"I was driven from there just now.

I thought the fire began there until I came here." Then it was as he feared.

Obeying the same mysterious law that had launched this fatal fire like a thunderbolt from the burning mountain crest five miles away into the heart of the Carquinez Woods, it had again leaped a mile beyond, and was hemming them between two narrowing lines of fire.

But Low was not daunted.

Retracing his steps through the blinding smoke, he strode off at right angles to the trail near the point where he had entered the wood.