Free The Mystery of the Moonlight Murder by Roderick Benns Page B

glancing nervously out the tiny shack’s window. The small room was lit by a strange glow from the window, even though it was obviously still the middle of the night. Ed flung open the door and ran outside and as he did so the room was bathed in a warm, orange light. He shouted over his shoulder to Elmer and John as he ran toward the main house.
    â€œYou boys come to the house. Let’s go!”
    â€œWhat’s going on?” asked John, scared and confused as he dressed quickly.
    â€œYou’re the one who was shouting ‘fire’ and woke us up!” exclaimed Elmer, stuffing his feet into his shoes. “The whole prairie is on fire, John!”
    John stumbled over to the doorway, a fragment of his strange dream about an eagle beginning to come back into his mind. He
    then looked outside to see the darkness cut by a wide swath of brilliant orange fire in the distance, gorging on the dry grass that stood in its way. He felt his stomach knot in fear as he realized the sheer size of the great blaze. A grass fire—the thing homesteaders feared most.
    John and Elmer raced across the dry ground, imagining their own homestead engulfed in flames. Ed’s shack seemed to be further away and safe for the moment. And yet, it was possible that everything they owned—their home, their barns, their crop of wheat—would be lost under the torrent of fire racing across the land in the distance. As they ran, they watched the fire grow in intensity in the distance, a pulsing roar they could even smell as it gobbled up the countryside.
    The thirsty land over the past couple of weeks had created the perfect conditions for the deadly lightening strikes overnight. John imagined that when they had gone to bed with lightning flashing in the distance, it must have struck a dry tree. The resulting strike would have splintered the tree, creating deadly sparks that would have fallen on the tinder-dry grasslands of the prairies. With nothing but wide open dry grasslands, the fire would have grown like a flash.
    As they closed in on the main homestead, John and Elmer saw their father come running out with his shirt half on, almost colliding with Ed, who had been screaming his brother’s name the whole way. The two of them now worked together, shout-
    ing to each other about what was best to do. William saw Elmer and John running toward the house. He yelled for them to stay close to the home, just as Mary and Summer quickly made their own exit.
    Mary gathered John, Elmer, and Summer together and tersely issued instructions. “Get towels and rags and wet them from the two water barrels. Then line the bottoms of the doorways.”
    With anxious faces everyone did as they were told, knowing how precious water was but also understanding the threat.
    John knew his father and uncle were about to do the only possible thing that might save them from the fire’s path of destruction. They were going to hitch the horses to a plough and dig deep furrows in the land all around the property. Hopefully, when the fire reached the freshly dug black earth it would have no new dry grass to feast on and simply stop at that exact point where the grasses burned off.
    The animals in their paddocks were restless, pacing around and smelling the burning air. William and Ed led Skipper and Blue out of the barn but the horses were afraid of the danger that they sensed. Both of them resisted and began to tug their massive heads backwards.
    John stole glances at his father and uncle who were frantically trying to hitch up the horse team to the plough. He knew it made sense to use the horses, rather than the oxen, because horses could do the job more quickly and time meant every-
    thing now. John wished he was helping them, rather than wetting rags. He felt he could assemble the team faster than them if given the chance.
    â€œDang it! Whooaa!” William bellowed, trying to get control of Skipper while Ed tried to do the same with