Part 2 (1/2)

Without saying a word, Hugh jumped to his feet and went outside to take a look around. He came back almost immediately, and his face told them that his investigation instead of clearing up the mystery had only added to it.

”What did you find out, Hugh?” questioned Bud.

”Not a single cloud to be seen in all the sky!” said the other impressively.

”Whew! that seems queer, doesn't it?” faltered Bud.

”And it must be almost down to freezing, into the bargain,” added the patrol leader. ”I've seen lightning before, in February even, but always during a thaw. Fact is, boys, I can't believe that it was either lightning or thunder we saw and heard.”

”But, Hugh, what could it have been then?” demanded Ralph.

”If we were nearer the granite quarries, I'd say they had set off an extra big blast. You know we sometimes hear a faraway boom over home.

Sound travels many miles when there's a sub-strata of rock like a ledge to act as a conductor.”

”Yes, but then I understood work had stopped there for the season the Sat.u.r.day before Thanksgiving,” volunteered Bud. ”Still, they may be doing some blasting, just to keep things moving as long as the snow holds off. If that was a blast of dynamite, it must have been a stunner to make the earth quiver so much.”

Hugh made no reply. Plainly he was deeply impressed with the mysterious nature of the unannounced explosion. And when once Hugh started to find out what things meant, he seldom let the matter drop until he had accomplished his purpose.

Bud also went to the door and looked out, his curiosity having been duly aroused. Hence he did not hear Ralph make a significant admission.

”Now that I come to think of it,” the other remarked, ”for the last two nights I can remember hearing a distant, dull sound that I thought was a heavy blast off in this quarter. I chanced to be outdoors each night about ten o'clock. It's come much earlier this time, it seems; but, anyhow, that is getting to be a regular nightly performance I wonder if they are working over in the granite quarries? I'm something of a sticker when anything bothers me like this, and for three cents I'd take a turn over that way to-morrow just to satisfy my mind.”

”I was wondering whether those two men you saw could have had anything to do with that queer crash and flash?” suggested Hugh slowly.

”Ginger! I wonder now!” exclaimed Ralph, who apparently had not thought to connect the pair of strangers with the mysterious goings-on.

”But they didn't seem to have anything along with them at that time. I remember seeing the taller man take something out of his pocket and examine it, Hugh; and at the time it struck me the s.h.i.+ny object looked mighty like one of these modern automatic pistols.”

Hugh shook his head as though, try as he would, as yet he could see no way of solving the puzzle. Just then Bud came back, having fixed the door the same way he had found it, with the loose board used as a prop to keep it in position.

”Just as you said, Hugh,” he announced, ”it's clear as a bell, with a young moon hanging low in the western sky and the stars s.h.i.+ning like all get-out. No siree, thunder never yet was heard on a night like this. So I guess it must have been a blast. They do say dynamite shakes the ground a heap more than powder, because its force is always directed downward. If you put a cartridge on top of a big rock and fire it, the boulder is shattered to pieces.

Powder you've got to put underneath every time.”

”Correct, Bud, you go up to the head of the cla.s.s,” laughed Hugh.

”I wanted to ask Ralph if when he used to camp around here last winter he ever knew the air to be clear enough to hear the noise of the mill over at town?”

”Why, it's a good many miles away,” returned Ralph, ”and I don't know that I ever did hear what you say. But what makes you ask that, Bud?”

”Oh! the atmosphere must be doing its prettiest then, to-night,”

came the answer. ”While I was standing just outside the door I could hear the plain rattle of the machinery, though it died away quick enough. I understand that business is so good that they're running a night s.h.i.+ft at the mills. And sounds can be heard a long way off after sunset, can't they, Hugh?”

”That's all as true as anything, Bud, though if you'd asked me my opinion before you spoke, I would have said it was foolish to think we could hear the mills so far away as this, no matter how clear the frosty air might be.”

”Well, that may be,” remarked the other boy doggedly; ”but I did hear machinery pounding away at a right merry pace, give you my word on that. I even stepped out further and looked around, but there wasn't a thing in sight, only the stars s.h.i.+ning up there and the little horned moon dropping down close to the horizon.”

”We came up here thinking we'd be all alone and could do what we'd planned without being interrupted,” observed Hugh, ”but seems as though we've dropped on the queerest sort of a mystery the very first thing. And as scouts always stand to investigate what they don't understand, I reckon we'll have our hands full prying into this thing.”

”But don't let it make my affairs take second place, Hugh,” pleaded Bud. ”What if some fellow does happen to be using up explosives by the cartload, that oughtn't to interfere with the trying out of the little invention which the brain of a Morgan has conjured up, and which, if successful, will be a blessing to science, as well as to aviators in particular.”