THE TALKING SMOKE.
"Well, I declare if they don't use the same sort of signals the scouts do down our way!" exclaimed Jimmy, looking rather disgusted, as though he had caught some one stealing his thunder.
Ned had to laugh at the blank expression of his assistant's face.
"Why, Jimmy," he said, "you forget that the scout movement is only half a dozen years old. It began after the Boer war, when General Baden-Powell saw what a great thing it would be for the whole British Nation, if every boy learned a thousand things about all creation, useful things at that. And, Jimmy, don't forget that smoke was used to signal with for hundreds of years before ever the white man landed on the shores of America."
"Say, that's right, Ned, they always made fires with their flints, didn't they? And these men up here, hunters, trappers, or whatever they may be, inherited the Injun way of sending messages. Sure, I knew it all along. The only trouble with me is I go and forget things. But what d'ye think they are doin' sending out that old smoke signal?"
"They've got friends within seeing distance, because smoke can be sighted many miles away, especially when it rises as straight as it's doing now," Jack ventured to interpose.
"The crowd over on the Harricanaw River, you mean?" demanded Jimmy.
"Yes."
"Then they'll be apt to know we gave 'em the slip, won't they?" the freckled faced scout continued.
"I suppose they will, because you notice that every now and then the smoke seems to stop," Ned answered. "As a scout in good standing, Jimmy, you ought to know how that's done."
"Two fellers swing a blanket over the smoking wood and smother it for a bit, to send up another big puff. Yes, that's what they call talking. Letters are formed by the puffs of smoke, just as we do the same with the wigwag flags, or the piece of looking-glass in the sun, when we heliograph."
"And right now, somewhere or other, one or more of those men must be reading out the message, letter by letter," said the patrol leader seriously, while they continued to walk on.
"It won't take long to tell how we happened to show up at the mine, and took a nice little saunter through the same, seeing how fine it was being cured—I mean salted," Teddy interrupted, thinking that Jimmy had done more than his full share of the cross questioning, and ought to give place to some one else.
"I shouldn't think it would," agreed Ned.
"I wonder now if the men over on the river will guess what happened, and how we must have left our boats secreted somewhere above?" ventured Frank.
"That is something we have no means of telling," Ned informed him; "but since it might happen, we'll have to keep a sharp lookout on the way across country. We might fall into ambush, and either be shot down or else made prisoners."
"I don't know which would be worse," grumbled Jimmy.
"Whew! what if they should happen on our, canoes, after all the trouble we took to hide the same?" suggested Jack, looking as solemn as an owl.
"The walking is fairly decent all the way from Hudson Bay to Montreal, barring a dozen rivers to cross, a score of bogs miles and miles around, some pretty hefty mountain chains to pass over, and some more troubles too silly to mention," was the way Jimmy made light of the possible calamity.
Ned himself knew that it would be a terrible mishap should anything like this come to pass. He had thought it all over more than once, and even mapped out several plans for their guidance in case of such an event.
Walking back was next to an utter impossibility. They might manage with the aid of Francios and the Cree Indian to manufacture some sort of canoes, providing the proper kind of bark was to be procured this far north, which he doubted very much. Besides this, there was a slender chance that they might signal to some whaling vessel on the great bay and procure a berth for each of them aboard, so as to be landed at Halifax or Montreal, anywhere so that they could use the telegraph, and keep Mr. Bosworth and his company from investing a dollar in the wonderful copper mine, until the scouts reached home again.
So Ned, having looked further ahead than any of his chums, was not so much impressed by the gravity of the threatening evil, in case they did lose their highly valued canoes. He would begrudge the loss of his blanket and some other articles more than anything else, as they had memories connected with them of dead and gone events, in which he and some of the other boys of the trip had figured.
As they pushed on every little while they could catch glimpses of the talking smoke signals in the rear. Doubtless the fire that was supplying the smoke for this method of communicating with the distant posse had been built on the side of the hill in which the mine lay. That would account for their being able to see it for such length of time.
"Must be giving a whole history of the awful disaster," Jimmy muttered, after he had turned for the sixth time to see the smoke still waving in fantastic wreaths against the sky.
"Slow-pokes, that's what," ventured Teddy. "Why, when I was a mere tenderfoot I could send messages better than that."
"Don't find fault," advised Jack. "The longer it takes the signal man to send on his news, the better chance we'll have of slipping away before any trap can be laid or sprung, don't you see?"
"And as we're first-class scouts," said Jimmy, boastfully, "why, we're able to beat such dubs, with one hand tied behind our backs."
Perhaps all the others agreed with the speaker, even though no one voiced his sentiments just then. Jimmy was well calculated to do all the boasting for an entire party on occasion; but then he meant all he said.
Pretty soon Frank made a discovery that caused him to break loose and voice his surprise.
"Why, Ned, we don't seem to be heading down towards the big bay?" he observed.
"That's right, Frank," came the quiet answer.
"But I thought we'd surely have to follow the trail back there, just as we came?" Frank continued, as though sorely perplexed.
"We would," the patrol leader informed him, "if we were going back the same way we came, because it would be necessary to get in touch with our blazed trail, meaning all those landmarks we noted so carefully when coming on."
"What's that, did we have all that trouble for nixey?" blurted out Jimmy.
"Don't say for nothing, Jimmy," urged Ned; "because when you've gone to work and stored a lot of things up in your mind like we did, you've been exercising your memory, and that's always a splendid thing to do. We certainly noticed a bunch of queer growths in the woods as we came along, though it's hardly likely any of us will ever set eyes on them again."
"But why the change, Ned, if you don't object to telling us?" asked Jack.
"It's only right you should know why I took it on myself to do this," replied the other, modestly; "and then if anybody objects, and explains on what grounds he bases his kick, perhaps it won't be too late to turn out and find the blazed trail yet."
"Proceed, please," urged Frank.
"I thought that since our presence here is known, that those at the mine would be able in some way to communicate with the dozen or more rascals over at the river. And there would always be a pretty strong chance of our being waylaid while on the road back to the boats. If any one found our trail that would make it a foregone conclusion. And so I thought we'd be wise to start in fresh."
"I saw you consulting your compass many times, while on the way over, Ned," and this remark from Frank caused the patrol leader to smile and nod in the affirmative.
"Which tells me you've got your location all down pat," continued Frank, energetically. "Right now, if I asked you, chances are you'd be able to point straight in the direction where the river lies; yes, and straight at our boats. Is that correct, Ned?"
For answer, the other raised his hand and pointed.
"What direction would you say lies right there, Frank?" he asked.
Frank had to turn his head and observe the position of the sun, as well as do considerable mental figuring, before feeling able to make answer; which would indicate that he had been caught napping, and was not so well prepared as a wide-awake scout should always be.
"Let's see," he went on to say, slowly; "according to my calculations that ought to be not more than a point away from due east."
"It is exactly east, and the river lies there;" Ned pursued, confidently; and no one had ever been able to catch him in an error when it came to topography, for the patrol leader had very few equals in studying the lay of the land. "Of course, our canoes lie some little distance above; so that pretty soon we'll begin to shift our line of travel more to the southeast. I have strong hopes that when we do strike the Harricanaw, it will be close to the boats."
"And going this way is shorter than following the back trail away down to the bay, and then picking up our other course from there?" Teddy ventured to say; nor was his proposition disputed by even the one who objected so often, Jimmy.
"I'm only sorry for one thing," this latter scout said, presently.
"I bet you now he's going to tip off that silly, old story again about the vanishing fleet of vessels out on Hudson Bay, and say he did hope we might crack that hard nut while we were up here," Frank told them, whereat Jimmy slapped him vigorously on the back, and exclaimed:
"You'd better get a punkin and hollow out half for a skull cap, Frank. Then you could go and sit in the market-place and pass for a seer; because now and then you do have a bright thought, and actually guess something. That was just what bothered Jimmy McGraw, sure it was. If we go away from here and leave that mystery unsolved, who's ever agoin' to do it, tell me that? Don't they kinder look to the scouts to do anything and everything these here days, that other folks can't just manage. Huh! ain't ever a child wanders away from home and gets lost in the woods, but what they send out a call, not for the fire company, like they used to do; but it's 'the scouts c'n find poor little Jennie; let the scouts get on the track, and in three shakes of a lamb's tail, they'll have the child safe at home!'"
"Well, there's a whole lot of truth in what you say, Jimmy, though none of us ought to be given to boasting," Jack declared, proudly; "I've helped find three lost children, two old men who were out of their minds and had wandered away from home, about sixteen stray cows, a horse, too, and even had a hand in killing that big mad dog that came down the street of the Long Island town where I spent one of my vacations some years ago."
"Good for the Black Bear Patrol," said Jimmy; "which makes me feel sicker than ever, because we've got to go back home, without having a shot at that punk old mystery of Hudson Bay. We could find out all about it, you take my word for it, Jack. Put five fellers as smart as this bunch onto anything that's cooked up, for some reason or other, and they're bound to unearth the game. Once I helped gather in the biggest lot of bogus money-makers, with Ned here, that you ever set your lamps on. D'ye know, deep down in my heart, I've got a hunch that this queer fleet that comes and goes like it was made up of ghost craft, will turn out to be something like that. You'll sure find that men are back of it that don't want to be seen at too close range; though what under the sun they're adoin' away up here gets me."
About this time Ned gave the signal that called for less noise; and Jimmy was, in consequence, compelled to bottle up some of wonder and disappointment. He had perhaps, hoped to get a "rise" after his dextrous cast, and in this way learn what one or more of his mates thought about the matter. As it was he continued to ponder, look solemn, and occasionally shake his head, as though unable to decide on any settled course.
"Don't believe we'll have any more jogging from those three men we tracked," Teddy went on to say, a little later; "because two of them must have got hurt, if yells speak for anything. I wonder if Jimmy's black pirate chieftain was one of the potted victims."
"He wasn't that one we saw come out holding on to his arm, like he thought he'd be likely to lose the same," Jimmy informed him. "That was the man dressed like a hunter, wearing a buckskin coat and fringed trousers. Gee! I thought that sort of stuff had all gone up the spout since khaki came in for woods' use?"
"Oh! well," Jack reminded him, "just remember where you are, and that there are men up here who still think Queen Victoria is sitting on the English throne, because they never get in touch with civilization. Life with them is only eat and sleep, and sell a few furs in the spring, to the factor at a post of the Hudson Bay Company, which they spend for ammunition, whiskey and such necessities. The skins they take, furnish them with clothes, moccasins, and even caps. Can you beat it, for a life without worry?"
"Give me the white man's burden, every time; if a lot of other things go with it, like we get at a supper down at Coney Island in the good old summer time," was Frank's idea.
Strange, how boys will let their thoughts stray back to other fields, even when facing peril in the Canada bush. To hear these lads talk, one would never think that they were at the same time keeping a constant lookout for enemies, who would be apt to deal harshly with them because Ned and his chums had outwitted the shrewd schemers owning the fake mine.
It was nearly half an hour later, when they discovered that smoke was also rising directly in the east. Evidently some of the men, over on the Harricanaw, were sending back an answer to the message in smoke, which had been thrown out against the sky, by those guarding the mine.
"Mebbe I don't wish I could read their old signals," declared Jimmy; "but, I just can't. They've got a different code to the one the scouts use, which makes it all Chocktaw to me. If anybody can give a guess what they're saying, put us wise, please."