The menace
they bore could be descried even at that distance. A breeze wrenched off
one of those knobs, and carried it out from the main conflagration. The
roof of a barn half-way down the hillside began to smoke. Sparks had
dropped there. After a time the two men could see trickles of fire
running up the shingles.
"There goes one stand of buildings," announced Thornton.
"I swear, you take this thing cool enough!"
"Well, I'm not a rain-storm or a pipe-line, Luke. There's nothing more I
can do. When Sylvester gets there with his crowd I'll have a hundred men
or so of my own fighting it. And if a man sets fire on his land the law
makes him pay the neighbors if the fire gets away and damages them. I'm
prepared to settle without beating down prices. Let's go over to The
Barracks."
Presson went along grumbling.
"You ought to have stayed in this fight this year for yourself,
Thelismer. There was no need of all this uproar in ticklish times. A
proposition like this makes the general campaign all the harder." He
kept casting apprehensive glances behind at the swelling smoke-clouds.
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