Ablaze

By Diana Turner

The cozy kitchen of Sam's house smelled like the bread Mrs. Butler had baked earlier that day. Blue liked Sam's house: the kitchen and gathering room where the family spent most of their time together, the parlor in the front of the house, Sam's bedroom that he shared with his wife, the two bedrooms upstairs that Sam's eldest son Tom now shared with his wife and daughters. Mrs. Butler baked something different everyday – breads, pies, cakes, cookies – and sold them to the bunkhouse cook, who the men said couldn't bake to save his life. Moreover, it made Sam's kitchen a fragrant place to be.

This night, however, poker with his old friends drew him to Sam's house. Joe and Mano had come from Tucson with the news that Florence was improving, which led to the invitation for them to remain – Joe at the house of his brother Sam and Mano at the house of his sister Victoria. It naturally followed that an all-night poker game was in order. Joe, Sam, Mano, Blue, and Wind sat around the kitchen table with cards in their hands and gravity on their faces.

Blue bit the inside of his lip. As much as Uncle Buck tried to teach him when running a bluff look your opponent straight in the eye, he never mastered that technique. While the other three might ignore it, Wind would read his face and play against him. Sometimes, he enjoyed playing poker with Wind; sometimes he found it a sustaining challenge; other times, like tonight, it frustrated him that he knew he couldn't bluff Wind.

Wind had never learned to play his cards close to his chest, trusting that the men with whom he played would not look at his cards – even those men he didn't trusted with anything else. He moved his hand and fingered a coin, then allowed the coin to drop back into his stack. He closed the fan of cards and tossed them to the middle of the table with the word, "Fold."

Sam raised his eyebrows, "Not like you, Wind."

"Neither were those cards," Wind answered, reaching to unlock the wheels on his chair and rolling back from the table. He rolled himself over to the water bucket at the sink and drew a dipper of water while Mano debated what he would do.

Mano examined the faces of the remaining men. Joe and Sam had faces that most men could not read. Years of playing cards with them had taught him the tick in Joe's cheek, the snarl on Sam's lip, as well as Blue's inability to look a man in the eyes. Based on what he saw, Sam held the best hand but he could not gauge whether the hand Sam held was better than his own was. Mano tossed a coin into the kitty – just enough to stay in the game.

The clink of the coin preceded a loud crash from outside. The men looked at each other. Then they went to the door and onto the back porch. They saw nothing at first. Then they saw the flash of lightning against the black night sky.

"There was no rain in those clouds," Joe stated.

Mano, Blue, and Wind nodded as Sam stated, "Dry lightning."

Lightning split the sky. At the head of Gardner Canyon, on the top of Mount Wrightson, a juniper exploded in hot, fiery, burning sparks. Dry grasses, hit by the sparks, flared. Those flaming clusters of herbs lit dry manzanita, which spread the detonation to other small plants. Another juniper became an inferno in a matter of minutes. Dawn brought the menace of a towering column of smoke rising from the top of the mountain like the plume of a volcano.

Mano, Blue, Sam, Joe, and the young foreman Reece stood looking at the column of smoke. A strong wind blew the smoke to the east, indicating that the fire moved in that direction. Blue growled, "By tomorrow at this time, we'd best be prepared for the worst. That fire's going to come busting out of those canyons."

"Right," agreed Sam. "I think we'd best get everyone prepared to fight the flames – women and children included."

"Those not school age," Blue stated to Reece, "can be handed over to Nurse Fitzjames for care. The rest can join the women. I suggest the men tell their wives to wear pants and shirts – I don't want someone's dress catching fire. We need to gather all the burlap sacks. We can put the children to work finding all the empty burlap sacks. Meantime, Reece, get a crew over to Gardner Canyon and start building a firebreak. Cut all the mesquite and plow the land – we need a band about 50 yards wide. Have the men use shovels and picks to make up for our lack of plows. If the fire comes right down that canyon, it'll hit us square on."

"Yes, sir," Reece stated.

Blue looked at his family and household staff gathered in the porch of the big house. "I'll get the family organized. Mano, are you going to stay and fight?"

"I will," Mano stated.

Sam and Joe looked at each other, then at Blue. Sam spoke, "Joe and I will take charge of the women and children – getting the burlap soaked, filling water barrels. We might need a couple men to help load the barrels in the trucks and wagons before we start filling them."

Blue nodded, "Good. Let's move."

Reece turned and headed for the bunkhouse where the men had gathered. He gathered the men around him. "The Boss is afraid that fire will come down Gardner Canyon and hit us here. He wants us to build a firebreak 50 yards wide between the fire and us. I want three teams – Mobley, you take eight men and go to the north of the canyon about a mile; Tom, you and Dave take sixteen men with you and go down the center of the canyon. One of you take eight men and work north to meet Mobley; the other, go south. And Frank, you take another eight men about a mile south of the canyon and work north. I'll take the rest of you to move cattle away from those flames. Those of you that are married, tell your wives to don pants and shirts. They'll join the team Sam and Joe are putting together – same with school-age children. Send your school-aged children to Sam and Joe right now. The Boss says those children younger than that should be handed over to Nurse Fitzjames at the house. Then the women need to join Sam and Joe. Take shovels, picks, axes, the few plows we got with the tractors to pull them and get moving."

The men moved quickly. Once advised, the three school-age children raced each other to reach Sam and Joe first. Joe took the children as Sam relayed the orders to Mrs. Butler and Tom's wife and they began the search for the empty burlap bags that lie scattered in a multitude of sheds around the compound. Four mothers carried their younger children to the ranch house to surrender them to Nurse Fitzjames; then they joined the other women gathering around Sam and Mrs. Butler. The women of the family – Victoria, Catherine, Elizabeth, Grace, and Joanne – as well as the women of the household staff joined the other women while Hugh and the other men of the household staff made their way to Reece for assignments. Wind maneuvered his chair into place among Sam's team. Blue, assured that all was in order, saddled his horse and rode with Reece to oversee the creation of the firebreak.

Mano wiped the sweat from his eyes. It was backbreaking work and he wondered if perhaps he should be at the Rancho de Montoya checking the ancient firebreaks there instead of working at the ranch of his sister's stepson. Then he would be the one riding from one work crew to the next with his foreman. Internally, he laughed at himself. He was not born to work. How many times had he told Victoria that? It seemed that every time he told her that – or every time he concluded that Carlos was mature enough to manage the ranch – he found himself over his head in work! What was a 65 year old man doing out in the hot desert sun digging brush out of the hard caliche soil? He shoved the spade into the earth and turned over another clump of last year's grass, dried, brown, and highly flammable. He shoveled dirt on top of the plant and pounded the back of the shovel on top of the dirt before moving to the next plant. Others around him dug into the soil or cut down mesquites, yuccas, century plants, desert broom, and creosote. He could hear the tractor pulling the plow on the first piece of land they cleared nearly two hours before.

A downdraft blew the smoke that billowed above their heads down on them, causing their lungs to burn and their eyes to water. When the smoke cleared, Mano looked up the canyon. It seemed to him that the line of smoke indicating the location of the fire was at least a quarter of a mile closer to them than before the downdraft. This was not good. He had seen it before – fire that overwhelmed the mountains and ripped through the valleys unimpeded by anything man could do to stop it. It would jump firebreaks and kill. The only hope was turning the fire. He hoped they would be able to turn it away from people – the Hendersons and several mining camps would be in the path of destruction if it turned south along the foot of the mountain. He prayed they were building their own firebreaks.

The children and Joe had found hundreds of burlap bags. They had dragged them to the water tower, where five trucks loaded with empty water barrels waited for the barrels to be loaded. Sam and Wind attached a hose to a valve at the bottom of the pipe leading from the water tower. Sam attached a wrench to the valve's knob. He and Wind opened the rusted, rigid valve and they watched as water flowed into a bucket before turning the valve just enough to stop the flow of water.

"We need to shorten the line," Sam said. "Mildred!" he called. Mildred ran to the two men. "Mildred, can you turn this?" Sam showed her how to use the wrench to turn the valve. She used all of her weight but she opened and closed the valve. "OK. When your Grandpa says on, you open the valve; when he says off, you close the valve. Got it?" She nodded. Sam patted her head and moved the buckets closer to the line of trucks as Wind wheeled his chair closer as well.

The women and the two remaining children formed a bucket line to pass the buckets from the hose to the barrels in the trucks. Sam jumped into the back of the first truck and lifted full water buckets into the truck, handing them off to Victoria, who poured the water into the bucket and handed the empty bucket to Joe, who passed the bucket down to the return line. Soon the column was functioning with speed and efficiency – at least as fast as the tower would fill buckets.

After an hour, Wind yelled, "Sam! We need to adjust the windmill!" He unlocked his chair and backed from the bucket. "Mildred, bring the wrench and come with me!" Mildred and Wind headed for the windmill as Sam and Joe jumped from the truck and followed.

Wind took the wrench from Mildred and reached over his head to the gear that connected the turning windmill to the pumping mechanism. The wrench barely touched the nut that controlled the speed. The presence of his granddaughter caused Wind to bite his tongue against the angry Pawnee words the rose to his throat. Joe took the wrench from him and attempted to turn the nut. It did not budge. Sam moved to the opposite side of Joe and pushed as Joe pulled. The wrench squealed against the nut but it did not move. Joe took the monkey wrench from Sam and tightened the jaws on the nut.

"Try again," he said. He pulled on the wrench while Sam pushed on it. With a shriek, the nut loosened enough to readjust the speed of the pump. They returned to the tower and the hose. Joe turned on the valve and the water flowed stronger than before. He and Sam returned to the truck.

The bucket line began passing buckets again.

Blue looked at the fire coming down the canyon. The fire had traveled another three or four miles down the canyon. Blue gathered his team together, went to Mobley's team that worked the north line, gathered the spare shovels and axes they had, and moved to the halfway point between them and Tom's team at the center of the firebreak. The fire was eating territory faster than the men could clear the land. He imagined Reece had seen the same as he had seen and was gathering shovels and axes from Frank's team.

Blue looked at Matthew and Mark, shirts thrown open, sweat glistening on their young chests as they raised and lowered the axes they had chosen in a joint effort to remove a particular mesquite from the ground. Blue wiped the sweat from his face and returned to his own tenacious mimosa grove. The roots of these small plants ran deep in the desert soil, reaching down into the depths for the scarce ground water of the region. In spring, the plants displayed a beautiful, feathery flower of sorts that colored the canyon in pink. However, the plant was, like all the desert plants of which Blue could think, also highly flammable. He had to destroy the grove to save the ranch.

Dusk brought exhausted men back to the ranch. The fire had descended halfway down the canyon. Blue, Mano, Sam, Joe, and Wind agreed that the fire would reach the firebreak by evening the following day. They had less than 24 hours to finish the break. The women had finished filling the barrels, soaked the burlaps bags; prepared other fire-fighting materials; set up tables and chairs in the courtyard before the house; and, together at the cookhouse, prepared a joint meal. Everyone ate and went to sleep in their own homes.

The wind changed direction during the night, blowing from the north rather than the west. The fire spread south, going both up the mountain and across the canyon. When the sun rose and revealed the change, the men took a momentary deep breath and returned to the firebreak. They moved south, trying to reach the frontier between the High Chaparral and Ed Henderson's ranch. Blue hoped they could join with Ed Henderson's men.

Victoria took charge of the chuck wagon, packing it with the ingredients to make meals in bulk, and moved all the women and children to the firebreak with the chuck wagon. There, the women created a camp. As Victoria and Mrs. Butler took charge of meals, the other women and the children joined the men in clearing the firebreak.

The wind grew in strength from the north, pushing the fire south with vigor. The mountain hid the flames; only the smoke told them where the fire was. As they worked together, they watched the wind and the smoke for any changes in direction. Blue sent Mark to Henderson's ranch.

Mark rode to the ranch and found no one. He followed the trail toward the fire and found Henderson and his family working hard to repair an old firebreak that Henderson had allowed to grow wild, just as Blue had allowed some parts of the High Chaparral's firebreak.

Mark called out to Henderson, "Father!"

Henderson left the firebreak and walked over to Mark. "Mark. How's it going? Does your father have the firebreak prepared?"

Mark answered, "Our firebreak is almost ready. What about yours? Do you need help?"

"We'll do fine. Or are you volunteering for the job?" Henderson asked.

Mark answered as he climbed out of the saddle, "Where's a shovel?"

He grabbed a shovel from the supply Henderson pointed out and joined his wife's nephew Max at a stubborn mesquite. By the time the sun began to set, they had removed that mesquite and several others, dragging them a distance from the firebreak. Henderson offered him a fast supper but he declined and rode back to his father's camp.

When Mark didn't return to camp when the women put the food out for dinner, Blue decided Henderson did need help and proceeded to tell Reece that he would take a team over to the Henderson ranch in the morning. As darkness descended, Mark rode into the Cannon camp.

"It's about time, boy," Blue stated as Mark came up and asked his mother for leftovers.

Mark answered, "Henderson needed help. Still needs help. His crew is down to the family. I don't know where his men are."

Mano answered, "They probably deserted him. The younger generation of cowhand doesn't have the loyalty of our generation."

Catherine brought Mark a plate of beans and biscuits. Blue stated, "Well, tomorrow I'll take a team over there and help him."

During the night, the wind strengthened again. .The smell of burning pines, junipers, mesquites, and grasses mingled into a horrid order that woke the camp. The men and women from the High Chaparral watched the line of orange on the side of the mountain as it flickered and flared, spreading along the southern fringes. The morning sun rose to a pillar of smoke that appeared to be too far south to have remained in the mountain. Blue ordered a team of men to join him on the trip to the Henderson ranch.

The scene that greeted the team horrified them. The fire had swept south, overtaking the camp where the Henderson family slept. The fire moved with the speed, efficiency, and unmitigated horror of a tornado of flame. The ranch house and outbuildings had burned to the ground with such strength that all that remained was white ash. The place where the corral had been was a circle of white ash surrounding the remains of two horses, also reduced to a pile of white ash and bleached bones. Smoke still rose from some of the bushes. The team searched for humans. They found the remains of Max and Helen sheltered in a crevice between two rocks. The hands of Ed and his wife looked as if they had been running hand in hand when the fire overtook them. Ed's three sons and their wives and children lie scattered along the trail from where Mark had left them the night before and beyond the house. The team dug graves beside where the bodies fell and buried the remains there.

As they returned to the High Chaparral work camp to break the news to Mark's wife Joanne about her father, mother, and brothers, the wind changed direction, blowing the fire back over the ground that burned the night before. The fire burned itself out as Joanne, the last of the Henderson family, wept in her husband's arms.