is wasn't any sulphur odor I caught,
Frank."

"Then you could recognize it; eh?" asked his chum.

"It was burning wood, I give you my word for that," replied Bob, firmly.

"Hum. That sounds more like it. We'll let the volcano matter sizzle
for a little while, and look around for something smaller. Burning
wood must mean a fire, Bob!"

"That's what they say, always; where there's smoke there must be fire.
But it seems to me we ought to see such a thing on this black night,
Frank."

"Unless it's hidden, as we make our cooking fire; or else the blaze is
at the last gasp. Then, after all, we may have been a little off about
that light we saw," Frank continued.

"The one we said was a lantern? Then you think, now, it might have
been a fire?" questioned the Kentucky lad.

"Well, I just don't know what to think. But let's look around a bit,
and see if we can locate this fire," Frank suggested.

After moving around for a short time as well as the darkness allowed
the two boys came together again.

"No luck, eh?" questioned Frank.

"Didn't find a thing; but I stumbled over a creek and came near taking
a header down-grade that would have made that plunge of Peg's take a
back seat. Just in the nick of time I managed to grab a little tree.
Phew! it shook me up, though," and Bob rubbed one of his shins as
though he might have "barked" it at the time of the encounter.

"Same here; only I didn't happen to fall," replied Frank.

"So it seems as if we were no better off than before," remarked Bob,
dejectedly.

"We've learned where the fire isn't, if that's any satisfaction to us,"
chuckled his chum, trying to make the best of a bad bargain.

"And that smoke smells so meaning-like, it's sure a shame we can't just
get a line on where it comes from," Bob went on to say.

Frank seemed to catch a significance in his words, for he turned
sharply on his companion, saying:

"Look here, have you been getting a whiff of it again, Bob?"

"Why, yes, several of 'em in fact, Frank," replied the other, in what
seemed to be a surprised tone. "But what does that matter, when
neither of us can find any fire around? I sniffed and sniffed, but
although I just turned my eyes in every direction not even a tiny spark
could I see. And that happened just three times, Frank."

"What! do you mean you smelled smoke three separate times since you
left me?" demanded the saddle boy.

"I'm sure it must have been three, because it was