t. Water is a scout.” “Who says so?” Harry said, kind of impatient. “Kit Carson said so,” Will said. “Well, I guess you’re a pretty good scout, too,” Harry said; “hike around, only _hustle!_” * * * * * In about two minutes we found the spring, about a hundred feet from the house. “Lucky it’s there,” one of those new fellows said. “It had to be there,” Will answered him; “because people drink water. Where there are people, there is water.” Gee whiz, I never knew Will Dawson till that night. And I was mighty proud that he was in my patrol, you can bet. That girl said, “Isn’t he just _wonderful?_” I said, “You’re wonderful, too, and I’d like to have you in my patrol.” But, one thing, there wasn’t any time to talk, because the sparks were blowing across the clearing and dropping all around the house. The fire that we had started back toward the other one had cleared some land between us and the blaze, but not enough. The water from the spring trickled down over the rocks and we followed it. It went through a kind of cavern on the top of the mountain, and when we got through there, we could see plain enough that we were on the west slope. The mountain wasn’t all down hill right there, but the trickle of water flowed down through hollows and anybody could see now that Will Dawson was right. He was right for three reasons. First, because as long as we followed the brook there wouldn’t be any going up and down, like there was climbing up the east side of the mountain. Second, because it took us down the quickest way. And third, because we’d always be near water. In some places we had to scramble down steep precipices where the water fell, but we always managed it, and every time we did that, we knew we were saving space. After we got about half a mile, we could see points of flame up over the top of the mountain and we knew the fire had reached the spot where we had been. Harry said he guessed the shanty was on fire. Maybe it would come down the east side a ways, we didn’t know, but anyway it wouldn’t have such a breeze to drive it, and we were coming into open land, so we should worry.