On and on galloped the horses. And then Paul cried: "There's a way! There's a way out! The fire hasn't burned around the whole circle yet." He pointed ahead. Through the smoke clouds could be seen an open space of grass that was not yet burned, and beyond that sparkled the waters of a wide but shallow creek. There was safety indeed! They had escaped the flames by a narrow margin. And as the wagon rushed for this haven of refuge, there came sweeping up from one side a group of cowboys, urging their horses to top speed, while, in their midst was Mr. DeVere, Mr. Pertell and the others of the moving picture company who had been left to finish the scene at the slab cabin. CHAPTER XXIV A DISCLOSURE "Into the creek! Drive right in!" cried Baldy Johnson. "Run the wagon right in! It's a good bottom and you can go all the way across!" "Go on!" called Mr. Switzer to his horses, and the steeds, nothing loath, darted for the cooling water. Indeed it was very hot now, for the fire was close, and it was still coming on, in an ever-narrowing circle. "Go ahead, boys! Into the creek with you! It's our last chance, and our only one!" went on Baldy. "Into the water with you!" And into the welcome coolness of the creek splashed the cowboys on their ponies and the wagon containing the refugees. "Where are you going?" cried Ruth, as Russ swung himself down off the seat. "I'm going to get this last film, showing the escape," he answered. "It's too good a chance to miss." "But you'll be burned!" she exclaimed. "The fire is coming closer." And indeed the flames, closing up the circle of fire, were drawing nearer and nearer. "I'll be all right," he assured her. "I just want to get some pictures showing the wagon and the cowboys going across the creek. Then I'll wade across myself. Of course I'd like to get a front view, but I'll have to be content with a rear one." And as the wagon drawn by the frantic horses plunged into the water, followed by the shouting cowboys and the members of the film company, Russ calmly set his camera up on the edge of the stream, and took a magnificent film that afterward, under the title "The Escape from Fire," made a great sensation in New York. The brave young operator remained until he felt the heat of the flames uncomfortably close and then, holding his precious camera high above his head, he waded into the creek. The waters did not come above his waist, and when he was safe on the other side with his friends, finding he had a few more feet of film left, he took the pictures showing the fire as it raged and burned the last of the grass, and other pictures giving views of the exhausted men, women and horses in a temporary camp. "Whew! But that was hot work!" cried Mr. Bunn, mopping his face. "You're right," agreed Mr. Pertell. "I don't believe I'll chance any more prairie fires. This one rather got away from us." There was a shout from some of the cowboys who stood in a group on the bank of the creek.