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Page 361

| Ashton stepped past her onto the porch. He wrapped his fingers around the porch railing and leaned his full weight against it, his nose twitching as it also picked up something besides the harsh smell of the parched earth and dust. |

| "What is it, Ashton?" Sasha asked, stepping gingerly beside him. She sniffed again, then she grew pale when in the distance she saw something blackish gray covering the azure sky. |

| "Damn it," Ashton suddenly exclaimed. "Smoke. What we're smelling is smoke! Look yonder! It's a bush fire! And, by God, it's headed our way!" |

| Sasha felt faint at the thought of what a fire could do in this withered country, where the wild winds moved incessantly through the trees from morning until night. A bush fire would be fueled by the dead vegetation. Nothing would survive in its path! |

| "Sasha, grab some blankets and hurry to the river! Wet the blankets and wrap them around you!" Ashton ordered. "There's no use trying to save anything but our lives. There won't be enough time!" |

| "But what about our sheep? Our horses? Our cattle?" Sasha cried, panic grabbing her insides. "What about all of our hired help?" |

| "We can't worry about our stock. The human life is all that is important here. I'm going to ride out and warn the men and try my damndest to get everyone back to the protection of the river," Ashton said, hurrying from the porch. "Hurry, Sasha! Don't waste time trying to save anything but yourself! Get to the river! Now!" |

| "What about Cloud?" Sasha cried after Ashton, |

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