366 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



and intention to get out and put it out. I could 

 have done so in ten minutes, but I found on 

 examination that the foot-mat of the buggy was 

 missing, and experience had already taught me 

 that one runs a foolhardy risk in attempting to 

 tramp out fire on dry prairie. I consoled myself 

 with the reflection that it must be starved out at 

 the side-trail in the east, and feeling anything but 

 comfortably conscience-clear, I turned the search- 

 light of judgment off myself and on to the men who 

 had driven promptly to the rescue of the grave- 

 stones of the dead and as promptly and thoughtlessly 

 away from the rescue of the lands and possibly lives 

 of the living. I drove towards home fully deter- 

 mined to have my fire-guard ploughed — the first 

 thing on Monday morning ! At the gate I met 

 Roddy McMahon going home for Sunday, and 

 told him of the havoc the fire was working. He 

 seemed to think we lay safely out of its reach, since 

 it could not travel far with the wind right down ; 

 but we agreed together that in spite of the hold 

 of the night-frosts the guard must be ploughed — 

 the first thing on Monday morning ! 



I had no easy mind. Those creeping scarlet lines 

 were reflected on my brain, and as the sun went 

 down and the swift Canadian twilight passed into 

 nightfall the lurid light in the north seemed to 

 grow brighter and to draw nearer. My brother 

 and I agreed that every beast should be turned loose, 

 and that we would keep watch in turn. At the 

 coming of each hour one or the other of us scanned 

 the outlook. At dawn the red glow seemed to fade, 

 at sunrise to die. Still smoke was rising and the 

 wind had freshened, but it is in the nature of fear 



