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diff --git a/37487-8.txt b/37487-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..67b503f --- /dev/null +++ b/37487-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6716 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Boy Scouts in the Northwest, by G. Harvey Ralphson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Boy Scouts in the Northwest + Fighting Forest Fires + +Author: G. Harvey Ralphson + +Release Date: September 20, 2011 [EBook #37487] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOY SCOUTS IN THE NORTHWEST *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from images made available by the HathiTrust +Digital Library.) + + + + + + + +[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE] + + Boy Scouts + in the Northwest + + Or + + Fighting Forest Fires + + By + + Scout Master, G. Harvey Ralphson + + Author of + + "Boy Scouts in Mexico; or + On Guard with Uncle Sam." + "Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone; or + The Plot Against Uncle Sam." + "Boy Scouts in the Philippines; or + The Key to the Treaty Box." + + _Embellished with full page and other illustrations._ + + M. A. Donohue & Company, Chicago + + + + + COPYRIGHT 1911. + M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY. + ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. + + Electrotyped, Printed and Bound by + M. A. Donohue & Co. + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. A MOUNTAIN MYSTERY 7 + II. THE SIGNAL IN THE SKY 20 + III. JUST A TYPEWRITER RIBBON 28 + IV. THE AEROPLANE IN DANGER 45 + V. THE REVELATION OF A TRAGEDY 58 + VI. ABOVE THE CLOUDS AT NIGHT 71 + VII. A KEY WITH A BROKEN STEM 85 + VIII. FATE OF THE STEAK A LA BRIGAND 100 + IX. THE CHAOS OF A BURNING WORLD 113 + X. CHASING THE MILKY WAY 125 + XI. THE LUCK OF A BOWERY BOY 137 + XII. A MEMBER OF THE OWL PATROL 152 + XIII. OFF IN A DESPERATE MISSION 166 + XIV. THE BATTLE IN THE AIR 179 + XV. TOLD BY THE FOREST RANGER 191 + XVI. HOW A CAT TREED A WOLF 206 + XVII. THE TIME FOR THE ROUND-UP 219 + XVIII. TWO INANIMATE WITNESSES 230 + XIX. THE MAN BEHIND THE SCENES 244 + + + + + Boy Scouts + SERIES + + EVERY BOY AND GIRL IN THE LAND + WILL WANT TO READ THESE INTERESTING + AND INSTRUCTIVE BOOKS + + WRITTEN BY + That Great Nature Authority and + Eminent Scout Master + + G. HARVEY RALPHSON + of the Black Bear Patrol + + The eight following great titles are now ready, printed from large, + clear type on a superior quality of paper, embellished with original + illustrations by eminent artists, and bound in a superior quality of + binder's cloth, ornamented with illustrative covers stamped in two + colors of foil and ink from unique and appropriate dies: + + 1 Boy Scouts in Mexico; + or, On Guard with Uncle Sam + + 2 Boy Scouts in the Canal Zone; + or, The Plot Against Uncle Sam + + 3 Boy Scouts in the Philippines; + or, The Key to the Treaty + + 4 Boy Scouts in the Northwest; + or, Fighting Forest Fires + + 5 Boy Scouts in a Motor Boat; + or, Adventures on the Columbia River + + 6 Boy Scouts in an Airship; + or, The Warning from the Sky + + 7 Boy Scouts in a Submarine; + or, Searching An Ocean Floor + + 8 Boy Scouts on Motor Cycles; + or, With the Flying Squadron + + The above books are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent + prepaid to any address, upon receipt of 50c each, or any three for + $1.15, or four for $1.50, or seven for $2.45, by the publishers + + M. A. DONOHUE & CO. + 701-727 S. Dearborn Street, CHICAGO + + + + +BOY SCOUTS IN THE NORTHWEST + + +OR Fighting Forest Fires + + + + +CHAPTER I.--A MOUNTAIN MYSTERY. + + +On a sizzling hot afternoon near the middle of August, in the year +nineteen eleven, three boys dressed in the khaki uniform of the Boy +Scouts of America stood on a lofty plateau near the British frontier, +watching with anxious eyes the broken country to the south and west. + +"Nothing stirring yet!" Jack Bosworth said, turning to Pat Mack and +Frank Shaw, his companions. "Ned and Jimmie may be in trouble somewhere. +I wish we had waited and traveled with them." + +"Traveled with them!" repeated Frank Shaw. "We couldn't travel with +them. We were fired--given the grand bounce--twenty-three sign. Ned +seemed to want the space in the atmosphere we occupied at Missoula. +Serve them good and right if they do get distributed over the scenery." + +"Never you mind about Ned Nestor and Jimmie McGraw," Pat Mack put in. +"They can get along all right if someone isn't leading them by the hand. +Suppose we fix up the camp and get ready for our eats?" + +The boys turned away from the lip of the caņon upon which they had been +standing and busied themselves putting up shelter tents and unpacking +provisions and camping tools, as they called their blankets and cooking +vessels. + +They had passed the previous night in a sheltered valley lower down, +sleeping on the ground, under the stars, and had breakfasted from the +scanty stock of eatables carried in their haversacks. Early that morning +a train of burros had landed their outfit at the end of a rough trail +some distance below, and the boys, with long labor and patience, had +carried it up to the plateau. + +The men in charge of the burros had of course volunteered to assist in +the work of carrying the goods to the place selected for the camp, but +their offers had been declined with thanks, for the Boy Scouts were +determined that for the present no outsider should know the exact +location of their temporary mountain home. + +Those who have read the previous books of this series[1] will not be at +a loss to understand why the location of the camp in the Northwest was +for a time to remain a secret, so far as possible. Ned Nestor, for whom +those on the plateau were now waiting, had, some months before that hot +August afternoon, enlisted in the Secret Service of the United States +government. + +Accompanied by Frank Shaw, Jack Bosworth, Jimmie McGraw and others, he +had seen active diplomatic service during the Mexican revolution, had +unearthed a plot against the government in the Panana Canal Zone, and +had rendered signal service in the Philippines, where he had assisted in +preventing an armed revolt against the supremacy of the United States +government. + +At the close of his service in the Philippines, he had been commissioned +to investigate forest fire conditions in the Great Northwest. The boy +had a wonderful native talent for detective work, and, besides, it was +thought by the officials in charge of the matter that a party of Boy +Scouts, camping and roving about in northern Idaho and Montana and in +the southern sections of British Columbia, would be better able to size +up the forest fire situation than a party of foresters or government +secret service men. + +So Ned and his four chums had sailed away from Manila, reached San +Francisco in due season, and, after receiving further instructions and +arranging for supplies, had headed for the frontier. At Missoula, +Montana, he had sent Frank, Jack and Pat on ahead, after giving them the +exact location of the future encampment and arranging for the +transportation of supplies. + +From the first there had been some mystery in the minds of the three +concerning Ned's strange halt at Missoula. They could not understand why +he had sent them on ahead of him, for he usually directed every detail +of their journeyings. When questioned concerning this innovation, Ned +had only laughed and told the boys to keep out of the jaws of wild +animals and not get lost. + +"I'll be in camp almost as soon as you are," he had said, "and will take +the first mountain meal with you." + +Yet the boys had reached the vicinity of the chosen location on the +previous day, and Ned had not made his appearance. Naturally the boys +were more than anxious about the safety of their leader. + +"Did Ned say anything to you while at Missoula, about an aeroplane?" +Jack asked of Frank as they unpacked bacon and corn meal. "You know, +before we left the Philippines," he went on, slicing the bacon for the +coming repast, "the officials said we were to have a government +aeroplane. I was just wondering if the thing would get here after we +have no use for it." + +"He said nothing to me about the arrival of the aeroplane," Frank +replied, "but I presume he knows when the government air machine will be +on hand. It may be packed up at Missoula, for all we know," he added, +"and Ned may have waited there for the purpose of getting it ready for +flight." + +"What the dickens can we do with an aeroplane in this wilderness?" +demanded Pat, wiping the sweat from his face. "We can't run around among +the trees with it, can we? Nor yet we can't get gasoline up here to run +it with. Anyway, I'm no friend to these airships." + +"When they travel with upholstered dining coaches in connection, and +sleeping cars on behind," laughed Jack, "you'll think they're all to the +good. If we can't chase around among the trees in an aeroplane," he +continued, "we can sail over the forests and high peaks, can't we? +Without something of the sort, it would take us about a thousand years +to get a look-in at this wild country." + +"Well," Pat grumbled, "I only hope we won't get our necks broken falling +out of the contraption. It may be all right to go up in one of the +foolish things, but I think I'd rather take chances on going over +Niagara Falls in a rain-water barrel." + +"I half believe he will come in the aeroplane," Frank said, shading his +eyes with his hand and looking out to the south. "He wants to surprise +us, I take it, and that is why he acted so mysteriously about the +matter." + +"What about Jimmie?" demanded Pat, who would take almost any risk on +water, but who was filled with horror the moment his feet left the solid +earth. "He can't bring Jimmie along in his pocket, can he? And even if +he managed to get the little scamp up on the thing, some trick would be +turned that would land the 'plane on top of a high tree." + +"Two can ride an aeroplane, all right," Frank insisted. "Anyway, quit +your knocking. Ned knows what he is about, and we'll wait here for him +if we have to remain until the Rocky Mountains wash down into the +Pacific Ocean." + +"Suppose we climb up on the shelf above," Jack suggested, "and see if we +can find anything in the sky that looks like an aeroplane. I really +think Ned and Jimmie will travel here on the air line." + +Pat fished a field-glass out of his haversack and passed it over to +Jack. + +"You boys go on up," he said, "and see what there is to be seen. I'll +stay here and cook this bacon. I could eat a hog on foot right this +minute. Where did you put those canned beans?" + +"Never you mind the canned beans," laughed Jack. "It will be time enough +to open them when you get the bacon fried to a crisp. I see our finish +if you got one of the bean cans opened. Say, but I could eat a peak off +the divide!" + +"Well, the divide is up there, all right," Pat grinned, "go on up and +take a bite off it. On this side that ridge away up there the rivers run +into the Pacific ocean. On the other side they run into the Atlantic +ocean. Split a drop when you get on top and send your best wishes to +both oceans. And don't you remain away too long, either, for this bacon +is going to be cooked in record-breaking time." + +Leaving Pat to prepare the supper, Frank and Jack turned their faces +upward toward the main divide of the Rocky Mountains, 4,000 feet above +their heads. It was a splendid scene, and they enjoyed it to the full. +To the north the green forests of British Columbia stood crinkling under +the almost direct rays of the August sun, to the east, almost over their +heads, stood the backbone of the continent of North America, to the +south stretched the broken land of Montana, while to the west lay the +valleys and ridges of Idaho, Montana, and Washington beyond which pulsed +the mighty swells of the Pacific. + +Immediately to the north of the position occupied by the camp, and +within a mile of the international boundary line, Kintla lake lay like a +mirror in the lap of the mountains, reflecting peaks and silent groves +in its clear waters. From the lake, ten miles in length by half that in +width, an outlet flowed westward into the North Branch of the Flathead +river. + +The level plateau where the camp had been pitched was not far from two +acres in extent, with the bulk of the mountain to the east, a drop of a +thousand feet to the south, and steep but negotiable inclines to the +west and north. The lake was 300 feet below the level of the plateau, +which was about 3,000 feet above the sea level and 4,000 feet below the +summit of the divide at that point in the long range of mountains. + +There were peaks to the north and south which showed eternal snow and +ice, but there was a lowering of the shoulder of the great chain +directly to the east, so there was no snow in sight there. There were +forest trees low down in the caņon to the south, and on the slopes to +the west and north, but the plateau and the sharp rise toward the summit +were bare. + +While Pat sliced his bacon and mixed corn-meal, soda, salt and water to +make hoecakes, to be fried in bacon grease, Frank and Jack wormed their +way up the face of the mountain, toward a shelf of rock some hundred +feet above the plateau. It was hard climbing, but the lads persisted, +and soon gained the elevation they sought, from which it was hoped to +gain a fine view of the country toward Missoula. + +"Good thing we don't want to go any farther," Frank exclaimed, throwing +himself down on the ledge and wiping his streaming face. "We couldn't +scale the wall ahead with a ladder. Now," he went on, "look out there to +the south and see if there's an aeroplane in sight." + +Jack brought out the field-glass and looked long and anxiously, but +there was no sign of a man-made bird in the clear sky. + +"I don't believe, after all, that he'll come in an aeroplane," the boy +said, directly. "Suppose he took a notion to get a motor boat and run up +the north branch of the Flathead river, and so on into Kintla lake, down +there? How long would it take him to make the trip?" + +"About ten thousand years," was Frank's reply. "He never could get up +the north branch. There's too many waterfalls. Why, man, the stream +descends several thousand feet before it gets to sea level." + +"Anyway," Jack replied, "if you'll get out of my way I'll take a look at +the lake through the glass." + +"You'll probably see him come sailing up the slope in a battleship," +Frank said, in a sarcastic tone. + +Jack, without speaking, turned his glass to the north and gazed long and +anxiously over the lake. Presently Frank saw him give a start of +surprise and lean forward, as if to get a closer view of some object +which had come into the field of the lens. + +"What is it?" he asked. + +Jack passed him the glass with no word of explanation, and the boy +hastily swept the shores of the mountain lake. + +"I don't see any motor boat," he said, directly. + +"Well, what do you see?" Jack asked, expectantly. + +"For one thing," Frank replied, "the smoke of a campfire." + +"I saw that, too," Jack said, "and didn't know what to make of it. Also, +I saw a rowboat sneaking around that green point to the east." + +"That is what is puzzling me," Frank replied. "Years ago there was a +Blackfoot reservation just over the divide, and a Flathead Indian +reservation down by Flathead lake, to the south, but I had no idea the +Indians were still about. Still, the people you saw were probably +Indians. Suppose we go down there and look the matter up. We've got to +have some sort of a yarn to tell Pat when we get back to camp." + +The two boys scrambled down almost vertical surfaces, edged along narrow +ledges, slid down easier inclines, and finally came to the rim of beach +about the lake. There, at the eastern end of the pretty body of water, +they came upon the still glowing embers of a fire. + +Close to the spot where the remains of the fire glimmered in the hot +air, they saw the mouth of a cavern which seemed to tunnel under the +body of the mountain to the east. There were numerous tracks about the +fire, and some of them led to the entrance to the cavern. + +"Whoever built this fire," Jack exclaimed, "wore big shoes, so it wasn't +Indians. No, wait!" he added, in a moment, "there are tracks here which +show no heel marks. What do you make of that?" + +"Must be moccasins," Frank said. "The Indians may still be in the woods +about here." + +"I'm going into the cavern to see what's stirring there," Jack said, +"and before I go I'll have a look at my artillery." + +The boy looked his revolver over, and before Frank could utter a +warning, he darted away into the gloom of the cave. Frank did not follow +him, but turned in the direction of the point where the boat had +disappeared. + +A dozen yards on his way he stopped and listened. A voice, sounding like +that of a person in a deep well, reached his ears, and he turned back. + +He gained the mouth of the cavern in half a minute and plunged inside. +It was dark a dozen feet from the entrance, but he struck a match and +moved on, finally coming to a smooth wall which appeared to shut off +farther progress. + +When he turned about and faced the opening every object between where he +stood and the mouth stood revealed against the bright sunshine outside. +There were a few loose rocks, a rude bench, a small goods box, and +nothing else. Jack was nowhere in eight. + +He examined the walls of the cavern but discovered no lateral passages. +He called out to his chum, but received no response. Where was Jack? If +he had left the cavern he would have been seen. It was a perplexing +mystery, and the boy sat down on the box and listened for a repetition +of the sounds he had heard. + +For a moment no sounds came, then a voice, seemingly coming out of the +solid wall behind him reached his ears. He could distinguish no words +for a time, and then it seemed that he was being called by name. + +He called to Jack again and again, but received no answer. Jack was +evidently there somewhere, but where? The smooth walls gave no +indication of any hidden openings, and there was in view no crevice +through which a voice behind the walls might penetrate. It seemed either +a silly joke or an impenetrable mystery. + +----- +[1] "Boy Scouts in Mexico; or, On Guard With Uncle Sam," "Boy Scouts in +the Canal Zone; or, The Plot Against Uncle Sam," and "Boy Scouts in the +Philippines; or, The Key to the Treaty Box." Chicago: M. A. Donohue & +Company, Publishers. + + + + +CHAPTER II.--THE SIGNAL IN THE SKY. + + +Frank left the cavern in a moment and walked along the beach toward the +campfire. His thought was to gather embers and fresh fuel and build up a +blaze at the end of the cave which would reveal every inch of the +interior. He was certain that Jack had not left the place, and decided +that he had fallen into some hidden opening which had escaped his own +investigation. + +As he bent over the remains of the fire he heard a rattle of small +stones, and, looking up, saw Pat coming down the declivity from the +plateau where the tents had been set up. The incline was steep, and at +times Pat was rolling rather than walking. He was in his shirt sleeves +and bareheaded. At last his red head pitched toward the lake like a +meteor in downward flight. + +Frank rushed forward and caught him as he struck the beach, thus saving +him from an impromptu bath. Pat struggled to his feet in an instant, +rubbed his legs and arms to see if any bones had been broken, and then +turned his head and looked up the incline. + +"Talk about shooting the chutes!" he exclaimed. "I wonder what time I +made coming down?" + +"Sure you're not hurt?" asked Frank anxiously. + +"Every inch of my body has three bruises, one on top of the other," Pat +replied, "but I guess I'm able to walk. Say, but that was a +roller-coaster glide!" + +"Why did you try such a foolish caper?" asked Frank. + +"Why, I saw you boys here," was the reply, "and started down. You know +the rest, as the yellow-covered books say. What you boys doing here, +wasting your time, with the bacon burning to a crisp?" + +"We came here to investigate," was the reply, "and Jack went into the +cavern, and vanished--just vapored into thin air. I'm going to build a +fire in there and see if I can't condense him!" + +"Well," Pat said, listening, "he may have vanished physically, but his +voice appears to be on deck yet." + +Three sharp calls came from the cavern, and both boys dashed inside. +There was no doubt now that Jack's voice, at least, had condensed, for +the shouts coming from the back of the cavern were both hearty and +imperative. + +"Hi, there!" Jack called. "Pry this stone out of the doorway!" + +"Where are you?" demanded Pat. "Which one of the walls do you want us to +push in? You're a nice chump, getting in a scrape like this!" he added, +with a laugh which must have been exasperating to the unseen boy. + +"You'll find a crevice where the back of the cave joins the south wall," +Jack said, his voice coming faintly to the ears of his chums. "Put your +fingers in and pull. The blooming door opens outward. Hurry! It's +stifling in here!" + +After burning nearly all the matches they had in their pockets, and +scorching their fingers on the short sticks, Pat and Frank discovered +the crevice spoken of and inserted the ends of their fingers. + +"Pull!" yelled Jack. "Pull, you loafers! It is moving!" + +In a moment the south half of the back wall swung out so suddenly that +both boys were thrown from their feet and Jack, who had been pushing +with his whole strength, came tumbling on top of them as they lay on the +floor of the cavern. + +"What sort of a combination is this, anyway?" demanded Pat, struggling +to his feet. "If I get any more bumps to-day I'll be taking something +that belongs to some one else. I've had my share." + +Frank sprang to the opening as soon as he could disentangle himself from +the collection of arms and legs and looked in. All was dark and still +inside, and a gust of dead air struck him in the face. Pat, leaning over +his shoulder, laid a hand on the rock which had opened so strangely, and +the next instant it closed softly, sliding into the opening like a door +operated by well-oiled machinery. + +"Now you've done it!" Frank exclaimed, disgustedly, as Pat threw himself +against the stone in a vain effort to force it open again. + +"No harm done," Jack exclaimed. "There's only a stinking cavern in +there. Wow! I can feel snakes and lizzards crawling on me now! Come! Let +us get into the open air. Stifles like a grave in here." + +The boys hastened outside and stood meditatively before the shining +waters of the lake, each one trying to think clearly concerning what had +taken place. They believed themselves--or had believed, rather--miles +away from any trace of civilization, and yet here was a practical door +of rock at the end of a cave almost under the great divide. + +"We've found something," Frank said, at length. "That thing in there +never happened. Human hands fashioned that door for some secret purpose. +And it wasn't Indians, either." + +"I guess we've run up against a band of train robbers," suggested Jack, +with a grin. + +"Probably the entrance to some deserted mine," Pat put in. "This region +has been searched for gold for fifty years. I've heard of mines being +concealed by moving stones." + +"Well," Frank said, after a short silence, during which all listened for +some indication of the immediate presence of the men who had been seen +to row around the green point a short time before, "whatever the game +is, we've got to remove every trace of our visit. When they come back +they probably won't notice the tracks we have made, for there were +plenty about before we came here, but we must gather up all the +match-ends we left in there and leave the door as we found it." + +"I found it open and walked in," Jack said, "and then it closed. Whew! I +felt like I was being shut up in a tomb!" + +"How large a place is it in there?" asked Pat. + +"Don't know," was the reply. "I had no matches with me, and so could not +see a thing." + +"Then we won't have to open the door again to clean up any muss," Frank +said, moving toward the entrance to the cavern. + +"I wouldn't go in again for a thousand dollars," Jack cried. "If you +leave it to me, the place is haunted. I heard groans in there." + +Frank paused at the entrance and turned back. His matches were about +gone, and so he took a burning stick from the fire, added two dry +faggots to it, waited until the three burst into flame, and then entered +the cave. + +To gather up the half-burned matches which had been scattered over the +floor was the work of only a moment. + +"Now you'll have to open the door, if you leave it as I found it," Jack +said, looking in from the mouth. "Pat will help you." + +"Come on in, both of you," Frank directed. + +"Not me!" cried Jack. "I hear bones rattling!" + +The boys thought he was joking at first, but it soon appeared that he +was in sober earnest, so Pat and Frank, by exerting their entire +strength, managed to open the door without his assistance. + +"You're afraid of the dark!" Pat taunted, as the boys gathered around +the fire again. + +"I'm not half as afraid of the dark as you are of an aeroplane," Jack +replied. "If I ever see you going up in a 'plane, I'll go in there +alone." + +"Don't you ever forget that," Pat grinned. + +"Oh, I'll be game, all right," was the reply. + +Before leaving the beach for the camp the boys walked to the point +around which the boat had gone and scanned the lake and its shores +through the field-glass. There was no sign of life anywhere, except +where the birds swung from forest limbs back from the rim of the lake +and called each other through the sultry air. + +Reaching the camp after a weary climb, they did full justice to the meal +which Pat had prepared, though the bacon and the hoecakes were stone +cold, or at least as cold as anything could be in that glare of +sunlight. Then, the dishes washed and the beds prepared for the night, +they sat down to watch the lake and the sky to the south, for it was now +the general belief that Ned would make his appearance with the aeroplane +which had been promised by the government officials. + +The point they had last visited, as well as the location of the fire, +was in full view of the plateau, so the boys made no efforts to conceal +their presence there. The men who had been observed in the boat must +have noted their presence on the plateau before taking their leave. +Perhaps, they reasoned, they had taken their departure because of this +invasion. + +The sun sank lower and lower in the sky, turning the plateau and the +smooth waters of the lake to gold, still there were no signs of Ned, no +indications of the return of the boat to the place from which it had +been launched. Half an hour after dark, Frank, who was looking through +the field-glass, caught sight of light in the south which did not appear +to come from any star. + +"Here he comes!" he cried. "That's an aeroplane, all right!" + +As the light drew nearer, traveling rapidly, the sharp explosions of the +gasoline engine became audible. Then a light flickered over the upper +plane, passed off, and swept the white surface again. + +"How does he make that?" demanded Pat. "Looks like a great question +mark." + +"That's what it is," Frank exclaimed. "Now, what does he mean by it?" + + + + +Chapter III.--JUST A TYPEWRITER RIBBON. + + +"I don't understand what question he is asking," Jack said, "but I know +how he makes the signal. He has an electric flashlight, and he tips the +plane--the upper plane--forward, like he was plunging to the earth, and +writes the interrogation mark on the under side with the flame of the +flashlight. See? Then it shines through the canvas and we read it! Great +idea!" + +"That must be the way of it," Frank said, "but what does he want? And +how does he expect us to answer?" + +"If I was up there in the dark on a contraption like that," Pat said, +"I'd be asking how I was going to find a landing place." + +"Sure!" Frank cried. "Ned wants to know where we are, and whether it is +safe for him to make a landing. Dunderheads! Why didn't we think of that +before? He is passing now, and may not come back again." + +The light flashed by at swift speed, whirled, ascended several hundred +feet, and came over the plateau, repeating the signal. Then it settled +down into a steady circling of the camp. + +"He knows where we are, all right," Pat said. "What he wants to know is +if it is safe for him to make a landing. If I ever go up in one of those +things I'll drag a rope so I can climb down it." + +"I'll tell him what he wants to know," Frank said, "if you'll get me a +long stick on fire most of its length." + +"Wigwag?" asked Jack. + +"Sure!" was the reply. "Now," Frank continued, "build four fires, one on +each edge of the plateau. That will show him how large the place is. +Then I'll take the flaming stick and wigwag o.k. Ned'll understand +that." + +Pat watched the wigwag signal with interest. + +"I saw foolish signs like those in the Philippines," he said, with a +grin. "The natives use them to talk treason to each other. I've heard +that the same method is used by the East Indians who talk from one +mountain top to another faster than words on a wire. How does he make +the o.k. signal?" + +"O is one left, followed by one right," Jack replied, "and k is left, +right, left, right. You won't think the signs are foolish when you see +how quickly Ned reads them. See! He's shooting away now." + +"Perhaps he thinks the signals are being made by savages," Pat said. + +The aeroplane darted off to the west for half a minute, then whirled and +came back. The boys could not see the great 'plane distinctly, but the +lights which burned on the front were bright and clear, so they saw that +the 'plane was sweeping toward the earth as it advanced in their +direction. + +"I don't believe many professionals would care to make a landing like +this," Frank said, as the machine dipped and slid to the ground, exactly +in the center of the plateau. + +"Hello, Ned!" he yelled, as the aeroplane rolled over the smooth surface +for an instant and stopped. + +In a second the three boys were gathered about the machine, pulling at +the hands and feet of the daring riders. Jimmie McGraw bounded to the +ground as soon as he could cast off the lines which had held him to his +quivering seat. + +"Say," he cried, "you got a fire here? I'm most froze." + +Indeed the little fellow's teeth were chattering. + +"Cold?" echoed Pat. "We're melting down here. You're scared, that's +what's the matter with you. You're scared stiff." + +Jimmie made a run for the speaker but brought up at the fire where the +supper had been cooked. + +"Here's comfort!" he cried, extending his hands out over what was left +of the small blaze. "The next time you get me up in the air I don't go! +I've been freezing for an hour." + +In the meantime Ned Nestor was caring for the aeroplane, looking after +the delicate machinery and covering it carefully with a huge oil-cloth. +Pat stood watching the work with a grin on his face. + +"Are you thinking of giving me a ride in that thing?" he asked. + +"Not to-night!" laughed Ned. + +"Well, when you get ready for me to ride the air," Pat said, "just tell +me the night before, and I'll shoo myself into the hills. If I'm going +to fall off anything, I'll take the drop from something solid, like a +mountain top." + +"No danger at all, when you know how to operate the machine," Ned +replied. "There's danger in running anything if you don't know how, even +a sewing machine." + +"Where did you pick it up?" asked Frank. + +"He didn't pick it up at all," interposed Pat. "It picked him up." + +"I found it at Missoula," was the reply, "all packed and stored away in +a freight warehouse. I had to get it out at night, and so lost time. The +people would have kept me there until now giving exhibitions if I had +shown up during the day." + +"But you did leave there in the daytime," urged Jack. "You were never in +the air since last night." + +"We left early this morning," was the reply, "and I was well up in the +sky before many of the people saw me." + +"I never knew you could run one," Frank said. + +"Oh, I had some instructions from the Wrights," was the modest reply, +"and, besides, there was an expert at Missoula who helped me get the +machine together and contributed a few parting instructions." + +"Then you've been in the air all day?" asked Pat. + +"No, we stopped several times, of course, once on the right of way of +the Great Northern railroad and filled our gasoline tanks," was the +reply, "and rested there a few hours. Jimmie had to eat there, of +course!" + +"Eat!" came the boy's voice from the fire. "If I ever get a bite at food +again it will drop down into the toes of me shoes! Here!" he shouted, as +Pat produced a can of pork and beans and started to open it. "You +needn't mind opening that! I'll just swallow it as it is." + +"Bright boy!" laughed Pat, handing him a liberal supply of beans and +fried bacon. "Now fill up on that and then loosen up on your impressions +of the sky." + +"I thought I'd make an impression on the earth before I got through," +Jimmie mumbled, his mouth full of beans. "We went up so far that the +mountains looked like ant hills, didn't we, Ned?" + +"About 7,000 feet," was the reply. "You see," he added, turning to +Frank, "I wanted to size up the situation before I landed. If there is +anybody in this upturned country at all, our presence here is known. The +aeroplane's chatter took good care of that. And, besides, our landing in +the night, with the lights going, gave unmistakable evidence of +something stirring." + +"I should say so," Frank agreed. + +"And so," Ned went on, "I wanted to learn if there were people about +here, so I might visit them in the morning and put up the bluff of Boy +Scouts playing with an aeroplane in the woods. We can't attempt anything +in the mysterious line," he went on. "We've got to be entirely frank +about everything except the business we are here on." + +"Well," Frank said, "we found people here to-day and called on them." + +"What sort of people?" + +"Well, they seemed to have good broad backs," laughed Frank. + +"They ran away from you?" asked Ned, in surprise. "I should think they +would have proved inquisitive. Where were they?" + +"Down by Kintla lake." + +"Indians?" asked Ned. + +Then Frank told the story of the visit to the shore of the lake and the +cavern, taking good care to describe the surroundings as closely as +possible. Ned laughed when the boy came to Jack's adventure in the +hidden chamber. + +"I say it is some deserted mine," Pat declared, when Frank had concluded +the recital. "What else could it be?" + +"Robber's nest!" suggested Jack. + +Ned remained silent for a moment and then abruptly asked: + +"What kind of footwear made those heelless prints?" + +"You may search me!" Jack cut in. + +"Must have been Indian moccasins," Frank observed. + +Jimmie, who had been standing by the small fire, listening to the talk, +now advanced to the little circle about the machine and uttered one +word: "Chinks!" + +"It is always Chinks with Jimmie," grinned Frank. "When there is a +cyclone in New York the Chinks are to blame for it, if you leave it to +him." + +"What would Chinks be doing up here?" demanded Pat. + +"Don't they get gold by washing it out?" asked Jack, with a nudge at +Jimmie's side. "Perhaps they're going to start a laundry!" + +While this chaff was in progress Ned stood looking thoughtfully in the +direction of the lake. Not a word did he say regarding the sudden and +brief communication Jimmie had presented. + +"Any forest fires in sight?" asked Pat, finally breaking the silence. + +"Not one," Jimmie answered. "I would have dropped into one if it had +come my way. It was fierce up there!" + +"It is rather cool when you get up a couple of miles," Ned laughed, "and +Jimmie wouldn't listen to reason regarding his clothes. To-morrow I'll +give one of you boys a ride, and you may see for yourself." + +"Not me!" Pat exclaimed. "I'll stay below and help pick up the pieces." + +"I should like to go," Frank said. "We may find the people we saw in the +rowboat. When we become acquainted with them we may be able to learn +something about that cavern." + +"I would advise remaining silent about the cavern," Ned said. "It may be +used for some criminal purpose, and we must not admit that we know of +its existence. We are just carefree lads, here for an outing, remember," +he added, with a laugh, "and we are due to make friends with everybody +we come across." + +"But you made us lug all this camping outfit up here," complained Jack, +"so the men who steered the burros up the hills wouldn't know where we +camped. What about that?" + +"I thought it best to cut off all communication with the people below," +explained Ned. "It may be that the purpose of our visit here is +suspected. In that case some one from below might want to find us--for +no good purpose. So we'll keep out of sight of the people in the towns, +unless they see our aeroplane, and cultivate the acquaintance of the +natives--if there are any." + +"How about gasoline and provisions?" asked Pat. + +"I have plenty of gasoline stored on the right of way of the Great +Northern railroad," Ned replied, "enough to last us a month. It was +piped into a hidden tank from an oil car by a train crew now out of the +state. We are to get provisions at the same place, if we need more, for +Uncle Sam fixed all the details for us. All we have to do is to find the +fellows who are setting forest fires and bring them to punishment." + +"We ought to locate every little smudge, with that aeroplane," Frank +suggested. + +"That is my idea," Ned replied. "Have you been keeping a good lookout on +the lake since you left it?" he added, turning to Pat. + +"Some one of us has had eyes on it every minute," was the satisfactory +reply. "No one has returned, I'm sure." + +"You're not thinking of going there to-night, are you?" asked Jack, with +a slight shiver. "I wouldn't go in there again, even in broad daylight, +for a million dollars!" + +"Pat is afraid of the sky, and Jack is afraid of the bowels of the +earth!" laughed Frank. "We'll have to tuck them both in bed before we +can accomplish anything." + +"You may all go to bed but one," Ned said, looking about the group, his +eyes finally resting with a significant look on Frank's excited face. "I +want to look through that cavern before anything is taken out of it." + +Frank, knowing the meaning of the look he had received, went to his +little tent for his revolver and his electric searchlight and was soon +ready for the expedition. Jimmie looked sulky for a moment at being left +out of the game, then his face brightened and he crawled into the tent +that had been prepared for Nestor and himself and burst into a fit of +laughter. + +"I'll show 'em!" he said, stuffing the blanket into his mouth to +suppress the sound of his merriment. "I'll teach 'em to put me in the +discard." + +"Any wild animals up here?" asked Ned, as the two started away down the +steep declivity. + +"Two Black Bears and three Wolves!" called Jimmie, from his tent. + +This was a reference to the Boy Scout Patrols to which the boys +belonged. Frank and Jack were members of the famous Black Bear Patrol of +New York City, while Ned, Pat and Jimmie were members of the Wolf +Patrol. + +As the lad spoke Frank and Jack broke into growls which might well have +come from the throat of the grizzliest grizzly in the Rocky Mountains, +while Pat sent forth a wolf howl, which might well have been a signal to +the pack. + +"You may meet the real thing out here," warned Ned, turning back to look +over the plateau, now shining in the light of a half-moon. "There are +both bears and wolves in this region. When you meet them, don't wait for +Boy Scout signs!" + +"Oh, we'll initiate 'em, all right," Jimmie called from the tent, and +Ned and Frank moved on down the declivity toward the lake. + +It was still early evening, and the moon was low down in the east, so +the valley where the lake lay was not touched by its light. Indeed, the +plateau where the boys were would have been in the shadow of the +mountain only for the dropping of the shoulder of the divide. + +In half an hour the two boys, after several slides which were anything +but pleasant, gained the beach. The campfire was now dead, and the +locality was still save for the voice of a night bird and the occasional +splash of a leaping fish. The mouth of the cavern loomed like a dark +patch on the lower bulk of the mountain. + +Making as little noise as possible, Ned and Frank crept into the cavern, +advancing by the sense of feeling until they came to the very end before +turning on one of the electric flashlights. The round eye of the flame +showed a long, narrow, tunnel-like tube running directly east, under the +mountain. The door of rock was as the boys had left it earlier in the +day. + +Ned examined that portion of the rock which had swung out into the first +chamber with considerable care, as the story of the swinging stone had +interested him greatly. All along the top, up to the center, he found +the checks of a stone-chisel. Exactly in the middle an elevation of an +inch fitted into a round cavity in the upper rock. At the bottom the +same conditions were discovered. + +"Rather a clever job," Ned said, "but I don't see how it was ever done." + +"This door," Frank said, "is not exactly like the remainder of the wall +in grain, so it must have been brought here from some other locality. Of +course there was a hole between these two chambers, or the second one +would never have been found. It would be easy enough to fit the stone +door in by grooving out from the lower cavity and sliding the under +pivot in." + +"Sure," Ned replied, getting down to examine the lower part of the door +more closely, "and that is just what was done. Then the groove was +filled with concrete. Pretty classy work here!" + +"And now the question is this," Frank went on, "what was the door fitted +for? Why did the men who found the cave desire privacy? Is there gold in +there? Have the men who have been setting fire to the forests +established a home here? Is this the hiding place of a band of outlaws? +You see there are lots of questions to ask about the two caverns," Frank +added, with an uneasy laugh. + +Ned closed the stone door and turned on both electric flashlights, +making the place light as day where they stood. The inner cavern was as +bare as the outer one save for dead leaves and grass which lay in heaps +on the stone floor, and for half a dozen rough benches which were piled +in one corner. At the farther end hung a gaudy curtain, once handsome, +but now sadly spotted with mildew because of dampness. + +"Here's the inner chamber," laughed Frank, drawing the curtain aside. +"And it looks like it was the private office of the bunch, too," he +added, as he turned the light about the walls. + +There was a desk in the third cavern, a swivel chair, a small case of +books, and a rusty safe, which looked as though it had not been opened +for years. A current of fresh air came from the rear, and a small +opening was soon discovered. + +"That doubtless leads to some caņon not far away," Ned said. "Makes a +pretty decent place of it, eh?" + +"Good enough for any person to hide in," replied Frank. "Now," he added, +"tell me what you think of it. Who cut this cavern, and who brought the +furniture here? I'll admit that my thinker is not working." + +"Nature made the caverns," Ned replied. "There is what geologists call a +fault in the rock here. Owing to volcanic action, doubtless, the strata +shifted, probably thousands of years ago, and when the seam appeared the +broken pieces fell apart. These chambers show the width of the seam. +There undoubtedly was a great earthquake at the time, and the lake below +might have been dredged out at that time." + +"Of course," Frank said, "I might have known that! Now, here's another +question: How far does this seam extend under the Rocky Mountains? If it +passes beyond these three chambers, why not make a fourth room for +ourselves so as to be on the spot when the men who make headquarters of +the place come back?" + +"That may be a good thing to do," Ned admitted, "but, still, I would not +like to be the one to lie in wait here. Suppose we try to learn +something of the character of the people who come here? They seem to +sleep on dry leaves and eat off benches. Rather tough bunch, I take it. +Perhaps we have struck Uncle Sam's enemies the first thing!" + +Keeping their lights on, and working as silently as possible, always +with an eye to the outer cavern, the boys made a careful search of the +inner chamber. The desk was not fastened, and a cupboard afterward +discovered in a niche was open also. There were dishes in the cupboard +and writing materials in the desk. + +At the very bottom of the desk drawer Ned came upon a surprise. + +"Not so tough as I supposed," he said, turning to Frank. "Here's a +typewriter ribbon. The sort of people who set fire to forests and hold +up trains are hardly in the typewriter class. What do you make of it?" + +"Well," Frank said, with a chuckle, "if you'll tell me what the +inhabitants of this place want of typewriter ribbons I'll tell you why +they bring great tins of opium here. It seems that we have struck +something more important than forest fires." + + + + +CHAPTER IV.--THE AEROPLANE IN DANGER. + + +A strong wind came out of the Western Sea at ten o'clock that night and +swept the lofty plateau as a woman might have swept it with a new broom. +Ned and Frank, pursuing their investigations in the cavern, knew nothing +of what was going on at the camp, but Jack and Pat were not long in +ignorance of the danger of the situation. + +With the first strong rush of wind the boys were on their feet, +steadying the aeroplane, driving stakes wherever the nature of the +ground permitted, and running bracing cords. The shelter tents went down +instantly and were blown against the rocks of the east, where they waved +canvas arms in the tearing breeze like sheeted ghosts. + +The black clouds which swarmed up from the valley brought no rain, but +fitful flashes of lightning and deep-toned thunder made a threatening +sky. The roaring of the swirling trees in the caņon and on the slopes +came up to the ears of the boys like the boom of a strong surf. + +After persistent efforts the boys succeeded in bracing the aeroplane so +that there was little danger of its being swept away, though they still +remained with their backs to the wind, holding on. As time passed, they +crept close together in order that the situation might be discussed. + +"Lucky thing we remained here," Pat said, tugging with all his might to +steady the monster machine against a particularly vicious dash of wind. + +"It would have gone sure, if we hadn't," Jack screamed back. "I wish Ned +and Frank would come and help. My back is creaking like a shaft that +needs oiling with the strain on it." + +"A little help wouldn't go amiss," Pat admitted, shouting at the top of +his lungs in order that he might be heard above the whistling of the +storm. + +"I wonder if we'll ever be able to put the tents up again?" Jack +shouted. "They are flapping and snapping like musketry out there on the +rocks. I hope they won't blow away entirely." + +Pat gazed anxiously in the direction indicated, but could only see +pieces of canvas bellying up in the wind, mounting upward like balloons +at times, then falling back to earth when a short lull came in the +storm. + +"Why," he cried, in a moment, "where's Jimmie? I thought I saw him here +a moment ago. Have you seen him?" + +"Not since the storm," panted Jack. + +"He may have been smothered in his tent," Pat shouted. "You hold on here +while I go and look him up." + +"Be sure that you keep close to the ground," warned Jack. "If you don't +you'll be blown away." + +It was not at all difficult for the lad to reach the flapping tents, for +the wind generously assisted him in the journey. Only that he crept on +his hands and knees he would have been tossed against the wall where the +tents lay. + +Struggling with the tearing canvas, bracing himself against the face of +the cliff, the boy looked over the ruined tents but found no indication +of the presence of the boy he sought, either dead or alive. Then he felt +along the angle of the foot of the rise with no better success. + +"He's not there," he reported, crawling back to Jack, now braced +tenaciously with his toes and elbows digging into the soil above the +rock. + +"Did you find his clothes?" asked Jack. + +"Not a thing belonging to his outfit," was the reply. + +"Well, he went to bed, didn't he?" asked Jack, a sudden suspicion +entering his mind. + +"He went into his tent," was the reply, "but I did not see him undress." + +Then Pat, much to his astonishment, heard Jack laughing as if mightily +pleased over something that had taken place. + +"You've got your nerve!" he exclaimed. "Laughing at a time like this. +I'll bet the kid has been blown off the plateau." + +There was now a little lull in the drive of the wind and Jack nudged his +companion with his elbow, turning an amused face as he did so. + +"Blown off nothing!" he said. "You saw how he acted when Ned went off +without him--how sulky he was?" + +"I noticed something of the sort." + +"Well, Jimmie ducked after him!" + +"Why, he was told to remain here." + +"He has been told that before," Jack said, "and he's never obeyed +orders. He followed Ned from Manila to Yokohama, not long ago, and made +a hit in doing it, too. Oh, it is a sure thing that Jimmie is not far +from Ned at this minute." + +"The little scamp!" grinned Pat. + +"He seems to think that Ned can't get along without his constant +presence and his pranks," Jack continued. "He generally stirs something +up in his immediate vicinity, but he's a pretty good scout at that." + +"I hope he is with Ned," Pat said. + +The wind now died down a bit, so that it was no longer necessary to hold +the aeroplane, and the boys, after seeing that the rope still held, +began the work of repairing the tents. + +The clouds drifted away and the moon looked down as bravely as if it had +not just hidden its face from sight at the threats of the wind! The +electric flashlights with which the boys were well provided seemed +inadequate and Pat started in to build a fire. + +"I don't know about that," Jack said. "If there had been a fire here +when that wind came up it would have been roaring in the caņon now. The +storm would have swept it down on the trees there, and the whole gully +would soon have become a roaring furnace. Better cut out the fire." + +"I guess you are right," Pat said, reluctantly laying his dry faggots +aside. + +While the boys worked, trying to restore the shelter tents to something +like form, the wind came up once more and reached out for the aeroplane. +Pat and Jack renewed their holding efforts, and thanked their stars that +no fire had been built on the plateau, for the forest about was dry as +tinder. + +Presently a voice which neither recognized came out of the shadows cast +by a mass of clouds just then occupying the sky where the moon should +have been. + +"Hello!" the voice said. + +The boys looked at each other in perplexity for a moment and then Jack +answered back. + +"Hello!" he said. + +"Are you all safe up here, safe and sound?" the voice asked, and then +the figure of a tall man, roughly dressed, but bearing the manner, as +faintly observed in the darkness, of a gentleman, advanced toward the +aeroplane, to which the lads were still devoting their whole attention. + +"Safe and sound!" repeated Pat. + +The stranger sat down by Jack's side and laid hold of the aeroplane. + +"Pulls hard, doesn't it?" he asked, as the machine, forced by the wind, +drew stoutly on the ropes and the muscles of the boys. + +[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION No. 2] + +"Pulls like a horse," Jack replied. + +"I'm Greer, of the forest service," the stranger said, in a moment. "I +saw a fire up here this afternoon, and I was afraid harm might come from +it during the gale. One blazing brand down in that caņon, and millions +of feet of timber would be destroyed." + +"As you see," Jack said, "we have no fire." + +"This, I presume," Greer said, still pulling at the machine, "is the +aeroplane your friends came in this evening?" + +"The same," replied Pat shortly. + +The lad was annoyed to think that the forester, as he called himself, +had been watching them. If he had taken so much interest in their +movements, Pat thought, why hadn't he shown himself before? + +Jack's thoughts seemed to be running in the same direction. In fact, +both boys were suspicious of this soft-spoken stranger who had come to +them out of the storm with questions on his lips. + +"Where are your friends?" Greer asked, in a moment. "I hope they are not +out in the forest thinking of starting a fire?" + +"They've gone to the lake after fish," Jack said, accounting for the +absence of the others with the first words that came to his lips. + +Greer gave a quick start and leaned over to look into Jack's face. + +"Down at the lake?" he repeated. "Not out in a boat in a storm like +this?" + +"No," replied Jack, gruffly, so gruffly, in fact, that the stranger +caught the hostile note and turned away. + +"I'm always afraid of fire on a night like this," Greer continued in a +moment, "and rarely sleep until morning. My cabin is back on the +mountain a short distance, some distance above this plateau. That's how +I happened to see what was going on here." + +"Rather a lonely life," Pat said, resolved to keep the fellow talking if +he could. "Because," he reasoned, "you can tell what's in a man's head +if he keeps his mouth open and his tongue moving, but no one can tell +the secret locked up behind closed lips." + +"Yes, it is rather lonely," Greer replied. "I'm glad you boys are here. +Going to remain long?" + +"Only a few weeks--just to hunt and fish," was Jack's reply. + +"If you don't mind," Greer went on, "I'll come down and visit you now +and then." + +The statement almost took the form of a question, and Jack gave a +grudging answer that the visits would be a pleasure, though he believed +that the man was arranging a way of watching their movements. + +"I wish this wind would go down," Greer said, presently. "As I said +before, I'm always afraid of fire on nights like this. See! The wind +blows straight off the distant ocean strong and steady, and a fire +started out there to the west would run over this plateau and over the +mountain like a wash of tide." + +"There's nothing to burn on the plateau," Jack said, glad of an +opportunity to contradict the stranger. + +"Nothing to burn!" Greer repeated. "I reckon you don't know much about +forest fires, young man! Why, it would burn the soil down to bed rock, +even evaporate the water in the rock itself and crumble it down to +ashes. A forest fire is no joking matter." + +The boys remained silent, looking cautiously into each other's faces and +both wondering how a forester, a man marooned in a great wilderness +should be so exact in his speech, should wear such a shirt--actually a +dress shirt--as they saw under his rough coat when the wind blew it +aside. + +"I rather think there's more company coming," Greer continued, seeing +that the boys were not inclined to comment on his warnings. "A moment +ago I saw a flash of light at the foot of the rise to the west." + +The wind was still blowing fiercely, but both boys turned and looked +down the incline. There was a faint light there now, glimmering among +the trees. + +"It looks like a lantern," Greer said. "And the fellow seems about to +climb the hill. Good luck to him, in this gale." + +"It seems to me," Pat said, "that the light we see is running along on +the ground. If that should be a forest fire, there would be the dickens +to pay to-night--and nothing to pay with!" + +"That is not the way forest fires start," Greer said, turning indolently +in the direction of the divide. "That is a man with a lantern." + +The boys watched the glimmer below with interest. The man with the +lantern, if there was a man and a lantern, seemed to be moving with the +wind. Then, again, he seemed to divide himself, as the lower orders of +life at the bottom of the seas divide themselves, appearing on both +sides of a dark space at the same moment. + +They were satisfied that something unusual was going on, but were for +the moment lulled into a half-sense of security by the positive +assertions of the alleged forester. Presently they turned away from the +scene below and fixed their eyes on the stranger. + +He was standing straight up, his tall figure braced against the wind, +peering down into the caņon. Notwithstanding the steady wind, the sky +was now comparatively free of clouds, and they saw him lift a hand with +something bright shining in it. + +It appeared to the lads that he was signaling to some one in the caņon. +They turned away instantly so that Greer did not note their observation +of him, and again fixed their gaze on the slope to the west. + +The lantern, if there was a lantern, was growing larger! It was showing +itself in half a dozen places now, and was tracing lights far up in the +crotches of dead trees. Then the penetrating odor of burning wood and +grass came up the slope. + +Filled with a fear which could hardly be expressed in words, the boys +faced Greer again. He still stood facing the caņon to the south, but his +hands were not lifted now. There was no need for that, the boys thought, +for the previous signal seemed to have sufficed. + +Among the dry faggots on the ground at the bottom of the caņon there was +another man with a lantern. He, too, if there was such a man, was moving +about among the trees and dividing himself into sections, as the +rudimental creatures of the world multiply themselves. Pat sprang to +Greer's side and shook him roughly by the arm. + +"There's a fire down there!" he cried. + +In the uncertain moonlight the boy saw the stranger's face harden. + +"You are mistaken," he said, turning away toward the lake. + +"Smell the smoke!" Jack shouted. "I tell you the forest is on fire on +two sides of us." + +"Then your friends have set the fires!" Greer shouted, against the wind. +"I have been suspicious of you all along--ever since you failed to +satisfactorily account for the absence of your friends. It is all very +well for you to come here in an aeroplane and start a conflagration! But +how do you think that we, who are not so well provided with means of +getting away, are to escape death?" + +Pat drew back his hand, as if to strike the fellow, but Jack restrained +him. + +"You set the fires!" Pat shouted, then. "You set it through your fellow +conspirators! I saw you signaling to the caņon!" + +"You're no more a forester than I am!" Jack added. "You're a scoundrel, +and ought to be sent to prison for life." + +There was no more talk for a time. Greer stood defiantly against the +wall of rock to the east, as if fearful of an attack from behind, his +right hand in his bulging pocket. The boys knew that he had a weapon +there, and their own hands were not empty. + +The aeroplane drew and shivered in the rising gale, but now little +attention was paid to it. Pat and Jack were listening for some +indication of the return of Ned and Frank. No farther fable of a man +with a lantern was necessary, for fire was racing up the western slope, +heading directly for the plateau and the priceless aeroplane. Down in +the caņon the flames were leaping from tree to tree. A stifling smoke +filled the air, always in swift motion, but stifling still. + + + + +CHAPTER V.--THE REVELATION OF A TRAGEDY. + + +"Smugglers!" Frank exclaimed, dropping an armful of unopened opium tins +on the floor of the cavern. "Smugglers, all right, all right!" + +Ned looked the tins over carefully. They were well covered with Chinese +characters, and were dirty, as if they had been hidden away in the earth +for a long time. + +"Who would have suspected it?" Frank continued. "We are close to the +British frontier, but, all the same, this seems to me to be an awkward +place to land and store the dope stuff." + +"Where did you find it?" asked Ned. + +"There is a false back to that cupboard in the north wall," Frank +replied. "When I knocked on the boards they gave forth a hollow sound, +and so I tore one away. Hence the opium. And there are pipes there, +too--just such pipes as one sees in the joints on Pell street, in little +old New York." + +"You remember what Jimmie said?" asked Ned. + +"I remember a good many things the little rascal has said," was the +laughing reply. "He's always saying something." + +"Well," Ned continued, "the boy was right when he expressed his opinion +of the heelless footprints in one word." + +"Chinks!" grinned Frank. "Of course!" + +The boys now went over to the cupboard in the niche and began tearing +away the boards. After a few had been displaced Ned stopped and began +experimenting in fitting them in position again. + +"What's doing now?" demanded Frank. + +"We must remove them so as to be able to return them as we found them +before we leave," Ned replied. "It is important that the inhabitants of +this robber den do not know that we have discovered it." + +"Don't you ever think they don't know it right now," Frank said. "We +haven't seen any of them since they rowed around the point, but they're +stirring about, just the same. We may see more of them before we get out +of this cavern." + +"Well," Ned said, "we must take all the precautions needful, and if they +are of no avail we shall not be to blame for what takes place. Even if +they know that we have found the cavern, they need not know that we have +penetrated into the office chamber. Now, draw that last board away +carefully, and we'll see what there is behind the false bottom." + +Frank drew the board away and was confronted by a long, low tunnel--an +uncanny, narrow tunnel which had evidently been enlarged from a fault in +the rock, and which appeared to penetrate far into the bulk of the +mountain. + +"See!" he cried. "The cupboard was built at the mouth of a cross fault +in the rock, and there is no knowing what is behind it. Hold your +flashlight higher and I'll crawl in and look about." + +"Be careful," Ned warned. "I have seen great holes at the bottom of +tunnels like that. Don't break your neck, or tumble down so far that I +can't fish you out." + +Frank grinned and crept through the opening made by the removal of the +back of the closet. The place was not high enough for him to stand +upright, and so he proceeded on hands and knees. + +"This is a bedroom," he shouted back to Ned. "There's lots of ticks and +blankets here." + +There was silence for a moment, and then the boy's voice came from +farther in the tunnel. "And here's kegs of whisky," he cried. "It smells +like a Bowery saloon. Come on in!" + +"I think one of us would better remain outside," Ned replied. "I +wouldn't like to be surprised while in there and fastened in with +rocks." + +Frank went on down the tunnel for some distance, calling back, now and +then, to report his discoveries. There were weapons stored there, +barrels of gasoline, packages of dynamite. + +Then, for several long minutes, there came no voice from the interior, +and Ned put his head inside and called out softly: + +"Frank!" + +There was no reply, and Ned was about to advance into the opening when +the sound of a footstep came on the rocky floor of the chamber just +behind him. The footstep was a stealthy one, halting, as if some person +were listening between the steps. Ned's first act was to shut the light +off from his electric candle. + +Then he moved away from the niche in the wall where the cupboard had +been built in and waited. His greatest fear was that Frank would turn +about and show his light, and so expose them both to danger. While he +listened, almost holding his breath, the steps came nearer to the +cupboard and halted. + +But the halt was only for an instant, for the unseen figure moved on +again, this time back toward the entrance. Directly the footsteps were +heard no more, and then the crash of falling rocks reached the boy's +ears. He did not have to think long in order to understand what that +sound portended. + +He knew that they had been observed by some of the outlaws who made the +cavern their home and their storehouse as well, had been followed into +the inner chamber, and were now to be fastened into the cavern, probably +left there to starve, with tons of rock bulking before the entrance to +the third chamber. It was not a pleasant situation. + +While he studied the peril over in as optimistic a mood as was possible +under the circumstances, he heard Frank calling to him from the narrow +tunnel behind the cupboard. The boy was evidently excited, for his voice +rang high. + +"Ned!" he cried. "Come on in!" + +The noise of falling, rolling rocks stopped at the sound of Frank's +voice, and Ned thought he heard a half-suppressed chuckle in the +darkness. + +"Hurry!" came Frank's voice once more. "There's something in here that +takes the nerve out of me." + +There was a low exclamation of rage at the entrance, where the stones +were piling up, and then the grind of falling rocks was continued. Ned +had, of course, no idea as to how many persons were engaged in building +up the wall which threatened to shut him in until life was extinct, or +exactly how it was being done, but he knew that the correct thing for +him to do was to prevent the completion of the work. + +If only one man had arrived at the cavern he might be frightened and +driven away by a little shooting. With bullets whizzing through what was +left of the opening, the man who was building the crude wall would not +be likely to present his body before the space still uncovered. This +reasoning brought the boy to a consideration of the matter of +ammunition, but he decided that, with the cartridges carried by Frank, +they could defend the place for a long time. + +But another question intervened. The rocks which, though unseen, he knew +to be blocking the space where the rug had hung were undoubtedly falling +from a distance. They might have been stored above the natural doorway +for the very purpose to which they were now being put. + +If this were true, then the building of the trap would continue, +regardless of his bullets. While he studied over this problem, slowly +making up his mind to put it to the test, Frank's voice came from the +tunnel again. + +"What's doing out there?" the boy asked. "Why don't you come in here?" + +"Shut off your light!" ordered Ned, as a glimmer showed inside. + +"Not me," replied Frank. "I need all the light I can get in here!" + +"What have you found?" asked Ned anxiously. + +Frank did not reply instantly, and Ned heard the rattle of stones while +he waited for his answer. The task of piling up the wall was progressing +rapidly, and it seemed to the boy that the stones were all falling from +a distance. + +"Shut off your light and come out," Ned said, impatient at the +hesitation. + +"I wouldn't stay here in the dark for a thousand dollars a second," +Frank replied, "but I'll come out. Why don't you show a light?" + +"I'm not looking for any chance bullets," Ned replied, coolly. "We're +caught, my boy, and it is up to us to move cautiously. Why don't you +turn off your light?" he added, half angrily. + +"Oh," Frank replied, "you're getting it out there, too, are you? Well, I +was trying to save you a shock. There's a dead man in here, and I'm +going to keep my light going until I'm out of the hole. I did shut it +off once, and felt the grasp of a hand on my neck--and there wasn't any +hand there either." + +"A dead man?" repeated Ned. + +"Sure," Frank replied. "And he's not been dead very long, at that." + +Again the boy heard that vicious chuckle at the entrance. Then a voice +came out of the mouldy darkness: + +"How are you getting on in the Secret Service, Ned Nestor?" the voice +asked. + +"Finely!" Ned called back, but it seemed to him that his voice shook +with the peril of the situation. He was known, his mission there was no +secret, the enemies of the government were already on the ground, ready +to combat him in his work. Just how far their hostility would extend was +evidenced by the fall of rocks outside. It seemed to the boy that the +struggle would be to the death. + +"Who are you talking to?" Frank asked. + +Ned did not reply to the question, for there came the sound of a scuffle +outside, then a shot, a cry of pain, and the cavern was still as a +grave. + +In the silence Frank's movements were heard, and Ned knew that he was +backing out of the tunnel, with his light still burning. Entirely at a +loss to account for the fracas outside, Ned awaited his approach with a +fast-beating heart. When at last he shut off his electric searchlight +and dropped from the tunnel through the old cupboard Ned seized his hand +and drew him away. + +"Did you fire that shot?" Frank whispered. + +"No," was the reply. "There's fighting outside, and the shot was fired +there. Now, I had a notion of sending a stream of bullets through the +doorway, but the persons who are fighting the man who came upon us here +may be our friends, so we must be careful what we do. Here. Take my +flashlight. Open the two at the same instant and turn the rays on the +doorway. I'll be ready with my gun." + +But before this movement could be carried out a voice the boys knew came +out of the darkness. + +"Wonder you wouldn't give a fellow a lift," Jimmie said, in a panting +tone. "I've got to the limit with this big stiff." + +The lights were on instantly, with Ned and Frank bounding toward the +opening. The way was narrow, for many rocks had been dropped down from a +broad ledge just above, but they managed to crawl through. But before +Ned could reach the struggling pair on the floor the under figure +wiggled away, staggered for an instant, and then made for the outer air +at good speed. + +Jimmie sat upon the stone floor with a disgusted look on his freckled +face. + +"Now see what you've been an' gone an' done!" he cried. "You've let me +pirate get away! But he took a bullet with him," he added. + +"How many were here?" asked Ned, shutting off his light and telling +Frank to do the same. "How many men did you see?" + +"Just that one," Jimmie replied, sorrowfully, "an' he got away!" + +Ned advanced to the entrance and listened. At first he heard the sound +of limping footsteps, then the sweep of oars. He ran down to the beach +and swept his light over the waters of the lake. A slender boat was +speeding far to the north, and a solitary rower was bending to his work. + +Now, for the first time, Ned noted that a fierce gale was blowing from +the west, and his thoughts went back to the plateau where the aeroplane +lay exposed to the storm. He ran back to the cavern, barely escaping +being blown off his feet on the way, and called to the boys. + +"There's a stiff wind blowing," he said, "and I'm afraid for the +aeroplane. We must get back to the camp immediately." + +"The wind was on when I came in," Jimmie said, "an' it near blew me into +the lake, even if I did hold on to the trees. We can never make the hill +in the storm." + +"We've got to," Ned insisted. + +"Besides," Jimmie continued, "we want to find out about the dead man +Frank has been telling me about. We can't take him with us, an' he will +not be here when we come back. Whatever we learn about him, an' the +cause of his death, must be learned now." + +"Sometimes, Jimmie," Frank burst out, "you exhibit signs of almost human +intelligence!" + +"The boy is right," Ned observed. "I'm so rattled that I hardly know +what I'm about. We ought to be in pursuit of that rascal who is rowing +on the lake, we ought to be on the plateau, looking after the aeroplane, +and we ought to be here, finding out if a murder has been committed." + +"It is a murder, all right," Frank said, "for the floor in the tunnel is +sticky with blood." + +"I'm goin' in there!" Jimmie exclaimed. + +"Go if you want to," Frank grunted. + +Ned laid a hand on Jimmie's arm as he started away. + +"If you don't mind," he said, "I'd much rather you remained on guard. +You have keen eyes, and may be of great service here." + +"All right!" the boy said. "I'll do anything you ask me to if you don't +leave me out of the game." + +"No danger of your getting into the dust heap," Frank laughed. "How long +have you been prowling about here?" + +"Just a short time," was the reply. "I remained in the tent until I +thought Pat an' Jack were asleep an' then cut my lucky. Say, but the +wind was blowin' when I slid down the slope toward the lake." + +"It must be fierce up on the plateau," Frank admitted. "Say," he added, +turning to Ned, "if you don't mind, I'll go on up the hill and help the +boys with the aeroplane. It would be a tragedy if it should be destroyed +now." + +"All right," Ned said. "Get up there as soon as possible. The boys may +be having trouble with the 'plane. And Jimmie," he added, "suppose you +keep an eye on the plateau? The lads may signal." + +"Too dark for that," the boy replied, "but I'll keep a sharp lookout, +just the same. Go on and look over the man Frank found under the +mountain." + +Frank moved on up the hill, clinging to trees as he advanced, and +stooping low, even then, to escape the force of the wind, while Jimmie +stationed himself in the opening and looked out on the lake. Ned +disappeared in the cavern, and the boy saw his torch grow fainter as he +climbed through the narrow opening left in the rock which had been +thrown over the natural doorway. + +It was getting late and the boy was sleepy, but he struggled manfully to +keep his eyes open. Directly, however, he had no trouble in this regard, +for he started up with a strange, acrid odor in his nostrils. The +low-lying sky was aflame. + + + + +CHAPTER VI.--ABOVE THE CLOUDS AT NIGHT. + + +The wind gained strength as the heat of the forest fires increased. The +roaring of the gale and the heavy undertone of the racing flames +effectually drowned the voice of the forester, and it was only by the +motion of his lips that the boys knew that he was trying to talk to +them. + +Presently he threw his hands high above his head, weaponless, then +lowered one and beckoned to them. Still keeping grasp on their +revolvers, the boys approached him. His face was deadly pale, save for +the glow of the fire which shone unnaturally on the wall behind him. + +"This is no time for accusations," he shouted. "We must do something to +check the fire." + +"What is to be done?" Jack demanded, half won over by the apparent +distress of the fellow. + +"The blaze will burn itself out against the mountains," was the reply, +shouted at the top of the speaker's lungs, "but the fire in the caņon +must be checked by going on ahead and felling trees." + +"Won't it burn itself out there, too?" asked Pat. + +"I'm afraid not," was the shrill reply. "There is an opening from the +top of the caņon to a valley in a fold of the hills. The fire will do +incalculable damage if it passes through that." + +"What do you suppose we can do against a fire like that?" demanded Pat. +"An army could not stop the blaze now." + +"You are mistaken!" shrilled the other. "Three choppers can clear a +space which the fire will not cross." + +"We'll get our axes and try," Jack said, reluctantly. + +"Then make haste!" Greer shouted. "At all events we must leave this +place, for the fire will soon be here. Come!" + +When the boys turned to verify this statement they saw that the planes +of the aeroplane were red with the reflection of the blaze below, and +that the creeping fire was already showing at the lip of the plateau. + +"The aeroplane is doomed, I guess," wailed Jack, and Pat thought he saw +a look of satisfaction in Greer's face as the words reached his ears. + +The smoke was now rolling over the plateau in great clouds, but through +it Pat thought he saw figures moving from the south slope toward the +aeroplane. Calling out to Jack, he sprang toward the machine, the +suspicion in his mind that these were confederates of the alleged +forester, and that the machine was, after all, the main point of attack. + +Greer saw the movement and darted toward the boy as if to block his way, +but Pat struck out viciously and turned him back. Then a bit of flame +sprang up in the cloud of smoke which was sweeping over the plateau. It +seemed to Pat that an attempt to burn the machine in advance of the +arrival of the forest fire was being made. + +When he darted forward again Greer caught him by the shoulder and hurled +him away. + +"Get your axes!" he shouted. "There is no time to waste here." + +Then the smoke lifted for an instant and Pat saw three figures rise +above the rim of the northern slope and hasten toward the aeroplane. +Their arrival there was followed by shots and calls for assistance. Then +the smoke shut down again, and the roaring of the flames drowned all +other sounds. + +Greer stood for an instant, braced against the wind, shielding his face +from the hot blasts scorching the grass of the plateau, then turned and +ran. Then both boys heard a call from the direction of the machine. + +"The way is clear to the cavern!" were the words they heard. "Remain +there until we return!" + +"That's Ned," shouted Pat. "Just in time to save the aeroplane." + +Almost before the words were out of his mouth there came a lull in the +wind and the great machine ran forward a few yards, then swung into the +air. At that moment Frank came running toward the two astonished boys. + +"We've got to leg it!" Frank shouted, his mouth close to Jack's ear. +"Drop low on the ground so as to get fresh air and run!" + +Jack, although he had heard Ned's voice giving directions, and although +he knew that Frank was by his side, could hardly sense the situation, or +all that had taken place. The action had been so swift that he could not +yet realize that Ned had snatched the aeroplane away from certain +destruction and lifted it into the stormy sky in so short a time. + +However, he did not stop then to place the events in neat order in his +mind, for the fire was working across the scant vegetation of the +plateau and the air was hot and stifling. It was all like a page out of +the Arabian Nights, but he put the wonder of it away, grasped Frank's +hand, and, crouching, ran toward the incline leading to the lake. There +was safety there, at least. + +Now and then, in their swift flight, the boys stopped and looked upward, +hoping to learn something of the fate of the aeroplane, but the great +machine was not in sight. + +"Ned never can make it live in this gale!" Jack almost sobbed, when, at +last, they all came to a halt at the margin of the lake. "The whole +shebang will go to pieces and the boys will be killed." + +"Aw, forget it!" grunted Pat. "I'm not in love with airships, but I know +that Ned wouldn't have gone up unless he knew that he could handle the +machine. He'll lift above the divide and drive straight before the wind. +The good Lord only knows how far the gale will take him, but I'm betting +my head against turnips that he'll come back by morning, asking why +breakfast isn't ready!" + +"How did you get wise to the trouble up here?" Jack asked of Frank. + +"Why, I don't exactly know," the boy replied. "Ned sent me on ahead to +look out for the aeroplane. He said he wanted to remain in the cavern +and investigate. I was making slow progress up the hill when Ned and +Jimmie came running after me. I had noticed long before that the sky +looked like fires were burning somewhere." + +"I should say so," Pat cut in. "The clouds looked like they had been +soaked in red paint." + +"When Ned came up to me, running like a racehorse," Frank went on, "he +said he was going to take the aeroplane out, wind or no wind. I didn't +have much chance to talk with him, but I understood that he was going to +do just what Pat has suggested--run before the wind and swing back +whenever he could." + +"I presume Jimmie is good and scared by this time!" Jack commented. + +"When we got to the machine," Frank went on, "we found two men there +with some sort of torches in their hands, trying to set the machine on +fire. We caught them unawares and left them lying there. I hope they +didn't get burned to death." + +There was a short cessation of speech while the boys listened to the +roaring of the flames and watched the fire mounting into the sky. It was +a wild scene--one calculated to bring terror to the breast of any human +being. The wind was dying down a little, but the clouds were still +driving fast before it, their edges tinged with flame so that they +resembled golden masses floating across an eternity of space clothed in +smoke. + +While the boys watched the great display Frank pointed to a wall of +flame rounding the corner of the plateau. + +"The fire will burn this slope," he said, "and we've either got to get +into the cave or out on the lake. Which shall It be?" + +"The cave for mine!" Jack cried. + +"And mine," echoed Pat. "Who knows what the fire will do to the lake?" + +But Frank had had previous experience in the cavern. He was thinking of +the still figure he had found lying there, and of the dark stains on the +floor. + +"If we could find a boat," he said, without mentioning his real reason +for objecting to the cave, "we might get along very well on the lake. We +don't know what stifling air we shall find in the cave, and, besides, +the men we have just had a fracas with may return at any time. It +wouldn't be nice to be locked up in that hole in the ground." + +The wind was dying down to a steady breeze, and the fires seemed to burn +lower. The clouds above were dark and threatening, save where gilded by +the reflection from below, and seemed to be massing. Frank held up a +hand and shouted. + +"Rain!" he cried. "Rain!" + +It was no gentle spring shower that opened upon the earth then. The +fountains of the great deep seemed to have opened wide. The water fell +in sheets, and in an instant the boys were wet to the skin. + +"Better than fire!" Jack suggested. + +The rain pelted down upon the forest fires viciously, and the hissing +protests of the angry embers rose in the air. Through the thick veil of +the rain clouds of steam could be seen rolling over the lake and along +the threatened incline. In ten minutes water was pouring down the steep +hill in sheets and the fires were leaping no more. + +Pleased as the boys were at the opportune arrival of the rain-bearing +clouds, they could not help wondering if the freak of chance which had +preserved the forests of northern Montana had not brought Ned and Jimmie +sudden death. + +"They never can handle the machine in such an air-ocean," Jack declared, +but the more optimistic Pat asserted that Ned must have been a mile +above the rain clouds before a drop of water fell. + +"I guess the fire brought this rain on," Frank said, wiggling about in +his wet garments, "but it's just as wet as if brought about by some +other means. What are we going to do now?" + +"Why not go to the cave until the rain stops?" asked Pat. + +"It is colder in there than it is here," Frank said, still thinking of +the silent figure in the narrow tunnel back of the cupboard. + +"We can't get any more water in our clothes and hides than we have now," +Jack observed, "so we may as well stay outside and watch for Ned and the +aeroplane. I don't believe any other person ever took an aeroplane up in +such a storm. I'm afraid Ned was smashed against the divide." + +"Ned's all right," insisted Frank. "Suppose we go back to the plateau +and see if there's anything left of our tents." + +"I'm game for that," Pat said, "but," he added, turning a keen gaze on +Frank, "I'd like to know why you object to going to the cave. Jack and I +would like to see it." + +"Well," Frank replied, not without some hesitation at bringing the scene +in the tunnel back to his mind in form for expression in words, "there's +a crime been committed in the cave, and it's uncanny." + +"A crime!" repeated Pat, all excitement at the suggestion of another +adventure, "what kind of a crime?" + +"A murder," replied Frank, with a shiver. + +"Let's go in and see," Pat said. + +"Frank's afraid," Jack put in. + +"Of course I'm afraid," Frank admitted. "You go in there, and crawl on +your knees through the thick air of a narrow tunnel, and put your hand +on a dead man's face, and feel your other hand slipping in the blood on +the floor, and you'll be afraid, too. I'm not going back there." + +"We can stand here in the rain all night, if you want to," Pat said, +with scorn in his voice. "Rainwater is said to be good for the +complexion." + +The wind was slowing down and the rainfall was not so heavy as before. +The boys, Pat and Jack, joking Frank about his terror for the cave, and +Frank just a little angry, began the ascent of the slope leading to the +plateau. + +"The rain saved the trees next to the mountain," Pat said, presently, +"and if it checked the fire on the plateau at the same line our tents +are all right. Say," he added, "who ever heard of such a downpour as +that. I reckon the rain swept in from the ocean in heavy clouds which +were broken open by the mountains." + +"Much you know about it!" laughed Jack. "You talk as if you could cut a +cloud with a knife." + +"Anyway," persisted Pat, "the water tumbled out and checked the fires. +Wonder what became of the man who said his name was Greer? He was +standing in with the men who were trying to burn the aeroplane, all +right enough, and I believe the whole circus was started just to destroy +the airship and bring Ned's investigations to a close." + +"We always do get into the thick of it at the first jump," Frank said, +remembering the bomb under the cottage in the Canal Zone and the raid on +the nipa hut in the Philippines. "Whenever we've got anything coming to +us, we get it by lightning express." + +"You bet we do!" Jack exclaimed. "Now we're getting a clear sky," he +added, pointing upward, "and we're getting it short order time, too!" + +The heavy clouds were gone, the moon was smiling down on the drenched +earth, the stars were winking significantly toward a spot on the plateau +where two unrecognizable figures, half burned away, were lying. When the +boys reached the top of the climb and advanced to the spot where the +aeroplane had stood they turned sick with the horror of the thing. + +"I almost wish we had let them destroy the aeroplane," sighed Frank. "I +don't like to think that these men came to their death through us. It is +awful!" + +"Did you shoot them?" asked Pat. + +Frank shook his head. + +"They shot at us," he said. "They fired as soon as we got to the rim of +the dip, but missed because of the smoke and the wind. Then we rushed +them, and they went down--to escape punishment, I thought--and so Ned +got the aeroplane away." + +"Then you had nothing to do with their death," consoled Pat. "They came +here to commit a crime and were overcome by the smoke and heat." + +Frank would gladly have accepted this version of what had taken place, +but he could not bring his mind to do so at once. The horror of what he +had found in the cave was still upon him. + +Leaving the spot where what remained of the outlaws lay, the boys +hastened to the wall of rock which terminated the plateau on the east. +The rain had indeed saved the tents from destruction. The canvas was +huddled against the wall, stained with smoke and heavy with rain, but in +fairly good condition. + +"We'll have to remain here, or about here, until Ned comes," Pat said, +"so we may as well put the tents up. I wonder if it isn't most morning?" + +"Does that mean that you are getting hungry?" grinned Jack. + +"You bet it does!" was the reply. "Anyway, I'm going to see if I can +find dry wood enough for a fire. If I can I'll make some hot coffee. Ned +will see the fire, and know we are not in the cave." + +Then an exclamation from Frank called the speaker's attention to the +clear sky over the divide. The upper strata of clouds were drifting +westward on a high current of air--what few clouds there were--and far +up in the blue, the moonlight trimming the planes with silver, rode the +aeroplane, seemingly intact, and working back on the high current toward +the Pacific coast. + + + + +CHAPTER VII.--A KEY WITH A BROKEN STEM. + + +The lights were burning low in a bachelor flat on a noisy street corner +in the city of San Francisco, and a man of perhaps thirty lay on a couch +with his eyes closed. There were in this sitting room, which faced one +of the noisy streets, a grand piano, a costly music cabinet, a walnut +bookcase filled with expensively bound volumes, numerous lazy chairs of +leather, and the rug on the polished floor was rich and soft. The +occupant of the flat evidently enjoyed luxurious things and had the +money to pay for them. + +When a clock in a distant steeple struck midnight there came a knock at +the locked door in the main corridor which connected with the private +hallway on which the flat opened. A Japanese servant, small, obsequious, +keen-eyed, opened the door, after the hesitation of a moment, and peeked +out. He would have closed it again instantly, seeing a stranger there, +only Ned Nestor, who had anticipated some action of the kind, thrust a +shoe into the opening, and, reaching in, unfastened the chain. + +"I wish to see Mr. Albert Lemon," he said. + +The Jap tried to force the door back and lock it, but was unsuccessful. + +"No savvy!" he cried, as Ned brushed past him and stood in the private +hall. + +Ned paid no further attention to him, but entered the sitting room and +at once advanced to the couch where the man lay. The figure on the couch +did not move, but the Jap forced himself in the boy's way with his cry +of "no savvy!" + +"Opium?" Ned asked, pointing down to the man. + +"No savvy!" + +"Hit the pipe?" he asked, putting the question in a new way. + +"No savvy! No savvy!" + +"Dope, then?" Ned went on. "Tell me if this man has been doping himself +into unconsciousness. Dope, eh?" + +Ned lifted his voice, half hoping that the man on the couch would show +some signs of life, but there was no movement of the eyelids. + +"No savvy!" grunted the Jap. + +Ned took the servant by his shoulders, pushed him gently out of the +room, and closed and locked the door, the key being in the lock on the +inside. + +"No savvy! No savvy!" + +The words came through the thin panel of the door in quick succession +for a minute and then silence. Again Ned advanced to the side of the +couch and looked down upon the semi-unconscious man. + +It was clear to the boy that the fellow sensed what was taking place, +but was too well satisfied with the drugged condition in which he lay to +disturb his poise of mind by taking note of anything whatever. The +figure of the fellow was dressed in expensive clothes of latest cut, but +they were soiled, and even torn in places. + +The disreputable condition of the garments reminded Ned of a suit in +which he had once been hauled through a briar patch and pulled into a +pond at the hands, or horns, rather, of a village cow, assisted by a +rope. His clothes, it is true, had not been expensive ones at the time +of the occurrence, but the looks of the clothes the drugged man wore +reminded him of the damage his cheaper ones had sustained. + +The face of the man on the couch was deadly pale, with the drawn look +about the skin which comes of much familiarity with the drug made of the +poppy. It was still an attractive face, even in its degradation, and the +forehead was that of a capable man. + +Ned drew a chair to the side of the couch and sat down. Even if he +should at that time succeed in attracting the attention of the man, the +fellow was in no condition to answer the important questions he was +there to ask. + +Presently the Jap, or some one else, came and rapped lightly on the +door, and Ned opened it a trifle and looked out. + +"No savvy!" cried the Jap, repeating the words like a parrot, standing +in the hall with many signs of fright on his yellow face. + +"All right!" Ned said, shutting the door in his face, "you don't have +to." + +"I can't blame him for thinking this a cheeky invasion," Ned smiled, as +he returned to his chair at the side of the couch. "It isn't exactly the +thing to walk into a man's private room in this manner." + +Ned had decided to sit by the side of the half conscious man until he +returned to his full mentality. Questions now might produce only pipe +dreams, for the imagination is rather too active under such +circumstances. + +Five days before Ned had left the boys in a cup on the western slope of +the Rocky Mountains, not far from the summit, after explaining to them +that he was going to the city to investigate a clue connected with the +murder of the man who had been found in the cavern. Leaving the +aeroplane safely hidden at Missoula, he had traveled by rail to San +Francisco. + +In his handbag on this trip were two seemingly unimportant articles--a +piece of tape cut from the inner side of the collar of the dead man's +coat, and a small, odd-shaped key with the stem broken off so that it +was only about an inch in length. The key had been the only article +found in the dead man's pockets. The strip of tape bore the name of a +San Francisco tailor. + +The directory had assisted him in finding the tailor, and the tailor had +informed him that the coat had been made for one Albert Lemon, whose +address he gave. So here he was, in Lemon's apartment, seeking +information concerning the dead man, while Lemon, supposedly Lemon, lay +in an opium daze on the couch. + +But Ned's time, waiting for the man to come back to consciousness, was +not all wasted. Moving carefully about the room, he found that the +broken key fitted a writing desk which stood between two windows. The +lock which it fitted, however, was not in good condition, for the bolt +had been pried back, damaging the polished edge of the casing which held +the socket. The desk contained nothing of importance, and Ned left it as +he found it. + +Sitting there in the soft light of the room, he did not know whether the +man on the couch was Albert Lemon or whether the man who had died in the +cavern was Albert Lemon. He believed, however, that the outlaws he had +encountered in the mountains, had murdered the man, and felt that the +surest way to trace the crime to them was to find out why the man had +joined them--why he was there in the tunnel back of the cupboard. This +would be likely to bring out a motive for the deed. + +He did not, of course, know whether the dead man had stood as an enemy +to the outlaws, or whether he had stood as a friend. But that could make +no difference with the quest he was on. He believed that the outlaws +were the men he had been instructed to hunt down, and knew that proof +could be obtained only by an intimate knowledge of their associations, +their ways, their motives. The friends of the dead man he thought, would +know something about them, perhaps be able to place them in the circle +in which they lived when not in the hills. + +In work of this kind it is the first task of an investigator to "place" +the man he is pursuing. The burglar is as good as taken when he is +traced back to those he associates with in his hours of leisure. In the +absence of a clue pointing to a person, the investigator busies himself +in finding a motive. Ned believed that he now had the personal clue. The +motive would place the proof in his hands. + +So his Secret Service work for the government was leading him into the +investigation of a murder mystery. He smiled as he held up the key and +wondered if the facts when discovered would bear out the suspicions in +his mind. Again he asked himself the question: + +"Is this Albert Lemon, or was the dead man Albert Lemon?" + +After a long time the man on the couch opened his eyes and looked about +the room. His glance rested for an instant on the figure in the chair at +his side, but the fact of its being there did not appear to surprise him +in the least. + +"Jap!" he called faintly. + +There was a sound at the door, but it was still locked, and the servant +was unable to obey the summons. + +"Bring me a pipe!" were the next words. + +The Jap clamored at the door, but did not gain admission. The racket +seemed to disturb the man not at all. + +"I think," Ned said, "that you have had all the dope you need to-night. +Besides, I want you to answer a few questions." + +"Perhaps I have," the man said, "but, supposing that to be the case, +where do you come in? You are a new one on me, and I hope you won't flop +out of a window or go up through the roof, as some of the others have +done. I want to have congenial company to-night. Who are you?" + +"Ned Nestor," was the quiet reply. + +"So," said the man on the couch. "I've heard of you--read about you and +the Canal Zone in the newspapers. But you're only a kid. What about +that?" + +"I can't help being young," laughed Ned. "Anyway, that is a fault I'll +soon get over. We all have it at first." + +"And get over it too quickly," said the other, with a sigh. "Well, what +do you want here?" + +"Are you Albert Lemon?" asked Ned abruptly. + +"Yes," was the reply, "I'm Albert Lemon. What about it?" + +The man was gaining mental strength every moment now, and seemed to +sense the strange situation. + +"Stiles is your tailor?" the boy went on. + +"Look here," said the other, rising to a sitting position and passing a +shaking hand across his brow, as if to brush away the fancies of the +poppy, "when you convince me that you have a laudable interest in my +personal affairs I'll be glad to answer your questions." + +Ned took the strip of tape from his pocket and held it out to the man on +the couch. + +"Do you recognize that?" he asked. + +Lemon nodded coolly, but a look of wonder and alarm was growing in his +bloodshot eyes, and his jaw dropped a trifle. + +"I still lack the proof of laudable interest," he said, with a twisting +of the face intended for a smile. + +"Answer the question," Ned replied, "and I'll inform you of my interest +in this article--and in you." + +"Yes, I recognize it as the private mark of Stiles, my tailor," Lemon +answered, in a moment. "Where did you get it? If you insist on asking +personal questions I must insist on the right to do the same thing." + +"I cut this private mark," Ned said, "from the collar of a coat found on +the back of a dead man in Montana, somewhere near the main divide of the +Rocky Mountains. Do you know how it came there?" + +"Yes and no," was the reply. + +"Kindly answer the affirmative proposition first," Ned said, with a +smile. + +"Well," said the other, "about three months ago an old college friend of +mine, one Felix Emory, came to me from Boston. He was in bad with his +people, and was out of money. I took him in here and tried to brace him +up. I couldn't do it. His moral stamina was gone." + +Lemon paused a moment, and, with a deprecatory smile, pointed to an +opium pipe which lay on the rug near the couch. + +"I understand," Ned said. + +"I fed him, and clothed him, and introduced him at the club, and gave +him every chance in the world to get a brace, but he fought me off. All +he cared for was a pipe and a pill and a place to sleep it off." + +"And so you gave him up as a bad proposition?" asked Ned. + +"Not exactly. He wanted to go to the mountains on a hunting trip. Well, +I thought it would benefit his health, so I rigged up an outfit for his +use and let him go. You say the man was dead?" + +"Quite dead," Ned replied. + +"Too much poppy, I presume?" Lemon asked with an ashamed smile. + +"Too much steel," Ned answered, sharply. + +Lemon stared at the boy for an instant, his eyes more anxious than ever, +and arose shakingly to his feet. + +"Do you mean that he was murdered?" he asked. + +Ned nodded. + +"Where?" was the next question. + +"I found the body in a cavern on the western slope of the Rockies," was +the reply. "He had been dead only a few hours." + +Albert Lemon maintained a thoughtful silence for a time, during which +Ned eyed his changing expression keenly. + +"And what do you wish me to do about it?" he then asked. + +"A crime has been committed," Ned replied, "and it seems to me that you +ought to do all in your power to assist in bringing the criminal to +punishment." + +"Granted, sir. Tell me what to do." + +"First, tell me about the men your friend went away with." + +"That brings me to the negative proposition," the other answered. "I +have told you how Felix came by my coat, but I can't tell you whether +the man the coat was found on was Felix. You must see that for yourself. +He might have given the garment away, or he might have sold it in the +city to get money for opium. In short, the coat might have been on the +body of a man I never saw." + +"Then you can't tell me who Emory went away with?" asked Ned. + +"Certainly not," was the reply. "I don't know whether he went away at +all or not." + +This was disappointing, but Ned had one more lever with which the man's +indifference might be lifted, he thought. Before speaking again Lemon +arose and turned the key in the lock of the door, against which the +servant was still pounding. The Jap entered and stood by the door, +looking intently at Ned. + +"When you gave him the suit of clothes he went away in," the boy went +on, shifting his position so that both men would be under his eyes, +"what articles, if any, remained in the pockets?" + +"Not a thing," was the reply. "I looked out for that." + +"Then anything discovered in the pockets of the dead man," Ned said, +taking the key from his pocket and toying carelessly with it, "must have +belonged to him?" + +Ned saw Lemon give a quick start at sight of the key. The Jap advanced a +step as if to get a closer view of it. Then both men turned their eyes +for an instant to the broken lock of the writing desk. Ned had gained +his point. The men recognized the key. + +"Where is the body you speak of?" Lemon asked, presently. + +"Buried near the cavern in the mountains," was the reply. + +"Perhaps you can give me a description of the body," Lemon said. "I +might be able to say, then, whether the man was Felix." + +"Look in the mirror," Ned replied, "and you will see there a fairly good +representation of the dead man. About the same in height, in size, and, +yes, in feature." + +"Then it must have been Felix," the other said. "His remarkable +resemblance to myself has often been remarked. Poor fellow! I'm sorry +that his end should come in so ghastly a form." + +There was a short silence, during which Lemon's eyes flitted from the +key in Ned's fingers to the writing desk. + +"I said a moment ago," he observed then, "that I searched the pockets of +the clothes before I gave them to him, or words to that effect. I +remember now that I ordered Jap to do it. Did you obey orders?" he +asked, turning to the servant. + +Ned saw the Jap give a quick start, then regain control of himself. +Lemon, too, looked crestfallen for a moment, then addressed the Jap in +another tongue. + +"I was talking in English," he said, "and forgot for the moment that he +would not understand me." + +There followed a short conversation between the two, and then Lemon +announced that the Jap had forgotten to look in the pockets of the +clothes. Ned ignored the explanation and put the key in his pocket. He +knew now that the Jap could understand English, and also that the key +belonged to Albert Lemon, alive or dead. + +[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION No. 3] + +Lemon arose and, going to a table, secured a tobacco pouch and a book of +cigaret papers. As he rolled a cigaret Ned observed that the middle +finger of his left hand carried, just below the nail, a blue spot, as if +he had been using a typewriter since cleaning his hands. Ned noticed it +particularly, as he himself used a double keyboard machine and usually +smutted that finger on the ribbon when he rolled the platen. + +"Well," Lemon said, "I'll have to ask you to excuse me now. I've been +off on a long country tramp. You see how mussed up I am. I think I +crawled through briar patches and wire fences and fell into cow ponds." + +Ned turned away without a word, with plenty of food for thought in his +mind. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII.--FATE OF THE STEAK A LA BRIGAND. + + +Jimmie lay stretched at full length under one of the discolored shelter +tents in a little cup in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Frank and Pat +and Jack were moving restlessly about, looking up at the blue sky +expectantly. Ned had not returned from his trip to San Francisco, and +the boys were anxious as to his safety. + +"He should have taken me with him," Jimmie drawled, presently, when +Frank threw himself down by the tent. "Then he'd have been all right." + +"It is a wonder that he got along in the world at all before he fell +under your protecting care," Frank replied, with a grin. + +"Oh, he managed in some way," Jimmie answered, "but he never got up in +the world until he took me into partnership," with a wink at his chum. + +"He's been up in the world since then, all right," Frank said, +suggestively. + +"Too high up," Jimmie grinned. "Too high up for me, anyway. I thought +I'd die up there, on the night of the fire." + +"In all the history of air navigation," Frank observed, soberly, "there +was never a trip like that. When I think of the quick start, and the +wind and the rain, the whole thing seems like a dream. How did he ever +do it?" + +"I don't know," Jimmie replied. "He boosted me into the seat, and the +next I knew we were off, an' the fire was dropping away from us, an' the +mountains were growing smaller, an' the peaks looked like warts on the +world. I felt like I was fallin' over the edge of somethin'." + +"And the wind?" questioned Frank. "Didn't it take your breath away?" + +"Wind, nothin'," the boy said, scornfully. "There wasn't any wind where +we were. We went along with it. It was like sailin' on a swift stream. +Ned tuned the engine up to keep steerway, an' shut his teeth. Then, in +half a minute, we were above the clouds, an' the moon an' stars were +askin' what we were doin' up there." + +"You're saying it well," Pat said, joining the little group. "If you +were going so merrily before the wind, why did he want steerway?" + +"You don't know much about the atmosphere," laughed Frank, answering for +Jimmie. "If you did, you'd know that the air blanket of the earth is a +good deal like a river. It has eddies, and currents, and ripples, and +holes, too." + +"You're good, too!" exclaimed Pat. "Holes in the air is about the best I +ever heard!" + +"Of course there are holes in the air," Frank replied, with the air of +one imparting valuable information, "especially when there are fires +beneath. And, let me tell you this, you old red-head," he added, with an +exasperating grin, "when the air, driven swiftly by the wind, or what we +call the wind, comes to mountain peaks, and tall trees, and +sky-scrapers, it just backs up, just the same as water does when it +comes to a dam, or any obstruction." + +"Go it!" Pat cried. "Make it a good one! Where does this air go when it +backs up?" + +"It just hunches up," Frank replied, gravely, "and checks the flow back +of it, and then eddies and swirls away, fit to twist an aeroplane into +kindling wood." + +"Of course," broke in Jimmie. "I've often read of aeroplanes dropping a +thousand feet into holes in the air, and of their being swept against +tall trees and buildings by eddies. It takes a cool head to run an air +machine in a storm of wind, and that is where Ned won out." + +"If he hadn't kept the aeroplane going with the wind at full speed," +Frank added, "he would have been in a wreck the first half mile." + +"The more I learn about the atmosphere," Pat said, "the less I like it. +When you get me up in an aeroplane, just send word to the folks that I'm +tired of life." + +"Ned ought to have a Carnegie medal for what he did that night," Jack +remarked, "and I'm going to speak to father about it when I get home." + +"There is no doubt that he ought to have one," Frank said, "but the men +who really deserve Carnegie medals never get them." + +"You're an anarchist!" roared Pat. + +"All right," was the sober reply, "but if I had the giving out of the +medals I'd present them to men who work twelve hours a day and provide +for families of eight on nine dollars a week--the men who never get +rested, and who never have enough to eat. They are the ones who ought to +have the medals." + +"Most of them would sell the medals," Jack said, cynically. + +"Well," Frank replied, "I shouldn't blame them if they did. I'd rather +have a porterhouse steak in the interior than a piece of bronze on the +outside." + +"Don't talk about porterhouse steak!" pleaded Jimmie. + +"Hungry, little man?" asked Pat. + +"Hungry! I'm like one of the men Frank has been telling about. I never +get rested, never have enough to eat." + +The boys fell upon Jimmie and rolled him out of the tent. + +"You get busy with fuel," Pat said, after they had given him plenty of +"movements," "and I'll cook a steak ā la brigand." + +"We ain't got no steak," complained Jimmie. + +"We've got potatoes, and bacon, and onions," Pat said, "and canned +beefsteak. You just watch me. I used to cook steak ā la brigand in the +Philippines." + +"Get busy, then," Jimmie said, "and Jack will help get the green wood." + +"If you bring green wood here for me to cook with, I'll roast you over +it," Pat said. "You get a lot of good dry wood that will make coals, and +I'll show you how to broil a steak ā la brigand." + +"Why do you call it a brigand steak?" asked Jimmie. + +"Because it takes a red-headed brigand to cook it," suggested Jack, +dodging out of Pat's reach. + +"Never you mind the name," Pat replied. "Get the dry wood and I'll broil +a steak that will melt in the mouth." + +"That old canned stuff?" asked Frank. + +"Get the wood," ordered Pat, "and I'll show you." + +There were a few dead trees--the sole reminders of a former forest fire +in that green valley--close at hand, and the wood was soon gathered and +placed in a great pile near two rocks which Pat had rolled to within a +yard of each other. + +"Here!" Jack called out, as Pat transferred the whole supply to the +space between the stones, "there's enough fuel there for a week's +cooking. Quit it!" + +"My son," Pat replied, with a provoking air of patronage, "what you +don't know about broiling a steak ā la brigand would make a +congressional library." + +While the wood was burning down to coals, Pat cut a green slip about an +inch in diameter at the bottom and peeled and smoothed it nicely. + +"Is that to be used to enforce the eating of the steak?" asked Frank, +winking at the others. + +"To keep you from gorging yourselves," Pat replied, going on with his +work. + +In a short time he had the potatoes cut into half-inch slices. Jack had +peeled them and, following directions with many grins, had also cut a +round hole an inch in size in the middle of each slice. + +"He's going to wear 'em around his neck, like beads," Jimmie suggested, +looking carefully over the heaped-up dish. + +The bacon was now sliced thin, as were the onions, and in the center of +each slice a round hole was made. Then Pat opened a couple of tins of +beefsteak--so called by the packers--and cut a hole in the middle of +each slice. Then he strung a slice of potato on the spit, then a slice +of bacon, then a slice of onion, then a slice of beef, until there was +nearly a yard of provisions. + +"I begin to feel hungrier than ever!" + +Jimmie was dancing around the fire as Pat turned the spit. There were +only coals now, and Pat kept the toothsome collection turning slowly, so +as to broil without scorching. The smell of the cooking bacon and onions +set the boys to getting out the tin plates and making the coffee. + +The sun, which had been shining fiercely all day, now seemed to be +working his way through a mist. The atmosphere appeared to be tinted +with the yellow haze one sees in the northern states in autumn. + +As the boys were keeping watch for Ned and the aeroplane, they noticed +the change in atmospheric conditions, but attributed it to the rising +vapor brought out by the heat of the sun. + +"Say," Jimmie said, presently, "I smell smoke. I wonder if there's goin' +to be another forest blaze here?" + +"Of course you smell smoke," Jack said, watching the broiling supper. +"We're cooking a steak ā la brigand, ain't we?" + +"Smells like burnin' leaves," Jimmie insisted. + +"More like onions," Pat observed. + +The boys crouched about the fire for some moments longer and then Jimmie +arose and began to climb the wall of the cup to the west. + +"I'm goin' to see about this," he said. + +Frank laid a hand on his arm. + +"You wait a minute," he said. "You can't climb that slope in less than +half an hour, and Ned will be here before that. Look! He's coming now, +like the wind!" + +The aeroplane, high up in the hazy sky, was indeed making good progress +toward the little cup in the mountain side. While the boys looked they +saw it shift away to the west, whirl back to the east, dart off to the +north and back again. + +"He's huntin' for us," Jimmie said. + +"He's investigating!" Frank cut in. + +"Investigating what?" Pat demanded. "He's smelling of this steak ā la +brigand and is hunting for it. Let be. He'll find us." + +The sky was growing more uncertain every minute, and puffs of smoke were +seen out in the west, over the rim of the cup. + +"The world is on fire, I tell you!" Jimmie cried, presently. "That's +what Ned is shiftin' about for. If the blaze wasn't high up on the +mountains we couldn't see the columns of smoke over the rim of the +valley." + +"Well," Pat observed, "the fire can't get in here. Nothing to burn." + +"It can fill the cup with hot air and scorch us to death," Frank said, +uneasily. "I think we'd better be looking about for a place to crawl +into." + +"Wait until Ned comes," Jimmie suggested. "He'll know what to do." + +The aeroplane acted badly in the currents caused by the burning forest, +but Ned finally managed to bring it down in the valley. The boys +gathered about him, all excitement, and the steak ā la brigand was for +the moment forgotten in the joy at the return of the patrol leader and +the anxiety to learn something of conditions out in the woods. + +"It's going to be a great conflagration," Ned said, "but I think the +aeroplane will be safe here. The whole slope is on fire." + +"I wouldn't take chances on leaving it here," Frank advised. "I'd jump +over the divide with it." + +"I have been in the air three hours now," Ned replied, "and must have a +rest. Besides, we must remain where we can, if necessary, help head off +the flames. That is what we are here for, remember." + +"Not to fight fires," corrected Frank, "but to find out who sets them." + +"Anyhow," Ned replied, "we must fight the fire, if it gives us a chance, +now that we are here. Now, what do you think that is?" he added, as a +chorus of howls and cries came up from the slope on the west. + +"Sounds like a country circus!" Jimmie laughed. + +"That is just what it is!" Ned exclaimed. "Here! Help me roll the +aeroplane into that nook, where it won't be trampled into splinters. Now +you boys get behind it, and I'll get in front. Whatever you see or hear, +don't shoot unless you are actually attacked." + +The boys obeyed the commands without a word of comment, well knowing +what was coming next. A breeze was sliding up the slope, bringing with +it flying masses of smoke. Presently birds began to stagger through the +heavy atmosphere, flying low, almost within reaching distance, as they +had fled long before the mounting flames and were exhausted. + +"I wish this would let up a moment," Pat said, "long enough for us to +reach that steak ā la brigand. It must be about done by this time." + +"I'll go an' get it," volunteered Jimmie. "An' eat most of it on the way +back." + +"Then bring the coffee," cried Jack. + +"Why can't we all go out there and eat?" asked Frank. + +The boys were about starting with a rush when Ned caught two of them by +the arm and stopped the others by a quick call. Through the smoke and +the hot air on the rim of the cup, a great head, a head neither white +nor black, but grizzly, was seen. Then a deer bounded over and crouched +down in the valley. Next two mountain lions raced over the lip of the +valley and halted growling, within a few yards of the boys. + +"There goes our steak ā la brigand!" Jimmie cried, as the rush of +frightened animals showed under the smoke. "I'll eat one of them deer to +pay for this," he added. + +"You'll be lucky if one of these wild animals doesn't eat you," Jack +said. "How would you like to be back in little old Washington Square +just now?" + +"Forget it!" was the boy's only reply. + +"Will the fire get here?" Frank asked of Ned, as the wild creatures of +the forest poured into the valley, regardless of the presence of the +boys, unmindful of the proximity of each other. + +"I don't think the flames will come into the cup," Ned replied, "but if +the smoke settles here we shall have a hot time of it." + +"Huh!" Jimmie cried. "The whole valley is full of mountain lions, an' +bears, an' deer, an' snakes, an' rabbits. There ain't no room for any +smoke!" + +Then the smoke rolled away for an instant, showing a sun as red as a +piece of molten iron; showing, too, a huddle of forest animals crowding +together in the center of the valley. In their terror of the fire they +had forgotten to be afraid of mankind--of each other! + + + + +CHAPTER IX.--THE CHAOS OF A BURNING WORLD. + + +That was a day long to be remembered in the Great Northwest. It is true +that the destruction of life and property at that time by no means +equaled the ruin wrought by the forest fires of August, 1910, but the +conflagration was serious in its final results for all that. + +In August of the previous year half a hundred persons lost their lives +in the fierce fires which swept over portions of Idaho and Montana, and +more than six billion feet of lumber were destroyed. At that time wild +animals raced into the log houses of settlers in order to escape the +flames. In one instance, placed on record by a forester, a mountain lion +actually sought shelter under a bed. + +In that case, too, the fire virtually held its ruthless way until it +burned itself out, as there were no trails, no telephones, no provisions +for the fire fighters. The men of the forest patrol were each guarding a +hundred thousand acres. In the more civilized countries of Europe, a +thousand acres is considered a large district for one man. + +It was hot and close in the odd little valley on the mountain side. +There seemed a premonition of greater danger in the very air--the +lifeless air which seemed to dry the lungs beyond power of action. The +wind, coming over the blazing forests, struck hot upon the face and +scorched the lips, while the acrid smoke filled the eyes, the ears, the +nostrils. + +It seemed to Ned that everything east of the Kootenai river must be on +fire. Now and then, drawn by some wayward current of air, the thick +smoke lifted in the little cup-like valley, and the cowering wild +animals could be seen, huddling together in the terror of the time, deer +no longer afraid of lion or bear, lion and bear forgetting to mark their +prey. + +Finally, anxious to know the extent of the disaster, so far as it might +be judged by a personal view of the country west of the valley, Ned left +the boys in charge of the aeroplane and crept toward the rim of the cup. +Jimmie saw him leaving and started on after him, but Jack drew him back. + +"Let him go alone, for once," Jack said, "he's only going to find out +where this menagerie of wild animals comes from." + +Jimmie settled sullenly back by Jack's side, resolved to break away at +the first opportunity and follow the patrol leader. + +When Ned gained the elevation he sought, the procession of wild animals +had come to an end, although birds, frightened and singed by the flames, +were calling from the sky. Everywhere rolled billows of smoke, blown on +ahead of the line of fire and in a measure concealing its fatal advance. + +Now and then, however, a spurt of hot wind came over the burned waste +and lifted the curtain for an instant. Then the boy saw that the fire +was crawling up the slope, not racing as it had earlier in the day, but +moving steadily, sweeping the earth of the undergrowth, but leaving many +large trees. + +The danger was decreasing there, but lower down the flames were +consuming everything in their path, eating down great trees and leaving +fiery, straggling columns to consume them to ashes. Ned thanked his +stars that the growths on the slope were not dense enough to foster such +a blaze as that which burned below. + +It has been stated by those who know that ordinary care would have +prevented most of the devastating forest fires which have raged in the +Northwest. Experts claim that forests should be burned over under +careful supervision, every three or four years. This, they say, will +prevent the accumulation of inflammable material such as caused the +terrible losses of August, 1910. + +Ned saw at once the expediency of the proposed remedy. He knew that +resinous spines, steeped in the drippings of pitch and turp from the +overhead branches, had lain many inches deep around the trunks of the +trees, beneath fallen boles, and at the roots of the undergrowth. This +accumulation made the extinguishing of forest fires impossible. He +understood that the government had virtually provided for what followed +by permitting this material to accumulate year after year. + +It is declared by foresters and others who strove to check that wall of +fire that it advanced at the rate of a mile a minute between the +Kootenai river and the foothills. Below where Ned lay was a burning +furnace. It was so hot that he dare not lift his face a second time, and +so he moved back to the aeroplane, which he found still safe from the +flames, and the wild creatures crouching in the center of the valley. + +"What are the prospects?" Frank asked, speaking with his lips close to +the ear of the patrol leader, for the roaring of the flames rendered +ordinary conversation difficult. + +"There is safety here," Ned replied, "but everything to the west seems +to be burning." + +"Gee!" Jimmie cried, looking Ned in the face, "how would you like to +meet a friend with a basket of ice?" + +"Ice wouldn't last long here," Frank said. + +"Not if I got hold of it!" Jimmie grunted. + +As the line of fire came nearer to the top of the slope the air grew +hotter, the smoke denser and more stifling. Pat remembered that a pail +of water from a spring had been brought to the vicinity of the aeroplane +soon after Ned landed, and the boys wet their handkerchiefs and bound +them over their eyes and mouths. + +As the heat increased the wild creatures crowding together ominously. +When a feeble beast was trampled by a stronger one, or when a rattler +struck at the leg of a bear or deer, there was a cry of pain and a quick +milling of the pack. + +"If this doesn't end soon," Frank shouted to Ned through his +handkerchief, "there will be a stampede here. Then it will be all off +for us." + +Ned looked around the little circle before replying. The boys certainly +looked like "white caps" with their sheeted faces. + +"We'll have to wait and hope for the best," he said. "If the animals +come this way, we must stop them, so far as we are able, with our guns +and electric flashlights." + +Presently night fell, and the wind quieted a little at the setting of +the sun. In a short time the clouds rolled away in sullen, threatening +groups, and the stars looked down on the forest tragedy. Later, there +would be moonlight. + +"I wonder if all the world is burned, except just this mountain?" Jimmie +asked, taking the handkerchief from his face and wiping the smoke out of +his inflamed eyes. "It looks that way." + +"There seems to be enough left to hold a lot of heat," Jack said. "I +don't believe it will ever be cool again." + +"If we'd only saved that brigand steak!" wailed Jimmie. + +With the half light and the cooler air there came a commotion in the +mass of forest creatures in the center of the valley. It was night now, +and they seemed to feel the mounting of their wild instincts to be up +and away on the hunt. + +Under the stars, one by one, they slunk away, bears and mountain lions +turning sullenly toward the lesser beasts, but still too terrified by +what they had passed through to feel the pangs of hunger. In half an +hour the menagerie had vanished, some to the mountain, some over the +slopes to the north and south. The boys drew long breaths of relief when +the shambling figure of the last bear disappeared. + +Once Jack drew his gun on a fat old buck who seemed desirous of +investigating the aeroplane, but Ned saw the action and checked the +slaughter. + +"Let him alone," he said. "He's lived through this hell on earth, so +give him one more chance." + +The boys now began gathering up their scattered utensils, restaking the +tents, and preparing supper. Jimmie proposed another brigand steak, but +Pat insisted that he never wanted to get near enough to a fire to cook +again, so they made an indifferent meal of biscuit and tinned pork and +beans, not even going to the trouble to boil coffee. + +While they were eating a gunshot came from the east, followed by the +challenge of a chanticleer. + +"What do you know about that?" demanded Jimmie. + +"I suppose," Jack complained, "that we've been eating a picked-up supper +within a few rods of a farmhouse, or cattle ranch!" + +"You might pry open some of the rocks back there," Pat observed, with +sarcasm, "and see if you can find the house you speak of. It was a human +throat that crow came from." + +"Sure it was!" cried Jimmie. "It was a Boy Scout call. Now just see me +get him to talking." + +"What's a Rooster patrol chap doing here!" asked Jack. "I guess we are +all having bad dreams." + +Jimmie did not reply. Instead he put his hands to his throat and in a +second a long snarling wolf cry came forth, rising into a shrill call, +as if summoning a pack at a distance. + +"We'll see what he knows about that," the boy said. + +As they listened the challenge of the chanticleer came once more. This +time Jack answered it with the growl of a black bear, which seemed to +Frank to be a great improvement on his practice stunts in the Black Bear +Patrol club rooms in New York. + +This odd exchange of greetings kept up for some moments, and then the +figure of a boy of perhaps seventeen was seen in the uncertain light, +making slow progress down the mountain, a short distance to the north. +He carried a haversack on his shoulders and was dressed in the khaki +uniform of the Boy Scouts of America. + +"He must be used to mountain work," Jack remarked, as the boy leaped +lightly from ledge to ledge and finally dropped into the valley. "I +couldn't do that, even in broad daylight, to save my life!" + +The stranger now advanced to the group of boys and gave them the half +salute of the Boy Scouts, standing with right arm straight out from the +shoulder, palm outward, three fingers standing vertical, the thumb +crossing the palm to rest on the bent-in little finger. Ned replied with +the full salute, which is made with the hand in the same attitude, only +at the forehead. + +"What does the badge say?" demanded Jimmie. + +"Be prepared!" was the quick reply. + +"For what?" was the next question. + +"To assist those in distress." + +"You're all right," Jimmie shouted. "What patrol?" + +"Chanticleer, Denver," was the reply. + +"That accounts for the way you lighted down from the mountain," laughed +Ned. + +"I've got used to climbing in walking the streets of my home town," +smiled the other. "Is Ned Nestor here?" he added. "My name is Ernest +Whipple; I'm looking for Mr. Ned Nestor." + +"Here he is, the only good-looker in the bunch," Jack laughed, pushing +Ned forward. "What do you want of him?" + +"My father is connected with the Secret Service at Washington," was the +reply, "and he posted me as to what was going on here. Said I might come +out and join the party, if Mr. Nestor would permit it. What do you say?" + +Of course the son of a man connected with the Secret Service at +Washington--a man who undoubtedly knew all the plans of the men who had +sent Ned into the Northwest--was not to be ignored, but at the same time +Ernest would have been received into the party on the strength of his +own engaging personality, his own frank manner. From the very first +moment he was a favorite with all the boys. + +"You're as welcome as the flowers of May!" Frank cried. "Been to +supper?" + +"Last night!" grinned Ernest. "My haversack is empty--also my stomach. I +had to take to the mountain in order to keep out of the fire, and +couldn't connect with a grub stake." + +"Then there are fires east of the divide?" asked Ned. + +"Sure," was the reply, "although they are nothing like the ones over +here. The foresters are watching them, and there is little danger of +their getting a big start." + +"Where did you find foresters?" asked Ned, wondering if the men who had +sneaked away from the cavern were not posing as foresters waiting to do +further mischief. + +"They are in camp beyond the summit," was the reply. "They told me they +had patrols all through the lower levels." + +Jack gave a description of the man who had visited the camp on the +plateau, and was not at all surprised when Ernest identified the fellow +as the apparent leader of the band of foresters he had passed on his way +west. + +"I see that you don't believe the men are foresters," Ernest said, +looking into Ned's anxious face. "Well, to tell the truth, I doubt it +myself. I heard some talk there that set me thinking, after I got away. +There was a man there who had just arrived from San Francisco, they +said, and he was doing a good deal of kicking about something that had +been done, or hadn't been done. I don't know which." + +"Can you describe the fellow?" asked Ned, a quick suspicion coming to +his mind. + +"Of course I can," was the reply, and the remainder of the answer gave +an accurate word photograph of one Albert Lemon. + +Ned was thinking fast. How had Lemon reached the eastern side of the +divide so quickly. He, himself, had traveled swiftly from San Francisco, +leaving soon after his exit from the bachelor apartment where the +strange and not entirely satisfactory interview had taken place. He had +left the man who claimed to be Albert Lemon half dazed and weakened from +the effects of opium--still weary from a long and exhausting journey, as +shown by his clothing, and yet the fellow had beaten him out in the race +to the mountains. + +Why? Certainly not to take charge of the body of his unfortunate friend, +for the grave was not there, but in a little hollow away to the north +and near the lake. His business seemed to lie with the outlaws who had, +apparently, committed the crime. Why? Had the man been killed as the +result of a conspiracy between the two interests? + +This point was worth looking into, for the motive for the deed might +also prove to be the motive for other crimes--among them the burning of +forests. + + + + +CHAPTER X.--CHASING THE MILKY WAY. + + +While the boys were exchanging experiences with Ernest Whipple, talking +over Boy Scout matters and arranging for a sleeping place for the +stranger, Ned was busy with his aeroplane. It had not suffered in the +least from the heat and wind, and there was plenty of gasoline on hand +for a journey which he was thinking of taking. + +"Where are we goin' to-night?" Jimmie asked, finally, strolling over to +the spot where the great bird lay. + +"As the wind is right," Ned laughed, "I thought I'd take a sail over the +divide and see what the alleged foresters are up to." + +"All right," the boy said, "just wait until I get a big blanket to wrap +up in and I'll go with you." + +Ned smiled at the determination of the lad to keep close to his side. He +knew that Jimmie dreaded the very idea of leaving the solid earth that +night, still he found him willing to make the ascent merely for the sake +of being in his company. + +"All right, kid," he said. "You may go if you want to, but it may be +morning before we get back to camp." + +"You can't remain in the air all that time," Jimmie said. + +"I am fully aware of that," Ned replied, "but I can drop down over on +the other side and rest and tinker with the machine--if she doesn't work +just right." + +"You haven't got gasoline enough," urged Jimmie, who would have argued +Ned out of the notion of the night flight if possible, but who was +determined to go with him if he went. + +"The first thing I do," Ned replied, "will be to fly over the Great +Northern right of way and fill up with gasoline. Besides filling the +tanks, I shall carry a lot away in an aluminum keg I have provided for +that purpose." + +"Well," Jimmie said, with a tired sigh, "I should think you'd been +through enough to-day and to-night, without goin' off in the dark, but +I'm goin' if you do." + +After talking with the others regarding his intentions, and warning them +to keep a sharp lookout during his absence, Ned assisted Jimmie to his +seat and the two were away. There was scant room for a rise between the +spot where the machine lay and the foot of the range, but Ned had little +difficulty in getting into the sky and swinging along in the breeze. + +It was now after ten o'clock, and the moon was high in the heavens. To +the east the dark passes of the mountains showed green and misty in the +moonlight. To the west the burned spaces looked dark and forbidding, +with smoke half hiding the ruin that had been wrought. Jimmie clung to +the machine and insisted that Ned was chasing the Milky Way when he +lifted the aeroplane up the level of the divide. + +Before crossing the divide, however, Ned flew to the Great Northern +right of way and filled his tanks with gasoline, also filling the extra +keg. The machine, which was an improved Wright, was then turned to the +north-east. So perfect have aeroplanes now become that even +inexperienced drivers may sometimes venture into the air with them with +impunity, still it is well known that it is more the man than the +machine that decides whether there shall be a tumble or a successful +flight. + +The aeroplane is a wonderful invention, yet the point which really makes +it so serviceable is a very simple one. For years inventors studied ways +of making a heavier-than-air machine sail through the sky like a bird. +Then the gasoline engine came, and all the rest seemed easy. + +But no one could keep control of the aeroplane. It moved about according +to its own whims, and tipped drivers out at its own sweet will. Then the +Wrights thought of lifting and lowering the planes to represent the +wings and feathers of a bird. The secret had been found and required +only experience and practice. Here was a machine light enough to fly, +yet strong enough to carry with safety its powerful engine and two or +more passengers, if there is room provided for them. + +It is so stout that a man may walk over it while it lies on the ground, +and yet so delicate in control when in the air that a slight pull on a +lever will dip one wing, lift the other, and at the same time turn a +vertical tail-rudder about to give the necessary balancing pull with +almost the instinctive adaptability of a bird's wings and feathers. + +And this wonderful machine, while speeding through the air with the +velocity of an express train, can be halted almost instantly and whirled +about on its tail. It will be seen that it is the man at the levers who +makes or breaks a journey in the air. One man may do almost anything +with a machine, while another may send himself to eternity with the same +one. It was Ned's good fortune that he was naturally ingenious and quick +to make his hands follow the impulses of his brain. + +When a person is thundering through the air, a thousand feet above the +earth, he must remain perfectly calm, even with the engine thundering +behind his ears, tears running in streams down his face, and the wind +fluttering his clothes into rags and ravelings, as he wishes he was back +on land. + +Besides, there are no level plains in the air, as there are on earth. +Every bird-man knows that he is liable to come up against a fierce +current or tumble into a hole in the atmosphere at any moment. While +traveling in water one can see what is ahead and on both sides, but this +is not so in the air. The currents, swirls, eddies, holes, do not show +at all. + +When Ned left the caché where the gasoline and provisions had been +hidden away, he put on half speed, swinging steadily skyward on a broad +spiral. His purpose was to pass over the summit and have a look at the +forests on the east side. + +The passenger's seat in the Wright machine is in the middle. The engine +is at his right and the driver at his left, so that the balance is the +same whether an extra person is carried or not. Jimmie was glad of this, +for it placed him close to Ned. In that half light, with the earth far +below, with the pounding of the engine and the whistling of the wind, +the boy felt the need of close human companionship. + +He sat in a wooden seat with his back against the rest, holding to one +of the uprights with both hands, and resting his tingling feet on a +cross-bar. A guy-wire passed across in front, close to his chest, so he +was now fastened in. + +He wanted to talk with Ned, to hear the sound of his voice, but the +clamor of the engine prevented that, so he just sat still and looked +down on the flying forest below. It seemed to him, at least, that the +forest was moving, while he was standing still in the starlight. + +Up the aeroplane went, and still higher up. Jimmie saw the great divide +below, and saw little red specks in the forests of the eastern slope +which denoted forest fires not yet grown to maturity. After passing the +summit Ned saw the campfire of the men Ernest had spoken of. He passed +them, swung around a circle lower down, selected a spot where he thought +he could land with safety, and dropped down. + +Jimmie declared afterwards that he felt as if he had been thrown out of +the window of a twenty-story building--and the highest window at that. +When the aeroplane came into the shadows of the high trees where the +landing was being made he knew that a wind was blowing at the surface +and feared that the machine would be carried along on the ground and +dumped over into a caņon. + +The machine sank gracefully into a glade rather high up on the slope, +and the boys alighted to stretch their legs. Ned's first move was to see +if there was plenty of room for him to get out. What he found was an +incline to the east, an incline ending at a great caņon, into which he +would have been hurled had the aeroplane run fifty feet farther on the +ground. + +"I think I can make it," he said, "but it is risky. It wouldn't be nice +to take a header a thousand feet down." + +After the inspection of the locality Ned extinguished all the lights and +sat down to map out his plans for the remainder of the night. There were +the usual noises of the forest, as found at night, but no human sounds +intruded. + +Ned knew that the clamor of the engine must have been heard by the men +in the camp he had flown over, and he had no doubt that the outlaws +would make a quick excursion to his landing place, if they could +determine where it was. So he put out the lights and listened for some +indication of the approach of the others. + +"They won't find us in a thousand years," Jimmie volunteered, as the two +sat close together under a great tree. + +"I hope not," Ned replied, "for then we shall have a better chance to +find them." + +"What do you want to find 'em for?" questioned the boy. "You can't pinch +'em, 'cause you haven't got the proof, an' you couldn't if you had the +proof, 'cause there ain't enough of us. They'd eat us up like spinach." + +"You are right as far as you have gone," Ned replied, "but you have not +gone far enough. What I want now is to find out what they are doing +here. And, also, I want to find out about that fellow from San +Francisco. If the description is any good, he was in the city when I +left it, and I don't see how he ever got here so soon. I came part way +on an aeroplane, but it seems that he traveled farther and beat me out." + +"What's he got to do with it?" asked Jimmie. "What did you find out in +the city? You won't have no luck if you don't tell me all about it." + +So, while they waited, Ned told him "all about it," while the boy sat in +the dusk with his eyes and mouth both opened wide at the mystery of the +thing. + +"I don't believe Albert Lemon ever got out here so soon," the lad said, +when the story was told. "He couldn't." + +"Then who is the man from San Francisco?" asked Ned. + +"It can't be the dead man?" questioned Jimmie. + +"You saw him buried," Ned answered. + +"Then I give it up!" Jimmie said. + +The two sat there in silence a long time, then Jimmie gave Ned's arm a +pull and pointed to a flickering light in the forest just above the +glade where the aeroplane rested. + +"They think you've landed somewhere here," the boy said, "an' have set +fire to the woods." + +"I think you have guessed it," Ned said. "However, the blaze won't run +very fast up there, for the undergrowth is scanty, so we've got plenty +of time to get out of the way." + +Jimmie scrambled up the slope, clinging to rocks and roots with both +fingers and feet, and ran toward the blaze. Ned watched the little +fellow dashing along with no little anxiety, for the outlaws might be +there in the thickets, watching for some attempt to be made to lift the +aeroplane. + +He saw Jimmie recklessly climb to the top of a great rock which jutted +out from the side of the mountain and saw his figure outlined against +the growing blaze on the slope above. Then the fire died down, as if for +want of material, and the top of the rock could no longer be seen. + +Ned listened, but Jimmie did not return. The effort to create a general +conflagration on the mountain side had evidently failed, for there was +little to burn save the green boles of trees, that section having been +swept by fire a year before. + +Not daring to leave the aeroplane for even an instant, Ned awaited the +return of the boy with premonitions of trouble in his mind. Presently he +heard a shot, then a cry, and after that a brutal laugh. The outlaws +were nearer than he thought. + +There was only one thing for Ned to do, and that was to get the +aeroplane into the sky immediately, and so once more place it beyond the +reach of the outlaws. There was nothing he could do to aid Jimmie, he +reflected, sadly, by remaining there. + +It was no task at all to start the rollers down the incline, but the +caņon threatened if he did not get it off the ground in quick time. He +knocked the stones out from under the wheels and sprang into his seat. +The machine, gaining momentum, moved on sedately. It had acquired a fair +rate of speed when he came within a few feet of the caņon. + +Then, after letting it get all the headway possible in that confined +space without coming too close to the caņon, Ned pulled the lever which +tilted the front rudder planes. Trifling as the deflection was the +man-made bird felt its influence and rose from the slope as if endowed +with life. + +It reached the edge of the descent some distance in the air, and the boy +was congratulating himself on the success of his unaided rise when the +big machine began to sag as if dropping to the ground, five hundred feet +below. + +The west wall of the caņon ran straight down, and it seemed to Ned that +he was following it, like an iron spike thrown off the ledge. He knew +very well what had occurred. He had fallen into one of the down-tipping +currents so frequent in mountain districts. + +The air, he knew, was sliding down the precipice just as water tumbles +over a dam. If it turned, as it might, when it struck the lower strata +of air, he might secure control of his machine and manage to lift it out +of the caņon. If it did not, he would doubtless fall to the rocky floor +of the caņon, and lie there until some chance hunter or forester came +upon a heap of bleaching bones and the wreck of an aeroplane. + +But even at that swift pace downward, and at that exciting moment, Ned +found himself puzzling over the strange sight he saw in a break in the +wall of the caņon. It was a large opening he looked into, and strange +figures were gathered about a cooking fire. + + + + +CHAPTER XI.--THE LUCK OF A BOWERY BOY. + + +Jimmie opened his eyes and looked about. It was a gloomy niche in a +perpendicular wall that he looked out of. Rock to right and left and +rear. In front a velvet summer sky, with stars winking over a vast +stretch of broken country. There was a ledge a foot in width outside the +entrance to the niche, but the boy could not see how long it was, or +where it led to. + +His head ached and there was a drawing sensation to the skin of his +forehead and right cheek, as if some sticky substance had congealed +there. When he reached a hand up to see what the trouble was he found +that his head was tied up in a cloth. There was no one in sight to ask +questions of, so he arose to a sitting position and leaned forward. + +The action brought on a whirl of dizziness, and he dropped back against +the wall for support. He knew then that he had received a hard blow on +the head, and that he had lost considerable blood. Once before in his +life he had felt that dizzy weakness, and that was after an artery had +been cut in his leg and he had nearly bled to death before reaching a +hospital. + +When he lay back trying to get something like a balance in his brain, he +saw that it was near midnight. He knew that by the stars, for he had +watched them many a hot night, lying on his back on a dray backed up +some alley down near the East river, in New York. + +There were certain stars which always occupied just such a position at +midnight in New York. He did not know their names, but he knew that at +midnight in Montana they would not be so far advanced across the sky. +Therefore he looked for the stars as they appeared at nine o'clock on +the Atlantic. When he found them he knew from their location that it had +been something over an hour since he had left Ned and the aeroplane. + +The three hours difference in time between New York and Montana--three +hours in round numbers--would make the midnight stars three hours late, +of course. Anyway, the boy was pretty certain of the time. + +Then his mind went back to Ned and the aeroplane, and the caņon in front +of the landing place. He recalled the stop, and remembered leaving Ned +to see what was doing in the way of forest fires. He remembered, too, +getting up on a high rock to look over at the creeping flames. + +But strange to say he did not remember getting down again. The next +thing on the record of his mind was that niche in the wall and the stars +shining down out of a summer sky, the same stars he had looked at in old +New York. Of course he had been struck the blow he had received while +mounting the rock, otherwise he would know something of the attack. + +His mind did not have to travel along the records of the past very far +to convince him that he had made a mistake in leaving Ned. Of course he +had been "geezled" by the outlaws, as he expressed it, and of course the +boys would delay the business they were on in order to look him +up--which, he reluctantly admitted to himself, would be a waste of time, +as any boy capable of doing such foolish stunts certainly was not worth +the trouble of looking up. + +Presently the pain in his head became less violent and the dizziness in +a measure passed away. Then he pushed out to the edge of the ledge and +sat with his feet hanging over. It was a straight drop down. Below he +could see a stream of water running along the bottom of the caņon. + +Out, perhaps two hundred yards from his resting place, he saw a slope +half covered with trees. He looked down into the gulf in the hope of +seeing the aeroplane, but it was not in sight. Ned must have taken it +away. Or he might have been overpowered and the machine broken up. + +Of course the outlaws would break up the machine if they secured +possession of it. They would not dare use it in that region, and it was +about as handy a thing to ship away secretly as a white elephant. + +There were no lights in sight anywhere, save a slight glow of coals away +down at the bottom of the caņon. That might be the remains of the +aeroplane, or it might be a bit of forest fire which had not burned +itself out. Very much disgusted with himself, the boy leaned farther out +wondering if there wasn't a ledge which wound its way to the bottom of +the caņon, or to the summit above. + +So intently was he studying on this proposition that he did not hear +footsteps approaching, nor did he realize that there was any human being +near him until he felt a hand laid lightly on his shoulder. + +"Be careful, young man," the voice said, "or you'll get another tumble. +How do you feel by this time?" + +"Fine!" cried the boy, turning a pair of astonished eyes toward the +south, where a bulky personage stood blocking the ledge to the extent of +obscuration. + +"Well, don't take any more chances, then," said the bulky person, and +Jimmie was forced, not ungently, back into the niche. + +The man entered after the boy and threw himself down on the stone floor +of the cut in the wall of the caņon. He was short and stout, with a +double chin and a pointed forehead which gave his face the appearance of +being engraved on a lemon. He was quite bald, and his hair, that which +remained, was turning gray. His eyes were steel blue, and his mouth one +long, thin-lipped slit between fat cheeks. + +Jimmie did not like his looks at all, and he resented the patronizing +voice and manner. So he leaned sullenly against the wall and waited for +the other to open the conversation. He had not long to wait, for the man +was busy in a moment. + +"How did you get that fall?" he asked. + +So, Jimmie thought, they were going to claim that he had a fall, and +that they had found him, and cared for him gently, and were now ready to +do anything in the world for his comfort. The boy decided that the +correct course for him to pursue was to follow the lead of the other. + +"Guess I slipped off a rock," he said, knowing very well that he had +been knocked off his feet so suddenly that he had instantly lost +consciousness. + +"What were you doing there?" was the next question. + +"Why, I had been out in the aeroplane, and I got out to see if the +forest fire I saw was going to be anything serious, and then I tumbled." + +"Where is the boy who was with you in the aeroplane?" asked the other. + +Jimmie replied that he had no idea, which was, of course, the answer +expected of him. His questioner remained silent a moment, looking out +over the rugged land to the east. When he spoke again it was to ask: + +"What are you doing in the Rocky Mountains?" + +Jimmie thought that was a cheeky question, and a useless one, for he had +no doubt that the fellow knew nearly as much about his business as he +did about his own. + +"We're on a vacation," he replied. "Five of us have a camp over on the +other side of the divide. We're just playing prospectors." + +"Very nice vacation for you all," the other said, "but you ought to be +more careful with your fires. You started a large conflagration +yesterday." + +So the Boy Scouts were to be accused of that! Jimmie wished at that +moment that the other boys were there. He wanted to tell this fat +hypocrite what he thought of him and stand a fair show in the fracas +which might follow. + +"I don't think we set any fires," he said. "The fires started a long way +from our camp." + +"I know what I'm talking about," the other said. + +Jimmie did not reply. He was wondering what would be the next move of +the fat party, and whether Ned or the boys left in camp would be out to +look him up before the morning. + +"I am in charge of this district," the other went on. "I'm Captain +Slocum of the forestry force." + +Jimmie did not believe it, but did not say so. He only stared at the +other in a manner which nettled his dignity. + +"I have been watching you boys ever since you have been here," Captain +Slocum went on. "I didn't know what you were up to, and so I watched." + +"Yes, sir," said Jimmie, quite humbly, though angry enough to fight the +man single-handed. + +"It seems that you have left forest fires wherever you have camped," +Slocum went on, with an all-knowing air. "To-night I sent a party of +foresters over to the camp to arrest you all." + +"Yes, sir," replied Jimmie again, shutting his lips hard in order to +prevent saying a great deal more. + +"Do you think they will find this Ned Nestor there?" Slocum asked, then. + +"I don't know whether he could get his machine back to the camp," Jimmie +replied. + +"Well, wouldn't he go without it?" + +"No, sir; I don't think he would, unless it was certain that he could +not take it with him." + +"We'll find him, anyway," Slocum continued. + +"Where are you goin' to take us for trial?" Jimmie asked. + +"We'll have to consider that part of the matter later on," was the +reply. "The first thing for us to do is to lock you up good and tight +and stop the setting of forest fires." + +"Yes, sir," replied Jimmie, still humbly, but still thinking what he +would do to this fat falsifier if he ever got a chance. + +"I'm glad you confess," Slocum said. + +"I didn't," said Jimmie. + +"Why, yes, you did," insisted the other. "You admitted setting the +fires." + +Jimmie made no reply. Far down in the caņon he saw a glint of flame. It +was not a forest fire. It was not even the red light of a campfire or a +lantern. The light was white, and the boy knew it for what it was--an +electric searchlight, such as Ned always carried on his aeroplane trips. + +Slocum did not seem to see the light. His eyes were fixed on the face of +the boy he was talking with, although the features did not show very +distinctly in the dim light of the night. + +"Well, to tell you the truth, we've already captured this Ned Nestor," +Slocum added, maliciously, Jimmie thought, "and no doubt my men have +also captured those at the camp. Nestor broke a leg in trying to get +away, but when he was fairly cornered he confessed everything." + +"Yes, sir," answered Jimmie. + +There was nothing else the boy could say without putting himself in the +way of a beating. If he had expressed his opinion of this story no doubt +he would have been given physical punishment for his frankness. + +"And so," Slocum smiled, "you may as well continue the confession you +began." + +Jimmie recognized this as clumsy work in the third degree, but he did +not say so. He was watching the light below. Now it disappeared behind a +great rock or tree. Now it came out in the opening again and moved about +in a circle. + +"Ned is examining his 'plane, preparatory to going back to camp," the +boy thought. "Wonder if he's been all this time lookin' for me?" + +The boy paid little attention to what Slocum said after this. Most of +the time he was looking into the sky, or anywhere rather than where his +thoughts were fixed. He had no intention of directing the gaze of the +alleged forester to what was going on in the caņon. + +Directly he saw the flashlight flutter over the white planes then become +stationary. Ned, he knew, was getting ready to make a flight. He could +imagine what the boy's feelings were, for he knew Ned's affection for +him. Indeed, it was with a heavy heart that the patrol leader left the +place without Jimmie. + +"And there is also a suspicion that you boys are interested in getting +opium over the border without settling with Uncle Sam," Jimmie heard +Slocum saying, as he watched the aeroplane move forward, lift for a +moment, and then drop down out of sight. He knew of the precipice just +ahead of the machine, and trembled for fear that Ned had not been able +to lift the aeroplane, but had tumbled into the caņon with it. + +"Anyway," Slocum continued, "we shall place you under arrest for setting +fire to the woods and also for smuggling." + +Just at that moment Jimmie was not at all interested in what Slocum was +saying to him. He took no interest whatever in any threat made by the +fellow. He was watching the caņon for some sign of the reappearance of +the aeroplane. + +After what seemed an eternity to the lad he saw the light again, this +time higher up than before. It was lifting slowly, turning round and +round in a spiral, and Jimmie knew that there was no room to mount into +the sky in a straight line. Ned's control of the machine was wonderful, +and it lifted gradually until it was above the line of the hills on the +other side and shot away to the west. + +Then Slocum saw it. Jimmie blamed himself for calling his attention to +it by lifting his head to follow the flight across the sky. + +"There is another aeroplane," Slocum said. + +Jimmie could not restrain a laugh, which intruded oddly enough on the +tense silence of the moment. + +"You don't think it is Nestor, do you?" Slocum asked. + +"Yes, sir," replied Jimmie, still humbly. + +"But he must have taken a drop down the caņon," urged Slocum. + +"Yes, sir," replied Jimmie, "but you said you had captured him!" + +Slocum eyed the boy with rage in his eyes. He knew very well that while +he had been telling of Ned's capture and confession, Jimmie had been +watching his chum get his aeroplane out of the caņon. + +"You haven't even thanked me for getting you out of the mess I found you +in, and doctoring up your wound," he said, presently, resolved to keep +on good terms with the boy for a short time longer, if it was possible +to do so. + +"Thank you, sir!" Jimmie said, very modestly. "I think I must have +received a good bump on the head." + +"Indeed you did," smiled the other. + +After a little further talk Slocum led the boy away to a cavern in the +wall of the caņon which seemed to the weary lad to have no end. He saw +several people lounging about as he passed through a large chamber, but +paid little attention to them. + +At last Slocum halted in a little alcove opening from a second chamber, +in which were assembled at least a score of Chinamen. + +"These people won't harm you," he said to the boy, swinging his arm +about to include the group. "Uncle Sam is trying them out in the forest +service, I don't think much of the idea myself, but I'm not the boss." + +Then Slocum went away and Jimmie lay down and watched the Chinamen. +Listening, he heard one of them speaking in English, then in Chinese. He +knew that he had heard that peculiar voice and dialect before and +devoted his whole attention to the fellow. + +"Well," he muttered, in a moment, with a grin, "I'm havin' the luck of a +Bowery boy in this deal, an' that is the greatest luck in the world." + +Then he fell to wondering what Chang Chee, the keeper of one of the +worst Chinese restaurants on Doyers street was doing there, in the heart +of the Rocky Mountains, mixed up with alleged foresters. + +"Just wait until I see Ned!" the boy mused. "I'll put him next to +somethin'. He'll be glad he brought me with him!" + +Then the boy's thoughts went back to the camp in the Valley of the Wild +Beasts, as he called it. Slocum might have told the truth about the +attack on the boys, and they might be in trouble at that moment. He +wondered, too, if, in case they were taken prisoners, they would be +brought to the cavern. + +"Anyhow," the lad mused, "they never intend to let me get out of this. +If they did, they wouldn't have permitted me a sight of the Chinks. +Unless I sneak away, there'll be an accident some day, an' then there'll +be no more Jimmie McGraw!" + +The boy was tired and weak, so that even such serious thoughts as these +could not keep him awake. Wondering what conditions Ned had found at the +camp, after soaring out of the caņon, he dropped his head against the +stone wall of the alcove and was soon in a deep sleep. The fumes of +opium with which the cavern was filled might in a measure have +contributed to this, but, anyway, nature was exhausted, and the boy's +slumber was heavy and dreamless. + + + + +CHAPTER XII.--A MEMBER OF THE OWL PATROL. + + +When Jimmie awoke the fire which had burned in the cavern had gone out, +and those who remained in the chamber seemed to be fast asleep. He +tumbled out of his alcove, still feeling weak and dizzy, and moved +toward a hanging rug which closed the entrance to the place. + +He drew one side of the rug back and saw the white light of day. The sun +seemed to be high up in the sky, for the ledge at the front of the +cavern showed a streak of gold. Two Chinamen sat at the entrance to the +outer cave, and when he advanced toward them they waved him back. +Instead of retreating he stood regarding them with a puzzled look on his +face. + +One was Chang Chee, the keeper of the disreputable Chinese dive on +Doyers street, whom Jimmie had noticed the night before, and the other +was a much younger man--a boy, in fact. When Chang ordered Jimmie back +the youngster turned toward him a face showing both curiosity and +interest. + +"What's doin' here?" Jimmie demanded, in a moment. + +He thought best not to show that he recognized Chang, for he knew that +the identification of the Chinaman would only add to his peril, if that +were possible. It was certain that Chang would never permit the +information that he had been seen there to get out to the government +officers. + +Jimmie's idea at that time was that he had blundered on a gang of opium +smugglers, although he could not understand why so many Chinamen were, +apparently, engaged in the illegal traffic. + +Chang finally turned his face away, with a frown, and Jimmie advanced a +step toward the boy, who threw himself carelessly down on his back and +extended his right arm straight up from the shoulder. Jimmie's eyes +opened wider, and his breath almost stopped, when he saw the thumb and +little finger thrown diagonally across the palm of the hand, the tip of +the thumb covering the nail of the little finger, the three remaining +fingers pointing upward. + +In the excitement of the moment, in the amazement caused by his +recognition of the Boy Scout challenge, Jimmie lost all caution. + +"Say!" he began, but Chang turned a repulsive face and ordered him into +the rear chamber. + +The boy, thankful for the interruption, moved back a few paces, +believing that the Chinese boy who had given him the sign would +communicate with him as soon as opportunity offered. + +This was the greatest puzzle the lad had ever been called upon to solve. +Some of the questions he asked himself were: + +"How did that Chinese boy become a Boy Scout?" + +"Is there a Chinese patrol?" + +"Was he permitted to become a member of an American patrol?" + +"Why is he mixed up with that disreputable old Chink?" + +"Will he help me out of this hole, or will he ignore me?" + +Of course there was not one of the questions the boy could answer, so he +went back to his alcove and sat down, half believing that he had +imagined the challenge. + +As the day wore on the men who had been asleep in the inner chamber +arose, staggeringly, as if still under the stupefying influence of +opium, and made their trembling way outside. When they had all +disappeared Chang pushed the rug aside so as to bring more light and air +into the place and came and stood looking down on the boy. + +Jimmie did not look up. He saw the shrunken figure up as far as the +knees only. He was resolved not to open any conversation with the Chink. +If he wanted to talk, Jimmie thought, let him choose his own subject and +introduce it in his own way. + +The yellow face of the Chinaman seemed to take on a more mask-like +expression--or want of expression, rather--as the silence continued. +When he spoke it was with a snarl which boded no good to the boy. + +"Hungly?" he demanded. + +"Hungry?" repeated Jimmie. "You know it! If you've got any rat +sandwiches or puppy potpies, just introduce me!" + +"Flesh!" growled Chang. + +"Flesh?" repeated Jimmie. "Oh, yes, you mean fresh? Well, you'd be just +as fresh as I am if you were as hungry." + +"Cheek!" cried Chang. "Kid allels have cheek--an' tummy!" + +"Sure," said Jimmie. "Go on an' get me a porterhouse steak with French +potatoes. I could eat a car of raw onions." + +Chang turned away and walked out to the ledge, where the Chinese boy +stood, looking out into the sunshine. It was a glorious morning, with +the air clear and just a little sharp, owing to the altitude. Here and +there little swirls of smoke showed that fires were burning in the +forest, though none seemed to be close to the range. + +Reaching the boy's side Chang addressed a few words to him in Chinese +and left the cave, turning back, after a few paces, to observe the boy, +now standing with a long, keen-bladed clasp-knife in his hand. As Chang +looked the boy ran his finger over the edge of the blade, as if to make +sure that it was suitable for some purpose he had in view. + +With an exclamation of rage Chang charged back at him and snatched the +knife from his hand. + +"You fool!" he cried. + +"You let me alone!" shouted the other. "I tell you, I'm going to kill +him!" + +Jimmie heard the words and rose unsteadily to his feet. He recognized +the voice as that of the boy who had given him the Boy Scout challenge. +At least it was not that of Chang, and there were only two figures +outlined against the sky when he looked out beyond the rug, still pushed +aside. + +"Fool! Fool! Fool!" + +Chang gritted out the words as he took the Chinese boy by the back of +the neck and hustled him into the cave. Then he spoke for a minute in +Chinese and turned away again. Jimmie stepped back into his alcove and +felt around for a stone, or anything in the shape of a weapon, as the +boy advanced toward him. + +"What does the badge say?" + +Jimmie opened his eyes wider than ever, if possible, and stood facing +the boy, half hiding the stone he had found. + +"Be prepared," he replied. + +"Then drop that rock!" + +Jimmie dropped it and stepped forward. + +"Liu, Owl patrol, San Francisco," the Chinese boy said. + +"McGraw, Wolf patrol, New York," replied Jimmie. + +"You don't look very comfortable in here," Liu said. + +"Nixy," replied Jimmie, wondering if the boy really was preparing to +carry out the threat he had made to Chang. + +"You heard what I just said to Chang?" Liu asked. + +Jimmie nodded his bandaged head. + +"Bluff!" said Liu. "He's watching now to see that I don't make an +attempt on your life. Had to do it!" + +"I see," Jimmie replied, wondering if it wasn't pretty near time to wake +up. + +"Why don't he want me killed?" Jimmie asked in a moment. + +"He thinks you have information he needs," was the answer. "Are you +hungry?" + +"That's what Chang asked," Jimmie said, "but he didn't bring me any +grub." + +"He told me to," grinned Liu, "and I told him that I'd kill you if I got +near enough to do so. He'll hang around until he sees me bring you +something to eat." + +"You ain't so very slow yourself," grinned Jimmie. "Where did you learn +to speak United States so well?" + +"Born in Frisco," was the reply. "The Boy Scouts take me out on their +hunting trips to do the cooking. That's why I'm here now. I know the +mountains, and Chang hired me to go along with him." + +"An' they took you into the patrol, did they?" asked Jimmie. + +"Sure they did," was the reply. "Why not? I'm an American citizen, or +will be in four years." + +"Have they captured any of the others?" asked Jimmie. + +The Chinese boy shook his head. + +"Have they heard from the men they sent out to capture them?" was the +next question. + +Another shake of the head, then Liu drew closer and whispered. + +"Do you see Chang poking his head around that rock in the opening? He's +watching to see that I don't knife you!" + +Jimmie saw the parchment-like face of the old reprobate peering around +the rock and wanted to heave a stone at it, but knew that this would not +be good policy. Instead he threw it at Liu, and missed, of course. + +"You seem to be wide awake yourself," Liu said. + +"Why don't you go and get me some grub?" demanded Jimmie. "I'm near +starved to death." + +"All right!" said Liu, and turned away. + +Jimmie was now in a deeper puzzle than before. He had no means of +knowing whether Liu was telling him the truth. He might be trying to get +into his confidence in order to gain the information sought, whatever it +was. + +However, in a short time Liu returned with a generous supply of food, +fried fish, fresh biscuit--the boy wondered how Liu had managed to bake +them there--coffee, and plenty of tinned goods. + +"What's this bunch doin' here?" the boy asked, as he made heavy inroads +on the fresh fish, coffee and biscuits. + +"I don't know," was the hesitating reply. + +"I know," Jimmie went on. "They're smuggling opium an' setting fire to +the woods. They'll all get pinched!" + +"I hope so," was the reply. + +"It sounds odd to hear a Chinese boy talk straight United States," +Jimmie said, after a short silence. + +Liu made no reply for a moment. He was watching the ledge outside the +entrance to the cave. The occasional rattle of pebbles told him that +some one was standing there, probably just out of sight. + +"What is Chang doin' here?" Jimmie asked, presently. + +"He's in some scheme with the foresters," was the reply. + +"They ain't no foresters!" Jimmie said. "They're timber thieves an' +smugglers, an' firebugs, an' murderers!" + +Liu shuddered but remained silent. After listening a second he went to +the entrance and looked out. There was no one in sight at first, then a +roughly dressed fellow came around the angle of the cliff to the north +and approached him. The fellow was rather short for a man of his width +of shoulder, and his step was remarkably light and quick for one of his +apparent weight. + +His face was sun and wind-tanned, with plenty of mountain soil on top of +that. A cartridge-belt encircled the loose jacket he wore and a revolver +handle protruded from the pistol pocket of his trousers. + +"What's the word?" he asked, gruffly, as he came up to Liu. + +"Go on in," replied Liu. + +Jimmie saw evidences of treachery in the hostile attitude of the +newcomer and retreated farther into the cavern. + +Then he saw Liu doubling up with laughter and stopped. It didn't look +very amusing to him, especially as the stranger was advancing toward him +with swift strides. Then something remotely familiar in the set of the +shoulders, the carriage of the head, attracted his closer attention to +the figure and he moved forward a step. + +"You're a nice little boy to get into a trap like this!" + +There was no mistaking that voice. Just how Ned Nestor had secured that +disguise and found his way to that spot Jimmie did not stop to think. He +knew that it was his chum, and that was enough. While the two boys +clasped hands Liu stood regarding them smilingly, at the same time +watching the entrance. + +"How did you ever find this hole?" Jimmie asked, his wonder at the thing +which had happened mastering all else. + +"I saw this cave when my machine dropped into a hole in the air in the +caņon," was the reply. "The shelf where we landed is just above this +cavern. There was a fire in the outer room, and numerous Chinamen were +moving about." + +"They're opium smugglers," Jimmie said. + +"Man smugglers!" laughed Ned. + +"Do you mean that they bring Chinks over the border here, an' so run +them down into civilization whenever they get a chance?" demanded +Jimmie. + +"That is just it," Ned answered. "We seem to have come upon a lot of the +articles to be smuggled," he added. + +"How did you come across Liu?" Jimmie asked. + +"Oh, I met him while I was prowling about not far from the cave, at +daylight," was the reply. "He helped me get this disguise." + +Liu was still watching at the mouth of the cavern, so the boys talked +freely, with little fear of being disturbed. Ned told of his return to +the camp, and of the all-night hunt for the missing boy. It took Ned and +Frank a long time to find the opening the former had seen in his swift +drop down the caņon, but about daylight it was located. + +They had, however, found many Chinamen loitering about, and Frank had +gone back to camp to reassure the others, while Ned remained on the +eastern side on the chance of getting into communication with Jimmie. +While loitering about Liu had come up the slope. + +It was quite a long story, that of his getting a perfect understanding +with Liu, and Ned cut it as short as possible, merely saying that Liu +had recognized his name, having heard his associates mention it +frequently. Then the Chinese boy had procured the disguise and Ned had +stuffed out the shoulders of the coat to give it a better fit. + +"I was observed by a half a dozen men, some Americans, some Chinamen, +while getting in here," Ned said, then, "but the disguise misled them. +Now, the question is this: How are we going to get out?" + +"We'll have to fight our way out?" asked Jimmie. + +"It won't answer," Ned replied. "They are too many for us." + +Liu now came into the second cave and held up his hand for silence. + +"You'll have to hide in the back chamber," he said. "Chang is coming +in." + +"I thought this was the back chamber," Jimmie said. + +"I suspect," Liu said, "that there's a chain of caves running through +the divide. Come on!" + +Liu passed back to the west, removed a great box which stood against the +rear wall, and disclosed an opening through which the patrol leader +crawled. When the box was replaced Ned stopped and listened. What he +heard was the click of a typewriter. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII.--OFF ON A DESPERATE MISSION. + + +What business calling for the use of a typewriter was being transacted +under the main divide of the Rocky Mountains? + +Ned stood perfectly still in the darkness and listened. He could hear +the click of the keys and nothing else. At length he moved stealthily +forward over an even surface, feeling his way in order that he might not +trip over some unseen obstruction and raise a racket in a tumble. + +Presently he came to a rug hanging at the end of the chamber in which he +was. From the other side of the rug came a faint light. The noise of the +keys was more distinct here, and the boy knew that he had at least +located the operator. + +While he stood listening and undecided as to what course to pursue, the +noise of the machine ceased and the operator--a young, well-dressed +American--came toward him carrying a lighted candle in his hand. Ned +crouched down in an angle of the wall and waited for him to pass. + +The boy was not quite so anxious now to leave the strange rendezvous in +which he found himself. Some mischief greater than smuggling opium and +Chinamen over the border might be carried on there. His work seemed to +be growing on his hands! + +He had been sent to that district to investigate the cause of the +frequent forest fires, and given an aeroplane in order that he might fly +over the forests in making his observations. It seemed to him now, as he +lay on his side against a wall of rock, waiting for the typist to pass +with his light, that he was spending more time under the ground than in +the air! + +The main range of the Rocky Mountains in the northern part of Montana is +noted for its rugged and irregular formation. It is declared by some +that the home of the original cave dwellers was here. Many of the great +caņons are known to be honeycombed with openings almost large enough to +hide a small city in. + +The typist moved straight ahead and his light disappeared from view. +Then Ned advanced beyond the rug, which appeared to be of fine material, +and flashed on his light. There was a table in the room, a couple of +chairs, a row of pigeon-holes attached to the wall. + +On the table was a typewriter, in the pigeon-holes were folded papers, +neatly ticketed and enclosed in rubber bands. Aside from the underground +smell the place was tolerably comfortable. The air was damp and chilly, +but Ned was well clothed and did not mind that. + +As has been said, the boy was now in no haste to leave the place. He +believed that the mystery he had been sent out to solve would be solved +there. For an hour or more he searched over the place, opening the +folded papers and making a close examination of the typewriter and the +stock of unused paper in the drawer of the table. + +At length, his examination completed, he passed back into the chamber +behind the rug and listened at the opening through which he had entered. +A sound of the steady beat of blows reached his ears at first, then a +low whistle. That was Jimmie, he knew. The lad had a habit of whistling +softly to himself, usually without time or tune. + +Waiting for a lull in the blows, he rapped softly on the box which +backed up against the opening. Instantly the whistling ceased, and +Jimmie's voice was heard. + +"Come on out," the boy said. "I've been kicking my heels against this +box for an hour, waitin' for you to signal back." + +"Be sure there is no one watching," Ned cautioned. + +He heard Jimmie walking away, then heard him coming back. In a moment +the box was drawn away from the opening. + +"You've been in there long enough to dig through to China," Jimmie said, +as Ned stood by his side. "What did you find in there?" + +"A double keyboard typewriter," grinned Ned. + +"Quit your kiddin'," answered Jimmie. "You'll be claimin' next that you +found a brass band in there." + +Ned did not stop to explain to the boy all that he had discovered in the +inner chamber. His work there seemed to be finished now, and he was +anxious to get back to camp. There was no knowing what had been going on +there during his absence. + +"Where is Liu?" he asked. + +"Watchin' outside," was the reply. "He's my guard. Goin' to shoot me if +I try to get away." + +"And the others?" asked Ned. + +"Don't know," replied Jimmie. "They herded a lot of Chinks an' went off +down the valley." + +Liu now appeared in the entrance, bowed gravely to the boys, and stepped +out on the ledge, with a Boy Scout challenge in the wave of his hand. + +"He's all right!" Jimmie said. "You ought to see the breakfast he got up +for me. That feller can cook--an' then some!" + +"Call him," Ned suggested, "and we'll see if it is safe for me to go +out." + +"For you to go out!" repeated Jimmie. "For us to go out." + +"I think you'd better remain here," Ned replied. + +Jimmie looked at his chum in amazement. The light back there was not +good, but Ned saw several questions in the boy's eyes. + +"Liu can protect you, can't he?" Ned asked. + +"That's what I don't know," was the reply. "He will do his best, of +course, but his best might not be good enough." + +Ned was thinking fast. If he permitted the boy to leave, the fact of his +escape would be likely to scatter the outlaws--and he very much wished +to keep them together for a short time. + +"I think," he said, "that we have found the men we want--with the goods. +If you leave now they will make a quick getaway. You see that, don't +you?" + +"Of course," was the reply. "An' I see, too, that if I remain I'm the +one that's likely to make a quick getaway--to a country no one comes +back from." + +"There may be some other way," Ned said, thoughtfully. "Give me a chance +to think it over." + +"Oh, I'll stay, all right," Jimmie went on, "if it will do any good. I +guess they won't eat me alive." + +As he spoke the boy put his hand to his eyes and gave them a long rub. + +"There's smoke in here," he said. "Don't you smell it?" + +"I was thinking of that," Ned replied, anxiously. "There may be a fire +in the caņon." + +Regardless of consequences, Jimmie rushed to the ledge and looked out. +The sun was no longer in sight, for a mist of smoke hung over the caņon +and over the slope to the east. + +"There's goin' to be the biggest blaze ever!" Jimmie cried. + +Liu came to the side of the boys and pointed to the south. + +"The fire came through a gully over there," he said. "I was watching it +from here. It was not put out yesterday, and worked its way over the +divide. When it gets to going strong here no one can live in this +cavern. I'm going to get out." + +"That's the idea!" Jimmie cried. + +The caņon was a veritable fire trap. For years the boughs and the turp +of the trees had been dropping down. Ned knew that the blaze would mount +to the cavern and be drawn into it. The atmosphere of the place +indicated openings at the rear which would serve as chimneys. + +"Oh, the devils!" Jimmie cried. "To set a fire like that!" + +"They didn't set it, I tell you," insisted Liu, speaking as if in the +defense of his employers. + +"Who did, then?" demanded Jimmie, half angrily. + +"It came through from the other side, just as I told you," replied Liu, +with the utmost good nature. "There'll be a pass through the range some +day where the fire found its way through." + +"But they set the fire on the other side," Jimmie urged. "They set it +for the purpose of burning our aeroplane an' driving us out of the +district. When we go out of the district they'll go with us, wearin' +steel bracelets!" he added. + +"I rather think," Liu said, "that they set the fires over there to draw +the foresters, away from this section, and so protect their business. +That is what they have been doing right along." + +"Yes," Ned said, "there has been a forest fire for every cargo of opium, +for every gang of Chinamen, that has been brought in over the border." + +"So that is the real trouble?" asked Jimmie. "How do you know so much +about it?" + +Ned smiled and pointed to the slope to the east, where columns of fire +were cutting their way through the timber. + +"It strikes me," he said, "that now is a pretty good time for us to get +out of this. The outlaws won't come back so long as this danger exists, +and we shall not be missed for a long time--or rather, Liu and Jimmie +will not be missed." + +"They'll think we ran out to escape the heat and lost our lives in the +fire," Liu said. + +Ned stood hesitatingly at the mouth of the cavern while Liu gathered a +few articles he wanted to take with him. + +"If I thought the fire would reach the cave when the big trees in the +caņon get to going," he mused, "I'd go back and get the papers--or more +of them." + +"It surely will get into the cave," Liu said. "You see, the summit +scoops down here quite a lot, and the timber line is almost to the top. +The gulch below is quite high up on this elevation, still it is not so +very high as compared with some of the summits to the north and south. +So, you see, the timber line here is capable of getting up a good deal +of a blaze, especially where the caņons are full of trees. The fire will +come up here, all right." + +Ned darted away, was gone a minute or so, and returned with hands full +of folded papers. + +"What you got?" demanded Jimmie. + +Ned laughed but made no satisfactory reply. After stowing the papers +away in the numerous pockets of his borrowed suit, he led the way down +the ledge, away from the cave he had first seen in his fall down the +caņon, and which had proved so profitable to his search. + +The air was now filled with smoke. The caņon below was not yet in full +flame, but a column of destruction was creeping upon it from the south. +It seemed to Ned that there were numerous small fires, though how this +could be true he could not understand. + +The boys made their way along the ledge without coming upon any of the +men who had occupied the cavern. It was evident that the few left after +the departure of the men with the Chinamen had fled before the clouds of +smoke. The ledge wound up on the plateau from which Ned had dropped the +night before, and here they paused to decide on some course of action. + +The light breeze was from the west, so the fires below were in a measure +protected from it by the bulk of the summit, but Ned knew that the heat +would in time bring the air into the burning spaces with a rush, merging +the little blazes into one gigantic one which might repeat the disasters +of August, 1910. + +Now and then, from far to the east, there came a signal in the shape of +a gunshot. The faithful foresters were at work there, trying to head off +the advancing flames before they passed beyond control. The place to +combat a forest fire, of course, is ahead of it, and not where the red +line is running through the sputtering timber. + +"If I could get the aeroplane," Ned said, as he looked over the country +from the plateau, "I might get to the fighting line and do some good." + +"Where is it?" asked Liu. + +"At the camp." + +"The others won't dare bring it out, of course?" asked Liu. + +"Doubtful," Ned replied. "Frank has always taken a great interest in the +machine, and was studying its mechanism when I left, but I don't think +he will attempt to operate it. He ought not to, anyway." + +"If the men who left here to pinch the boys," Jimmie said, "showed up at +the camp, an' Frank got a chance to mount the aeroplane, you bet your +life he's shootin' through the air with it this minute, or hidin' in +some valley." + +"But there were three of them," Ned urged, "and all couldn't ride." + +"They'd try!" gritted Jimmie, "unless Pat got cold feet an' run away." + +Ned glanced up at the sky, now very thick with smoke, as the boy spoke. +He looked with indifference at first, then with interest, then with +anxiety. There was a shape moving up there, coming slowly toward the +plateau. + +"There they are!" shouted Jimmie, whose attention had been attracted to +the sky by Ned's fixed gaze. "Frank's runnin' the machine. I'll bet +dollars to apples that he'll dump her into the caņon when he tries to +land here." + +The aeroplane, indeed, looked as if there were an uncertain hand at the +helm. She wavered, tipped in the air currents, dipped wickedly, circled +staggeringly, but finally swooped down on the plateau and, more by good +luck than good handling, settled down within a dozen feet of the lip of +the caņon. Frank and Jack were aboard. Pat, they said, had taken to his +heels at the first suggestion of his joining the others in the ride. + +Ned examined the machine carefully and found it in excellent shape, +although the gasoline was getting low. + +"Better go an' get some," Jimmie suggested. + +Ned looked toward the line of smoke off to the east. + +"We can reach the firing line with what we have," he said, in a moment, +"and that may be sufficient for the present." + +"What you goin' to do?" demanded the boy. + +"Going to see if I can't help fight this fire," was the reply. + +"From here?" laughed Jack. + +Ned indicated a distant line of hills where the forest still stood green +on the slopes. + +"We'll fight the fire from there," he said. "We can see the location +well enough now, but the smoke will soon shut it out from here." + +"What can we do when we get there?" asked Jack. "We are safe enough +here. The smoke and heat may scorch us a little, but we'll live through +it, and that is more than we can say about the safety of the place you +point out." + +"Pat will be making his way here," Ned said, "and you may as well remain +here and meet him. I'll take Frank and go over to the place where the +foresters are fighting the blaze." + +Jimmie was on his feet in an instant. + +"Me for the ride with you!" he shouted. + +"Some one may have to run the machine back," Ned said. "You can't do +that, my little man, and Frank can, so Frank goes." + +"I don't see what you can do over there that the foresters can't do," +Liu said. + +"There is no knowing how useful the aeroplane may be," Ned said. + +Then the machine was rolled back as far up the plateau as possible, the +boys took their seats, and then they were lost in the dense clouds of +smoke in the sky. + +[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION No. 4] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV.--THE BATTLE IN THE AIR. + + +The smoke was driving fiercely through the green trees on the slope, and +the line of fire was not far in the rear. Every moment the wind gained +force, every minute the flames leaped higher and faster. + +The foresters felling trees and clearing a space at an advantageous +point some distance in advance of the flames were working blindly, +mechanically. The heat was intense, the smoke suffocating, irritating, +blinding. The shirts of the workers were open at the throat, their coats +had long ago been lost as they had been beaten back from one stand to +another. + +Now and then a worker dropped senseless in his tracks, his lips cracked +with the heat, his face blistered, his tongue lolling from his smarting +mouth like that of an overworked horse. Then the men who were able to +move and understand would carry him back to a spot of supposed safety +and return to re-engage in the almost hopeless fight, the battle which +the flames were winning in every charge and sally. + +The aeroplane, after a narrow escape from destruction, landed on a +little rise of ground back of the working line when the wind lulled for +an instant, and hope shone in the faces of the astonished men who +gathered about to greet the unexpected arrivals. + +"We can master it," Green, the leader, said, after many questions had +been asked and answered, "if we can be supplied with water. We wasted +our supply wetting our clothes a long time ago, and are suffering." + +"Get us water," shouted another, "and we'll win yet." + +"There's a spring three miles away," Green went on, speaking in Ned's +ear, for the roaring of the flames drowned all ordinary conversation. +"If you can take our water bottles there and fill them we can beat this +blaze. If you can't we've got to retreat and let the whole district burn +over." + +"I have very little gasoline," Ned replied, "but I'll try." + +"We sent two men out not long ago," Green continued, thrusting his +scorched face close to the boy's. "We sent them out with water bags, but +there are no trails, and It will take them hours to make the spring and +return. With your aeroplane you ought to do it within half an hour." + +"Fire fighters marooned without a supply of water, or a trail cut to a +spring!" shouted Frank, scornfully. "Great head some one in authority +has!" + +"There are no trails, no telephones, no horses!" cried Green. "It looks +as if the government sent us here to die. Hurry up with that water." + +"If the gasoline holds out," Ned said, loading a dozen water bags on the +machine, "I'll be back here in less than half an hour, bar accidents." + +"There is plenty of gasoline back there in the shanty," cried Green. "We +have been using it lately in starting back fires, but the wind is now +too strong for that. Get a move on, and take all you want." + +In a short space of time, but not without great risk, the tanks of the +aeroplane were filled, and then Ned took in the general situation in the +sky. The wind was blowing in puffs, but it was certain that a miniature +tornado was at hand. He thought he could reach the spring, which had +been described as lying to the southeast, but was not certain that he +could make his way back. + +He believed, however, that by flying either very low or very high up, so +as to get all the protection possible from the mountain, or escape the +sweep of wind just above the fire, he might be able to bring in one load +of water before the worst of the wind storm came. He knew that it was an +almost unheard of thing to even try to navigate the air in such a gale, +but human lives were at stake, and he decided to try. + +"You'll have to help me up against this wind," Ned said to Green. "If I +start with the air current I'll be carried too far to the east before my +power begins to become effective. If I can hold my own against the wind +until I get above the smoke I think I can win the game." + +It was a desperate expedient, but it appeared to be the only possible +one. If the men had water they might succeed in stopping the fire and +saving millions of dollars worth of timber. If the fire gained the upper +hand they might lose their lives. The men cleared and smoothed a path +for the run of the wheels, by great exertion sent the machine along at +good speed, and then stood and watched it with anxiety depicted in their +faces. + +The great white bird quivered in the face of the wind, but the motors +were true to their duty and the rudder held. To turn about in the face +of that rush would be impossible, so Ned worked his levers guardedly and +kept the wings as level as he could. Now and then a swirl of heated air +would shake the hopes of those watching below, but in the end the +aeroplane drifted slowly ahead, up, higher up, and was lost in the +smoke. + +"The lad is worth his weight in gold!" shouted Green. "He'll do it! I +know he'll do it!" + +"Powerful motor," one of the foresters said. "When we saw the machine +last she was actually holding her own against the wind." + +This was, indeed, the fact, but the wind was not as strong in the higher +levels as at the upper limit of the heat from the fires. A great fire +usually brings a great wind, as those who witnessed the burning of +Chicago and San Francisco well know. The hot air rises, forming a +partial vacuum, and the colder air rushes in. + +Ned and Frank gained the spring, filled their water bags and started +back. It was no easy task to land near the spring in that whirl of wind, +nor yet an easy task to get the aeroplane into the air again, but the +feats were accomplished. Often after that exciting day the boys declared +that they had no idea how they ever did it. + +"We were excited," Frank would say, "and took chances, everything worked +in our favor, and we loaded the water. We knew that lives were at stake, +and it seemed that we had the strength of a score of men, and the cool +heads of men far beyond all excitement. I never saw anything like the +way Ned handled the levers. The wings and the rudders seemed to me to +work on a brain suggestion rather than on a movement of the levers." + +But the most difficult part of the journey still remained to be +accomplished after the water had been secured. The 'plane was much +heavier and did not respond so readily to the hand of the driver, and +the return course was quartering against the wind. Ned, however, did not +attempt to move directly toward the destination he sought. + +Instead he sailed off to the south, working west as much as possible. He +tacked as a yacht tacks in the wind and came near upsetting several +times. He found it impossible to sail low on account of the eddies and +currents created by the heat, and so lifted the machine far up into the +air. It was better sailing there, and he managed to get as far west as +he thought necessary. + +But he could not see the landing place. Below was an ocean of smoke, the +waves heaving in the touch of the wind, the edges now and then tipped +with flame. Above the sun smiled at him, and the birds flew excitedly +about, peering down at the threatening roll of clouds. + +"I'm afraid," Frank said, grasping an upright and clinging to the water +bags. + +"I never was so frightened in my life," Ned called back, lifting his +voice so that it might be heard above the snapping of the motors. + +"I didn't finish," Frank called back, his heart thumping loudly. "I +wanted to say that I was afraid we'd sweep past the workers when we +descended into the smoke and the swifter breeze near the earth." + +"I said just what I wanted to say," Ned answered. "I never was half so +scared in all my life." + +Yet his hand on the lever was steady, his brain was as cool as if he had +been sitting in the Wolf Patrol club room in New York. He knew that the +dip of a wing a foot lower than he intended might send them both into +the blazing forest below. He was afraid, but not with a shrinking, +physical fear, but afraid because he understood the peril he was +in--because he knew that upon his efforts depended the lives of the +heroes in the heated hell below. + +"We've got to go into that mess of smoke, I suppose?" shouted Frank. + +"There is no other way," Ned called back. "We've got to dip down low +enough to see the line of fire and take our chances on landing where the +fighters are. You understand that they are farther to the east than when +we left them?" + +"Of course they have been driven back," Frank said. "I never thought of +that. We may not be able to find them at all." + +Ned shut his teeth and settled his jaw. + +"We've got to find them," he said. + +A long, sullen roaring, like the beating of waves on a beach in a storm, +now reached the boys' ears, even shutting out the chattering of the +motors. It came from the west, and passed along, as it seemed, below the +level held by the aeroplane, now high up in the air. + +"If we don't get down there pretty soon," Ned said, shouting, "we will +be too late. That wind will join the different fires and make one +roaring mass of the whole northwest. I wish I knew just how far the +foresters have been driven back." + +"Do you know where to look for them, north or south?" asked Frank. + +"There is a peak to the west and one to the east," was the reply. "They +are on a line with the two. But the trouble is that we can't see the +peaks after we drop down into the smoke." + +"There appears to be a little lull in the wind now," Frank said, +shutting his lips tight, as a man does when about to make a sudden +plunge into unknown waters. + +The remark was suggestive. Ned knew by it that his chum had braced +himself for the dash. + +"Here we go, then," Ned replied. "Remember that we'll go about eighty +miles an hour when I turn the motor on full head, and that we can't be +more than five miles from the spot where we left them, so keep your eyes +out." + +The aeroplane dipped gracefully as Ned touched the lever. In a minute +the boys were surrounded by smoke. It was hot smoke, too, and made +breathing difficult. Their eyes smarted until their faces were wet with +nature's protest against such irritation of the organs of sight. The +chuck-chuck, snap-snap of the motors was in their ears, the seats they +occupied--frail rests between life and death--shivered under the +pulsations of the machine. + +Now and then the aeroplane dipped frightfully, but the wings and the +rudders brought it back again. + +"Can you see the earth yet?" asked Frank, In an awed tone, which sounded +like a whisper in that clatter. + +"We seem to be over the fire," Ned returned. + +And that was all. There was no need of conversation. In all their lives +they would never be so near to a frightful death as they were then. + +First they caught sight of a rocky ridge. Ned knew where that was, and +realized that he was still in the direct line of the workers. Beyond +this ridge, he knew, was a valley, so he must drop down. The workers +were on a level beyond the valley, a great plain of fir and pine between +gigantic ranges of the Rocky Mountains. + +The aeroplane trembled as she dropped, swiftly, apparently straight +down. Frank grasped his upright and prepared to spring out of the +wreckage when it fell, if there was anything to fall from after the +trees had had their way with the frail machine. + +The smoke was blinding. Nothing could be seen but smoke for a time. Then +the dark gray clouds turned red, and Ned knew that he was nearing the +advance line of the fire, and that it was mounting to the very tops of +the giant trees on the plain--or elevated plateau, rather, for, though +comparatively smooth of surface and heavily timbered, it was far above +sea level. + +If you look on an enlarged map of northern Montana you will see that the +Rocky Mountains do not consist of one great, massive range. There are +ridges and valleys, and plateaus extending for hundreds of miles along +the British frontier. There are peaks from which the snow never +disappears, and there are timber lines which crawl almost to the summit +of other peaks. There are fertile valleys where cattle grow fat, and +great gorges where beasts of prey await their victims in thickets. + +It is the timber on this great stretch of country that the United States +government is trying to save. + +The heat was blistering now, and Ned feared for the safety of his +gasoline tanks. At a motion from him Frank removed his coat, carefully, +for a slight movement in the air is sometimes productive of disastrous +results, placed it over the tanks, after a great effort, and managed to +saturate it with water from one of the bags. + +Through the smoke a line of tree tops now came into view, low down, and +the boys knew that they had passed the fire line. Ned tried to slow +down, but found that he must keep the motors going in order to retain +control of the machine. + +"There's a clear space ahead!" Frank shouted, and Ned dropped. Then a +giant trunk obtruded itself, and the boy tried to dip and whirl so as to +dodge it, but the pressure of the wind was too strong. + +The machine headed straight for the tree, which seemed to Frank to be +about a thousand feet high. + +"Hang on to the first thing that comes to your hands if she strikes!" +Ned shouted. "But stick to the 'plane as long as she is clear. There may +be a current of air which will sweep us away from that tree." + +"Here's hoping!" Frank gasped back, and then the smoke shut out the +view, making the situation doubly dangerous. + + + + +CHAPTER XV.--TOLD BY THE FOREST RANGER. + + +The rangers, almost exhausted, were fighting the fire desperately, +hoping against hope, when the cyclone--it amounted at times almost to +that--struck the forest. Then they knew that the fight was lost for the +time being. + +It was now a question of escaping from the flames they had been battling +with. The chief foresters knew very well that there was a way to safety, +but they had under their command many rangers who had joined the service +merely for the adventures they anticipated meeting, and these, they +understood, would be hard to manage. + +When the order came to drop everything and fall back some of the new men +accused those in authority of cowardice and kept on in the course mapped +out for them under entirely different conditions. Two of them even +insisted on starting back to the rough shanty and preparing dinner. They +lost their way in the blazing inferno, and their bones were found two +weeks later, at the foot of a tree which had been burned into a stub, +but which had not fallen. + +When the danger became apparent to Green who was in charge of the +company found by Nestor, he ordered his men into a "burn" of half a +dozen acres in extent. By "burn" is meant a patch of forest which has +been cleared by fire the previous year. This "burn" was entirely +stripped of trees. The fire had done its work well, but had been checked +before spreading. + +The men could hear trees falling as they dashed along. The fire was +screaming, the wind whistling and roaring. Coals of fire, driven like +arrows by the wind, hit the men in the back as they rushed toward +safety. At last the "burn" was gained, and the men threw themselves face +down on the ground. At the eastern edge there were large logs which had +not been entirely consumed, and some of the men lay down behind them. + +The air was so hot that it cut the lungs like acid. Above, across the +old "burn," streamed a river of flame, now racing like a mountain +torrent, now dropping sullenly back to the west, like a fiery ceiling +which had been rolled away. On such occasions the fainting foresters +below could catch a breath of fresh air and a hazy view of the sky. + +Some of the men, half crazed by their sufferings, arose to their feet +and shook clenched hands at the blazing forests, at the brassy sky, and +the green hills away to the east. Green crept from one to another and +whispered that the only hope of life lay in keeping on the ground. + +Once when he was creeping toward a man who was moaning in anguish and +despair he turned his eyes upward to the sky, clear for an instant, for +the wind was wayward after a time, and saw a speck sweeping out of the +west, dropping lower and lower, whirling in the wind, racing like an +express train. + +"Dan," he whispered to the man he was trying to comfort, "get a brace! +There's no use of giving up now. Why, man, the fight is won, and Nestor +is coming back with water!" + +"Impossible!" grunted the other. "Impossible--in this wind!" + +"Then look," Green said. + +A sheet of flame swept over the "burn," lay upon it for an instant like +a red-hot roof, and then warped and twisted itself away. + +"I see," Dan said, looking into the sky again, "but he can't land. +Impossible--in this storm!" + +"Wait and see!" Green said, and sank back to the earth. + +The aeroplane circled, high up, like a bird seeking its prey in the +burning forest. The wind was tolerably steady at that height, but Ned +knew that when he came into the lower current he would meet conditions +which he could not understand. + +"There's a place to drop!" Frank shouted to him, pointing ahead to the +"burn," which seemed only a few yards away. + +The aeroplane had missed the tree which had threatened it by an inch, +and had turned upward again, for there were other trees in the way of a +descent there. The "burn" was the first free spot that had been +observed, and, besides, it lay inside the line Ned had figured as +leading to the foresters. + +"Hang on!" Ned cried. + +The aeroplane plunged down, almost vertically, and Frank felt as if he +was standing on his head. + +"Don't jump when it strikes the ground," Ned commanded. + +Watched by a score of anxious eyes--for the foresters under Green had +all been told of the coming relief--the aeroplane shot down, struck the +ground at the center of the "burn," rolled swiftly for a few yards, and +stopped. At that moment the space above filled with flame. + +Both boys threw themselves on the ground and waited. When the fierce +gust was over the men gathered about them eagerly. + +"Did you make it?" asked Green. + +"Yes," Ned replied. "Get the bags out and distribute the water. Don't +let the men waste it." + +"I'll see to that," cried Green. + +Without the water, without the cooling sips, without the wet cloths held +over nose and mouth, without the saturated sponges laid on scorched +heads, the men would have died there in the forest. Presently, when the +consumption of the timber to the west reduced the heat, when the wind +quieted down in a measure, they were ready for another fight with the +flames, and it was owing largely to their exertions that the fire was +extinguished before millions of acres had been burned over. + +"It is a dream!" Green exclaimed, that afternoon, as he stood by Ned and +the aeroplane. "I don't believe yet that you did it." + +"I don't see how I did," laughed Ned. "Anyhow, I'm sure I couldn't do it +again. I guess Providence took the matter into his own hands. Honestly, +I do not believe any human strength or skill could do what was done with +the aeroplane to-day. It was a miracle." + +"I know of a nervy boy who had something to do with the miracle," said +Green. + +Ned was naturally anxious regarding Pat, Jack and Jimmie, but believed +they would show up in good form whenever he got back to the vicinity of +the place where they had been left. When the boys were in camp with the +rangers that night, Ned asked Frank about Pat's idea of safety after +refusing to go up in the aeroplane. + +"He said he would stay about the valley," Frank replied. "There is +plenty of provisions there, you know, and Pat is quite long on the +eats," he added, with a laugh. + +"And Jack and Jimmie will be sure to hang about the neighborhood of the +caves," Ned said. "The Chinese boy, Liu, will be able to care for them. +If there is enough gasoline in the tanks, I may go back to the valley +to-night." + +"You'd better get some sleep to-night," Frank advised. "I don't know how +long it has been since you settled down for a night of it. If you keep +your brain working right you've got to sleep." + +"I really ought to go to San Francisco," was the astonishing reply to +this advice. "I have work to do there." + +"What work?" demanded Frank. + +"You see," Ned answered, "we have done nothing yet, except discover a +crime with which we are supposed to have nothing to do. We have brought +a little water for the fire-fighters, but we came here for a certain +purpose, and we have not made good as yet. Perhaps, when I get to +Frisco, I can hunch my wits, as the baseball fans say, and report good +progress." + +"I don't understand what you mean," Frank said. + +"I am not sufficiently sure of my ground to attempt an explanation now," +Ned replied. + +"Of course," Frank said, thoughtfully, "there's the murder case you went +to Frisco about before. You might look that up again, but I can't see +where that has any bearing on this forest fire business." + +"You may be surprised," Ned said, "when the end comes. Somehow, I have +an idea that the two crimes dovetail into each other." + +"Nothing stirring!" laughed Frank. "They don't seem to me to match. +Still, you may have information I do not possess." + +An hour later, after the not very elaborate supper had been eaten, Green +came to the little tent which had been set aside for Ned and Frank. He +had not wholly escaped the dangers of the day unscathed. There were +burns on his hands and face, and one of his feet was bandaged. + +"Shoe burned through," he said, shortly. "I shall have to walk with a +crutch for several days." + +"You won't like that," Ned suggested. + +"No, indeed," was the reply, "especially as I would like to be moving +about in order to see what has happened to the other boys." + +"Have you heard from any of the other groups?" asked Ned. + +"Howard came in from the north," was the reply. "Three men killed up +there. The fire caught them unawares. One of my men has gone south, but +it will be some hours before I hear from him." + +"I am afraid there were several lives lost," Ned said. "In the morning +I'll fly about and see what I can learn." + +"What I came here to talk about," Green said, after a pause, "is this. I +want to know what you think of the Chinks?" + +"The Chinese fire-fighters?" asked Ned. + +Green laughed quietly for a moment before replying. Then: + +"They told you that, did they?" + +Ned nodded. He wanted to jump into the subject without waiting for Green +to have his say, for he was greatly interested, but prudence told him to +listen to the forester first. + +"Yes," he said. "They told me that." + +"Also that they were foresters--the men who told the story about the +Chinks, I mean?" + +"Yes, one of them claimed to be in charge of this district." + +"Well, you know better than that now, so there is no use in talking +about that. You saw some of the Chinks?" + +"Certainly. I even had the honor of visiting their residence." + +Frank laughed, wondering what sort of a story Ned would have to tell him +when they were alone again. + +"It is a wonder you ever got out again," Green said. + +"I left under the excitement of the fire," Ned said. "It was easy +enough." + +"Do you know where the Chinks have gone?" asked Green. + +"I think I do," was the reply. + +"To San Francisco?" + +"Yes, some of them. Others to Portland, I think." + +"Smuggled in?" + +"Of course, though it seems odd that they should want to cross the +border so far away from civilization. It must be expensive getting them +in over such a route." + +"The men at the bottom of the game are watched," Green said. "Watched so +closely that they are obliged to keep out of the actual work and do +their business through unsuspected channels. After this place has been +raided they will try some other point." + +"You know what has been going on then?" asked Ned, surprised that the +matter, as understood by the forester, had not been reported to him by +the Secret Service man in San Francisco. + +"Yes," was the reply. + +"And you have reported to your superior officers?" + +Green nodded, and Ned began to feel provoked at the strange attitude +taken by the government in the matter. Surely he should have been posted +as to conditions in the district before being sent on. + +"Why wasn't I informed of this new element in the case?" he asked. + +"Well," Green replied, "the officials have an idea that the men who are +running the Chinks and the opium in are the men who are responsible for +the forest fires. In fact, I have so reported to them for a long time." + +"Go on," the puzzled boy requested. + +"You see," Green continued, "I might go and pick up a couple of dozen +Chinks almost any month, and capture a lot of opium, and arrest a few +men caught with the goods on, but, don't you see, that wouldn't end the +game?" + +"I see that," Ned answered. + +"There is a man at the head of this game who is working from behind the +scenes somewhere," Green hastened to say. "I don't know who he is. The +officials at San Francisco don't know who he is, or where he is. The big +guns at Washington know just about as much regarding the head center of +the game as we do. Well, that is what you were sent here for--to get +down to cases, as I used to say on South Clark street, Chicago." + +"It was thoughtful of them not to interrupt the game until I got here," +Ned said. + +"Yes, I thought so," Green went on. "I thought that any man, or boy, +coming here to get to the bottom of this thing would want us to leave a +few ropes hanging out for him to climb down. You found 'em." + +"Yes, I found them," Ned replied. "I found the counterfeit foresters and +the Chinks, as you call them, and I found something else." + +"That is what we expected you would do," Green said, after a moment's +hesitation. "We wanted you to begin without pointers, with a brain free +of all the unsuccessful schemes which have been worked. You see, I know +a great deal about it, my boy," he added with a laugh. "I knew, days +ago, that you would be here. When I saw the aeroplane in the sky I knew +who was in charge of it." + +"What is the next move?" asked the boy. + +"That is for you to say," was the reply. "I am under orders to follow +any reasonable instructions from you. It is for you to suggest +something." + +"Well," Ned said, "that brings me to a point I was studying over when +you came in. I was wondering if you would detail men to do certain +things for me." + +"Sure I will. If Washington has confidence enough in you to put you in +charge of the blindest case in history, why shouldn't I have equal +confidence in you? You bet I'll be there with the oxen when you give the +word." + +"I thank you," Ned replied. "What I want now is men enough to guard two +points. One is a cave near Lake Kintla, and the other is the cavern +where the Chinese have been hiding." + +"How many men?" asked Green. + +"Two to each place. If there is need of more, others should be ready to +assist." + +"I wish you all success," Green said, after the details of the +surveillance had been arranged. "We have located the tools, and now it +is for you to let down to bed rock. The government wants the headpiece +of this game, and believes that you can put your finger on him. Half a +dozen inspectors have failed, but I have faith in you, boy." + +"Well," Ned replied, "I am glad of your confidence, and thankful for the +help you promise, and will only say that the man behind the scenes will +soon be brought out. I think I know his 'cue'!" he added, with a laugh. + +"Already?" asked Green. + +"I am only expressing confidence in the clues I now hold," Ned said in +reply. "It may be that the next clues I find will point the other way." + +Green shook hands with the boys and went to his tent. It was a clear +night up above the mountain tops, but down where the boys were the smoke +of consumed forests lay on the ground like the gray ghost of fallen +trees. Off to the west the summit of the Rocky Mountains--or one of the +summits--lifted itself above the smudge, standing like a giant up to his +neck in gray dust. + +"Over there," Frank said, "is Pat--hungry, if you want to know, and +nearer are Jack and Jimmie. I wish we could hear from them." + +"If the ground wasn't still red hot back there," Ned said, "Jimmie would +be sure to find us." + +"By the way," Frank said, presently, "what did you mean when you told +Green that you had a 'cue' which would bring out the man behind the +scenes?" + +"I meant that I have blundered on a clue which promises well," was the +reply. "And now," he said, yawning, "I'm going to bed. Rather warm, but +I think I'll sleep, all right." + +In five minutes Ned was sound asleep and Frank was about to lie down by +his side when Green made his appearance. The forester noted the sleeping +boy and laid a finger on his lips. + +"Let him sleep," he said. "And come out here and see if you know +anything about the fellow that is tampering with the aeroplane." + +"What is he doing to it?" whispered Frank. + +"Acts like he was preparing to take a trip in it," was the reply. + +The words were followed by the rattle of the motors. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI.--HOW A CAT TREED A WOLF. + + +Smoke still hung over the "burn." Now and then it was swept aside by a +gust of wind which seemed now to blow out of the east, and so did not +come sizzling with the heat of burned forests. The general effect, +however, was that of a heavy, stifling fog, and Green and Frank crept +along toward the aeroplane with their hands held out before their faces. + +The clatter of the motors had ceased, but the tap-tap of steel on steel +was faintly heard as they neared the machine. Occasionally the worker, +whoever he was, ceased his tapping, as if listening. + +"He's got his nerve with him," Frank whispered, as they moved along. + +"How did he get here?" asked Green. "That is the question that is +troubling me." + +Presently the two came up so that the figure of the man could be +discerned, standing before the bulk of the planes. Green sprang forward +and seized him by the arm. For an instant it seemed as if the capture +would be made without a struggle, then a shot was fired and a crouching +figure leaped away. + +Frank saw the forester fall and leaped toward the retreating figure. The +race in the darkness, caused by the pall of smoke which followed, was +short, for Frank was a noted runner and soon overhauled the fugitive. He +did not attempt to take hold of the man as he came up. He knew that such +a course might mean an unequal contest, for he was only a boy. + +Instead, he dropped to the ground and caught one of the runner's ankles +in both hands. Naturally the fellow plunged to the ground head-first. He +turned quickly and leveled a revolver. There was no warning. The shot +came instantly, the bullet passing over the boy's head as he dropped +upon the prostrate figure. + +With the hand which held the weapon held closely to the ground, Frank +struggled with the fellow for an instant, filling the heavy air with his +cries for assistance. The first shot had been heard by the sleepers, and +help was at hand immediately. The captive was neatly tied by the light +of Frank's flashlight, and the foresters gathered about, still rubbing +their eyes. + +The "burn" was not all in darkness all the time, for the glare of the +smouldering embers to the west lighted the place fairly well. Only for +the smoke the ruddy light would have made a pretty good illumination. +When the fellow was lifted to his feet an exclamation of astonishment +came from the group about him. + +"Sawyer!" some one cried. + +The prisoner dropped his chin for a moment, as if studying out some +difficult proposition, then faced the others sheepishly. + +"I thought I could get away with it," he said. + +A cry now came from the men who had hastened to Green's assistance. + +"He's dead, I guess," the voice said. + +"I didn't shoot to kill," Sawyer exclaimed. "He can't be dead." + +"Why did you shoot at all?" demanded one of the rangers, approaching +Sawyer with threatening fists. + +"He was in my way," was the sullen reply. "I have always wanted an +aeroplane, and I thought this a good time to get one." + +"Did you injure the machine in any way?" asked Frank, as Sawyer stood +gazing furtively from face to face, his black eyes showing fear. + +"When I found I couldn't get it off," was the reply, "I loosened some of +the burrs. It can be repaired easily enough." + +"That is more than can be said for you, if you have killed Green," one +of the men declared, shaking a fist at the prisoner. "If he's dead +you'll be hauled up on one of these trees." + +"You wouldn't dare do that!" Sawyer cried. + +"Wouldn't we?" cried the other. "You'll see when we know whether he will +live or not. How is it, boys?" he continued, stepping toward the spot +where Green lay. + +The man bending over Green was about to reply when Nestor laid a hand on +his arm. The boy had been awakened at the first shot and had slipped out +of his tent and over to the side of the wounded man, being the first to +arrive there. + +"Wait," he said, as the ranger looked up in surprise. "Green is not +seriously injured," Ned went on, "but I want to make that rascal think +he is." + +"What's the idea?" asked the other, glancing from face to face about +him. + +"When he stands under a tree with a rope about his neck," Ned said, +"he'll tell us the truth about this affair." + +"He was trying to steal the machine," the other said. + +"Green has a bullet hole through his shoulder," Ned said, "but I want +you to treat the prisoner as if the shot had been fatal. Kindly carry +him to his tent." + +The command was instantly obeyed, for the foresters all knew why Ned was +there, and understood that he was the personal representative of the +Secret Service chief at Washington. Ned then called Frank aside and +spoke a few words in a whisper. The boy grinned and hastened back to the +group about Sawyer. + +"Nestor wants to talk with Sawyer," he explained, "and wants me to take +him to his tent." + +"We'll take him to Nestor's tent after we get done with him," declared a +burly forester whose face bore many evidences of the hard fight he had +made during the fire. "It won't take us long to settle with him." + +Frank spoke a few words to the man and he was one of the first to push +the prisoner toward Nestor's tent. + +"If you'll keep those men off me," were Sawyer's first words, "I'll tell +you what you want to know. They mean to kill me." + +"I think there is little doubt about that," was Ned's reply. "Why did +you want the aeroplane?" + +"If you must know," was the reply, "I was sent here to get it, or to +wreck it so you couldn't use it." + +This looked promising, and Ned waved a hand at Frank. + +"Throw him out here!" came a gruff voice from the crowd. + +"I won't tell," Sawyer went on, "unless you promise to keep them away +from me. I didn't mean to kill Green, and no court will convict me." + +"When did you come here?" asked Ned. + +"A month ago," was the reply. "The day you landed in San Francisco a man +came to my boarding house and employed me." + +"He mentioned the aeroplane?" + +"Yes, he knew all about it." + +"Treachery in the Secret Service, eh?" asked Ned. + +"I don't know how he gained his information," was the reply. "He told me +that he had secured a job for me in the forest service, and that I was +to join the crew in this district." + +"And steal the aeroplane?" + +"Steal it or wreck it. There are men with the other crews. You would +have found an enemy wherever you landed." + +This was all very amazing, and Ned wondered how many pitfalls had been +set for him in San Francisco. He had no doubt that Sawyer was telling +the truth. The question was as to whether he would tell the story as it +was from that point on. + +"Who was it that engaged you--gave you your instructions?" he asked. + +"I don't know," was the reply. + +Ned swung his hand again, and a fierce demand that the prisoner should +be thrown out arose from the group outside. Sawyer shivered and crept +out of his camp-chair to Nestor's side. His face was deadly pale, being +sheltered from the ruddy glow of the fires. Just where the men stood +outside lay a red lance of light, giving a demon-like look to their +rugged faces. + +"If you don't tell me the truth," Ned said, "I can't protect you." + +"I tell you I don't know," wailed the frightened man. "I had never seen +him before. I wanted a job and took what he offered. I didn't think it +would be so great a crime to steal or wreck an aeroplane." + +"What were you to receive for the job?" + +"One thousand dollars." + +"Hurry up! Throw that sneak out!" + +Sawyer, like the coward he was, threw himself down on the floor of the +tent and groveled at Ned's feet. + +"You would know the man again?" asked Ned. + +"Yes; I can pick him out of a score of men." + +"You will do this willingly?" + +"Yes; I'm sick of the whole game. I didn't mean to hurt Green. I wanted +to scare him away so I could get back to my tent without being +recognized. That is all I wanted, and I did not mean to hit him at all." + +There was a great deal more talk between the two. Ned soon became +convinced that Sawyer was a weak man, morally and intellectually, who +would be apt to follow the lead of one stronger than himself. + +After Ned had left a guard over the man and visited Green--who was doing +very well, and laughing over the trick the boy had played on Sawyer--he +went back to his rough bed, well satisfied with the events of the night. + +"By the way," Frank said, crawling into the tent after assisting in +caring for the wounded man, "I don't understand what you mean by saying +that you've got a clue which you think will force the man behind the +scenes out on the stage, in full view of the audience. If there is such +a clue hovering about I haven't become acquainted with it." + +"The clue is hardly well enough advanced to talk about," Ned replied. + +"But if you've got a line on the leader of this bunch you've won the +case," suggested Frank. + +"That is what the government sent me here for," Ned replied. "The chief +of the Secret Service expects me to round up the man responsible for the +frequent forest fires. I think now that he should have told me that +smuggling was going on up here, but he may have had a good reason for +not doing so." + +"You know what Mr. Green said," Frank interrupted. "He said the +government officers wanted you to take the case and find out everything +for yourself. Perhaps they feared that you would pay too much attention +to these smugglers, and let the forest fires issue go with scant +investigation. They might have arrested the smugglers at any time, you +know." + +"Perhaps so," Ned replied, "But that wouldn't have brought the manager +of the unlawful enterprises into the hands of the law. After all, the +Secret Service men may have been right in sending me up here without +instructions or special information. What a laugh they would have had if +I had failed to discover the Chinamen and the opium." + +"Perhaps they wanted to see if you would discover them," laughed Frank. +"Have you any idea," he added, "that the Secret Service men knew that +you would be followed in here--that the plans of the government +regarding your work were known to the outlaws? Do you think they knew of +the employment of Sawyer and the others by the men at the head of the +conspiracy?" + +"No; I hardly think the man who gave me final orders at San Francisco +knew that all he did was known to the men he was fighting," Ned replied. +"The head of the bunch put a good one over on him there." + +"And came near putting one over on you, also," grinned Frank. "The +aeroplane has been attacked twice already, and others are doubtless +waiting to get a crack at it." + +"They will have to hurry up if they do," Ned said, with a chuckle, "and +you will have to look out for yourself if they succeed, for I'm going to +have you take me to Missoula in the morning and then go back and collect +the boys." + +"And not come back here again?" asked Frank. + +"Not unless we come back for a pleasure trip," was the reply. + +"Well," Frank said, "that pleasure trip idea looks pretty good to me. +Why not?" + +"I may have time," Ned replied. + +Frank threw himself on the blankets which had been provided by Mr. Green +and closed his eyes, which were still smarting from the effects of the +smoke. + +"If you go away to-morrow," he said, presently, "what is to become of +the clues we found in the cavern by the lake?" + +"All provided for," Ned answered. + +"And all the Chinks, and everything you discovered while visiting them +in the caves almost under the divide?" + +"Everything provided for," Ned said, sleepily. + +"And you think you can close this case by going to San Francisco?" +demanded Frank, a touch of sarcasm in his tone. + +"Go to sleep, little boy," said Ned, in a tantalizing tone. + +"But do you?" insisted the boy. + +"Of course I do," was the muttered reply. "Go to sleep, little man!" + +And Frank tried to obey, but sleep would not come. The fire still +smouldered over in the west. The ruddy light of the embers was still +touching the camp with its red fingers. The smoke was still asserting +itself in the air. The puzzle was still there! + +After the boy had rolled over at least fifty times, and arose to consult +a water bag at least a dozen times, he seated himself under the flap of +the tent and looked out. There was a moon now, and the smoke only half +hid it. Far off in the woods wild creatures were expressing their +opinion of the fire and the wanton destruction of their homes. There was +a faint rustle in the foliage of the trees east of the "burn." + +"Gee!" the boy muttered. "I'd like to come back here for a month!" + +Then his attention was attracted to the savage growl of some animal in +the thicket beyond the fire limit of the "burn." It seemed to the boy as +if some man-eating creature had cornered a bit of animate supper, but +couldn't reach it. The language used by the forest resident seemed to be +in the tongue of the panther. While he listened a cry which was not that +of a hungry beast came out of the gloom. + +That was a cry for help, surely. Frank put his revolver and his +searchlight into convenient pockets and set out for the scene of the +disturbance, without awakening any of the sleepers. It was slow work +pushing through the bushes, and the boy wondered if a fire there, well +guarded on a quiet day, wouldn't be a good thing. + +He kept his searchlight ahead and looked about for the source of the +noises as he advanced in the darkness. In a short time he heard a voice +he knew, but hardly expected to hear there. + +"Hurry up!" the voice said. "I'm goin' to tumble out of this tree in +about a minute! I'm that hungry! I thought you might meet me with a pie +under one arm." + +"Well, why don't you come down, then?" Frank asked. + +"If you'll turn your honorable attention to that tree to the east," +Jimmie said, "your excellency will observe a panther waiting for his +supper. He's been tracking me all day, getting bolder every minute. Now, +if I turn this searchlight away for an instant, he'll jump on me, and +there you are. No more Jimmie McGraw than a rabbit!" + +"I didn't see your light at first," Frank said, "for it was hidden by +the foliage of the trees. I suppose you want me to shoot the cat?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII.--THE TIME FOR THE ROUND-UP. + + +"Sure," Jimmie answered. "Shoot the cat!" + +"Well, keep your light on him, and wait until I can get where I can see +him. The cat frequently resents being wounded." + +"Cripes!" cried Jimmie. "Don't shoot unless you kill him, for he'll jump +at me then for sure. He's angry now--hear him pound with his tail? I +fired all my loads at him an' he dodged the bullets." + +"You couldn't shoot craps!" scorned Frank. + +The panther, a great brute made ferocious by the excitement of the fire, +and probably scorched a little, could now be heard moving in the +branches of a tree not far from that in which Jimmie was perched. In a +moment Frank reached a point from which the beast's face could be seen. + +He thought to himself that it looked like a tiger head fastened against +a gray cloud with unseen pins. Jimmie's searchlight brought the evil +face, the cruel eyes, the back-sloping ears, the faintly-moving jaws, +out into strong relief, as the circle of flame was only large enough to +cover the face. + +The beast heard Frank moving in the bushes below and turned its head to +look, at the same time crouching low, as if to spring. + +The first bullet struck him fair in the throat, the second entered the +head just above the eyes, the third, coming so rapidly on the others +that the three reports seemed to merge into one, entered the body over +the heart. The great beast was dead when the body struck the ground. + +Jimmie was not long in getting down to Frank's side and grasping him by +the shoulders in a hug which threatened to end in a scuffle. + +"Get away!" Frank said. "Suppose there's another cat here? If there is +he'll get one of us through your foolishness." + +"There were two," Jimmie said, coolly, "but I killed one." + +"How did you get here?" was the next question, asked as the boys turned +toward the camp. + +"How do you think I got here?" returned Jimmie. + +"Walked!" laughed Frank. + +"Yes, I walked." + +Jimmie stopped and rubbed his legs with careful hands. + +"I'm all wore out!" he said. "I can't walk any farther to-night." + +"All right," Frank said, with a grin. "I'll leave you both lights to +keep the cats off with, and my gun, and come out after you in the +morning after breakfast." + +"Oh, my eats!" Jimmie cried. "Lead me to something that will sustain +life! I'm starving, I tell you." + +"You walked all the way?" asked Frank. + +"Sure! Forty miles at least." + +"Where are the others?" + +"Pat, Jack and the Chink Scout? Pat came up just before I started, +riding on a burro, an' in the custody of a small party of rangers, who +thought he had been setting fires. The rangers went into camp over +there, all tired out, an' Jack an' Pat settled down with them. I run +away." + +"They don't know where you are?" asked Frank. + +"Nix know!" replied the boy. + +"But how did you ever get through the burning forest?" asked Frank, +hardly believing the boy's story of his long walk. + +"This 'burn' is only a mile wide," Jimmie said. "I walked on the south +edge of it. Say, there are plenty of lives lost! Bears, an' cats, an' +all that. I guess this will be an agreeable place to live in about a +week--not!" + +The boy was indeed "all in," as he expressed it. He had walked since +early morning through a tangled forest black with smoke, through an +atmosphere burned and smoked out of its life-giving qualities. And all +this exertion in order that he might be near his chum, Nestor. + +Fortune had favored the lad, and he had at last blundered on the camp +where Ned had taken refuge, otherwise he might have died in the forest +from hunger and exhaustion, or been devoured by some of the savage +beasts which had followed him all day. + +"Where's Ned?" Jimmie asked, as they stood before the little row of +tents. + +"Asleep," was the reply, "and you let him alone for to-night. He's been +having a lively time. But how in the name of all that's wonderful did +you ever find your way here?" the boy added. + +"I don't know," was the reply. "I knew that Ned would be wherever the +fire was, and so started east. Not so very long ago I heard a couple of +shots, and that directed me toward the camp. Who was hurt?" + +Frank explained, briefly, what had taken place, hunted up a liberal meal +for the boy, and then saw him settled for the night. + +Ned's astonishment at seeing the boy in the morning may well be +imagined. + +"Huh!" Jimmie said. "You thought you would fool me out of all the fun!" + +Ned laughed and asked about the others, finally informing Jimmie that he +was leaving that morning for San Francisco by the aeroplane route. + +"Then I'm goin'!" declared the boy. "I'm not goin' to be chucked into +the discard again." + +"You'll have to sit in Frank's lap," grinned Ned, "and the machine may +tip over with such a load, at that." + +"I guess it didn't tip over when Frank and Jack an' yours truly run it," +Jimmie replied. "Anyway, I'm goin' with you." + +Before leaving for Missoula, where he was to surrender the aeroplane to +Frank, Ned had another long talk with Mr. Green, whose wound was not so +serious as it had been considered the night before. The forester told +him what he knew of the men under the leadership of Greer, saying that +he might have arrested Greer at any time during the month, and, what is +more, convicted him of smuggling both Chinamen and opium over the +border. + +"But what good would it have done?" Green went on. "The conspirators in +Washington, or New York, or San Francisco would have chosen another +leader, and the game would have gone on as before." + +"That is very true," Ned admitted, "and still, it seems to me that the +time to round the fellows up has come!" + +"Do you give that as an order?" asked the other, a flash of excitement +showing in his face. + +"Yes," was the reply. + +"But some of them have gone to Portland with the Chinks--some to Frisco, +I think. What about that?" + +"If you can spare men," Ned said, "follow them." + +"You're on!" laughed Green. "I've been waiting for some such orders for +a long time. You're on!" + +"And follow on to Frisco as soon as you can," Ned continued. "Address +me, or look for me, if you are able to be about after you get there, at +the Federal building." + +"I'll be there in a week," Green said, his eyes showing the joy of the +coming fight with the outlaws, "and I'll have a bunch of prisoners with +me." + +The forester hesitated a moment, as the importance of the proposed move +came to him, then faced Ned with a hesitating look. It was plain to the +boy that Green wanted to ask a question which he believed to be either +personal or impertinent. + +"Is there something else?" Ned asked. + +Green still hesitated, his eyes on the ground. + +"Are you sure of your clues?" he asked, then. + +"I think so," was the reply. + +"Because, you see," Green went on, "the government doesn't want any trap +sprung until the whole bilin' is within reaching distance. After the +good work you have done here, I wouldn't like to have you order the +round-up and then find that the men you wanted were still out on the +range." + +"Thank you for your frankness," Ned replied. + +"I just want to be sure that you are sure," smiled Green. "It would mix +things for me to make these arrests and have the big ones get away, now, +wouldn't it?" + +"Indeed it would," Ned admitted, "but I think it is safe to go ahead as +we planned a moment ago." + +"All right!" Green said, but there was still doubt in his eyes. + +"And I'll accept all the responsibility," Ned added. + +"I have a suggestion to make," Green said, then. "Why not go on to +Frisco in the aeroplane and ask for instructions? You can make the trip +in the airship in no time, but it is a long ride by rail." + +"I think," Ned replied, with a laugh, "that the game will be ripe just +about the time I get to Frisco by rail. Besides, I don't want the +outlaws to know that I'm going to the city. They would know it if they +saw the aeroplane making for the coast. Well, if I leave Frank +navigating it in this district they will think I am still here. Don't +you see?" + +"Go it!" laughed Green. "I reckon you know what you're about." + +"Anyway," Ned said, "I've got to play the game in my own way if I play +it at all." + +"I see," observed Green, and the two parted. + +The aeroplane had not been damaged at all by the fire, but Ned went over +it carefully before attempting a start. Sawyer, trembling with fright, +was brought out to show where he had meddled with the machinery. + +"I didn't harm it any," the prisoner said. + +"There are some burrs missing," Ned said. + +Sawyer brought half a dozen out of a pocket and passed them to Ned with +a reluctant hand. + +"I neglected to tell you that I had them in my pocket," he said. + +"What did Green say to you this morning?" asked Ned, screwing the burrs +on where they were needed. + +"He says he won't be hard on me, if I tell all I know about the men who +are doing these tricks," was the reply. + +"You told me all you know?" asked Ned. + +"Yes, there is nothing else to tell. I'm so glad to think that Green is +not going to die from the wound I gave him that I'll do everything in my +power to bring the men who put me up to this to punishment." + +"Sure you can identify the man who hired you?" + +"Dead certain," was the reply. + +"Then I'll have one of the men bring you to Frisco," Ned said. "You will +be wanted there." + +"All right; anything the government wants goes!" + +In half an hour the three boys, Ned, Frank and Jimmie, were on the +aeroplane, sailing through the clear air of a splendid summer morning. +Below they could see the long, narrow strip of land which had been swept +by the fires. Off to the north was the British frontier, with Lake +Kintla glimmering in the sunshine. + +"Aren't we going back to that lake cavern again?" asked Frank. + +"Not just now," Ned replied. + +"I didn't know that you got all you wanted in there," Frank went on. "I +had an idea that you were trying to identify the man we found dead +there." + +"I think I learned all there was to learn there," Ned replied. + +"He spent a lot of time in there before he went to Frisco," Jimmie said. +"He made me go in there with him, and I didn't like it." + +"And so no one will ever know who the dead man was?" asked Frank. + +"I have been given a name," Ned said, "a name to call him by, but I +don't exactly like to accept the information, considering the source +from which it came." + +The aeroplane drifted to the west and north easily under the steady +pulse of the motors, and the plateau where Jimmie had left the boys and +the foresters was soon in sight. + +"I wonder if they're all alive?" said Jimmie. + +"What could happen to them?" demanded Frank. + +"Oh," Jimmie replied, with biting sarcasm, "there is nothing here to +harm 'em! This is a pink tea, this is! This is a church fair, where you +get ices made out of the cream they skim off the cistern!" + +"You're getting nutty!" Frank said, with a grin. + +"When I left 'em," Jimmie went on, "the boys an' the foresters were +wondering if the outlaws would come back an' kill 'em one by one or just +blow up the caves underneath the plateau an' send 'em up in the air +without any good means of gettin' down." + +"Then we'll look them up," Ned said. + +The great divide lay down below, and the plateau was in plain sight, +with the early sunshine streaming over it. When the aeroplane circled +about it a shout came up to Ned's ears, then a shot, and the powder +smoke drifted lazily upward in the clear air. + +"Somethin' doin'!" Jimmie cried. "Suppose we go down an' see." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII.--TWO INANIMATE WITNESSES. + + +It was very still in the bachelor apartment, and, as on the occasion of +his previous visit, Nestor saw, as he slipped through the doorway +leading from the private hall, that the lights were burning low. + +On this night there was no opium-drugged victim lying on the couch. +There was a movement in the room beyond, and Ned could hear the soft +tread of slippered feet and occasionally the rattle of dishes. It was +evident that midnight luncheon was being prepared, and that the master +of the habitation would soon be on hand. + +Closing the door softly--the same having been opened with a skeleton +key--Ned stepped across the room to the writing desk which he had +examined on that other night. After searching the half-open drawer for +an instant, he took out a number of papers and examined them. He also +took a check-book out and put it into a pocket. The papers he returned +to the desk. The check-book was an old one, there being few blank checks +in the binding, but plenty of stubs. + +Then Ned looked at the lock of the desk. It had been out of repair at +his previous visit, but was in excellent shape now. He removed the new +key and inserted the one with the broken stem which had so excited the +interest of Albert Lemon and Jap on occasion of his previous visit. + +The key with the broken stem did not fit. A new lock had been put on. +Next Ned went to a mantel over a gas grate and lifted the cover from a +little ivory box which stood there. At the very bottom of the box, under +buttons, pins, needles, and odds and ends, he found a key. This one was +whole, and it was an exact duplicate of the one with the broken stem. + +Ned had been in San Francisco three days, and Jimmie was not far away. +On bringing the aeroplane to the plateau on the day of his return to +Missoula he had found Ernest Whipple, Jack, Pat, Liu, and a small party +of rangers anxiously awaiting him. Also "several tough ones waitin' for +an introduction," as Jimmie put it. It seems that the fake foresters had +returned to the cave after the fire in the caņon had burned itself out +and had at once discovered that the prisoner had vanished, also that +Liu, the Chinese boy, had disappeared with him. + +There had been a long search for the missing boys, as the outlaws knew +very well that the escape meant the bringing of officers to the caves, +but they had not been discovered until a short time before the arrival +of the aeroplane. + +When Ned reached the plateau--in fact, before he reached it--he heard +the whistling of bullets aimed at the big bird. The outlaws were trying +to cripple the aeroplane and so give the riders a tumble. The boys +landed in safety, however, and joined the others. + +Seeing the boys thus reinforced, the outlaws had withdrawn, and the +rangers had conducted them to a pass which led over the divide. So it +was that Ned had left them, making their way down toward the Valley of +the Wild Animals, where a large number of rangers were encamped, and +where Frank was to come for them with the aeroplane as soon as Ned +landed at Missoula. + +There were numerous shots fired at the aeroplane as it mounted into the +sky again, but no harm was done. + +"If they had been shootin' at that cat last night," Jimmie said, in +derision, "they would 'a' been eaten alive." + +"They are nervous," Frank said, "and don't dare come out of their hiding +places so as to get a good sight at us. They are afraid of the rangers, +and afraid that we'll drop a bomb or something of that sort down on +them." + +This explanation of the bad marksmanship, as well as the failure of the +outlaws to rush the aeroplane, was accepted by the boys, who had +anticipated a fight with the fellows. It was afterwards learned, too, +that there were only half a dozen outlaws in the group, and that they +had been sent back to guard the caves and not to fight rangers unless +they were attacked. + +Ned had been very busy since his return to the city, having made many +inquiries concerning Albert Lemon and his servant, the Japanese +attendant who had given the boy such a chilly reception on the night of +the first visit. + +Lemon, he had been informed, was a millionaire of eccentric habits. +According to Ned's source of information, he would absent himself from +his usual haunts for days at a time, and would then return to shut +himself up in his rooms, at home to no one, and attended only by Jap. + +After a time the clatter of dishes grew louder in the adjoining room, +giving notice, doubtless, that the luncheon being prepared was nearly +ready to serve. Then the boy seated himself behind a screen which cut +off a corner of the room and waited. He had occupied his retreat only a +short time when a key turned in the door and the man he had talked with +on his first visit entered. + +It was not the old, half-dazed, disreputable Lemon who stepped into the +room, but a young man handsomely dressed and evidently very wide awake +and in the best of spirits. After seeing that the window shades were +closely drawn he turned on the lights and dropped into a chair at the +writing desk. + +Ned saw him rummage the pigeon-holes for a moment, extract a folded +paper, and fall to checking off the items. The boy had examined this +sheet while at the desk, and so knew what it contained. After checking +the items the man drew out a long pocket-book and placed its contents on +the writing board. + +The boy gave a quick start when he saw what the book had contained, for +a large package of yellow-back bank notes lay exposed to view. The man +counted them carefully, compared the total with the figures he had +marked on the sheet, and then sat back in his chair with a satisfied +smile on his face. + +"Everything correct!" he said. + +Then he lighted a cigar and turned to the door opening into the inner +room. + +"Jap!" he called softly. "Oh, Jap!" + +The door opened and the servant looked in. + +"Come here!" Lemon commanded. "What have you been doing?" he added, as +the Jap stood before him. + +"Nothing," was the reply. + +"You are not telling the truth," Lemon said. "You have been seen about +the city, in tea houses, talking with strangers." + +"I have not been out of the rooms," the other insisted, stubbornly. + +"Let it pass," Lemon said, in a moment. "There may be some mistake. Any +one been here?" + +"No one." + +The servant appeared to have a perfect knowledge of English. He looked +into his master's face with a bland smile, but now and then his eyes +sought the screen behind which Ned was hidden. + +"Well, some of the boys will be up here to-night," Lemon said. "See that +there is plenty to eat. Go, now." + +The servant turned to the door opening into the private hall, stood with +his hand on the knob for an instant, and then, apparently changing his +mind, went out through the doorway by which he had entered. If Lemon had +been listening intently he would have heard a quick movement in the back +room as Jap closed the door. + +In a moment there was another movement in the private hall, and then Ned +heard the corridor door open. He pushed the screen aside and stepped out +before the astonished occupant of the rooms. + +"What does this mean?" Lemon demanded, a quiver of excitement--or it +might have been consternation--in his voice. + +While he spoke he moved toward a table where a revolver lay in full +view. + +"Never mind that," Ned said, coolly. "We can arbitrate our differences +without its assistance. Besides, it is not loaded." + +"What are you doing here?" Lemon almost shouted, his face growing white, +either with rage or fear. "Leave the room immediately." + +Ned dropped into a chair and motioned toward another. + +"Sit down!" he ordered. + +"Your impudence is amazing," Lemon said, but he took the chair. + +In a moment, however, he turned to the door. + +"Jap!" he called. + +Again the door opened and the servant looked in. + +"Are you armed?" Lemon asked. + +The servant nodded, fixing a pair of inscrutable eyes on Ned's face as +he did so. + +"Very well," was the reply. "Stand there by the door. How did this man +gain entrance here?" + +The only reply was a shrug of the shoulders. + +"Let it pass for the present," Lemon said, with a smile of triumph. +"Stand there and shoot when I give the word." + +The servant nodded again. Ned remained seated, his eyes fixed coolly on +the face of the master. + +"Now, what do you want?" demanded Lemon. "You don't look exactly like a +common sneak thief." + +"You doubtless remember," Ned began, in a level voice, "that I did +myself the honor of calling at these rooms not long ago in quest of +information of one--of one Felix Emory?" + +Lemon started at the name, but gained confidence as he glanced toward +the servant at the door. + +"Yes, I remember," he said. "What about it?" + +There was a sharp ring at the corridor door before Ned spoke again. The +Jap looked inquiringly at his master. + +"Company may prove of value just now," Lemon said. "Will you see who is +there?" + +It was clear to Ned that Lemon expected some of the associates he had +mentioned as "the boys" when giving instructions about the luncheon, and +there was a smile of welcome on his face when a bustle in the hall told +of an arrival. + +There was only one man, however, and Lemon at first seemed disappointed, +but in a moment he had his face under perfect control again. + +"Father!" he cried, springing to his feet. "It is good to see you here!" + +The newcomer, a man of perhaps sixty, well dressed and with the air of a +man to whom marked attention was due, stood looking into Lemon's face +for an instant and then grasped his hand. + +"You have changed little, my son," he said. + +Lemon smiled and indicated Ned with a slight motion of the hand. + +"Permit me to present to you my father, Mr. Leon Lemon," he said, "and +this, father, is a boy burglar who broke into my rooms in quest of +plunder a short time ago," he added. "We were having quite a cheerful +talk when you came. I don't know his name, unfortunately." + +The old gentleman gave a start and attempted to rise from his chair. + +"Don't distress yourself," Lemon said. "He is quite harmless. Besides, +Jap has him covered with the cannon he delights to carry." + +"This is a strange situation," the other said, wiping the sweat of +excitement from his face. + +"One of the incidents which add to the joy of life," Lemon said. "You +remember Felix Emory?" he added. "Well, his pretense for this call is +that he came to ask about him. Go ahead, Mr. Burglar." + +"Perhaps you will also remember," Ned went on, "that on my former visit +here I exhibited a key with a broken stem--the key to that writing +desk?" + +Lemon's face hardened and he glanced furtively at the servant, but said +not a word. + +"This key," Ned said, producing the one mentioned, "was found in the +pocket of the man who was found dead in the Rocky Mountains. You think +you left it in the suit of clothes you gave Emory?" + +"Possibly," was the strained reply. "But we have had enough of this," +Lemon added. "Call the police, Jap." + +"Just a moment," Ned went on, when the Jap moved toward the door. "When +you could not find the key, Mr. Lemon, why didn't you use the duplicate. +The duplicate you kept in the box on the shelf? Why did you think it +necessary to break the lock?" + +"The servant did that," was the angry reply. + +"I see," Ned replied, coolly, "perhaps that was done while you were up +in the mountains with Emory--before he was killed?" + +"Possibly," Lemon gritted out. + +"Now, since talking with you," Ned continued, "I have been up in the +mountains. There I found a man using a typewriter. By the way, have you +a machine here?" + +"Certainly not," was the angry reply. + +"But you formerly used one here?" + +"Never!" was the reply. + +"That is strange," Ned said, "for when I came in here not long ago I +took the liberty of looking through some papers in your desk, for which +I ask your pardon. Well, I discovered that the machine you used here +carried a defective letter 'c.' It looked in the writing like an 'o.' +The machine the man was using under the divide had the same defect. If +you will observe the sheet you were examining a few moments ago, you +will note the imperfect letter." + +Lemon's teeth clinked together sharply, but he did not speak. + +"When I came here last," Ned continued, "you lay in an opium stupor on +that couch. You had recently returned from a trip to Lake Kintla, where +Emory was found dead. While in that section you visited a cavern on the +eastern slope of the divide. There is where you used the typewriter +taken from these rooms." + +"My son never learned the keyboard," said the old gentleman, an angry +snap in his eyes. "He has never found it necessary to earn money." + +Lemon turned to the old man and bowed, gratefully. + +"When you lay on the couch that night," Ned continued, "there was the +smear of the typewriter on the middle finger of your left hand, close to +the nail. I use a double keyboard machine myself, and sometimes smut my +finger on the ribbon when I turn the platen. Some papers I chanced upon +in the mountains bear the mark of a smudged hand. You are careless in +using the machine. You even left a blue record ribbon in the cave +headquarters where the dead man was found. That was my first valuable +clue!" + +"What papers did you steal while in the mountains?" demanded Lemon, +springing to his feet, his face deadly white, his fists swinging +aimlessly in the air. + +"Lists," Ned replied. "Lists of Chinamen brought from over the border, +and lists of opium cases smuggled in. I have the papers in my possession +now. They match with the statement you examined just before I made my +appearance in the room--just before you counted the money you received +from this illegal traffic." + +The old man leaped at Ned, but the boy moved away and stood by the door. +The Jap stepped closer. There came a sound of whispering, a noise of +footsteps, from the hall outside. Then the door was opened and Greer, +Slocum, Chang Chee and two others entered, glancing keenly at Ned as +they passed him, still standing by the door. + +"Do you mean to accuse my son of crime?" shouted the old man, not +noticing the new-comers in his rage and excitement. "You scoundrel!" + +"How do you know," Ned asked, with a smile at the others, "that this man +is Albert Lemon, your son?" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX.--THE MAN BEHIND THE SCENES. + + +"Not my son!" shouted the old man. "This has gone quite far enough! Jap, +call the police, and order this mad youngster taken away." + +The younger man broke into a harsh laugh and turned to those who had +just entered. Slocum and Chang Chee were whispering together, and a +dangerous looking knife showed in the hand of the false ranger. + +"You hear what father says, boys," Lemon said. "Remember that." + +"What is this kid doing here, anyway?" demanded Slocum. + +"He came here, evidently, for the purpose of blackmailing me," Lemon +said. "He has papers stolen from the mountains--lists, he says they +are--and they should be taken from him by force." + +Slocum and Chang Chee started toward the boy, but he waved them back +with his hand. + +"I will lay the papers on the table," he said. "You are quite welcome to +them for the present." + +"I'll take him down to the police station," said Chang. "He ought not to +be at large. Come, youngster." + +"You seem to be able to talk pretty good English now," laughed Ned. +"Much better than the slang you gave out in the mountains." + +"Come!" shouted the Chinaman. "You are here alone, so there is no need +of a fight. Come along!" + +"We'll see about my being here alone presently," Ned said. "Anyhow, I'd +better be here alone than with any one of you in the dark streets. I +should be murdered before a block was passed. That is what you came to +Frisco for, to murder me--just as the man in the lake cavern was +murdered." + +Those in the room looked at each other and remained silent. There was a +tense moment, when every person there seemed gathering for a spring, +when the lust of blood seemed in every glaring eye, but it passed. + +"Where are the Chinamen you brought away from the British border?" asked +Ned of Chang Chee. "Are they in this city? Oh," he continued, as Chang +glared at him, "we knew that you were about to bring in a batch. You +usually light forest fires in order to attract the attention of the +rangers when you get ready to unload a band of Chinese on Uncle Sam. +That is Doyers street cunning, Chang!" + +"You see," he went on, "we have had the good luck to discover why the +forests in Northern Idaho and Montana have been set on fire so +frequently. I don't care to say what I think of the wisdom of your +course in so attempting to hide your movements, except that it attracted +attention instead of diverting it. You firebugs might have been arrested +long ago," he continued, turning to Slocum, "but it was thought best to +wait until the head center of the whole conspiracy was in the hands of +the law. Now that this has been accomplished, I may speak." + +The people standing around the boy looked into each other's faces, and +there was a movement as if to draw weapons. + +"Permit me to congratulate you on the discovery of the leader of the +outlaws," the old man said with a snarl. "Perhaps you will be kind +enough to give us his name?" + +"There are no objections that I know of," was the reply. "His name is +Felix Emory. You may have heard of him." + +"An old acquaintance of my son Albert," the old man said. + +"That is the name of the man who was so mysteriously murdered in the +Kintla lake cave," Slocum observed. "Why do you place the crime on the +dead?" + +"Felix Emory," Ned said, "is not dead. He is alive at this moment--alive +and in this room!" + +The young man broke into a jarring laugh and turned to the old man. + +"You remember the strange resemblance between Felix and myself," he +said. "Well, it seems to have deceived this clever young man. By the +way, Slocum, why don't you take the lad to the police station? We have +no more time for him here." + +Slocum and another sprang forward, but Ned opened the door with a quick +motion and stood beyond their reach. + +"The man found dead in the cave," the boy said, facing the old man, "had +met with an accident in his youth. The first joint of the little finger +of the right hand was missing. Also, there was a scar over his left +eye--a trifling scar, made with a knife in the hands of a playmate. Do +you recall these marks of identification, Mr. Lemon?" he added. + +The old man threw his hands to his face and stood silent for a moment +while the others looked on in perplexed silence. When he uncovered his +face again he stepped forward to the man he had called his son on +entering the room. + +"Let me see your hands, Albert," he said, kindly. "Bend down so I can +see the scar on your forehead!" + +"Step aside, you old fool!" the young man cried, pushing the old man +back rudely. "We have had enough of this, boys," he continued, turning +to the others. "The game is up unless we get rid of this dotard and this +boy. Why don't you get busy?" + +The old man dropped into a chair and lifted his face to Ned's. + +"You found my son murdered?" he asked. "Then this man Felix Emory stands +in his shoes! Even I was deceived by him! Why, he has been calling upon +me for large sums of money during the past month. He has taken +possession of my boy's rooms. Was it this man Emory who killed him?" + +"We believe so," was the reply. "The proof is within reaching distance." + +"Out with them both!" shouted Emory. + +"Your son Albert took this man in and tried to do something for him," +Ned went on, "and was robbed and murdered for his pains. This man Emory +was the leader of this choice band of smugglers and firebugs when he +came to your son. The band was on the point of scattering because the +officers were close on their track. They needed a man well up in the +world--a man against whom the breath of suspicion had never been +blown--to represent them in the opium market and the smuggled Chinamen +market. They sent this man Emory to your son with a proposition, and he +turned him down. Then they parted. But Albert knew too much and so he +was lured to the woods and killed, and Emory stood before the world as +your son. It was a devilish plot, great wealth being the object. If you +will look at the stubs in this check-book you will see the difference in +the hand-writing." + +"I rather admire your nerve, boy," Slocum said to Ned. "You've got the +right kind of courage to stand up here and tell all this to us. You know +very well that we can never let you go out of this place alive? That +even this old man must suffer for your bit of foolish daring?" + +"I'd like to have the training of that kid for a few years," Chang said. +"I could beat the world with him!" + +"Well, you all know what we've got to do," Emory said, angrily. "We've +got to get rid of the boy and this old man. If we do not, there is an +end of a rather profitable business. Besides, with Albert Lemon dead, I +become his heir, with no possible chance of being identified as Felix +Emory." + +"You devil!" shouted the old man. "You murderer!" + +Enraged by the exclamation, Emory made a rush for the old man, but was +stopped by a voice from the doorway opening into the rear room. + +"That'll be all for you!" the voice said. + +It was Jimmie who stood in the doorway, smiling, and making about the +worst bow a Boy Scout ever made. + +"Don't wiggle about so, gentlemen," he added, "for the men behind this +partition have you all covered with repeating rifles, and some of them +are nervous. Stand still while a friend of mine presents you with +wristlets." + +Jap turned and faced the frightened group and then pointed to the wall, +near the ceiling, where a line of two-inch holes were seen, at each hole +a shining eye. + +"You see," he said, "I cut those holes there to-night, so the boys +wouldn't have to lie hidden under the furniture. There's a gun behind +every one of them. And now, with your permission--" + +Jimmie passed out a bunch of clattering, ringing handcuffs, and Jap +slipped them on the wrists of the prisoners. As he did so Frank came +dashing into the room, swinging his cap aloft. Ernest, Jack, Pat and Liu +were there, too, overjoyed at the great victory. + +"Wow!" he cried. "Here's a wire saying that the bunch was captured at +Portland to-night, and another from Missoula says the men left in the +caverns were caught yesterday. I have the honor to report, Mr. Sherlock +Holmes Nestor," he added, with a low bow, "that the round-up is +complete." + +"Our day will come directly," Emory shouted. "You haven't a word of +proof against any of us. Your story sounds all right here, but wait +until you get into court. Our lawyers will pick your yarn apart like a +rag doll. And you, Jap," he went on, turning to the servant, "when did +you turn against me?" + +"There have been two instances of false personation in this case," Ned +said. "You, Emory, personated Albert Lemon, whom you murdered, and you, +Jap, personated the servant Emory brought here after he had seen you +carried out of the rooms for dead." + +"Then that isn't my servant at all?" asked Emory. + +"I was in the employ of Albert Lemon," answered the Jap, "when you took +him away and killed him. When you came back from the mountains you +caused me to be drugged and killed, as you supposed. But your servant +hesitated in the work. He finally turned against you, and permitted me +to come here in his stead. It was he who disclosed the hiding place of +the duplicate key. He told me, and I told Mr. Nestor." + +"It is all a blackmailing conspiracy!" cried Emory. + +"When Mr. Nestor came back to the city, three days ago," the servant +went on, "I was told by the man I was personating in these rooms that +the whole plot was known. He said that Mr. Nestor knew that you were not +Albert Lemon, also that I, Albert Lemon's servant, still lived. I didn't +have much to tell him when he came to me, but I told him all I knew." + +"And you let him search my rooms?" cried Emory. + +"Of course," was the cool reply. "He has everything required to send you +to the gallows for the murder of Albert Lemon, and everything necessary +in the case against the smugglers and firebugs, too. He found Emory's +servant," he added, facing the father, "in a Japanese tea house, and +brought him here to me after the closing scene was set for to-night. You +may talk with him if you want to. He can tell you how the murder of your +son was planned, also how the plot to kill Mr. Nestor in the mountains +was laid--here in these rooms." + +Again the old man sank into a chair and buried his face in his hands. It +was a severe blow to him. He had arrived in San Francisco that day, +anticipating a pleasant month with his son. And now to find him dead! + +"It would be interesting," said Slocum, speaking for the first time +since the arrests, "to know just how this remarkable boy discovered the +connection between this flat and the mountain caves." + +"The murder brought the clue," Ned replied. "From the first the clue led +here. And then the key without a stem, the smudge on Emory's finger, the +typewritten sheets, the machine in the mountains--oh, it was all easy +enough after the discovery that this man Emory did not know where Albert +Lemon kept his duplicate key to that desk! + +"The case is ended," Ned continued, "and all the parties wanted by the +law are under arrest, so, if you don't mind, gentlemen, I'll go to bed!" + +Jack, Pat, Ernest and Liu now advanced into the room and looked +smilingly at their leader. + +"You can't lose us," Jack said. "If you don't mind, we'll take you back +to the Rocky Mountains for a little fun with the aeroplane. I guess +there won't be any bold bad smugglers up there to distract our attention +for a few weeks." + +"And then," Jimmie cut in, "I hope you'll all go back to little old New +York. I'm hungry and thirsty, and sleepy for a walk down the good old +Bowery and the wise old White Way!" + +The case against Felix Emory was so complete that he pleaded guilty on +being arraigned in court and was sentenced to the gallows. Chang +received a long sentence for his connection with the murder, and the +smugglers and firebugs were sent to prison for ten years each. + +The clean-up was so complete that Ned was requested to visit Washington +and confer with the Secret Service chief regarding other cases. + +"But, after all," he said, on leaving Jimmie and the other boys, +including Ernest and Liu, in New York, "I don't think I want any more +fighting forest fires assignments in the Secret Service. We'll go back +some day and look over the ground, but I don't think I'll ever be able +to get some of those rides in the air out of my mind." + + THE END. + + + + +BEST BOOKS--NOW READY + +Oliver Optic Series + +For a full generation the youth of America has been reading and +re-reading "Oliver Optic." No genuine boy ever tires of this famous +author who knew just what boys wanted and was always able to supply his +wants. Books are attractively bound in art shades of English vellum +cloth, three designs stamped in three colors. Printed from large type on +an extra quality of clean flexible paper. 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