Then with Brad leading, the three scrambled over the jagged rocks to the cave entrance. As they stood there a moment, gathering courage, a little puff of black smoke issued forth.
“Someone’s in there, all right,” Brad muttered. “You fellows follow behind me, and try not to make any noise. We want to find out what we’re running into before we reveal ourselves.”
The swift-moving underground stream felt icy cold as the boys stepped into it. Red, who never had been inside the cave, felt especially nervous. He kept close to Dan, occasionally bumping into him.
Without a light to guide them, the Cubs could neither see nor be seen. However, the bright mouth provided dim illumination for a short distance. After that, they were in complete and rather terrifying darkness.
Brad, who kept ahead of his companions, found the smoke increasingly unpleasant as he moved deeper into the tunnel. He covered his face with a handkerchief to ward off any inclination to cough.
Approaching the inner rock ledge above the stream, Brad signalled his companions to be very cautious.
The smoke had become thick, and ahead he could see the faint glow of a fire. From the odor of the smoke, he knew that game was being cooked.
Fancy was not playing a trick upon him, for as the smoke cleared, he distinctly made out the figure of a man crouched over the fire.
The problem of how to make themselves known to the stranger solved itself most unexpectedly. Red tried to smother a cough and could not do so.
In the silent cave, the sound echoed loudly. Brad, Dan and Red flattened themselves against the rough limestone wall. Too late!
The man crouching over the fire had heard the cough. He started up, staring into the darkness, directly at the three frightened Cubs.
Brad did not know whether or not the old Indian actually saw them in the darkness. But he decided to take no chance of being mistaken for an enemy.
“Hello,” he said, and his voice echoed weirdly in the cavern, “cooking your dinner?”
With a show of friendliness, he stepped out into the glare of the fire. Dan and Red followed his example, though not without misgiving. Would the old cave dweller accept them as friends? Or would he be hostile? In the darkness they could not see whether or not he wore a knife at his belt.