368 WHEAT AND WOMAN 



understand," he said. " We have from fifteen to 

 twenty minutes at the outside to get through with 

 the job, and if we fail it's a finish. Come on ! " 



The wind was towards us, the stable-yard still 

 covered with litter of threshing straw which had 

 lain under the snow during the winter but was now 

 all too dry and inflammable as shaving. It was a 

 desperate and most dangerous resource but the only 

 chance. The sound and solid English grain-bags 

 I had brought out with me, and which Canadians 

 refuse to handle as a rule on account of their weight, 

 did good service that morning. Armed with one 

 each and a bucket of water, we started in at our 

 task, I working east, my brother west. For a short 

 space there was silence save for the muffled roar of 

 the oncoming enemy and the banging of the damp 

 bags with which we quenched our several fires as 

 the flames reached the limit we ruled. 



As long as it was concerned with the old guard 

 only our task was comparatively easy. The snow- 

 cured and sun-dried herbage blazed up as swiftly 

 as straw and as swiftly perished to the fine dust of 

 flame. But farther east the ploughing of the 

 original guard had been less effective. The fire 

 just frolicked into the straw-belittered yard, and 

 three times I had to call my brother to aid me as 

 the flame seemed to be beyond my power to 

 extinguish. The third time he came his face was 

 blackened with smoke and his lips set tight. " Don't 

 call again," he said, " if you can possibly avoid it ; 

 the last time I came round I only just stopped my 

 fire from getting into the bluff, and if it gets there 

 it's a finish." So I set my teeth and made fresh 

 flames, and beat them out until my hands and 



