CHAPTER IV
READING A "SIGN" BY TORCHLIGHT
Of course it gave the leader of the Wolf patrol a thrill when he heard this low warning from Ralph. You never would have known it, though, from any uneasy movement on his part.
He knew that the boy who had spent so much of his time in the woods, trapping the cunning little furry inhabitants in seasons gone by, would not alarm him needlessly. And so, watching his chance, Hugh managed to shoot a glance toward the opening without betraying the fact that he was particularly interested in that quarter.
As he did so, he was just in time to see a face vanish from view.
In fact, he barely caught a fleeting glimpse of it, and yet Hugh felt perfectly sure that he had not alarmed the watcher in any way.
The cause of the unknown party"s sudden withdrawal was speedily made plain. Bud seemed to be gasping, and immediately whispered hoa.r.s.ely:
"Great guns! did you see that, fellows? As sure as my name"s Bud Morgan there was a man peeking in at the window there! Honest Injun, there was!"
Undoubtedly the unknown visitor must have discovered Bud staring straight at him, and thought it high time to disappear.
"Yes, we both saw him, Bud," said Hugh, rather disappointed that, after all, the fellow had been chased away before they could find out his ident.i.ty or what he wanted, prowling around in such a suspicious way.
"Who in the d.i.c.kens was it?" exclaimed Bud, evidently growing angry now that his astonishment had worn away. "The nerve of him, poking his nose in where it isn"t wanted! Why don"t we get a move on and chase after him? Ralph, remember that you"ve got your scatter-gun handy. Don"t forget to take that, will you?"
"Did you recognize that face, Ralph?" asked the practical scout leader, turning to the young trapper of the past.
"I think---yes, I"m nearly dead sure it was one of the two men I saw acting in such a suspicious way this afternoon," came the answer.
"Which one, would you say?" continued Hugh.
"The taller one," came from Ralph without hesitation. "I think you said he looked a little like the German type, wasn"t that about it, Ralph?"
"Yes, that was what I believed at the time I saw him," replied the other.
He had already stepped over and picked up his gun. There was a gleam in his eyes that told of a spirit aroused. Ralph had become a scout and was to the best of his ability trying to live up to the duties of one belonging to the organization; but of course there were times when the old spirit would come to the surface. The present occasion was one of these moments.
"Let"s go outside and look around," Hugh suggested.
"Bully idea!" muttered the impatient Bud; and having no gun to grasp, he made a lunge for the stout stick which Ralph had been using as a sort of poker when the fire needed attention.
Hugh did something still more practical. He stooped down and calmly selected a certain blazing brand from the fire. This was of such a nature that when properly handled it could be made to serve as a pretty fair torch.
When Bud saw what the patrol leader was doing, he grunted and nodded his head as though comprehending things. Bud always could "see through a mill-stone that had a hole in it," as he was accustomed to say; in so many words, he was quick to grasp things after some smarter fellow had blazed the way. A "hint was as good as a nod"
to Bud.
"Fine thing, Hugh!" he commented admiringly. He realized how valuable such a light might prove under the circ.u.mstances.
Ralph removed the piece of board that served to hold the door shut, and boldly led the way outside. The others pressed closely at his heels, Hugh holding the spluttering torch above his head and Bud gripping his club with the full intention of using it should the occasion warrant such action.
All was dark and still without. The night wind moaned in the branches of the trees where the leaves had fallen, or rustled the brown foliage of the oaks; but they could see no hostile form.
"Oh! he skipped out, all right, sure he did!" declared Bud, with something like a sneer in his voice. "He knew I had glimpsed him, and he didn"t have the nerve to hold over and meet us face to face.
Wonder if it would make him run any faster if you banged away a couple of times with your gun, Ralph?"
The idea did not seem to appeal to Ralph, however, for he made not the slightest effort to act upon it. Standing there, he stared around at the gloomy woods and waited to see what Hugh would so.
The latter had also taken a fair survey of the singular picture as seen by the weird light of the torch. Presently he stepped forward and turned the corner of the shack. Ralph followed him closely, while Bud, still holding his cudgel in an aggressive manner, posted himself at the corner, where he could not only watch what the other fellows did but at the same time keep an eye on the door. He did not mean to leave the way open for anybody to sneak into the shack while their attention was directed elsewhere,---not if he knew his duty, and he believed he did.
Now Hugh, being an experienced scout, first of all thought to make sure that they had really been spied upon. This he knew could be readily ascertained by examining the ground under the opening called a window. Men can hardly stand on ordinary soil without leaving some sort of impression there. And those boys who have spent many a vacation in the woods, studying Indian tactics as applied to the life of a scout, know how to read such signs almost as easily as they might the printed page of a book.
Bending down therefore at the suspected spot, Hugh quickly pointed out the imprint of feet to Ralph.
"That proves it!" exclaimed the other as he flung a hasty glance over his shoulder, apparently half suspecting that the object of their conversation might suddenly burst upon his vision.
"Yes, it"s easy to see he was standing here after creeping on his hands and knees," Hugh remarked, still studying the marks. "And he"s wearing a pretty fine pair of modern shoes into the bargain; which shows that the men you saw were _not_ tramps. At the same time, Ralph, I can"t believe they were timber-cruisers, either, looking for new belts of forest that could be bought up. Whenever I"ve seen one of those men, he wore laced hunting shoes that came half way to the knee, so as to protect his legs against snake-bites and thorns while pushing through the scrub. No, this man has rather a dainty foot, and it strikes me as mighty queer he should be wandering around here."
"What are we going to do next?" asked Ralph, looking as though he stood ready to carry out any suggestion Hugh might make, even to chasing around and trying to follow the trail of the fleeing spy.
"Nothing, that I can see," answered Hugh; "and so let"s go in again.
We can talk it over better there than out here, you know."
Two minutes later and they were once more indoors. Seated before the fire, they canva.s.sed the matter thoroughly. From every angle they tried to penetrate the mystery, but it seemed to baffle them.
"I had an experience once that makes me sort of think they may be keepers from some asylum looking for an escaped lunatic," Hugh finally remarked; "though if that were the case, they"d be apt to wear some sort of gray uniform, and you didn"t say anything about that, Ralph."
"Yes," added the other, quickly, "but if that"s what they were, why should they act so queer? Wouldn"t two such men want to sc.r.a.pe an acquaintance with us scouts, so as to get a few pointers? I don"t think that covers the bill, Hugh."
"And I didn"t, either, when I spoke of it," the patrol leader said, as he smiled and nodded his head. "But perhaps Bud may set us right.
I can see from the look on his face that he has a brilliant idea."
"Oh, shucks! I don"t know how brilliant it is," the party mentioned hastened to remark, "but you"re welcome to my thought. Suppose there happened to be some desperate men hiding up here in these woods, say counterfeiters, for instance? I"ve heard that such fellows always try to pick a lonely place to do their work in. Well, the Government always sends out smart men belonging to the Secret Service to round these chaps up. I was speculating on whether those two strangers Ralph saw mightn"t be detectives. I reckon they looked as if they wanted to detect, all right; and let me tell you, p"raps we"re under the ban of suspicion right now."
Bud ended his remarks in a rather awed voice, but neither of the others seemed to be at all worried. Indeed, Hugh chuckled as though amused.
"It may be that you"ve guessed the right answer, Bud," he said, "but all the same I don"t believe it. There"s something deeper about those men than that. And unless I miss my guess, we"ll find in the end, if we learn anything at all, that they"ve got some sort of connection with that queer flash and crash that gave us such a scare earlier in the night."
Bud stared at Hugh on hearing this.
"Whee! do you really think so, Hugh?" he muttered, as though trying to grasp what all this might stand for, and yet hardly able to comprehend its full significance.
After all their talk, however, they were really no nearer a solution of the matter in the end than when they started to discuss it. Hugh said they would have to wait and see what turned up next, before settling on any one explanation and both the other scouts agreed with him.
So they finally prepared to lie down and get what sleep was possible, which under the conditions could hardly be expected to amount to a great deal.
Their blankets were folded in such fashion as to give them the best results. This wrinkle they had learned in the field of practical experience, than which there is no better guide. Theory is all very well, but the book-taught scout has a great many ideas to change when he gets out into the open, with the stars shining down on him from the blue vault of heaven and the voices of Nature surrounding him on every side, instead of the bare ceiling and walls of his bedroom at home.
That night certainly dragged along fearfully. Every now and then one of the boys would turn over and grunt, or else raise his head to look around him at the flickering light of the fire on the walls of the lonely woods" shack.
As many as six times did Hugh crawl out from the warm folds of his blanket to replenish the fire, for the night air was chill; and after one has slept, his body is apt to feel cold, as the heart beats less rapidly, and the blood circulates with more difficulty.