"Keep right on, you fellows! Don't you dare stop, or follow me! I'll get
Will! The river's close by!" he called out, and then turned around,
retracing his steps directly toward the advancing fire.

Never had Will seemed so precious in the sight of the boy who thus
placed his own life in jeopardy in order to save that of his chum. In
imagination Frank pictured his agony of mind if he had to tell Violet
that her twin brother had perished miserably in a forest fire, while he
escaped.

"Will! Will!" he was shouting frantically, as loud as he could, and this
was not anything to boast of, for the smoke choked him, and he could
hardly keep from coughing almost constantly.

"Hi! Here I am! Lost like the babes in the woods!" sang out a voice.

Frank pounced on his friend, who, with smarting eyes, was fairly
staggering about, hardly knowing which way he was trying to go, having
become more or less rattled by the impending peril and the state of his
own feelings.

"Run for all you're worth, Will!" he said, as he clutched the sleeve of
the other almost fiercely, for they had little chance of eluding those
hungry flames now.

Together they rushed along, Frank's eyes doing double duty, for Will
seemed by this time half blind, and the one free hand was constantly
rubbing his smarting orbs.