"What's the matter, now, Merritt?" he asked softly but solicitously. "Hope you haven't got a stone bruise on your heel. Did you hear anything suspicious? Are we going to be held up by a patrol? Oh! dear, why don't you hurry and tell us the worst?"
"What do you make of that flickering light over there, Rob?" asked Merritt. "It seems to be in an open field, as near as I can understand. Just watch how it keeps on jumping up and down, then sideways."
"Why, it caught my eye just about the time you spoke, Merritt," came the reply from the patrol leader. "It must either be the work of some crazy person, or else a way of signaling by lantern."
"Say, I honestly believe you've struck the truth that shot, Rob," broke in Tubby, who had, of course, immediately turned toward the spot indicated. "See the way he swings the light around and makes all manner of figures in the air with the same. Why, that was the letter N, as sure as you live. And there goes E, followed by W and S. What does that spell but NEWS? Hey! we're on the track of a discovery!"
"Will you keep still, Tubby, and let's see if he begins again?" said Merritt eagerly.
"That must have been the last word of his message," remarked Rob quickly, "but chances are he'll repeat it. Stand ready to spell it out as well as we can. Three scouts accustomed to reading the Myers code of fire signaling ought to—— There, that was C; and after that O, A, S, T—which means COAST."
Slowly, and somewhat laboriously, the boys spelled the message, letter for letter, their previous training proving of the greatest help; and this was the result:
"Coast clear—safe landing here—important news!"