THE TENDERFOOT FROM YALE
By permission _American Forestry Magazine_.
"The trouble with this here forest service business nowadays is, thatthey're sendin' out, from the effete and luxurious East, a lot ofhalf-baked kids, what never seen a mountain in all their lives, don'tknow whether beans is picked from trees or made in a factory at BattleCreek, an' generally ain't got savvy enough to find their way home afterdark.
"Now here's this kid we've drawed in the last deal; nice enough boy, Ireckon, but who's goin' to play nursey to him up in these here hills?"The speaker glared at his companion as if defying him to meet hischarges against the newcomer and his kind.
"But he's got eddication, Jack," replied his listener, "an' that's whatcounts in these days. We got into the service in them good old days whenit was a case of ability to ride a pitchin' bronc, rope a maverick,chase sheep herders off the earth, shoot the eyes out of a wildcat atforty yards an' all them things. Nowadays they picks 'em out by theirbrand of learnin' an' not by their high-heeled boots."
"Howsomever," he continued, "there's some of them that makes good inspite of their eddicational handicap. Over on the Sierra last fall wewas all a-settin' in camp one Sunday afternoon when the phone rings likethey was trying to wake the dead with it. The old man gits up to answerit. When he says, sort of startled-like, 'Fire, where?' we all pricks upour ears. 'Twas a mighty dry time an' every one was a-prayin' for rain,for we'd been fightin' fire for the last month and was all in.
"We had a fire lookout station up on top of a high peak an' a man, withthe best glasses money could buy, a-sittin' there who could see all overthe range for fifty miles.
"_We had a fire lookout station on top of a high peak_"]
"Say, people got so they was afraid to make a campfire anywheres in themhills, an' the rangers swore they had to go behind a tree to light theirpipes, lest he'd see the smoke an' send in a fire call.
"'Shut-eye,' said the old man, meaning the lookout, 'Shut-eye saysthere's a big smoke a-comin' out of the canyon below Gold Gulch to theleft of Greyback Peak, an' I reckon we'd better be a-movin' that way.'
"It didn't take us long to saddle up, slap a pack onto a couple ofmules, an' hit the trail. 'Twas a good ten-mile over a rough country,an' it was mighty nigh dark afore we gets to where we could see smokea-boiling out of the canyon over a ridge ahead of us.
"We was all old-timers at the work, 'ceptin' a young feller fresh fromthe Yale Forestry School, what had come out for a sort of post-graduatecourse in forestry, an' some of them boys was seein' to it he got it allright.
"He had all the fixin's them fellers bring along with them, fancy ridin'panties, a muley saddle, a wind bed an' a automatic six-pistol, one ofthem things what, after she once gits to shootin', you jist got to throwher into the creek to stop her goin'.
"'Bout two miles from the ridge where we reckoned we'd git our firstview of the fire we meets up with Hank Strong an' his wife. You know,Hank's woman is just about as crazy to go to a fire as a boy to thecircus, an' she always comes in mighty handy to start a camp, take careof the boys' horses an' the packs while we're a-workin'.
"Generally she'd make up a big pot of coffee and fetch it out to theline. Once she comes a-ridin' along carryin' a pot full an' a bearskeered her hoss--but that's nothin' to do with this yarn.
"Hank says that there's also a big smoke comin' up from the vicinity ofGranite Basin, an' the old man he says some one better go over there an'see what's goin' on. Thar's a chap named Brown a-livin' in the Basin,an' the Super, he's afraid, mebbe so he'd get caught in the fire an' besinged some, the Basin bein' in the allfiredest lot of chapparal brushyou ever see.
"This feller Brown, he's a sort of pet of them boys over that a-way, himbein' a lunger an' not able to do much but draw funny pictures for theSunday supplements. Seems he broke down back East an' comes West to tryan' git over it.
"There he sets a-drawin' pictures for them funny papers an' sendin' 'emin regular, while he ses he's jist a-walkin' around to beat theundertaker.
"Nobody else is a-livin' in the basin, there bein' nothin' but a littleold cabin, what a bee-man put up once, an' a few hives of bees Brownbought along with the cabin. 'Them bees is jist to teach me habits ofindustry,' ses Brown, when some of the boys asked him if he calculatedto git rich on the output of them hives.
"The old man he reckons he can't spare any of us old hands to go overthere, an' so he says to the young tenderfoot: 'Son,' he says, 'do youreckon you can make it over there in the dark and find out what's doin'in Granite Basin an' come back an' let us know?'
"The boy he ses he reckoned he could, only he didn't know the trail allthe way. Then Hank's wife she speaks up an' says she can go along as faras the top of the mountain, an' show him the trail down into the basin.
"It sort of hacked the kid to have a woman show him the trail, but theold man said it were the very idee, an' so she an' the boy struck off,leavin' us to take care of the fire ahead.
"There wa'n't but one way into the basin an' that was down a gradedtrail about two miles long from top to bottom that the bee man had madeto git in and out on.
"The lower part of this basin was one great mass of brush, an' as thickas the hair on a dog's back, so you couldn't git through it only wherethe brush had been cut out.
"When they gits to the top an' could see over the basin there wa'n't anydoubt but there was a fire all right an' it was mighty plain that ifBrown wa'n't already out of there it was time he was startin'.
"Hank's wife were a-dyin' to go down with him, but the kid he ses, 'Thishere's my job, please,' and bluffed her out.
"'You look out you don't get cut off on the trail,' she warns him, 'theway that fire's a-eatin' along the side of the basin, it's a-goin' toreach the trail inside of an hour, an' there ain't no other way out'ceptin' a foot path what goes up the side of the basin back of thecabin, but it's more like a ladder than a trail an' you can't take yourhoss there a-tall.'
"Down into the basin goes the boy, while instead of goin' back to theoutfit the woman stopped there on a little point of rock where she couldlook all over the basin an' waited to see what'd happen.
"Brown slep' out under a big ole oak-tree, an' as he gits near the cabinthe kid he lets out a yell or two to wake him an' finds Brown settin' upin bed sort of half-dazed, what with the yellin' an' onnaturalbrightness of the skies all abouts.
"Inside of five minutes they was a-ridin' for the trail up the mountainwith Brown a-settin' behind on the kid's horse. But it were too late.When they reached the foot of the trail they could see where 'bout halfway up the whole blamed mountain was afire. Nothin' could pass throughit an' live, so there wa'n't nothin' to do but go back an' try to getout on the foot trail.
"Brown he begs the kid to go an' leave him an' save hisself. 'I'm only aworn-out shell, anyhow,' he ses, 'an' it's jist a question of time tillit's all over for me an' I cash in, but you got something to live forahead of you.'
"But the kid wouldn't stand for it.
"'Don't you talk to me 'bout leavin' you here like a rat in a trap,' seshe, 'we'll make it up that trail all right; jist you hang onto me andwe'll make the hoss pack us as far as he can go, an' then we'll take itafoot. If it comes to a showdown I can carry you easy enough.'
"So they rides the hoss up the trail till where it runs into a cliff'bout twenty feet high. Here thar was a ladder to git up the cliff, an'the kid he strips off the saddle, takes his water bag, an' turns hishoss to shift fer hisself. Time they gits up that ladder pore Brown hewere all in an' had to lie down on the ground a-coughin' fit to killhisself.
"This trail was jist a foot trail cut through the chapparal, an' thesmoke an' heat was already a-rollin' down onto 'em where they was like ablast from a furnace. The kid he wets their handkerchiefs from his waterbag an' they each tied 'em about their faces to sort of protect 'em alittle.
"The boy, he looks mighty anxiouslike at them big high walls of flamesa-comin' down toward 'em, an' fairly forced Brown to git on his back'pi
ck-a-back' like you'd take a little kid, an' started slowly up thetrail.
"Foot by foot he climbed to'rd the top. Sometimes the smoke got so thickthey had to lie down a minute clost to the ground to git their breath,sometimes the wind dropped big blazin' brands onto 'em an' set theirclothes afire, an' he'd have to stop an' rub it out with his hands.
"Every time he took a look up to'rds the top, he'd see the fire a-comin'closter an' closter to the trail. Pore Brown he tried to help him someby walkin', but between the excitement an' the smoke gittin' into hislungs, it were too much for him, an' he dropped down helpless as anewborn baby.
"The kid, he takes a survey of things an', little as he knowed 'boutfires in the chapparal, he seen mighty plain, that they were at thecritical pint, an' if they didn't git past the next hundred feet mightysoon, the fire would cut 'em off, an' it would be good-bye gay world to'em both.
"Then he hears a moan from Brown an', lookin' round, sees him lyin' flaton the ground with one hand clapped over his mouth, an' tricklin'between his fingers was a stream of blood. Didn't take him but a secondto know it were a hemorrhage; beats all what them fellers do learn atthem colleges, don't it?
"Brown were a-workin' away with one hand at the little pocket in hisshirt an', in his eagerness an' excitement, the button wouldn't comeopen. The boy jumped to his side, tore the button loose, an' pulled fromthe pocket a little tobacco sack with something in it. Brown he holdsout one hand palm up, an' nodded to the boy to open the sack, which hedid, an' then poured out into his hand a little pile of common tablesalt. You know them lunger-fellers most of 'em carries a little sack ofsalt agin' jist such emergencies. Brown he throwed his head back an'swallowed every grain of it an', bimeby, the blood stopped running sohard. He struggled to his feet, then waved his hand to'rd the top an',with a beseechin' look in his eyes, tried to git the kid to savvy thathe was to go on an' leave him to die.
"But the boy he wa'n't made of that sort of stuff. He's jist aboutskeered to death at the sight of the blood, but he pulls hisselftogether, grabs Brown in his arms agin, an' grits his teeth for anotherfight for their lives.
"Finally, he comes to a place where, about ten feet ahead, the fire wasclean acrost the trail. He puts Brown down for a minute, pulls off hiscoat, lays it on the ground, an' pours over it what water was left inhis water bag. Then he wraps Brown's head an' shoulders in the coat an',grabbing him up in his arms, agin makes a last dash through the smokean' fire.
"Seems like he hears a woman's voice above the roar of the fire an' hesort of wonders is he gittin' a little loco with it all. Next he knowshe's a-drawin' in big gulps of air that ain't full of smoke, an' there'sa woman a-walkin' longside of him, steadyin' him as he staggers underhis load an' a-rubbin' out, with a wet gunny sack, the places where hisan' Brown's clothes are a-smokin'.
"It all appears as a horrible dream to him, an' fust thing he knows, hedon't know nothin', for he's gone an' keeled over in a dead faint. Don'tlaugh, you fool; didn't you ever work at a fire till it seemed as ifyour lungs was a-goin' to bust an' your heart was a-beatin' like a cockpatridge on a log?
"Then he gits a quart or more of cold water slap in the face, opens hiseyes, an' there's Hank's wife a-standin' over him. Clost by was Brown,alive an' apparently uninjured. She knowed if he got through a-tall he'sbound to come out right about there and was a-watchin' for him.
"When we comes along 'bout three hours later, we finds the boy and thewoman hard at work, back-firin' along the old stage road an' the firepretty well under control on that side.
"Say, that kid were a sight to look at. He ain't got no more eyebrows orlashes than a rabbit, an' that there curly mop of his was singed an'scorched like the rats had been a chawin' onto it."
"And Brown?" asked Jack.
"Oh, Brown, why he come through all right. Saw a lot of his funnypictures in the Sunday supplement last week. 'Peared like the fire donehim good."
Tales from the X-bar Horse Camp: The Blue-Roan Outlaw and Other Stories Page 12