160
After the Fire.
[Feb.
mediately, so the people were beginning to recover themselves a little when Humphrey returned on Saturday even- ing. His first breathless inquiry was for the Riordans.
No one had been able yet to reach them. The sawdust road was still afire, and could not be gone over, even on foot. Jim Barker had tried it that day, and found the long bridge canon still impas- sable, on account of the great tree trunks still burning in it. Humphrey was half wild with anxiety, which was shared by Mrs. Brown. He walked out for a little distance, but was obliged to return after suddenly sinking into a cavity of hot ashes and fire, which was caused by the burning of the tree-roots.
He determined to get there the next day, if such a thing were possible, and started early with thick boots on his feet, and carrying a long, stout stick or pole, with which he cautiously felt his treach- erous path. It was a trip full of danger, fatigue, and anxiety. Little gusts of hot wind would whirl the dry ashes and smoke into his face, until he would be blinded for a time. Great tree trunks lay smouldering across the path, to be gone around cautiously, where every step held a possibility of sinking into a subterranean furnace, where the resin- ous roots were burning with fierce though stifled heat.
He found all the bridges burned, of course, and with no little trouble made his way over the streams. The long bridge had spanned the deepest and steepest ravine ; the only place it could be crossed within two miles was where the stream formed a deep pool. How he was to get across this place was puz- zling him from the beginning of his task ; but when he came in sight of it he saw that one of the great girders still stood, blackened and roughened by the protruding spikes with which the floor- ing planks had been secured, but not divided. He tried it cautiously, and then crossed on the narrow way, his
sailor practice doing him good service.
Beyond this, and near the little clear- ing he so longed to reach, another great tree lay across the path, one end over the ravine and the other in a thicket of upturned roots. Everywhere a crossing seemed impossible, and after several thwarted efforts he decided to use the pole he carried, and vault over at the nar- rowest point, taking his chances about landing in a comfortable place on the other side. He got over easily, but dropped in a pile of ashes that flew up and blinded him. In his efforts to get quickly away from the fire he could sharply feel through his boots, he stum- bled and fell a little beyond, bruising himself and burning his hands, arms, and face, painfully before he could see to reach a safer place. At last he saw the brook that ran about the little clear- ing ; he dashed the water over his burn- ing face and smarting eyes before hur- rying up the bank to see nothing.
Not a sign of life nor human habita- tion anywhere, only the little plain, brown and bare, except for the few blackened timbers where the house and stable had been, and the cooking stove that stood out by itself. Beyond was the gray and black fringe of the burned timber, desolate, silent. It seemed to- him for a moment that the whole world was in mourning. Near the ashes of. the stable was the carcass of a cow. The sight of it made him suddenly sick. What would he find next ?
He tried to shout, but no sound came from his parched throat. His eyes yet smarted, and he was seeing everything blurred ; he rubbed them, and again tried to shout, this time with better suc- cess. He listened with bated breath for some answer. There was a long" pause, and then a high, sharp voice close by, said with disinterested precision :
" Go to the devil devil devil ! "
He looked around, and saw Peter's- green plumage on a stump, and greeted him with intense relief, knowing that
