She turned inquiringly to Dunn, who had risen to his feet, but the next moment she caught convulsively at his wrist; a wolf had just dashed through the underbrush not a dozen yards away, and on either side of them they could hear the scamper and rustle of hurrying feet like the outburst of a summer shower.

A cold wind arose from the opposite direction, as if to contest this wild exodus, but it was followed by a blast of sickening heat.

Teresa sank at Dunn's feet in an agony of terror.
"Don't let them touch me!" she gasped; "keep them off! Tell me, for God's sake, what has happened!" He laid his hand firmly on her arm, and lifted her in his turn to her feet like a child.

In that supreme moment of physical danger, his strength, reason, and manhood returned in their plenitude of power.

He pointed coolly to the trail she had quitted, and said, "The Carquinez Woods are on fire!".