e had heard Hank
Brown call it--and two pairs of the heaviest blankets to be had in
Quincy. You bet a fellow ought to be prepared for the worst when he is
planning to winter in a cave! Especially when he must do his preparing
now, or tough it out till spring.

With his mirror he heliographed a signal to Marion, and when she came
he said he must have more cigarettes, because he might smoke harder
when he was really settled down to roughing it. What he should have
ordered was more bacon and flour, but he did not know that, his mind
dwelling upon the luxuries of life rather than the necessities--he who
had never met real necessity face to face.

"I'll send the order right away," Marion obligingly promised him. "But
Kate will be simply furious if she sees the package. The last lot I
made her believe was candy that was sent me, and because I didn't
offer her any of it--I couldn't, of course--she would hardly talk for
a whole day, and she hinted about selfishness. She thinks I carry my
pockets full of candy when I start off hiking through the woods, and
eat it all by myself." She laughed because it seemed a good joke on
Kate.

The next time she climbed up to the station she found him boarding up
the windows and hanging certain things from the ceiling to keep them
away from rats, under the telephone directions of the supervisor. He
expected Hank's successor up that afternoon to move down what must be
taken to town for the winter. He did not seem so cheerful over the
near prospect of hiding out on King Solomon, and Marion herself seemed
depressed a bit and more silent than usual. The wind whistled keenly
over the peak, whipping her khaki skirt around her ankles and
searching out the open places in her sweater. Claremont and the piled
ridges beyond were hooded in clouds that seemed heavy with moisture,
quite unlike the woolly fleeces of fair weather.

"Well, she's all nailed down for the winter," Jack said apathetically
when the last board was in place. "She's been a queer old summer, but
I kind of hate to leave the old peak, at that."

They turned their heads involuntarily and stared across the
fire-scarred mountainside to where Taylor Rock thrust bleakly up into
the sky. A summer unmarked by incidents worthy the name of events,
spent on one mountain top; a winter that promised as little diversion
upon another mountain top--

"Say, a ride on a real live street car would look as big to me right
now as a three-ring circus