The Forest Fire Mystery by Troy Nesbit

Author:Troy Nesbit
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781589798700
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing

13

In the Logging Camp

“If Maynard thinks he can keep me from getting a perlite specimen he’s crazy,” Art told Joe that evening when he reported to him everything that had been going on. “I’ll just take my rock hammer to that ledge above Fittelson’s Folly and knock off another piece. You’re still planning to hike up there with me tomorrow, aren’t you?”

“Natch,” Joe answered.

But when the next morning came, Mr. Romero was still out fighting the forest fire, and this meant that Joe had to tend the gas pumps at the garage. By the time Joe was free at last to make the trip up the mountain, Art had to put in two full days of work at the Inn. Then Joe broke a tooth and had to go to the dentist. This Art considered such a piece of bad luck that he felt honor bound to wait until Tuesday so that Joe could take the much-postponed hike with him.

However, the behavior of Atchison and Santa Fe forced Art to revise his schedule. On Monday during the lunch hour, the two burros arrived at the edge of the field behind the Inn and set up a shattering serenade for their mother who was grazing peacefully on the other side of the sturdy fence.

Liz jumped from her chair. “Yipe! What’s wrong?” she cried in distress.

“What’s wrong is that they’ve run away from Mr. Maynard again, I’ll bet,” Art called after her as she flew out the door.

Mr. Mills chuckled. “Well, if Mr. Maynard wants ’em back, he’ll come and let you know.”

Art agreed, but Liz wouldn’t hear of any delay in returning the burros, once she was sure they hadn’t been hurt or mistreated. When she rented burros, they had to stay rented, she explained. If they didn’t, she felt that she’d have to return part of the five dollars Mr. Maynard had paid her. And she had none of it left. It seemed obvious to her that there was every reason in the world for hurrying up the mountain with Atchison and Santa Fe.

In the end Art said he’d go along.

Once again the procession started up the mountain, Art on Topeka and Liz riding Flossie. Atchison and Santa Fe quite cheerfully plodded back toward the place from which they had just run away.

“I wonder if all burros are tied to their mothers’ apron strings the way ours are,” Art said.

“I don’t think so,” Liz answered. “Flossie and her children are special. They must be. She’s just an extra good mother.”

“How do you know?” Art asked teasingly. “How many burros have you owned in your long life?”

“Why, it’s just logical,” Liz said. “If all burro colts stayed around their mothers the way ours do, they never would have spread very far from where they started. They’d be like kangaroos that aren’t found anywhere but Australia.”

Maybe Liz was right, Art thought. One thing was sure—if everybody who used the animals had as much trouble as Maynard was having, most burros could go through life without having to do any work.

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