C D T ?. I B U T E D A K T I L E S 



oOo 



An Exciting Scene on Lake Tahoe 



B y 

 Captain George It. lloycs of the launch "Ranger" 



To veterans on the Forest, an account of a forest 

 firo will not possess many olenents of novelty. However, an 

 account of one with a nautical setting by a novice may "be of 

 interest to some. At six o'clock in the evening of September 

 1st as your hunble servant was ebout to sit down to a meal of 

 friod trout after a day of ^trolling, the telephone brought 

 the news from Brockway of a fire at Crystal Bay. In the face 

 of such news an appetite usually robust, fled precipitately. 

 T':o fooling for eating gone, it only rer.ained to .Jbuckle on 

 my armor, give my associate "Ranger" a good drink of gasoline 

 and get under way. 



Tho wind which had been blowing pretty strong for 

 several days scorned to have moderated somewhat, but as we 

 drew av;ay from the west ohore the wavas commenced to roll 

 heavily, and the "Ranger" needed constf.nt guidance. It was 

 with considerable difficulty that the side lights and search- 

 lights were kept lighted. That feat was not accomplished 

 until darkness settled dom and numerous exasperating 

 deviations fron the true course had been indulged, in by the 

 "Rancor", which now began to jump and roll about in the 

 steadily rising sea, in a nannar anything but reassuring to 

 oven a weather beaten ar.rlner. In the gleam of the search- 

 light the billo-.vs of ebony blackness seemed like the backs of 

 living, writhing monsters, flecked with masses of shining 

 foam. Ky craft would wallow und labor as it mounted the 

 roaring crests, then with a sudden burct of speed and a whir 

 of the engine descend the waves like a trip down the Chutes. 



At last Brockway appeared as a speck of light in the 

 general blackness, and es it drew nearer, brought to the mind 

 now elements of danger. 



It was only by a subconscious feeling as to the lo- 

 cation of the wharf with reference to the possible source of 

 the light, end the sound of tho waves on the shore as to the 

 distance fron dangerous rocks that an approxlrcation was made 



