CHAPTER VI  TESTS OF COURAGE

 Harry did not know how the woods had been set on fire, and he never knew. He did not credit it to the intent of Michael and his comrades, but he thought it likely that some of these men, ignorant of the forest, had built a campfire.  His first thought was of himself, and his second was regret that so fine a stretch of timber should be burned over for nothing.

But he knew that he must hurry.  Nor could he choose his way.  He must get out of that forest even if he ran directly into the middle of a Union brigade.  The wind was bringing the fire fast.  It leaped from one tree to another, despite the recent rains, gathering volume and power as it came.  Sparks flew in showers, and fragments of burned twigs rained down. Twice Harry's face was scorched lightly and he had a fear that one of the blazing twigs would set his hair on fire.  He made another effort, and ran a little faster, knowing full well that his life was at stake.

The fire was like a huge beast, and it reached out threatening red claws to catch him.  He was like primeval man, fleeing from one of the vast monsters, now happily gone from the earth.  He was conscious soon that another not far from him was running in the same way, a man in a faded blue uniform who had dropped his rifle in the rapidity of his flight.

Harry kept one eye on him but the stranger did not see him until they were nearly out of the wood.  Then Harry, with a clear purpose in view, veered toward him.  He saw that they would escape from the fire.  Open fields showed not far ahead, and while the sparks were numerous and sometimes scorched, the roaring red monster behind them would soon be at the end of his race.  He could not follow them into the open fields.

When the two emerged from the forest Harry was not more than fifteen feet from the stranger, who evidently took him for a friend and who was glad to have a comrade at such a time.  They raced across fields in which the wheat had been cut, and then sank down four or five hundred yards from the fire, which was crackling and roaring in the woods with great violence, and sending up leaping flames.

"I was glad enough to get out of that.  Do you think the rebels set it on fire?"

"I don't think so, but I w