There the horse had thrown off the fire hoop, or it had burned through
at some part and had dropped there.

It had set the dry hay aflame. As Andy looked, it spread out into a
fan-like blaze, enveloping one whole side of the stack.

Andy was dumb with consternation. However, he was not the boy to face a
calamity inactively.

His quick eye saw that the stack was doomed. What troubled him more than
that was the imminent danger to half-a-dozen other stacks nearly
adjoining it.

"All Farmer Dale's hay!" gasped the perturbed lad. "Fifty tons, if
there's one. If all that goes, what shall I do?"

Andy took in the whole situation with a vivid glance. Then he made a
bee-line dash for a broken stack against which rested a large
field rake.

It was broad and had a very long handle. Andy ran with it towards the
blazing heap of hay and set to work instantly.

"This won't do," he breathed excitedly, as an effort to beat out the
spreading flames only caused burning shreds to fill the air. These
threatened to ignite the contiguous stacks.

Once the first of these was started they would all go one after the
other. They were out of the direct draught of the light breeze