Just when it seemed to the boys that the shirts on their backs would burst into flames a shout went up from in front: 

“The river!  The river!”

“One more spurt, everybody!”

Gamely men, boys and horses responded.

“Right over the bank!  Don’t stop!” bellowed Pete.

Ignorant of the height, caring little, eager only to gain the water, the boys felt their horses leap through the air and the next minute were sputtering and gasping as they sank below the surface of the river.

CHAPTER XXI

A RIDE FOR LIFE

Quickly the horses swam for the shore, and as the Elkhorn was only deep for a few rods, it was not many minutes before the cowboys were shaking and removing their wet garments.  But the boys were oblivious of their condition.

In open-mouthed wonder they stared at the spectacle presented by the flames from whose devouring fury they had so narrowly escaped.

The wall of fire had in reality been farther away than it had seemed.  For several minutes it advanced, the tongues of flames towering in the air.  A moment the livid wall paused as it reached the brink of the river, while jets of fire reached out as though striving to clutch the men who had escaped.  Then seemingly bent on overtaking them, the flames leaped over the edge, devouring the brush and grass to the water’s edge, where, loath to admit defeat, the flames flickered uncertainly and then died away, leaving nothing but a pall of smoke to mark their course of destruction.

“They came mighty near getting us that time,” exclaimed Pete, looking back over the still glowing plains.

“Too near,” assented Mr. Wilder.  “But Megget’s men will suffer for this trick, never fear.”

“They’ll sure be surprised when they see us,” chimed in the owner of the Three Stars.

“That’s just it,” returned Mr. Wilder.  “Of course, they think we have perished in the flames, and when they see us riding in on them they will be so scared it will take all the fight out of them.”

None the worse for their experience, the cowboys were eager to be under way again that they might exact satisfaction upon the raiders for their unwilling flight.  But Mr. Wilder curbed their impatience by saying: 

“It’s all right to want to get on the trail again, but if we should start now, while the plains are still hot, we run the risk of crippling some of our ponies.  We’ll eat breakfast here and then in an hour I guess we can start.  What do you think, Jim?”

“It will be all right to take grub and we can tell about the ground when we’ve eaten.”

Fate, however, was still on the side of the ranchers, for while they were at their meal it began to rain.

With a shout the cowboys greeted the first drops, but their masters grew serious.

“This rain will make it mighty hard to pick up the trail,” observed the owner of the Three Stars.