Chapter XIII: The Smoke Trail

"Are you sure of it?" asked Frank, in the same low voice.

"Why, try for yourself, and see if you can't get a whiff of smoke right now," Bob replied.

"You're right, because I caught it just then; but I reckon the wind must be changing some, for it's gone again," Frank remarked.

"You never spoke truer words, Frank, because I can hear the breeze beginning to shake the leaves in the trees up yonder, and it wasn't doing that before."

Bob pointed upwards as he said this cautiously. And Frank, always watchful, noticed a certain fact. The trees were so situated that they could be said to lie almost in a direct Southeast line from where he and Bob stood! This might appear to be a very small matter, and hardly worthy of notice; but according to Frank's view it was apt to prove of considerable moment, in view of what was likely to follow.

"Well, as the smoke's gone again, let's see if we can locate it by moving a little this way," and Frank led off as he spoke, with Bob following.

Both lads were very cautious now. Even Bob, greenhorn as he was, so far as Western ways were concerned, understood the need of care when approaching a camp that might be occupied by enemies. And as for Frank, he had not been in the company of an old ranger like Hank Coombs many times without learning considerable.

They had not been moving in the new direction more than five minutes when Bob reached out his hand and clutched the sleeve of his chum's jacket.

"What is it?" asked the leader, stopping short, and crouching there.

"I got it again, Frank," whispered the Kentucky boy, eagerly.

"Sure," replied his comrade, immediately. "Why, I've been smelling smoke for more'n a whole minute now. And I'm following it up, foot by foot."

"Oh!" murmured Bob, taken aback by this intelligence.

"Don't say a word above your breath, Bob. Whoever it is can't be far away now. We may run in on 'em any minute, you know," and as if to emphasize the need of caution Frank drew his chum close while he whispered these words directly in his ear.

Bob did not make any verbal reply; but he gave the other's sleeve a jerk that was intended to tell Frank he understood, and would be careful. Then they moved along again.

It was no easy task making progress through the darkness, and over such rough grounds, without causing any sound. Bob found that he had almost to get down on his hands and knees and creep, in order to accomplish it. But his chum had not forgotten that he was new to this sort of business, and hence he gave Bob plenty of time.

Then Bob in turn began sniffing, and Frank knew that now he, too, had caught the trail-odor, which was constantly becoming stronger. Thus they were positive that while they moved forward they must be gradually drawing nearer the source of the smoke.

Another tug came at Frank's sleeve, at which signal he bent his head low so that his chum might say what he wanted in his ear.

"Sounds like voices!" whispered the excited Kentucky lad.

Frank gave a little affirmative grunt.

"Rustlers, maybe?" Bob went on.

The other made a low sound that somehow Bob seemed to interpret as meaning a negative to his question.

"Then prospectors--Lopez and his bunch?"

"Uh!" Frank replied; and then himself lowering his lips to the ear of Bob he went on: "What's the matter with Peg and his crowd? They might have got up here ahead of us. Quiet now!"

Bob did not attempt to say another word. He had new food for thought. Yes, to be sure, Peg and his two cowboy guides had had plenty of time to climb that far up the side of Thunder Mountain. If they had taken daylight for the task of course they avoided the danger of getting lost, such as had overtaken the saddle boys. And if the nerve of Spanish Joe and Nick Jennings continued to hold out, when strange things began to happen, the boastful tenderfoot from the East stood a chance of making a discovery.

As the two crept closer, on hands and knees, they could hear the murmur of voices grow louder, even though the speakers were evidently talking in low tones. While the experience was altogether new to Bob, he enjoyed it immensely. Why, after all, it was not so very hard to place his hands and knees in such fashion that he felt able to move along almost as silently as a snake might have done.

Now he was even able to locate the spot from which the murmur of voices came. Yes, and when he looked closer he saw a tiny spark that glowed regularly, just as a firefly might sparkle every ten seconds or so.

Bob solved that little mystery easily. Of course it was Spanish Joe, smoking one of the little cigarettes which he was so frequently rolling between his fingers.

To be sure, the odor of tobacco smoke mingled with that of burning wood. And if Spanish Joe, why not the other cowboy who was in bad repute among the ranches; yes, and Peg himself?

Bob began to wonder what the programme of his chum might be. Surely they would not take the chances of crawling up much closer now. If discovered they would run the risk of being fired upon; and besides, there was no necessity for such rashness.

Then Bob discovered that when the wind veered a little, as it seemed to be doing right along, he could actually catch what was being said.

Peg was talking at the time, and grumbling after his usual manner about something or other.

"Ten to one the fellow's gone and deserted us, Nick!" he remarked, suspicion in every word.

Apparently the lounging cowboy did not share in his opinion, for he laughed in a careless way as he drawled out:

"Oh! I reckon not, Peg. Me and Joe has hit up the pace fur some years in company, and I knows him too well to b'lieve he'd break loose from a soft snap like this here one. Jest lie low, an' he'll be back. Let's hope Joe's found out somethin' wuth knowin'."

"But he's been gone nearly an hour now," complained Peg.

"What of that? It ain't the easiest thing gettin' around on this rocky ole mounting in the pitch dark, let me tell ye, Peg," Nick remarked; and by the way he seemed to puff between each few words, Bob understood that it must be Nick who was using the cigarette, and not Spanish Joe.

"Say, that's so," admitted Peg, as if a new idea had come to him. "Perhaps he's slipped, and fallen down into one of those holes you showed me when we were coming up!"

This also amused the cowboy, for he chuckled again.

"Too easy an end for Spanish Joe," he said, carelessly. "Born fur the rope, and he can't cheat his fate. Same thing's been said 'bout me. Don't bother me none, though, and sometimes it's a real comfort; 'specially when a landslide carries ye down the side of a mounting like a railroad train, like I had happen to me. Nawthin' ain't agoin' to hurt ye if so be yer end's got to come by the rope."

"A landslide! Do they often have that sort of thing out here?" asked Peg, showing some anxiety, as though he had read about such terrible happenings, and did not care to make a close acquaintance with one.

"Sure we does, every little while," remarked Nick, cheerfully. "Why, jest last year the hull side of a peak 'bout forty mile north of here broke away, and a Injun village was wiped out. Never did hear anything from a single critter after that slip bore down on 'em."

"It might happen here on Thunder Mountain, too, couldn't it, Nick?" pursued Peg, as if the subject, with all it pictured to his active mind, held his interest gripped in such a fashion that he could not shake himself free.

"Easiest thing goin', Peg. And let me tell ye, if it ever do happen here, thar's agoin' to be a slide to beat the band!" Nick asserted, positively.

"But what makes you say that, Nick?" demanded the boy.

"Oh! lots of people says the same thing," replied the other, as if carelessly.

"That a landslide is going to start things going on Thunder Mountain any time--is that what you mean?" Peg insisted on repeating.

"Any day, er night. Things have been lookin' that way for some time now. I reckon she's due with the next big cloud-burst that sails this way."

It was evident that, for some reason, Nick was trying to frighten his young employer. Perhaps he himself really wished to get away from the mountain with the bad name; and took this means of accomplishing his end without showing his hand. If that were true, then he was gaining his end, for Peg certainly gave evidence of increasing uneasiness.

"But why didn't you tell me all this before?" he demanded, indignantly.

"What was the use, boss? Ye was sot on comin' here, and ye made Joe and me a rattlin' good offer. 'Sides, it didn't matter much to me. I had my life insured. A rope might have skeered me; but say, I don't keer that for landslips," and Nick snapped his fingers contemptuously.

But Frank, who knew the sly cow puncher so well, believed that more or less of his indifference was assumed.

"Well, I do!" declared Peg, with emphasis; "and if I'd only known about that sort of thing before, blessed if I'd a come. I've heard what happens when the side of a mountain tears away, and how everything in the path goes along. They showed me the bare wall where one broke loose up in Colorado. Say, it was the worst sight ever. You'll have to excuse me from nosing around here another day, if that sort of thing is hanging over this place. Me for the ranch on the jump. Get that, Nick?"

"Oh! now, what's the use botherin'? Chances are three to one they ain't agoin' to be any sech upsets as that yet awhile," the cowboy said.

"Only three to one!" burst out Peg. "All right, you can stick it out if you want, and I'll pay you all I agreed; but just you understand, Nick Jennings, when to-morrow comes, I want you to get me down on the prairie, where I can make a blue streak for the X-bar-X ranch house."

"But ye sed as how ye was detarmined to find out what made them roarin' n'ises, up here on old Thunder Mountain!" protested the guide, although he evidently expressed himself in this way only to further arouse the obstinate boy.

"I've changed my plans, that's all," Peg announced. "Any fellow can do that. It's always the privilege of a gentleman to alter his mind. I'd like to crow over Frank Haywood and that greenhorn chum of his mighty well; but I ain't going to run the chance of being carried down in a landslip just for that. Huh! I guess not! What I said, stands, Nick. And I hope the old slide comes while those two chaps are on the mountain; yes, and gives them a dandy free ride, to boot!"

"Oh! jest as ye say, Peg! I'm willin' to do anythin' to please ye. But p'raps we ain't goin' to git off so easy arter all," remarked Nick, suggestively.

"Now, what do you mean by hinting in that way? And I've noticed you twisting your neck to look up at the sky more'n a few times. Think it's going to rain, do you?" demanded Peg.

"Don't _think_ nawthin' 'bout it; I _know_ it be." And, Nick added, with emphasis, "I reckons as how it'll be jest a _screamer_ when she comes."

"A storm, you mean?"

"A howler. Allers does when the wind backs up that way into the sou'east. 'Sides, if so be ye air still sot on findin' out what makes that thunder up this ways, p'raps ye'll have the chanct to look into the same afore long, Peg."

"Oh! was that what I felt just now?" cried the boy, scrambling to his knees. "It seemed to me the old mountain was trembling just like I did once, when I had the ague. And Nick, I believe you're more'n half right, because I sure heard a low grumble just then, like far-away thunder. I wish I hadn't been such a fool as to come up here. Never get me doing such a silly thing again as long as I live. Listen! It's coming again, Nick, and louder than before. Don't you feel how the ground shivers? Perhaps there's going to be a terrible landslip right now! Do you think so, Nick?"

Frank and Bob, crouching close by, had also felt that quiver under them. It gave the saddle boys a queer feeling. When the solid earth moves it always affects human kind and animals in a way to induce fear; because of the confidence they put in the stability of the ground.

And then there arose gradually but with increasing force a deep terrible rumble.

Thunder Mountain was speaking!