"Didn't get to the other camp, did you?" "No," came from Dale; and that was all that was said, for the present needs were too urgent to admit of further conversation. Working as they had seldom worked before, the lumbermen cut down the trees and brushwood, and turned up the soil with plows, picks, and spades. Then as the fire kept coming closer, Gilroy ordered some of the timber blown up with sticks of dynamite--a dangerous proceeding in the midst of such hurry and confusion. The sparks kept coming on faster and faster, and then came a mad rush of wind that sent the fire clear over the line upon which they had worked so faithfully. "It's no use, boys!" sang out the foreman. "We've got to give it up. Back to the cabin, all hands, and let us save what we can down there!" CHAPTER XVII THE RAGING OF THE ELEMENTS "This looks as if the whole camp would be swept away!" cried Owen, as he and Dale hurried back to the cabin with the others. "The fire will certainly lick out a big portion of the forest," answered Dale. "And by the look of things, I begin to think we'll be lucky if we get out with a whole skin." "Perhaps we would have done better had we remained at the Wilbur lodge." "Never mind, we have the horses and can go back, if the worst comes to the worst." The lumbermen were soon at the cabin, and then, amid considerable confusion, the things there were packed and loaded on the horses and mules. Dale and Owen had a valise apiece, and also a box containing the precious musical instruments and other things, and these they strapped on the Wilbur horses. The retreat came none too soon, for the wind was blowing more wildly than ever, and the sparks and embers were flying in all directions over their heads, scaring the horses and mules, and starting a fresh fire wherever they landed. "That's the end of this tract," said Andrews sorrowfully. "It won't grow up again in fifty years." "It will be a big loss to Mr. Paxton," answered Owen. "Maybe it will ruin him." "That wind means a storm," said Gilroy. "But it aint coming just yet." Away they went, and hardly had they left the clearing when they saw the barn and one of the shanties catch fire, and presently the cabin followed. The men started for Pine Tree Lake, but long before that body of water was reached the flames headed them off and they were forced to turn in another direction. They could now hear the distant rumble of thunder, and all prayed earnestly that the storm might come speedily, and prove of sufficient strength to drown out the fire. "We are getting hemmed in," said Gilroy, at last, as he called a halt. "Do you see that flicker of fire on Two-Top Mountain? That's coming this way too. It's a different fire altogether from the one back of us."