Page:Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch.djvu/45

Rh where it caught in a bunch of scrub, the tongues of fire mounted swiftly into the air for twenty feet, or more; and in these pillars of fire lurked much danger, for when a blast of wind chanced to swoop down on them, the flames jumped!

Toiling up the ridge, snorting and bellowing, tails in air and horns tossing, drifted a herd of several thousand cattle, about ready to stampede although the fire was not really chasing them. The danger lay in the fact that the flames had gained such headway, and had spread so widely, that the entire range might be burned over, leaving nothing for the cattle to eat.

The rose-light of the flames showed the spectators all this—the black smooch of the fire-scathed land behind the barrier of flame, the flitting figures on horseback at the foot of the ridge, and the herd of steers going over the rise toward the north—and the higher foothills.

"But what can they do?" gasped Ruth.

"They're back-firing," Tom said, holding in his pony. Tom was a good horseman and it was evident that Jane Ann was astonished at his riding. "But over yonder where they tried it, the flames jumped ahead through the long grass and drove the men into their saddles again."

"See what those fellows are doing!" gasped Madge, standing up. "They're roping those cattle—isn't that what you call it, roping?"