"The one we said was a lantern? Then you think, now, it might have been a fire?" questioned the Kentucky lad.
"Well, I just don't know what to think. But let's look around a bit, and see if we can locate this fire," Frank suggested.
After moving around for a short time as well as the darkness allowed the two boys came together again.
"No luck, eh?" questioned Frank.
"Didn't find a thing; but I stumbled over a creek and came near taking a header down-grade that would have made that plunge of Peg's take a back seat. Just in the nick of time I managed to grab a little tree. Phew! it shook me up, though," and Bob rubbed one of his shins as though he might have "barked" it at the time of the encounter.
"Same here; only I didn't happen to fall," replied Frank.
"So it seems as if we were no better off than before," remarked Bob, dejectedly.
"We've learned where the fire isn't, if that's any satisfaction to us," chuckled his chum, trying to make the best of a bad bargain.
"And that smoke smells so meaning-like, it's sure a shame we can't just get a line on where it comes from," Bob went on to say.
Frank seemed to catch a significance in his words, for he turned sharply on his companion, saying: