JACK'S CLOSE CALL 



"No! no Injuns! See the big smoke over the 

 tree tops? Prairie's all afire out that way! Com- 

 in' fast! Fm afraid Jack's caught in it. I saw 

 him just before I noticed the fire. He was out 

 in the bottom 'bout midway between the timber 

 and the lodge-pole trail, a-working on a buffalo 

 he'd killed, and just then I noticed a lone Injun 

 riding along the trail the other side of Jack; and 

 I saw the infernal rascal halt when he got right to 

 windward of Jack, and dismount and squat down 

 in the grass; and then come a pufF of smoke and 

 the prairie was afire. And then the Injun got on 

 his pony and galloped along the trail a piece and 

 fired the grass again. And this he repeated several 

 times. The cuss had seen Jack and fired the grass 

 to try to burn him up, and I'm afraid he's done it, 

 for I don't see how Jack could escape without he 

 could fly, for when I left the bluff the fires had all 

 run together and were a-coming toward Jack like 

 a race-horse, in a wall of flames that seemed to 

 leap twenty feet high at times." 



"What can we do, Tom?" I asked. "Can't we 

 do something to help him?" 



"I don't see what we can do," replied the old 

 man with a look of despair, "but you run down to 

 the stable and clap the saddle onto Prince, and 

 be ready to go and look for what's left of him soon 

 as the fire burns out. It'll stop when it gets to 

 the creek and quick as the smoke clears away so's 

 you can stand it, you be ready to light out." 



237 



