[St. Anger]

No she totally denied lighting the smoke/fire. Think about the situation, she knew she was being followed, and then when Sayid and Charlie caught her up - she willingly gave Aaron back, because they didn't come to trade with her. And I only said 'the whispers' as it fits in with 'sketchy-ness' - she said "They said they wanted the boy" - not, "They said if I brought them baby Aaron, they would trade Alex for him", in my opinion it sounds like she 'overheard' something; maybe the whispers are echos of communication between the others...

Oh right, I missed when she said that lol. But even so, it was a pretty dumb thing to do and held no guarantee anyone/thing would turn up at the smoke. Oh you mean she said she was being followed by someone other than Charlie/Sayid? So you reckon she didn't create the smoke signal then? This is getting more interesting now, in that, she was being followed and possibly didn't create the smoke. If she didn't set the signal, it's odd that no one was there to greet her.

Oh me too, but she has always thought that 'the others' were this agressive/savage group - I don't think she thinks they can be reasoned with and Claire didn't want to run away, in fact Dani had to knock her out () so she had to carry her back to camp (note how 'the others' couldn't track Dani, even though she was carrying a pregnant woman.. More evidence to say that there is another set of 'others' [other others])

Hmmm I guess Claire would've followed Danni had she approached the Others. She put Claire's safety ahead of approaching the Others about Alex. It was night-time which is why they couldn't track her. Why would this suggest there is another group?

Well, yeah - she's been on the island 16(ish) years, I think that's enough time to learn it's route (and I bet Dani hasn't been everywhere on the island). I would say there are places the black smoke doesn't go - the beach for one, the caves - Locke and Boone spend weeks at the hatch and were never challenged

Re: The line. I'm just theorising  But the 'others' seem to be educated in the island, so I would presume that 'the line' (which seemed their 'neutral ground') would be safe from the Black Smoke.

Yeah I suppose... It's interesting to think where she has been though, and what she hasn't told the Losties. Maybe the BS didn't like being near the Hatch because the electromagnetism interferred with it.

I always thought The Line was just invented on the spot i.e. Tom was saying don't follow us or come any further than this point, as to prevent the Losties finding Othersville [which granted was miles and miles away from the looks of things]. But it has been said the Others are not BS-friendly and thus know how and where to avoid it.