The clouds lay low to the east, but in the west was a patch of clear
sky.
When they gained the summit of the rise, they saw a light in a little
grove some distance away. It seemed like a lantern moving out and in
among the trees.
"There," Jimmie explained, "when I got to the top of the hill, I saw a
rocket shoot out of that thicket. It did not ascend the sky, but follow
the line of the earth and died out in the road."
"Of course," Ned said. "A rocket sent up in the usual way would have
been visible from where we were standing."
"And, in a minute," the boy went on, "there came a rocket from that
house, the house where the light was a minute ago. That, too, followed
the ground line."
"Talking together in low tones!" grinned Jack.
"They were talkin' together, all right," Jimmie said.
"Dollars to dumplings," Frank exclaimed, "that the funny chap we met in
the old mud house at Taku has a room in that shack."
"He might have been hiding there," Ned said.
"An' that old stiff signaled to him to make his getaway?" asked the
little fellow.
"Looks like it," Ned replied.
"Huh!" Jack objected. "The signals might have told the men at the other
end of the line to get their soldiers out and bump us off the
continent."
"Which idea," responded Frank, "causes me to want to approach that house
with all due caution and respect."
"Suppose we four surround it," suggested Jimmie.
"That's the idea!" Jack commented.
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