In one particular spot he believed he could see a faint column of pale blue smoke climbing straight skyward from amidst the thick growth. Elmer was a pretty good woodsman, and he did not have to be told that such smoke always comes from well seasoned wood, while black smoke springs from greener stuff.
Some one had a fire over there, that was evident, and knew what sort of fuel to select in the bargain; which fact made it patent that he was educated in the ways of the woods. Elmer's curiosity was excited. He wondered who their neighbor could be. Was it some fishing party, perhaps camped on the shore of the unseen lake on the bosom of which that loon they had heard cry had been swimming at the time?
Of course there might be numerous answers to the question Elmer was asking himself. Perhaps lumbermen were looking over the property which had lately come into the possession of Mr. Snodgrass, with an idea of making him a proposition for the right to cut off the big timber. Then again, charcoal-burners sometimes worked in the season; or it might be game wardens were abroad, with the idea of catching detested poachers at their work.
Then last of all Elmer thought of Jem Shock, the slippery customer whom no warden had thus far been able to catch red-handed, breaking the game laws; and who, it seemed, had gained an unenviable reputation for boldness as well as knavery, so that his name, bandied about from lip to lip, had gradually become a synonym for everything that was bad, whether the fellow deserved it or not.
Well, they knew that this same Jem lived somewhere in the wilderness, since he seldom appeared in any town; and what more likely than that his camp lay over yonder, where the blue trail of smoke lifted toward the sky?
Elmer felt an enticing temptation beginning to assail him. It has been said before that he had found himself attracted toward Jem Shock, simply because of a curiosity to know what the real man might be like; for Elmer was loath to believe all he heard about any one, knowing how stories are magnified in the telling.
And by the time breakfast was over with, the scout leader had decided that he would take a little stroll, which might, there was no telling, carry him in the direction of the blue column of smoke.
It happened that Rufus was so busy getting ready to start out with his surveying instruments that he had given no thought to looking around. Lil Artha on his part would, of course, take note of the general lay of the land; but with the ridge to serve as a guide he believed he could always make a bee-line back to camp whenever the necessity arose.
All was soon ready, and Alec, laden with the heavier material, called out a cheery goodbye to the two who were being left behind.
"I'm glad this day that I've got on the braw khaki breeks," he was saying, "for if they were woollen ye maun rest assured it would tak all my time picking off the beggars' lice, as ye call these little burrs. We'll be back the noo and expectin' lunch to be served, George, remember, lad."