Spent from the long, hard climb up the steep trail, War and Willie nevertheless greeted the other Scouts with good humor.
“Where you fellows been?” Ken demanded as the party retired to the shelter of the tents. “We thought you were lost on the mountain.”
“You don’t think we’d be that dumb?” War scoffed, flinging himself down near the fire which Jack had rekindled.
“As a matter of truth, we were lost for a little while,” Willie admitted with a laugh. “We went exploring.”
“That was a very risky thing to do in this country,” Mr. Livingston chided. “You shouldn’t have left camp.”
“Sure, we know that now,” War agreed. “But we had to find out the hard way.”
“What happened after we left?” Ken questioned impatiently. “You started off in search of us—or were you hoping to find Mr. Corning?”
“It was like this,” War said, stirring the fire with a stick. “Last night, shortly after dusk, we saw those signals again.”
“The light flashes?” Jack asked.
“Yeah,” War nodded, “only the signals didn’t come from this camp. They were being flashed from half way down to the valley floor.”