neath the Headquarters barn (most of the
buildings in town simply stood on big stones a few feet apart) and the
space where it should have been was filled in with a wide board and
banked outside with hay. Under Ned's manger I sawed out a piece of
this board big enough to crawl through, and hung it on leather hinges
at the top, concealed by the manger. I then dug through the hay and
had a clear field for my tunnel straight to the stack.

I ran my tunnel, or rather burrow, as it was small and low, a little
too much east, and missed the haystack by about three feet, but I
probed for it with a long, stiff wire and soon found it. I carried in
a hay-knife and cut me out a little room like an Esquimau's house,
high enough to sit in and wide and long enough so that I could stretch
out comfortably in it. The hay had been wet and was frozen, so there
was no danger of its caving down on me. As the stack was all covered
with snow no wind could get in, and I knew it would always be warm
enough to be comfortable with plenty of clothes and blankets. I took
in a buffalo-robe and some things of that sort and left them there. I
also cached a box of food there, consisting of dried beef, crackers,
and such things; enough, I calculated, to last three days. I could
hardly tell what to do about water, but at last tried the plan of
chopping ice into small pieces and putting them into some of Mrs.
Sours's empty glass fruit-jars. My notion was that in case I was
imprisoned there I could button a can inside of my coat and thus thaw
enough of the ice to get a drink.

I was very well pleased with what I called my fire stronghold. I could
enter from a hidden place in the barn, and could get into the barn
through the tunnel from the hotel, which connected with the whole
tunnel system. I knew if every house in town burned that it would not
melt the snow around the stronghold; and I thought if I were in it
when the barn burned I could push down the snow where it melted along
the tunnel so that it would not be noticed.

In short I was so tickled over my Esquimau house that I took Kaiser
the first night it was done and slept in it; and though it was one of
the coldest nights we were comfortable. I heard the wolves sniffing
about on the roof, but we were getting used to wolves. I didn't know
that we were going to have to sleep under snow again before spring;
and in less comfortable quarters.

CHAPTER XVI

Telling of how Pike and his Gang come