"If it was a signal, it would have been answered," rejoined a companion.
"Sure it would," asserted the third member of the party.
"Then what was it?" demanded the first.
"May have been a snake, or a mountain lion," suggested the man who had doubted the startling cry being a signal.
"Snake? Mountain lion?" repeated the other, in disgust. "Say, you'd better go back to the recruits till you learn the difference between a human voice and an animal's cry."
The three men were members of the Mounted Scouts, out on patrol duty from their station at Fort Griswold.
Two of them had been in the service three years, while the other was on his first detail, having only just been promoted from the band of recruits at the Fort.
Consequently, the sneering allusion to his inexperience cut deep, and he was about to retort fiercely, when the third scout prevented.
"Jennings is right, Scotty. It was a man's voice uttered that cry," he whispered.
"Then what does it mean?" persisted the youngster.