RANGER YOUNG WILD, ON THE FIRE LIXE 497 



ly decided it was probably thirst which She handed \Vild her jewel-mounted 



threatened to devour him. flask. 



Ouickly completing her toilet by fil- He returned it empty, 



ing" her spurs and brushing the alkali Dawn was breaking. 



from her red velvet breeches, in these The flames were about to close 



brief seconds she reviewed the situation around the devoted pair, 



with lightning activity of her strong Suddenly they heard a fiendish yell 



and passionats mind. Although Young of triumph from a nearby mountain 



Wild had not told her where to look top. 



for him, she was certain he was below It was Black Heart, the Nester, ex- 



her in the valley. ulting over his victims. 



This deduction was simple. Black Heart had set the fire to insure 



It was only the twenty-ninth of the getting his homestead claim and stolen 



month. He would barely have finished Wild's horse so he could not go and 



filling in his report forms for the pre- report it. 



vious month, without time to get more Wild fired, but the intense heat 



than one day's travel from headquar- melted the bullet and the caitiff jeered 



ters. Throwing her keen young eye unharmed. 



down the valley, therefore, she heard Wild noted this fact in his card 



at once the crackling of the cruel record. 



flames twenty miles below. It was It was this simple and natural act 



already too smoky to see their extent, that gave Lariat a brilliant idea. 



She realized at once that her trusty "Wild," she cried excitedly, as she 



mustang would for once be useless. stamped her cigarette butt out with 



For a moment this stalled her. care, "where is the rest of your equip- 

 Then, bang! bang! bang! Twelve ment?" 



reports startled the echoes in the sur- "Stacked in a big meadow just above 



rounding crags. here," he replied, "where I left it till 



Lariat Laura had cut off a leaning my traction engine should arrive." 



sequoia by the river bank with a volley "If we spread it clear across the can- 



from her six-shooters. yon," she urged, "in a pile 10 feet high 



In another moment she was balancing and 12 feet wide, it will surely stay 

 her graceful form on its whirling trunk the flames until help arrives." 

 as it plunged down seventeen miles of But at this crucial moment a tele- 

 foaming rapids. gram was handed to Young Wild, or- 



Keeping a keen lookout for log jams, dering him to report to Washington to 



which she avoided by lightly leaping become acquainted with routine, 



over them as her precarious craft Of course he could not delay to put 



passed beneath, she soon spied Young out a fire, so, leaving his darling 



Wild on the right hand bank reading Lariat to be consumed, he started at 



the Use Book. As she approached, once. 



Wild threw himself on his face and There is little more to tell. Such 



sobbed bitterly. prompt obedience of orders from 



Lariat whirled her obedient rope and Washington, in spite of local affairs, 



noosed a stump on the bank. Then she could not fail of reward. The Assist- 



plunged into the icy torrent and hauled ant Chief of Operation having married 



herself ashore. an heiress and quit work, Young Wild 



"Wild, dear, do not despair," she was promoted to the place, 



cried. "All cannot be lost !" Unaided, her white skin scorched to 



"It is too late, Lariat!" Wild wept, a cinder, Lariat wearily piled the 



"I should have made eight more copies equipment across the canyon. When 



for Silviculture." the last Form 944 was placed on the 



The golden hearted girl was on her top she fell dead. As the last flame 



job. reached the pile and gave up dis- 



