CHAPTER XII.
THE TALKING SMOKE.
"Well, I declare if they don't use the same sort of signals the scoutsdo down our way!" exclaimed Jimmy, looking rather disgusted, as thoughhe 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 halfa dozen years old. It began after the Boer war, when GeneralBaden-Powell saw what a great thing it would be for the whole BritishNation, if every boy learned a thousand things about all creation,useful things at that. And, Jimmy, don't forget that smoke was used tosignal with for hundreds of years before ever the white man landed onthe 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 theymay be, inherited the Injun way of sending messages. Sure, I knew it allalong. The only trouble with me is I go and forget things. But whatd'ye think they are doin' sending out that old smoke signal?"
"They've got friends within seeing distance, because smoke can besighted many miles away, especially when it rises as straight as it'sdoing 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?" thefreckled faced scout continued.
"I suppose they will, because you notice that every now and then thesmoke 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 abit, 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 withthe wigwag flags, or the piece of looking-glass in the sun, when weheliograph."
"And right now, somewhere or other, one or more of those men must bereading out the message, letter by letter," said the patrol leaderseriously, while they continued to walk on.
"It won't take long to tell how we happened to show up at the mine, andtook a nice little saunter through the same, seeing how fine it wasbeing cured--I mean salted," Teddy interrupted, thinking that Jimmy haddone more than his full share of the cross questioning, and ought togive 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, andhow we must have left our boats secreted somewhere above?" venturedFrank.
"That is something we have no means of telling," Ned informed him; "butsince it might happen, we'll have to keep a sharp lookout on the wayacross country. We might fall into ambush, and either be shot down orelse made prisoners."
"I don't know which would be worse," grumbled Jimmy.
"Whew! what if they should happen on our, canoes, after all the troublewe 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 troublestoo silly to mention," was the way Jimmy made light of the possiblecalamity.
Ned himself knew that it would be a terrible mishap should anything likethis come to pass. He had thought it all over more than once, and evenmapped out several plans for their guidance in case of such an event.
Walking back was next to an utter impossibility. They might manage withthe aid of Francios and the Cree Indian to manufacture some sort ofcanoes, providing the proper kind of bark was to be procured this farnorth, which he doubted very much. Besides this, there was a slenderchance that they might signal to some whaling vessel on the great bayand procure a berth for each of them aboard, so as to be landed atHalifax or Montreal, anywhere so that they could use the telegraph, andkeep Mr. Bosworth and his company from investing a dollar in thewonderful copper mine, until the scouts reached home again.
So Ned, having looked further ahead than any of his chums, was not somuch impressed by the gravity of the threatening evil, in case they didlose their highly valued canoes. He would begrudge the loss of hisblanket and some other articles more than anything else, as they hadmemories connected with them of dead and gone events, in which he andsome of the other boys of the trip had figured.
As they pushed on every little while they could catch glimpses of thetalking smoke signals in the rear. Doubtless the fire that was supplyingthe smoke for this method of communicating with the distant posse hadbeen built on the side of the hill in which the mine lay. That wouldaccount for their being able to see it for such length of time.
"Must be giving a whole history of the _awful_ disaster," Jimmymuttered, after he had turned for the sixth time to see the smoke stillwaving in fantastic wreaths against the sky.
"Slow-pokes, that's what," ventured Teddy. "Why, when I was a meretenderfoot I could send messages better than that."
"Don't find fault," advised Jack. "The longer it takes the signal man tosend on his news, the better chance we'll have of slipping away beforeany trap can be laid or sprung, don't you see?"
"And as we're first-class scouts," said Jimmy, boastfully, "why, we'reable to beat such dubs, with one hand tied behind our backs."
Perhaps all the others agreed with the speaker, even though no onevoiced his sentiments just then. Jimmy was well calculated to do all theboasting 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 andvoice his surprise.
"Why, Ned, we don't seem to be heading down towards the big bay?" heobserved.
"That's right, Frank," came the quiet answer.
"But I thought we'd surely have to follow the trail back there, just aswe came?" Frank continued, as though sorely perplexed.
"We would," the patrol leader informed him, "if we were going back thesame way we came, because it would be necessary to get in touch with ourblazed trail, meaning all those landmarks we noted so carefully whencoming on."
"What's that, did we have all that trouble for nixey?" blurted outJimmy.
"Don't say for nothing, Jimmy," urged Ned; "because when you've gone towork and stored a lot of things up in your mind like we did, you've beenexercising your memory, and that's always a splendid thing to do. Wecertainly noticed a bunch of queer growths in the woods as we camealong, though it's hardly likely any of us will ever set eyes on themagain."
"But why the change, Ned, if you don't object to telling us?" askedJack.
"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 explainson what grounds he bases his kick, perhaps it won't be too late to turnout and find the blazed trail yet."
"Proceed, please," urged Frank.
"I thought that since our presence here is known, that those at the minewould be able in some way to communicate with the dozen or more rascalsover at the river. And there would always be a pretty strong chance ofour being waylaid while on the road back to the boats. If any one foundour trail that would make it a foregone conclusion. And so I thoughtwe'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 andnod 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 topoint straight in the direction where the river lies; yes, and straightat 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 wellas do considerable mental figuring, before feeling able to make answer;which would indicate that he had been caught napping, and was not sowell prepared as a wide-awake scout should alway
s be.
"Let's see," he went on to say, slowly; "according to my calculationsthat 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 errorwhen it came to topography, for the patrol leader had very few equals instudying the lay of the land. "Of course, our canoes lie some littledistance above; so that pretty soon we'll begin to shift our line oftravel more to the southeast. I have strong hopes that when we do strikethe Harricanaw, it will be close to the boats."
"And going this way is shorter than following the back trail away downto the bay, and then picking up our other course from there?" Teddyventured to say; nor was his proposition disputed by even the one whoobjected 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 aboutthe vanishing fleet of vessels out on Hudson Bay, and say he did hope wemight 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 guesssomething. That was just what bothered Jimmy McGraw, sure it was. If wego away from here and leave that mystery unsolved, who's ever agoin' todo it, tell me that? Don't they kinder look to the scouts to doanything and everything these here days, that other folks can't justmanage. Huh! ain't ever a child wanders away from home and gets lost inthe woods, but what they send out a call, not for the fire company, likethey used to do; but it's 'the scouts c'n find poor little Jennie; letthe 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 noneof us ought to be given to boasting," Jack declared, proudly; "I'vehelped find three lost children, two old men who were out of theirminds and had wandered away from home, about sixteen stray cows, ahorse, too, and even had a hand in killing that big mad dog that camedown the street of the Long Island town where I spent one of myvacations some years ago."
"Good for the Black Bear Patrol," said Jimmy; "which makes me feelsicker than ever, because we've got to go back home, without having ashot at that punk old mystery of Hudson Bay. We could find out all aboutit, you take my word for it, Jack. Put five fellers as smart as thisbunch onto anything that's cooked up, for some reason or other, andthey're bound to unearth the game. Once I helped gather in the biggestlot of bogus money-makers, with Ned here, that you ever set your lampson. D'ye know, deep down in my heart, I've got a hunch that this queerfleet that comes and goes like it was made up of ghost craft, will turnout to be something like that. You'll sure find that men are back of itthat don't want to be seen at too close range; though what under the sunthey're adoin' away up here gets me."
About this time Ned gave the signal that called for less noise; andJimmy was, in consequence, compelled to bottle up some of wonder anddisappointment. He had perhaps, hoped to get a "rise" after his dextrouscast, and in this way learn what one or more of his mates thought aboutthe matter. As it was he continued to ponder, look solemn, andoccasionally shake his head, as though unable to decide on any settledcourse.
"Don't believe we'll have any more jogging from those three men wetracked," Teddy went on to say, a little later; "because two of themmust have got hurt, if yells speak for anything. I wonder if Jimmy'sblack pirate chieftain was one of the potted victims."
"He wasn't that one we saw come out holding on to his arm, like hethought he'd be likely to lose the same," Jimmy informed him. "That wasthe man dressed like a hunter, wearing a buckskin coat and fringedtrousers. Gee! I thought that sort of stuff had all gone up the spoutsince khaki came in for woods' use?"
"Oh! well," Jack reminded him, "just remember where you are, and thatthere are men up here who still think Queen Victoria is sitting on theEnglish throne, because they never get in touch with civilization. Lifewith them is only eat and sleep, and sell a few furs in the spring, tothe factor at a post of the Hudson Bay Company, which they spend forammunition, whiskey and such necessities. The skins they take, furnishthem with clothes, moccasins, and even caps. Can you beat it, for a lifewithout worry?"
"Give me the white man's burden, every time; if a lot of other things gowith it, like we get at a supper down at Coney Island in the good oldsummer 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, onewould never think that they were at the same time keeping a constantlookout for enemies, who would be apt to deal harshly with them becauseNed and his chums had outwitted the shrewd schemers owning the fakemine.
It was nearly half an hour later, when they discovered that smoke wasalso rising directly in the east. Evidently some of the men, over on theHarricanaw, were sending back an answer to the message in smoke, whichhad 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 scoutsuse, which makes it all Chocktaw to me. If anybody can give a guess whatthey're saying, put us wise, please."
Boy Scouts on Hudson Bay; Or, The Disappearing Fleet Page 12