It was so early when I arrived in the lookout that the west side of the mountains was still in deep shadow. I swept them and their valleys with my glasses and saw nowhere any signs of a fire. I then looked close down into the Black River Canyon, and, as on the previous morning, saw a smokelike haze below the little grass park bordering the stream. It was so faint, however, that I could not be sure it was smoke. I said that it could n’t be smoke; nor fog from the water: that what I saw was a patch of the bright light of the early morning, let into the dark canyon through a gap in the high ridge on the east.
I went outside, began scratching out more rock crevices, and almost at once found two arrow-points, a large one of flint and barbed, and a very small one, without barbs, of the glasslike rock, and so clear that I could see through it. Of the two, the barbed one appeared to be the most effective point, yet how much more deadly was the other; how very much farther it would penetrate flesh. I wondered if its owner had ever shot it into an enemy?
At nine o’clock I went in to the telephone and reported no fire anywhere in sight. And then I called Riverside Station, on the mere chance that a fire patrol might be there, and got no answer except the roar of the Supervisor’s voice, shouting: “Get off the line there, whoever you are! Don’t you know that there is no one at Riverside? You quit interrupting Service business!”
I quit! I had wanted to get word to Hannah not to come up. Since discovering the loss of my ham, I had been thinking that I ought not to let her run the risk in coming up that eleven-mile lonely trail. If there were bad men in this part of the forest, it was no place for her to be riding. I tried to comfort myself with the thought that the ham had probably been left at home, but down in my inmost mind I almost knew that I had seen it in the food chest. No doubt she was now on her way to me, and if she met with no mishap, would arrive at my cabin at about twelve o’clock. Well, I should be there at that time, and at one o’clock, if she failed to appear, fires or no fires, I should have to go down the trail to look for her. And if she did come all right at noon, I decided that, when I went off duty in the evening, I should spend the night in seeing her safely home and getting back to the cabin. I could ride back upon her horse and turn him loose and he would go straight down to our herd.
I kept on hunting for beads and arrow-points — and finding some — until my eyes began to ache, and then went into the lookout. The telephone rang one long, the call for the Supervisor’s office, and I listened in. Why not? Forest Service business was my business. I wanted to know what was going on. And now, listening, I heard William Hammond, the owner of a small sawmill located on the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, five miles west of my home, and almost at the northern edge of the forest, telling the Supervisor that he was having serious trouble with two of his men, strangers who had a week before dropped in off the road and applied for work, and got it. They had proved to be I.W.W. agitators, and, failing to induce his regular employees to join the order, they had called for their wages, demanding three times the amount due them, and upon his refusal to pay it, had sworn that they would burn his mill and the whole Apache National Forest.
‘‘Where are they now?” the Supervisor asked.
‘‘They shouldered their blanket rolls and went off up the road.”
“Well, you just guard your mill, and if they show up, shoot, and shoot to kill. And I will order some of my patrols over to your place, and at the first outbreak of fire that way, they’ll be right on top of those I.W.W.’s!”
I continued listening and heard the Supervisor ordering different patrols to move to the mill, explaining why they were to go, and that they were to go well armed, and take no chances with the firebugs.
Then the Supervisor called me: “George, there are two I.W.W. firebugs threatening to burn the forest —”
“Yes, I know, I've been listening,” I interrupted.
“Well, I must ask you to spend more than the regular hours in your lookout until they are disposed of,” he went on. “I would like you to spend all your daylight hours there; even your noon hour; and keep your eyes on the forest all the time, and especially that part of it around the mill.”
“Yes! I'll do so,” I answered, ‘‘but this noon I have to go down to the cabin to meet my sister, who is coming up with some things for me —” I hesitated: Should I tell him about my own troubles, my suspicion that there were bad men in my vicinity, too? No. Not at this time, I concluded.
“All right, meet your sister, and go back on top as soon as you can,” he replied, and hung up.
Chapter III.
The Firebugs at Work
More than ever, now, I wished that Hannah was not coming up. My new orders would prevent me taking her home, and just now the forest was no place for a girl to travel alone. And what she was bringing me would be of no use for some time to come: until I got back my morning and evening hours, I could have no time for exploring my cave hole.
At noon, as I descended the trail to the cabin, I had decided to send Hannah straight home as fast as her horse could carry her. But the moment I entered the clearing I knew that would be impossible: there she was, sitting upon the little porch surrounded with sacks, ropes, and her roll of bedding, and a pack-saddle and riding-saddle upon the ground told that she had turned her horses down the trail.
“How long have you been here? ’’ I asked.
“Maybe an hour. Why? You don’t seem glad to see me.’’
And what I said to her shows where my mind was: ‘‘That big ham I was to bring up when we came — did Uncle John and I overlook it — is it down home?”
“No. Of course it is n’t there. I packed it in your outfit myself. You have n’t lost it ?”
“Worse than that! It has been stolen! Taken right out of the cabin! These are bad times up here. I wish you had n’t come. I was going to send you right home, but now you can’t go: your horses are halfway home by this time!”
“Ha! As though I would go back before seeing your cave!” she cried.
“The cave! There’s no time for it now!” I said, and went on to tell her all about the sneaking man I had seen, and all that the Supervisor had just told me. That sobered her. “And what is more,” I added, “old Double Killer is prowling about here, too. I saw him this morning. I can show you his tracks in the trail to the summit.”
“It does look bad,” she said. “But here I am and here I stay. I guess I can stand it if you can. And you know that I can shoot! ” She tapped the holster at her side, in which was thrust her 38 Colt automatic pistol.
“Yes, you will have to stay until I can get word to Uncle John to come after you,” I said. I did n’t tell her how much I admired her courage.
“Now, George, promise that you will not telephone them about this! Mind, if mother hears about this ham stealing, and about old Double Killer being up here, she will have you back home in a hurry, as well as me,” she begged.
I had n’t thought of that, and I knew that she was right. Mother would have us out from here, too quick.'And what shame then, for me. It would be said that I was afraid to stay and face the dangers. And me a Boy Scout!
“Well, we’ll see about it,” I answered. “But come. I must return to the lookout. Let’s sling this stuff into the cabin and be upon our way.”
We got the outfit inside, took some crackers and cheese for a lunch, and a canteen of water, and at twenty minutes to one were entering the lookout. The telephone was ringing for me. I answered.
‘‘Glad to know that you are back up there. No sign of fire the sawmill way, is there?’’ the Supervisor said.
“No, nor elsewhere.”