“Come and get it,” shouted Breene when the supper had been prepared.

“How about someone watching for forest fires?” asked Bill.

“There’s no use watching any more today,” said Mollie. “Most of the fires start during the middle of the day. It is very seldom that I can pick a new one after sundown. There are exceptions to the rule, though. Several years ago there was a maniac who went from one place to another in the forest starting fires. They would break out in the most unexpected places at the most unusual times. It was weeks before we were sure that they were being willfully started, but there was no other explanation which would explain the succession of fires at most extraordinary times. We finally caught the miscreant and that ended further trouble from that source.”

“What kind of a man was it who would deliberately set these woods on fire?” asked Bill.

“He was crazy,” replied Mollie. “He thought that he had a grievance against one of the foresters and took that means of getting even.”

“You must pardon my inquisitiveness,” said Bill. “I am trying to learn something about the woods. What kind of a grievance could anyone have against a forester?”

“That’s all right,” said Mollie. “Ask all the questions that you want. This fellow had a fairly large herd of cattle and used to graze them in the forests on the mountain sides during the Summer months. By doing this he derived several benefits. The cattle were high up on the mountains, where it was much cooler than down in the valleys; there was considerably more grass and other green vegetation in the forests, and the cattle were out of the fly-infested areas of the lowlands. The Forestry Service charges a nominal fee per head for this privilege. The charge varies for cattle and sheep. The half-demented fellow had availed himself of the privileges of the Summer grazing in the forests for several years without our knowing it, but when we found out that he was grazing his herd in the woods, we sent him a bill.

“Even at that, he was getting out light, for the bill only covered the charge for the current year. He took the stand that he never paid before and therefore he had the right to graze in the woods free. He considered it his privilege as a taxpayer. Naturally the Forest Service denied him the privilege of sending his cattle into the forests without paying for it.

“I guess that the poor fellow brooded over the matter for some time and then became a nut on the subject. The only way that he knew of getting back was to set fires in the woods. It was such an unnatural thing to do that we did not suspect him for quite a while. Finally the evidence was piled sufficiently high to convict him.

“He is the only person whom I have ever heard of who has maliciously set fires in the woods. Others have started them through carelessness or have been negligent, but to deliberately burn down the trees of the forests, why I cannot conceive of such a thing.”

Bill studied Mollie as he ate the supper of baked beans, potatoes, coffee, bread and jam. He figured that she was about forty years old. The outdoor life had bronzed her skin so that she had almost the coloring of an Indian. Her duties, where she was entirely on her own, far from the help of others, had made her exceedingly quick of thought and action and self-reliant.

“How does it happen that you have the position of lookout?” asked Bill.

“My husband had the position first, and he was killed in fighting a fire,” she explained. “I then took the examination and secured the position. I liked the woods so much that I could not give it up. I can think of nothing more beautiful than the sunlight on the leaves of the forest. This is my lifework and I will never willingly give it up.”

“Do you stay up here all year around?” asked Breene.

“No,” replied Mollie. “That would be too much of a good thing. This peak is cut off from the valley lands after the first hard snow in the Winter. I usually come up during the last of May or the first of June, depending on how hard the preceding Winter was. Sometimes we have had to blast the snow out of the roads with dynamite to get through in June. That is more particularly true of the Sierras down in California than up here.”

“Did you have a lookout in California?”

“I had one near Tahoe for a long time, but I decided that I wanted a change and was transferred up here,” replied Mollie.

“Don’t you get awfully lonely?” asked Breene.

“Never. There is always something to occupy the time. If it isn’t forest fires, it is the wild life of the woods. I have seen deer, mountain lions, porcupine, coons, grouse, eagles, and I don’t know what else right out here in the open near my shack. Once I saved a fawn from a fire and made a pet out of him. I put a bell on his neck and he stayed around for quite a while. When he was about two years old he started wandering about the forests. He would come back here occasionally, but his visits were shorter and shorter. I haven’t seen him now since last Fall. I hope that no one has shot him.”

“Have you picked up many fires this season asked Bill.

“This has been the worst season that I have known for many years,” answered Mollie. “We haven’t had any rain since the middle of May and the woods are awfully dry. It doesn’t take much to start a fire. Most of those that I have picked up have been small ones, which were quite easily put out. We are lucky down here in that the smoke pall hasn’t reached us yet. It will be down here before the season is over, though, unless we have rain.”

They washed up the supper dishes and sat in front of the shack on a bench where they could see the clear sky. The sounds of the woodland wild life which had so excited Breene that night before were ignored by him now. The mere fact that there was a building close by was sufficient to make him disregard everything but his own weariness.

“How often do you go down for supplies?” asked Bill.

“I never go down more than once or twice after the season opens,” replied Mollie. “I have a country storekeeper down the trail a piece who brings my supplies up. I think that it is time to turn in, as you boys must be tired. I have nothing to offer you but a couple of blankets. You can roll up in them either on the office floor or out here in the open. Take your choice.”

“I think that I will take the open air,” said Bill.

“I will, too,” remarked Breene.

It was not light the next morning when Mollie woke the two airmen. They were dead tired and slept well. Mollie had breakfast ready when they arose.

“Why didn’t you call us sooner so that we could have helped with breakfast?” asked Bill.

“You needed the sleep and I didn’t,” said Mollie. “You have a long hike ahead of you, while I haven’t.”

“Follow that trail all the way down the mountain,” said Mollie as she started them out after breakfast. “About the time that you reach Boulder Creek, the trail will widen considerably. You will probably meet someone from the Forest Supervisor’s office along about noon. Good luck to you.”

“Thanks for helping us out,” called Bill and they started down the ridge.

The trail was easy to follow and not hard on the feet. Occasionally other small trails would join theirs and they would be doubtful as to which was the proper one, but by keeping moving in a general southwest direction they came to Boulder Creek without losing their way. Here the trail widened and could almost be considered an unimproved road. They rested a while at the creek and then started on.

They had been traveling but a few minutes when they heard horses approaching. Soon they saw them come around a bend in the trail. A mounted man was leading two saddled horses. He stopped as he came up to the two airmen.

“Well, you must have started early,” said the horseman. “It is only noon and you have crossed Boulder Creek. I expected to meet you on the other side. My name’s Robins. I work in the Forest Supervisor’s office.”

Bill introduced himself and Breene.

“Well, climb aboard, unless you are hungry,” said Robins. “I stopped for a while down the trail and watered the horses and ate my lunch. I also got an early start.”

“We can eat the sandwiches which Mollie gave us as we ride along,” said Bill as he mounted.

“I don’t know much about these creatures,” said Breene, as he struggled to get his legs afork the saddle.

“Neither one will run away with you,” said Robins.

The rest of the trip was very pleasant. They reached Tiller in the late afternoon and then pushed on to Perue, where they spent the night. The next day they hit the main road at Canyonville and then rode into Myrtleville, where they reached the railroad.

“This is some country,” said Breene to Robins. “It took us just a little less than two hours to get to that place in the woods where we landed, and here it has already taken us almost four days to get this far back, and we aren’t home yet.”

“You don’t waste much time when you travel in your airplanes,” said Robins. “I cannot imagine getting to Diamond Lake in less than two hours. Every time I have gone up there it has taken several days. I guess that you can find your way home from here. I will start back. Good luck.”

“Thanks for the buggy ride,” said Breene, and Robins left them standing on the station platform.

A couple of hours’ wait for the train and then they were en route to Eugene. The train trip seemed endless, as they were both eager to get back to their quarters so that they could change their clothing.

“You had us worried for a while,” said Captain Smith as he greeted Bill at Eugene. “We did not know whether you had made a safe landing or had cracked up.”

“I did both,” replied Bill. “I made a safe landing, for neither one of us were even scratched, and I cracked up a perfectly good ship so that it will never be flown again. I set it down in the only open space that I could see within miles. That place wasn’t any too open. The second growth timber was eight or ten feet high.”

“Batten flew down there and saw the plane and noted the character of the country in which you had landed,” said Smith. “He also said that had you not selected the spot which you did, your plane would probably be hanging to the tree tops a couple of hundred feet from the ground. We were all much pleased when Mollie, the lookout, ’phoned in that you were O. K. I have already sent down for another plane for you. Batten and Goldy are taking some game to San Francisco. They got a late start but hope to get in tonight. They will bring your plane back with them tomorrow.”

“Just think of it,” said Bill. “You casually remark that Batten and Goldy are going to fly from here to San Francisco today and come back tomorrow. On that trip they will cover a distance of about nine hundred or a thousand miles. Breene and I have been five days covering a little less than four hundred miles. Give me the airplane every time.”