CHAPTER XII
LOSING THEIR BEARINGS
Bob chose to consider this a direct challenge.
"I expect that it would be queer if we didn't make some sort of effortto find out what the light means. Where is it, Frank?" he remarked,with perfect coolness.
"Well, it must have gone out while you were speaking, Bob, as sure asanything," the other replied. "But I saw it, I give you my word I did.Huh! there she comes again, just like it was before. Step over here;the spur of the rock is in your way there. Now look straight up. Getit?"
"Easy, Frank. A fellow might think it was a star, if he didn't knowthe mountain was there. Now it's getting bigger right along."
"That's so, Bob. And yet it doesn't seem to be a fire, does it?"
"More like a lantern to me," declared the Kentucky boy. "Say, whatd'ye reckon anybody could want a lantern up there for? Can you see anyswinging motion to the light Frank?"
"It does seem to move, now and then, for a fact," admitted the other,after watching the gleam for a short time.
"About like a brakeman might swing his lantern if he was on a freighttrain in a black night, eh?" continued Bob.
"Hello! I see now what you're aiming at, Bob; you've just got a notionin your head that the lantern is being used for signalling purposes."
"Well, does that strike you as silly?" demanded Bob Archer.
"Silly? Hum! well, perhaps not, because it may be the rightexplanation of the thing. But whatever would anybody up there besignalling for, and who to, Bob?"
"There you've got me," laughed the other. "I'm not so far along asthat yet. P'raps it might be one of the rustlers, telling something toanother of the same stripe, who is located in camp out yonder on theplain. Then, again, how do we know but what it might be that Peg Grantlot? And Lopez. Don't forget little Lopez, Frank. Prospectors couldhave a lantern; in fact, I understand they often do carry such a thingalong with 'em when they go into the mountains to pan for dust in thecreek beds."
"So," said Frank, who evidently was doing considerable thinking.
They stood there for some little time, looking up at the light. Bobwas merely indulging in various speculations regarding its source. Onthe other hand Frank busied himself in locating the strange glow, sothat he might be able to know when he reached the spot, in case it wasinvisible at the time they arrived.
"Do we go?" asked Bob, when he, too, found his impatience getting thebetter of him; whereupon Frank, who had evidently been waiting for somesign, immediately took him up on it.
"If you're ready, we'll start right away," he said, quietly. "LuckilyI've been studying the face of Thunder Mountain at times during theafternoon, and I reckon I can pilot the expedition all right."
But when Frank said this so confidently he failed to consider theintense darkness that might baffle all his plans of campaign. Still,Bob had the utmost confidence in his chum's ability to pull out of anyordinary difficulty. And, since his Kentucky spirit had been fullyaroused, he was ready to accompany Frank anywhere, at any time.
Before they had been ten minutes on the way each of the boys sincerelywished that the idea to investigate had never appealed to them, forthey began to have a rough time of it. But both were too proud toadmit the fact, and so they kept crawling along over the rocks withtheir rifles slung on their backs, at times finding it necessary toclutch hold of bushes or saplings in order to save themselves from sometumble into holes, the actual depth of which they had no means of evenguessing in the darkness.
The light was gone. Of course that might not mean it had vanishedentirely; but at least it could no longer be seen by the boys who wereclimbing upward.
Bob was hoping his comrade would propose that they call it off, andproceed to spend the balance of the night in the first comfortable nookthey ran across. But Frank himself was loath to give the first sign ofa backdown. Consequently they continued the laborious task which waslikely to bring no reward in its train, only the satisfaction ofknowing they had accomplished the duty which they had in mind at thetime of the start.
An hour must surely have gone since they first left the little greenglade where the horses were staked out, and their supplies cached.
Bob found himself blown, and trembling all over with fatigue, becauseof the unusual exertion. The heat, too, was troublesome. But not forworlds would he be the first to complain. Frank was setting the pace,and he must be the one to call a halt.
"Phew! this is rough sledding," remarked Frank, finally, as he stoppedto wipe his streaming face.
Of course Bob also came to a halt.
"Well, it is for a fact," he admitted with a little dry chuckle; for hefelt really pleased to think that he had held out so long, and forcedFrank to "show his hand."
"Seems to me we ought to have struck something," suggested Frank.
"Do you really mean you think we've come far enough for that?"questioned Bob.
"I reckon we have, though it's so dark I can't be dead sure. You don'thappen to glimpse anything queer around here, do you, Bob?" and whilespeaking Frank, perhaps unconsciously, lowered his voice more or less.
"Nary a thing," replied the other, breathing fast, as if to make up forlost time.
"And I don't get any whiff of smoke, do you?" continued Frank.
"Oh! you're thinking about that volcano business again, eh?" chuckledBob. "Nothing doing, Frank. Gee! we must be up pretty high here!"
"Feels like it," returned the prairie boy, accustomed to the heavierair of the lower levels at all times. "Makes me breathe faster, youknow. But that was a hot old climb, Bob."
"All black up yonder in the sky, with never a star showing," observedthe boy from Kentucky.
"Oh! we're going to get it, sooner or later," declared Frank,cheerfully. "Can't escape a ducking, I take it. But here we are, halfway up old Thunder Mountain, and not a thing to show for our work.That's what I call tough!"
"Got enough?" asked his chum, invitingly.
"You mean of course for to-night only, because you'd never think ofsuch a thing as giving up the game so early, Bob?"
"Well, I was only going to make a little suggestion," returned theother.
"Hit her up, then; though perhaps I could guess what it's like, Bob."
"All right then. You know what I mean--and that since we're away uphere, we might as well make up our minds to hunt an overhanging ledge,and take a nap. But say, what're you sniffing that way for, Frank?"
"Just imagined that I got a faint whiff of smoke; but of course it wasall in my eye," replied the other.
"Was it? I tell you I had a scent of it myself right then," declaredthe taller lad, showing signs of considerable excitement.
"Seems to come and go, then, for I don't get it any more. What was itlike, Bob? Did you ever smell sulphur burning?"
"Lots of times, and helped to use it too, disinfecting," replied Bob,readily. "Spent months with my uncle, who is a doctor in Cincinnati,during an epidemic, and he often had to clean out rookeries just tostamp out the disease. But this wasn't any sulphur odor I caught,Frank."
"Then you could recognize it; eh?" asked his chum.
"It was burning wood, I give you my word for that," replied Bob, firmly.
"Hum. That sounds more like it. We'll let the volcano matter sizzlefor a little while, and look around for something smaller. Burningwood must mean a fire, Bob!"
"That's what they say, always; where there's smoke there must be fire.But it seems to me we ought to see such a thing on this black night,Frank."
"Unless it's hidden, as we make our cooking fire; or else the blaze isat the last gasp. Then, after all, we may have been a little off aboutthat light we saw," Frank continued.
"The one we said was a lantern? Then you think, now, it might havebeen a fire?" questioned the Kentucky lad.
"Well, I just don't know what to think. But let's look around a bit,and see if we can locate this fire," Frank suggested.
After moving around for a short ti
me as well as the darkness allowedthe two boys came together again.
"No luck, eh?" questioned Frank.
"Didn't find a thing; but I stumbled over a creek and came near takinga header down-grade that would have made that plunge of Peg's take aback seat. Just in the nick of time I managed to grab a little tree.Phew! it shook me up, though," and Bob rubbed one of his shins asthough he might have "barked" it at the time of the encounter.
"Same here; only I didn't happen to fall," replied Frank.
"So it seems as if we were no better off than before," remarked Bob,dejectedly.
"We've learned where the fire isn't, if that's any satisfaction to us,"chuckled his chum, trying to make the best of a bad bargain.
"And that smoke smells so meaning-like, it's sure a shame we can't justget a line on where it comes from," Bob went on to say.
Frank seemed to catch a significance in his words, for he turnedsharply on his companion, saying:
"Look here, have you been getting a whiff of it again, Bob?"
"Why, yes, several of 'em in fact, Frank," replied the other, in whatseemed to be a surprised tone. "But what does that matter, whenneither of us can find any fire around? I sniffed and sniffed, butalthough I just turned my eyes in every direction not even a tiny sparkcould I see. And that happened just three times, Frank."
"What! do you mean you smelled smoke three separate times since youleft me?" demanded the saddle boy.
"I'm sure it must have been three, because it was between the first andsecond times that I tripped. Yes, and always in just the same placetoo, which was queer enough."
"That sounds kind of encouraging, Bob," declared Frank.
"Do you think so?" asked the other, puzzled to account for Frank'snewly awakened interest. "Tell me why, won't you, please, Frank?"
"Sure, after you have answered me a question," Frank promptly remarked.
"All right, let's have it, then," his chum returned.
"Do you think you could find that exact spot again?" asked Frank.
"Meaning where I sniffed that smoke each time? Why, I guess I can,because I went back there twice, all right. Couldn't be quitesatisfied that there wasn't _something_ around there I ought todiscover. But it turned out a fizzle, Frank."
"Perhaps it wouldn't be so unkind to me, though," the Western boydeclared. "Take me to that place, Bob, and right away. It strikes meI'd just like to get another little whiff of that same wood smell,myself. It wouldn't be the first time I'd followed up a smoke trail."
"Gracious! that sounds interesting, and I hope you can do it, Frank!"breathed Bob, his admiration for his chum awakening once more.
"First of all, get me to that place. Lead off, and I'll be close atyour heels. And, Bob, don't forget that spot where you came nearhaving your tumble. Keep your level head about you."
"I'll sure try to, Frank. Come on then."
Bob led the way through the darkness. Although he had been out Westfor so short a time Bob Archer was rapidly learning the ways practicedby those who live close to Nature. He began to observe always all thathe saw, and in such a way that he could describe it again, in everydetail.
And so it chanced that, having marked his course when coming back afterhis unsuccessful search for the fire, he was able, not only to lead hiscomrade thither, but to warn him every time they approached a dangerousslide, where a trip might hurl one some hundreds of feet down the faceof Thunder Mountain.
"Here is the place, Frank," Bob suddenly said, in a cautious whisper.