On the far side, a pine fell, a blazing torch flashing through the smoke. Kate stiffened. Before she could cry out, Franklin and O’Reilly splashed through the creek to safety. But a billow of smoke veered toward her. She coughed as the acrid air surrounded her, then brought up her arm to cover her nose and mouth, waving the darkness away with her free hand.
Through a break in the smoke, she sighted Will below her, hacking through the tree to prevent the fire from reaching his side of the break. Caleb tugged on the limbs as if he could drag it himself. Will’s men dumped buckets from the creek onto the pine, the bark hissing as if in protest.
Batting away the rest of the smoke, Kate forced herself to focus on the fire. She followed its track along the creek in both directions. It swallowed downed limbs, the sun-bleached timber blazing up. The flames danced to their own breeze, waving arms of red-orange. But the firebreak seemed to be holding to the east. And toward the west . . .
One last fallen log breeched the creek. The fire hopped up onto it, skipped along it, and jumped down to the grass.
Cutting off Will, Elijah, and Caleb from the others.
“Will!” she shouted in warning, but her cry was lost to the crash of another pine falling. The smoke swarmed up, hiding them all from view.
Will’s arms protested, but he kept swinging Kate’s ax. Beside him, Elijah grunted as his hatchet bit into the trunk. Sweat beaded on Caleb’s forehead as he came in to yank back a limb. A few more yards, and they’d have flanked the fire. A crash on the other side told of another pine falling. Smoke swirled around him, clogging the air, clogging his lungs.
He stopped swinging, so blind he was afraid he might hit Elijah or Caleb. He couldn’t hear anything other than the crackle of the fire. The heat pressed against him like a wall, shoving him away. He wiped his face with the back of his hand, smothering a cough.
“Lieutenant!”
At Elijah’s cry, he turned to find the fire behind them. At the moment, it struggled for purchase on the cleared area, but already it trickled toward the hill. And Kate.
“Beat it out!” Will shouted, shoving the ax blade under the grass and tipping up the sod to smother the flame. Caleb hurried to help.
Franklin and O’Reilly must have seen their predicament, for they materialized out of the smoke. First they toppled the fallen tree into the water of the creek, setting the fire to hissing as it went out. Then they took their buckets to the flames.
But the trickle of red had reached the drier grass at the base of the hill, devouring it greedily. In a moment, they were cut off, fire on all sides and smoke reaching fingers toward them. Still he kept beating at the blaze, determination and desperation building.
“Will!”
The smoke parted to reveal Kate, hands outstretched. “It’s out. This way!”
He and the others hurried to her side.
One arm over her nose, she pointed with her free hand. “Up the draw. We can get away along the Firehole.”
“Go!” Will urged her, and he led the men after her.
The creek came out from among the pines at a wide plain before joining the Firehole River. Will glanced back the way they had come. The ground was blackened and smoking on the northern side, the creek beginning to bleed ash.
“It’s holding!” Franklin pointed toward the hill.
Except for the one place the fire had jumped the creek and they had beaten it out, the blaze remained on the south side. Already, the flames were shrinking, their sound softening, as the fire ran out of fuel.
Will put an arm about Kate’s shoulders. “We did it.”
She leaned against him. “Thank the good Lord.”
“Amen,” O’Reilly said, and for once he didn’t accompany the statement by spitting.
As Caleb wrapped his arms around his waist and shivered, Franklin eyed the forest.
“Strange place for a fire to start,” he mused, as if seeing the area with his engineer’s eye. “There aren’t any campsites in the area. People usually continue down to Old Faithful. And we haven’t had any lightning strikes.”
“Jessup again?” O’Reilly guessed, and this time he did spit.
“That poacher?” Elijah asked. “He must be long gone by now.”
Caleb nodded.
“And why would he start a fire here, even if he was in the area?” Kate put in. “There’s nothing in direct line of this fire—no major herds, no Army station.”
“Just the Geyser Gateway,” Franklin pointed out.
Kate shook her head. “He would gain nothing from burning me out.” Suddenly, she stilled. “But someone might.” Her gaze darted to Will’s. “You don’t think the Virginia City Outfitters would stoop this low?”
“They gain little either,” Will told her. “They wanted your building and lease, not a burned-out shell. We may never know how this started, but however it started, it was too close for comfort. O’Reilly, Franklin, sweep the area and report back to the hotel. When we know it’s clear, I’ll ride for the Fire Hole and send everyone home.”
“Sir!” The two saluted and headed back down the creek.
As Caleb shifted on his feet, Elijah watched them go, eyes narrowed as if he could see the path of the arsonist even now.
Will looked to Kate. “You saved my life.”
“You might say I was doing my duty,” she said, but that grin he so appreciated flashed into view in a face streaked by smoke. “Besides, it would have been hard to finish our courtship with you burned to a crisp.”
Caleb dropped his arms and beamed.
Elijah looked just as pleased. “Courtship, huh? Well, how about Caleb and I head back to the hotel, and you two take your time?”
Caleb bobbed his head. “Congratulations, Mrs. Tremaine, Lieutenant.”
He hurried to follow Elijah as the driver started up the banks of the Firehole.
As soon as they rounded the bend, Will pulled Kate closer
