Читать книгу Camping in the Winter Woods: Adventures of Two Boys in the Maine Woods онлайн

76 страница из 81

Then they heard the roar of the fire, the crackling of undergrowth, and the crash of falling timber as the great wall of flame drew nearer. Twilight fell early, on account of the smoke, and it was soon quite dark. The roar of the approaching flames sounded like the noise of an express-train. The smoke grew still thicker, and they gasped for breath, as scorching heat-waves, like blasts from an open furnace, swept over them.

They had started their back-fire, and George and the woodsmen were compelled to work like demons to keep it from blowing back toward the cabin. The wind blew the smoke and flames full into their faces as they pounded and stamped to force the lengthening line of flame on its windward course to grapple with the onrushing flames of the forest fire.

Ed, too, was soon in the thick of the fight, for in beating at the fire below, the fighters on the ground sent aloft a constant shower of sparks which found their way to the dry log roof on which he crouched. Staggering about through the choking smoke, he beat out several patches of fire which had started from the glowing cinders. Fiery embers seemed to fill the air. They lit on his face and hands, and burned their way into the flesh before he could brush them off. He was unable to see his comrades below, and so loud had the roar of the fire become that he did not even hear their voices. Several times he found himself on the very edge of the roof, and he barely escaped falling off, for, blinded as he was by the smoke, he could not see where he was.