THE TALKING SMOKE.
"Well, I declare if they don't use the same sort of signals the scouts
do down our way!" exclaimed Jimmy, looking rather disgusted, as though
he had caught some one stealing his thunder.
Ned had to laugh at the blank expression of his assistant's face.
"Why, Jimmy," he said, "you forget that the scout movement is only half
a dozen years old. It began after the Boer war, when General
Baden-Powell saw what a great thing it would be for the whole British
Nation, if every boy learned a thousand things about all creation,
useful things at that. And, Jimmy, don't forget that smoke was used to
signal with for hundreds of years before ever the white man landed on
the shores of America."
"Say, that's right, Ned, they always made fires with their flints,
didn't they? And these men up here, hunters, trappers, or whatever they
may be, inherited the Injun way of sending messages. Sure, I knew it all
along. The only trouble with me is I go and forget things. But what
d'ye think they are doin' sending out that old smoke signal?"
"They've got friends within seeing distance, because smoke can be
sighted many miles away, especially when it rises as straight as it's
doing now," Jack ventured to interpose.
"The crowd over on the Harricanaw River, you mean?" demanded Jimmy.
"Yes."
"Then they'll be apt to know we gave 'em the slip, won't they?" the
freckled faced scout continued.
"I suppose they will, because you notice that every now and then the
smoke seems to stop," Ned answered. "As a scout in good standing, Jimmy,
you ought to know how that's done."
"Two fellers swing a blanket over the smoking wood and smother it for a
bit, to send up another big puff. Yes, that's what they call talking.
Letters are formed by the puffs of smoke, just as we do the same with
the wigwag flags, or the piece of looking-glass in the sun, when we
heliograph."
"And right now, somewhere or other, one or more of those men must be
reading out the message, letter by letter," said the patrol leader
seriously, while they continued to walk on.
"It won't take long to tell how we happened to show up at the mine, and
took a nice little saunter through the same, seeing how fine it was
being cured--I mean salted," Teddy interrupted, thinking that Jimmy had
done more than his full share of the cross questioning, and ought to
give place to some one else.
"I shouldn't think it would," agreed Ned.
"I wonder now if the men over on the river will guess what happened, and
how we must have left our boats secreted somewhere above?" ventured
Frank.
"That is something we have no means of telling," Ned informed him; "but
since it might happen, we'll have to keep a sharp lookout on the way
across country. We might fall into ambush, and either be shot down or
else made prisoners."
"I don't know which would be worse," grumbled Jimmy.
"Whew! what if they should happen on our, canoes, after all the trouble
we took to hide the same?" suggested Jack, looking as solemn as an owl.
"The walking is fairly decent all the way from Hudson Bay to Montreal,
barring a dozen rivers to cross, a score of bogs miles and miles around,
some pretty hefty mountain chains to pass over, and some more troubles
too silly to mention," was the way Jimmy made light of the possible
calamity.
Ned himself knew that it would be a terrible mishap should anything like
this come to pass. He had thought it all over more than once, and even
mapped out several plans for their guidance in case of such an event.
Walking back was next to an utter impossibility. They might manage with
the aid of Francios and the Cree Indian to manufacture some sort of
canoes, providing the proper kind of bark was to be procured this far
north, which he doubted very much. Besides this, there was a slender
chance that they might signal to some whaling vessel on the great bay
and procure a berth for each of them aboard, so as to be landed at
Halifax or Montreal, anywhere so that they could use the telegraph, and
keep Mr. Bosworth and his company from investing a dollar in the
wonderful copper mine, until the scouts reached home again.
So Ned, having looked further ahead than any of his chums, was not so
much impressed by the gravity of the threatening evil, in case they did
lose their highly valued canoes. He would begrudge the loss of his
blanket and some other articles more than anything else, as they had
memories connected with them of dead and gone events, in which he and
some of the other boys of the trip had figured.
As they pushed on every little while they could catch glimpses of the
talking smoke signals in the rear. Doubtless the fire that was supplying
the smoke for this method of communicating with the distant posse had
been built on the side of the hill in which the mine lay. That would
account for their being able to see it for such length of time.
"Must be giving a whole history of the _awful_ disaster," Jimmy
muttered, after he had turned for the sixth time to see the smoke still
waving in fantastic wreaths against the sky.
"Slow-pokes, that's what," ventured Teddy. "Why, when I was a mere
tenderfoot I could send messages better than that."
"Don't find fault," advised Jack. "The longer it takes the signal man to
send on his news, the better chance we'll have of slipping away before
any trap can be laid or sprung, don't you see?"
"And as we're first-class scouts," said Jimmy, boastfully, "why, we're
able to beat such dubs, with one hand tied behind our backs."
Perhaps all the others agreed with the speaker, even though no one
voiced his sentiments just then. Jimmy was well calculated to do all the
boasting for an entire party on occasion; but then he meant all he said.
Pretty soon Frank made a discovery that caused him to break loose and
voice his surprise.
"Why, Ned, we don't seem to be heading down towards the big bay?" he
observed.
"That's right, Frank," came the quiet answer.
"But I thought we'd surely have to follow the trail back there, just as
we came?" Frank continued, as though sorely perplexed.
"We would," the patrol leader informed him, "if we were going back the
same way we came, because it would be necessary to get in touch with our
blazed trail, meaning all those landmarks we noted so carefully when
coming on."
"What's that, did we have all that trouble for nixey?" blurted out
Jimmy.
"Don't say for nothing, Jimmy," urged Ned; "because when you've gone to
work and stored a lot of things up in your mind like we did, you've been
exercising your memory, and that's always a splendid thing to do. We
certainly noticed a bunch of queer growths in the woods as we came
along, though it's hardly likely any of us will ever set eyes on them
again."
"But why the change, Ned, if you don't object to telling us?" asked
Jack.
"It's only right you should know why I took it on myself to do this,"
replied the other, modestly; "and then if anybody objects, and explains
on what grounds he bases his kick, perhaps it won't be too late to turn
out and find the blazed trail yet."
"Proceed, please," urged Frank.
"I thought that since our presence here is known, that those at the mine
would be able in some way to communicate with the dozen or more rascals
over at the river. And there would always be a pretty strong chance of
our being waylaid while on the road back to the boats. If any one found
our trail that would make it a foregone conclusion. And so I thought
we'd be wise to start in fresh."
"I saw you consulting your compass many times, while on the way over,
Ned," and this remark from Frank caused the patrol leader to smile and
nod in the affirmative.
"Which tells me you've got your location all down pat," continued Frank,
energetically. "Right now, if I asked you, chances are you'd be able to
point straight in the direction where the river lies; yes, and straight
at our boats. Is that correct, Ned?"
For answer, the other raised his hand and pointed.
"What direction would you say lies right there, Frank?" he asked.
Frank had to turn his head and observe the position of the sun, as well
as do considerable mental figuring, before feeling able to make answer;
which would indicate that he had been caught napping, and was not so
well prepared as a wide-awake scout should always be.
"Let's see," he went on to say, slowly; "according to my calculations
that ought to be not more than a point away from due east."
"It is exactly east, and the river lies there;" Ned pursued,
confidently; and no one had ever been able to catch him in an error
when it came to topography, for the patrol leader had very few equals in
studying the lay of the land. "Of course, our canoes lie some little
distance above; so that pretty soon we'll begin to shift our line of
travel more to the southeast. I have strong hopes that when we do strike
the Harricanaw, it will be close to the boats."
"And going this way is shorter than following the back trail away down
to the bay, and then picking up our other course from there?" Teddy
ventured to say; nor was his proposition disputed by even the one who
objected so often, Jimmy.
"I'm only sorry for one thing," this latter scout said, presently.
"I bet you now he's going to tip off that silly, old story again about
the vanishing fleet of vessels out on Hudson Bay, and say he did hope we
might crack that hard nut while we were up here," Frank told them,
whereat Jimmy slapped him vigorously on the back, and exclaimed:
"You'd better get a punkin and hollow out half for a skull cap, Frank.
Then you could go and sit in the market-place and pass for a seer;
because now and then you do have a bright thought, and actually guess
something. That was just what bothered Jimmy McGraw, sure it was. If we
go away from here and leave that mystery unsolved, who's ever agoin' to
do it, tell me that? Don't they kinder look to the scouts to do
anything and everything these here days, that other folks can't just
manage. Huh! ain't ever a child wanders away from home and gets lost in
the woods, but what they send out a call, not for the fire company, like
they used to do; but it's 'the scouts c'n find poor little Jennie; let
the scouts get on the track, and in three shakes of a lamb's tail,
they'll have the child safe at home!'"
"Well, there's a whole lot of truth in what you say, Jimmy, though none
of us ought to be given to boasting," Jack declared, proudly; "I've
helped find three lost children, two old men who were out of their
minds and had wandered away from home, about sixteen stray cows, a
horse, too, and even had a hand in killing that big mad dog that came
down the street of the Long Island town where I spent one of my
vacations some years ago."
"Good for the Black Bear Patrol," said Jimmy; "which makes me feel
sicker than ever, because we've got to go back home, without having a
shot at that punk old mystery of Hudson Bay. We could find out all about
it, you take my word for it, Jack. Put five fellers as smart as this
bunch onto anything that's cooked up, for some reason or other, and
they're bound to unearth the game. Once I helped gather in the biggest
lot of bogus money-makers, with Ned here, that you ever set your lamps
on. D'ye know, deep down in my heart, I've got a hunch that this queer
fleet that comes and goes like it was made up of ghost craft, will turn
out to be something like that. You'll sure find that men are back of it
that don't want to be seen at too close range; though what under the sun
they're adoin' away up here gets me."
About this time Ned gave the signal that called for less noise; and
Jimmy was, in consequence, compelled to bottle up some of wonder and
disappointment. He had perhaps, hoped to get a "rise" after his dextrous
cast, and in this way learn what one or more of his mates thought about
the matter. As it was he continued to ponder, look solemn, and
occasionally shake his head, as though unable to decide on any settled
course.
"Don't believe we'll have any more jogging from those three men we
tracked," Teddy went on to say, a little later; "because two of them
must have got hurt, if yells speak for anything. I wonder if Jimmy's
black pirate chieftain was one of the potted victims."
"He wasn't that one we saw come out holding on to his arm, like he
thought he'd be likely to lose the same," Jimmy informed him. "That was
the man dressed like a hunter, wearing a buckskin coat and fringed
trousers. Gee! I thought that sort of stuff had all gone up the spout
since khaki came in for woods' use?"
"Oh! well," Jack reminded him, "just remember where you are, and that
there are men up here who still think Queen Victoria is sitting on the
English throne, because they never get in touch with civilization. Life
with them is only eat and sleep, and sell a few furs in the spring, to
the factor at a post of the Hudson Bay Company, which they spend for
ammunition, whiskey and such necessities. The skins they take, furnish
them with clothes, moccasins, and even caps. Can you beat it, for a life
without worry?"
"Give me the white man's burden, every time; if a lot of other things go
with it, like we get at a supper down at Coney Island in the good old
summer time," was Frank's idea.
Strange, how boys will let their thoughts stray back to other fields,
even when facing peril in the Canada bush. To hear these lads talk, one
would never think that they were at the same time keeping a constant
lookout for enemies, who would be apt to deal harshly with them because
Ned and his chums had outwitted the shrewd schemers owning the fake
mine.
It was nearly half an hour later, when they discovered that smoke was
also rising directly in the east. Evidently some of the men, over on the
Harricanaw, were sending back an answer to the message in smoke, which
had been thrown out against the sky, by those guarding the mine.
"Mebbe I don't wish I could read their old signals," declared Jimmy;
"but, I just can't. They've got a different code to the one the scouts
use, which makes it all Chocktaw to me. If anybody can give a guess what
they're saying, put us wise, please."