THE MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSION
"Wow! that was a stunner all right!" exclaimed Bud. "Why, honest,
I could feel the ground shake under me when that thunder clap came!
And as I happened to be looking over there where the opening lies,
the flash nearly blinded me."
"Lightning and thunder in November is something you don't often meet,"
was the comment of Ralph, turning a perplexed face toward Hugh, as
though depending on the leader of the Wolf patrol to solve the puzzle.
Without saying a word, Hugh jumped to his feet and went outside to
take a look around. He came back almost immediately, and his face
told them that his investigation instead of clearing up the mystery
had only added to it.
"What did you find out, Hugh?" questioned Bud.
"Not a single cloud to be seen in all the sky!" said the other
impressively.
"Whew! that seems queer, doesn't it?" faltered Bud.
"And it must be almost down to freezing, into the bargain," added
the patrol leader. "I've seen lightning before, in February even,
but always during a thaw. Fact is, boys, I can't believe that it was
either lightning or thunder we saw and heard."
"But, Hugh, what could it have been then?" demanded Ralph.
"If we were nearer the granite quarries, I'd say they had set off an
extra big blast. You know we sometimes hear a faraway boom over home.
Sound travels many miles when there's a sub-strata of rock like a
ledge to act as a conductor."
"Yes, but then I understood work had stopped there for the season
the Saturday before Thanksgiving," volunteered Bud. "Still, they
may be doing some blasting, just to keep things moving as long
as the snow holds off. If that was a blast of dynamite, it must
have been a stunner to make the earth quiver so much."
Hugh made no reply. Plainly he was deeply impressed with the
mysterious nature of the unannounced explosion. And when once Hugh
started to find out what things meant, he seldom let the matter
drop until he had accomplished his purpose.
Bud also went to the door and looked out, his curiosity having been
duly aroused. Hence he did not hear Ralph make a significant
admission.
"Now that I come to think of it," the other remarked, "for the last
two nights I can remember hearing a distant, dull sound that I
thought was a heavy blast off in this quarter. I chanced to be
outdoors each night about ten o'clock. It's come much earlier
this time, it seems; but, anyhow, that is getting to be a regular
nightly performance I wonder if they are working over in the granite
quarries? I'm something of a sticker when anything bothers me like
this, and for three cents I'd take a turn over that way to-morrow
just to satisfy my mind."
"I was wondering whether those two men you saw could have had
anything to do with that queer crash and flash?" suggested Hugh
slowly.
"Ginger! I wonder now!" exclaimed Ralph, who apparently had not
thought to connect the pair of strangers with the mysterious goings-on.
"But they didn't seem to have anything along with them at that
time. I remember seeing the taller man take something out of his
pocket and examine it, Hugh; and at the time it struck me the shiny
object looked mighty like one of these modern automatic pistols."
Hugh shook his head as though, try as he would, as yet he could see
no way of solving the puzzle. Just then Bud came back, having fixed
the door the same way he had found it, with the loose board used as
a prop to keep it in position.
"Just as you said, Hugh," he announced, "it's clear as a bell, with
a young moon hanging low in the western sky and the stars shining
like all get-out. No siree, thunder never yet was heard on a night
like this. So I guess it must have been a blast. They do say
dynamite shakes the ground a heap more than powder, because its
force is always directed downward. If you put a cartridge on top
of a big rock and fire it, the boulder is shattered to pieces.
Powder you've got to put underneath every time."
"Correct, Bud, you go up to the head of the class," laughed Hugh.
"I wanted to ask Ralph if when he used to camp around here last
winter he ever knew the air to be clear enough to hear the noise
of the mill over at town?"
"Why, it's a good many miles away," returned Ralph, "and I don't
know that I ever did hear what you say. But what makes you ask
that, Bud?"
"Oh! the atmosphere must be doing its prettiest then, to-night,"
came the answer. "While I was standing just outside the door I
could hear the plain rattle of the machinery, though it died away
quick enough. I understand that business is so good that they're
running a night shift at the mills. And sounds can be heard a
long way off after sunset, can't they, Hugh?"
"That's all as true as anything, Bud, though if you'd asked me my
opinion before you spoke, I would have said it was foolish to think
we could hear the mills so far away as this, no matter how clear
the frosty air might be."
"Well, that may be," remarked the other boy doggedly; "but I did hear
machinery pounding away at a right merry pace, give you my word on
that. I even stepped out further and looked around, but there
wasn't a thing in sight, only the stars shining up there and the
little horned moon dropping down close to the horizon."
"We came up here thinking we'd be all alone and could do what we'd
planned without being interrupted," observed Hugh, "but seems as
though we've dropped on the queerest sort of a mystery the very
first thing. And as scouts always stand to investigate what they
don't understand, I reckon we'll have our hands full prying into
this thing."
"But don't let it make my affairs take second place, Hugh," pleaded
Bud. "What if some fellow does happen to be using up explosives by
the cartload, that oughtn't to interfere with the trying out of the
little invention which the brain of a Morgan has conjured up, and
which, if successful, will be a blessing to science, as well as to
aviators in particular."
Ralph pricked up his ears at hearing these last few words. No doubt
they set him to wondering what Bud had invented now; but the latter
did not take the time or trouble to let him into the secret, so
Ralph just had to possess his soul in patience.
"You needn't think that I'll let anything drag me away from the first
object of our trip up here, Bud," soothed the patrol leader, who knew
how deeply in earnest his chum was. "But it may be that we'll find
the time to look into this other business, too. If more shocks come
that are as bad as that one was, we're not apt to get much sleep
to-night, boys."
"Then here's hoping they'll stay away," wished Bud. "Why, a few
more shocks like that would start all my joints loose, I do believe!
Could that have been a meteor bursting, do you think, Hugh?"
"Well, that's a new idea," admitted the other, "and one that didn't
come to me, I'll own up. A meteor can fall at any old time, day
or night, though we only see them shooting after dark sets in.
When one of these fragments of fused metal and slag does rush
toward the earth and bury itself in the ground, it makes just
such a brilliant flash. Some say there is a fearful crash when
it strikes. Stranger things have happened, I take it, Bud, than
to believe that was a falling meteor of a pretty good size."
"But don't shooting stars generally fall in the summer time, Hugh?"
questioned Bud.
It had become a habit with most of the scouts to ask the Wolf
leader any and all sorts of questions, as though he might be looked
upon as a walking encyclopedia or dictionary; and it kept Hugh
pretty busy accumulating information in order to be well posted for
these constant demands on his time and patience.
"Yes, I believe the earth does pass through the greatest showers
of meteors in August, but then there are lots of them loose at any
time. I've read of some remarkable ones being dug out of the earth
in various places. If this should prove to be a big meteor and we
could find where it struck, it would be a feather in the caps of
the scouts. Some old professor would be hustling up this way as
soon as we let them know at Yale or Harvard."
"Then we'll try to find where it struck!" declared Ralph.
"It would be as bad as hunting for a needle in a haystack in all
this big wilderness," ventured Bud; "though there'd be no harm in
our trying,---that is, if I'm in any shape to go with you after I've
had my little innings."
Again did Ralph wear a puzzled frown as he heard Bud make this
significant remark. He must have wondered more than ever what it
could possibly be that the other had conceived this time. On other
occasions his efforts, while ambitious, had ended in smoke, and the
rest of the boys often quizzed poor Bud most unmercifully on account
of his shortcomings. But then, all great inventors must make a
beginning. It is not expected that genius can take the saddle at
one bound. Persistence counts more in such cases than anything else.
The fellow who has faith in himself is apt to get there in the end,
no matter what grievous disappointments waylay him on his course;
that is, if he really amounts to more than a flash in the pan. Bud
sometimes comforted himself with reflections along this order. He
was not easily cast down, and that counted for a good deal.
The three scouts sat in the shack crosslegged, like so many Turks,
and chatted busily as time passed on. Ralph was easily induced
to speak of his various experiences when he used to trap in this
same neighborhood during past winters. He had run across a number
of strange things that were well worth telling; and Hugh especially
showed the keenest kind of interest in all he had to say.
Bud, like most promising candidates among those destined to become
truly great, had a habit of forgetting that there were others
present besides himself. He would fall into a reflective mood and
knit his brow as though wrestling with grave problems, upon the
solving of which the fate of nations depended.
Ralph knew all about the habits of foxes, mink, otter, weasels,
muskrats, raccoons, 'possums and divers other small fur-bearing
animals such as give up their warm coats for the purpose of keeping
ladies' hands and necks comfortable during wintry blasts. He had
had many amusing experiences with some of them, and as the scout
patrol leader never wearied of learning interesting facts at first
hand, Ralph was kept busy talking and answering questions, until
considerable time had slipped by and there was Bud yawning as
though threatening to dislocate his jaws.
"Guess we'd better be thinking of bunking down for the night,"
suggested Hugh. "Did you fetch a blanket along with you, Ralph?"
"Well, I'm too old a hand to be caught napping in the woods without
thinking of the night that is coming," replied the other, laughing
at the same time. "Over in the corner you'll see the bully red
blanket that's hugged me tight on many a cold night when I was
tending my line of traps. I feel that it is like an old friend
when I get it tucked around me, and you'd think I was an Esquimo
lying there, or one of those mummies they get out of Mexican catacombs."
"That's all right," Hugh declared; "I thought you were too sensible
to come up here and spend a night at this time of year without
something to keep you from freezing. Why, even on a summer night
that starts in hot, it's apt to feel chilly along about three in
the morning. I've seen the time when I'd have given a heap to have
my blanket along; and the only thing I could do was to get up and
start the fire booming again."
The three boys started to pick out the best spots for making their
beds, each one being governed by some idea of his own. It was lucky
they did not all think alike, or they must have drawn straws for
first choice.
Hugh was carefully laying his blanket down so that he could crawl
into it as if it were a bag, after he had taken his shoes and some
of his outer clothing off, when he felt a gentle tug at his sleeve.
"Hugh!" said a soft voice in a whisper.
"What is it, Ralph?" questioned the other, going right along with what
he was doing in order not to show that there was anything amiss.
"Don't act as if I was saying anything out of the common, Hugh," said
the other; "but first chance you get, peep out of the tail of your
eye at the broken window, and you'll find that we're being watched!"