CHAPTER IV

JIMMIE BUILDS TWO FIRES

“I am really alarmed about the disappearance of Mr. Nestor,” Gilroy said, as the boys began frying ham and eggs and making fresh coffee for him. “There is no doubt at all in my mind that he was induced to leave the camp by the agents of the hostile corporation.”

“No doubt about that,” Jimmie put in.

“And that means,” Gilroy went on, “that they really suspect what you are here for. That is the worst part of it.”

“But why should they suspect us?” demanded Jimmie. “We never knew a thing about the complications until you came in here half an hour ago!”

“I’ll tell you why they’re suspicious of us,” Jack exclaimed. “They know that I am the son of the lawyer who is putting up the fight against them. Now you see how the case stands! We’ve been given a mission to execute on the theory that we could work without being suspected, when, as a matter of fact, we were suspected before we were given the work to do.”

“That’s funny!” Jimmie laughed.

“It might be humorous if it wasn’t so serious,” the confidential clerk explained, pompously, “and I’m going to give you boys a little advice, which may not meet with the approval of Jack’s father.”

“Go to it!” laughed Jack.

“This hostile corporation,” Gilroy continued, “will, in my opinion, stop at nothing in order to accomplish their ends. Now that the unexpected has happened—now that their agents suspect that you are here to watch and, if possible, frustrate their designs—my advice is that you get out of the country as quickly as possible.”

“And leave Ned here?” demanded Jimmie scornfully.

“If you boys break camp and leave the mountains at once,” Gilroy advised, “the agents of the corporation will not hold Nestor for any great length of time. Nestor, as you boys well know, has an international reputation for clever work in the detective line. Still, it is well known, that he works with Boy Scouts invariably, and the people who have abducted him will understand that he would be likely to abandon any case not shared with his old chums. Am I right in that?”

“You’ve got it sized up right!” declared Jimmie.

“I wonder why they didn’t trap me?” Jack asked.

“I rather wonder at that, too,” Gilroy answered.

“Huh,” laughed Frank. “They wanted the detective, and not the son of his father. To capture Jack would be to admit that their efforts were directed against the corporations under the control of Mr. Bosworth.”

“Well,” the confidential clerk insisted, “I am certain that, under the circumstances, Mr. Bosworth would object to your remaining here on any errand of his. For my own part, I advise you to get out of the mountains as soon as possible.”

“And miss all this fun?” demanded Jimmie with a grin.

“But I insist that you boys are in deadly peril here!” Gilroy went on. “Urged on by the agents of this hostile corporation, there is no knowing what desperate measures these outlaw claimants may resort to. But if you insist on remaining here against my advice, and against the advice your father would give if he understood the circumstances, you ought to move your camp to some place not in the knowledge of the outlaws. You can at least do that.”

“What’s the use?” asked Jack. “Don’t you suppose they’ve got people watching us now? From this time on, we can’t make a move without their knowing it. We may as well stay here and barricade this cave.”

“That’s a good idea!” Jimmie exclaimed. “All we’ve got to do is to roll a few large boulders down the slope and line them up at the entrance of the cavern. We’ll be as snug as bugs in a rug in behind them, and we have provisions enough to last us for a month.”

“Yes,” Harry submitted, “and we can lay behind the boulders and shoot outlaws and railroad mercenaries to our hearts’ content!”

“It’s dangerous, boys, it’s dangerous!” insisted Gilroy.

“Huh, we’re just beginning to enjoy ourselves, now that we have some object in life!” Jimmie insisted.

The boys set to work with a vim rolling boulders down the slope and placing them in front of the cave. It was the work of only a few minutes to barricade the entire entrance to within a foot of the top, leaving only a narrow place to pass in and out. Thus protected, the cave was quite dark but the electric flashlights carried by the boys would, they considered, supply sufficient illumination.

“And now,” Jimmie said, regarding the work critically, “we can give our whole attention to learning what has become of Ned.”

“If you don’t mind, boys,” Gilroy interrupted, “I wish you’d give a little attention to the ham and eggs and coffee you are preparing for my breakfast! This mountain air creates an appetite.”

“Sure thing!” Harry shouted. “We forgot all about your breakfast, and there’s the ham burning and the coffee bubbling over. But just you wait a minute,” he went on, “and we’ll soon have a meal better than any you could get at the Waldorf-Astoria!”

While the breakfast was being cooked and eaten, Gilroy continued to urge the boys to go out with him and wait at the nearest transportation point for Ned to follow them. The boys only laughed at the idea, however, and ended by urging him to remain with them until Ned should be brought back.

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do, boys,” the confidential clerk finally stated, “if you’ll give me a big roll of blankets and leave someone on watch, I’ll go back in the cave and sleep for about three days. Do you think you can find your detective friend in that time?”

“In three days?” laughed Jack. “We’ll be able to send you back to father in less time with a full report as to what is doing in the mountains.”

“I hope you’re right,” Gilroy said.

He turned toward the barricaded cave but halted at the very entrance.

“What was it you said,” he asked, “about the boy who warned you in the thicket being a Boy Scout?”

“He answered the challenge all right,” replied Frank.

“If he really is a Boy Scout,” asked Gilroy tentatively, “he ought to be loyal to his comrades, don’t you think?”

“Yes, he ought to be,” Jack answered, “but then, you know, there are renegades in all grades and ranks of society. Still, this boy may have been acting under compulsion.”

“I have read a great deal about Boy Scouts being loyal to each other,” Gilroy continued, “and I can’t help thinking that this one will in time do something to make amends for his seemingly hostile act in delivering a fraudulent note. I have faith in the Boy Scout league!”

“And so have we all of us!” declared Jack. “We have found Boy Scouts in all parts of the world, and we have always found them loyal and trustworthy. This lad may yet prove to be so.”

“Why,” Jimmie interrupted, “he did show that he was made of the right kind of stuff when he took the pains to follow us into the forest and advise us to get out of the country.”

“Yes,” Jack laughed, “but he returned from that excursion and delivered a lying note to Ned. Still,” the boy went on more mildly, “we don’t know anything about the circumstances surrounding the matter, so we’ll give him the benefit of every doubt.”

“I only made the suggestion,” Gilroy advised, “in order that you boys might be looking for some indication of friendliness on the part of this seeming enemy. The boy may be of great use to you yet.”

“It’s a mystery to me how they ever got a true Boy Scout mixed up in a dirty game!” Harry declared. “This boy is no easy mark. The language he used said ‘New York’ just as plain as anything, so they must have brought him clear from the big city for some purpose of their own.”

“Well,” Gilroy said in a moment, “I’ve given you the best advice I have at my command, and made what I regard as a valuable suggestion,” he continued with a laugh, “and now I’ll go to bed and dream that I’m back in New York sleeping on top of the Singer building.”

“The Singer building ain’t nothing to this,” Harry grinned, sweeping his hand over the great stretch of country to the east. “From the top of the Singer building you can’t see the back yard of half a dozen states.”

Gilroy passed through the narrow opening and the four boys gathered about the fire to lay plans for the future.

“Now, whatever we do,” Frank suggested, “we must never leave this cave unprotected. Just as long as we have a bullet proof place to hide away in, and plenty of provisions, they can’t drive us out of the mountains with anything less than a piece of artillery. They know exactly where to find us, so we won’t have to go chasing through the woods looking for them!” he added with a grin.

“That’ll help some!” Harry laughed, “especially when we want to sleep and have to set up to dodge bullets.”

“There ain’t going to be no bullets!” laughed Jack.

“And now,” Jimmie suggested, “I’m going to take a little stroll for my health. I’m afraid I’m not getting sufficient exercise.”

“Before we turn him loose in the mountains,” Jack laughed, “we ought to tie a bell on him. Jimmie has a way of getting lost that approaches the artistic. I believe he’d get lost in a hall bedroom.”

“Perhaps I’d better go with him,” Harry ventured.

“No you won’t!” Jimmie said. “I’m going out alone, and I’m going to c-r-e-e-p and c-r-e-e-p and c-r-e-e-p through the bushes like one of J. Fennimore Cooper’s foresters.”

“Robin Hood would have been stuck on you!” grinned Frank.

“You bet he would!” Jimmie insisted gravely. “Me and Robin Hood would have had some great times together in Lincoln forest.”

“Go on, then, you little runt!” Jack exclaimed. “Go on and get back as soon as possible, for we’re all anxious to get on the hunt for Ned.”

Jimmie laughed and disappeared in the pines lower down on the slope. He walked steadily to the east and north for, perhaps, half an hour and then began a series of operations which even his friends might not have understood at the beginning.

Stopping at the foot of a granite finger which thrust a broad surface half way up to the tops of the pines, he began gathering dry boughs. After a great heap had been secured, he carried them with great exertion to the top of the elevation. It was necessary for him to make several trips up and down the steep side of the rock but at last two great heaps of perfectly dry boughs lay on the hard surface of the cliff.

One more trip to the bottom he made, to return with a great back load of green pine boughs. Then he sat down, panting, and regarded his work with no little satisfaction.

“I don’t know,” he mused, wiping the perspiration from his forehead, “but I ought to climb one of these trees. I’d do it, too, only I’m afraid I couldn’t get the fires into line on the boughs.”

He heaped the dry boughs into neat, compact array and then covered them heavily with the green branches. This done, he set fire to each of the two piles and sat down to await results.

The flames ate fast into the dry faggots and the green boughs above made such a white smudge as had rarely been seen in that vicinity.

“There,” the boy mused, “there’s two towering columns of smoke! In Indian talk, they mean ‘I want some one to come and help me out of a mess,’ and that is what the two smudges say in Boy Scout language, too. Now I wonder if anyone save the lads at the camp will see and understand. I hope the kids at the cave will recognize this as an invitation to the bearer of the note alone, and not directed to themselves.”

The two columns of smoke ascended straight into the sky for perhaps ten minutes and then died down. Jimmie sat at the top of the rock and waited. The forest around him seemed alive with creeping and flying things, and sunshine filtered softly through the branches of the great pines. After a time he climbed to the top of a great tree and looked over the landscape.

To the south and west he saw the faint column of smoke lifting from the campfire. To the north and west mountain peaks lifted above the range, many of them white with snow.

“Now,” the boy mused, “unless the messenger is shut up, or tied up, or rendered motionless by the muzzle of a gun, I ought to know before very long whether he is a good Boy Scout or a renegade.”