s are formed by the puffs of smoke, just as we do the same with
the wigwag flags, or the piece of looking-glass in the sun, when we
heliograph."

"And right now, somewhere or other, one or more of those men must be
reading out the message, letter by letter," said the patrol leader
seriously, while they continued to walk on.

"It won't take long to tell how we happened to show up at the mine, and
took a nice little saunter through the same, seeing how fine it was
being cured--I mean salted," Teddy interrupted, thinking that Jimmy had
done more than his full share of the cross questioning, and ought to
give place to some one else.

"I shouldn't think it would," agreed Ned.

"I wonder now if the men over on the river will guess what happened, and
how we must have left our boats secreted somewhere above?" ventured
Frank.

"That is something we have no means of telling," Ned informed him; "but
since it might happen, we'll have to keep a sharp lookout on the way
across country. We might fall into ambush, and either be shot down or
else made prisoners."

"I don't know which would be worse," grumbled Jimmy.

"Whew! what if they should happen on our, canoes, after all the trouble
we took to hide the same?" suggested Jack, looking as solemn as an owl.

"The walking is fairly decent all the way from Hudson Bay to Montreal,
barring a dozen rivers to cross, a score of bogs miles and miles around,
some pretty hefty mountain chains to pass over, and some more troubles
too silly to mention," was the way Jimmy made light of the possible
calamity.

Ned himself knew that it would be a terrible mishap should anything like
this come to pass. He had thought it all over more than once, and even
mapped out several plans for their guidance in case of such an event.

Walking back was next to an utter impossibility. They might manage with
the aid of Francios and the Cree Indian to manufacture some sort of
canoes, providing the proper kind of bark was to be procured this far
north, which he doubted very much. Besides this, there was a slender
chance that they might signal to some whaling vessel on the great bay
and procure a berth for each of them aboard, so as to be landed at
Halifax or Montreal, anywhere so that they could use the telegraph, and
keep Mr. Bosworth and his company from investing a dollar in the
wonderful copper mine, until the scouts reached home again.

So Ned, having looked further ahead than any of his chums, was n