84 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



our teams and drive back to settlements. Two or 

 three days after our return the fort had a narrow 

 escape of being burned up in the night by a prairie 

 fire of unusual magnitude. The fire originated a 

 long way off, down on the Republican river, but 

 there was a stiff breeze blowing at the time, and 

 it travelled with most amazing swiftness towards 

 us. While it was still miles and miles away the 

 whole sky was lit up with a fierce lurid glare, and 

 as it soon became evident that it was coming in 

 our direction, energetic measures were at once 

 taken to fight the foe. All the troops, consisting, 

 if I remember right, of eight companies of infantry 

 and two or three troops of cavalry, were ordered 

 out, and every other able-bodied man in the fort 

 was requisitioned. The fire bore down upon us 

 from the south with awful speed and overwhelming 

 power. It was terrifying but grand to see it 

 coming. The country to the south is very hilly, 

 with long valleys leading down towards the fort. 

 The fire would work its way comparatively slowly 

 up a hill, and then pausing as it were for a moment 

 on the brink, would be caught by the wind and 

 hurled down the slope with a roar that could be 

 heard miles away. It poured down the valleys 

 with a rush, tossing a spray of flames twenty or 



