"I see we are here," responded Ned. "But what for?"

"Here is the hiding-place I told you about."

"Where?"

All three were looking inquiringly around, but their eyes saw nothing
that could explain why the man called this a place of concealment.

"Do you mean that we are to crouch behind some of these stones, just as
you did behind the rock, when you found I was looking at you?" asked Ned
Clinton, with a laugh.

"Not exactly. Wait and I'll show you."

He walked forward a few steps further and turned to the right,
approaching a large stone that looked heavy enough to require the
strength of a Hercules to stir it. Nevertheless, with one hand he turned
it aside, it being so nicely poised that there was no trouble in using
it as a door on hinges. Drawn back, the astonished whites saw the
entrance to a cave beyond. The indications were that, at some remote
time, the stones had been placed in position by a party of aborigines of
the country, and used by them as a retreat or dwelling.

"It is the very place," said Rosa; "for I have been inside."

"You? When?" asked her brother.

"Lena-Wingo brought me here one day last fall, when we were caught in a
storm in these mountains!"

"What kind of a place is it?"

"There could be no better one for us. I thought of it this morning, and
spoke to Lena-Wingo about it."

"What did he say?"

"He replied that he would probably take us here, if he found we had to
keep out of sight for awhile."

"That is well, then. Mr. Worrell has done for us what the Mohawk meant
to do later in the day."

"I don't know that I would not have proposed to you that we should come
here after he left, if I had been sure of finding my way, but I wasn't."

"Is the interior comfortable?"

"It is in warm weather, for none of the sun's rays can enter, and the
stones seem to give it coolness."

"As dark as a wolf's mouth, I suppose?"

"Not at all. There are several windows, made by crevices between the
stones, which let in enough light to help us see where we are."

"The young lady speaks the truth," said Worrell. "She has been in and
remembers all about it."

"How came you to find it when it is so well concealed?"

"I was hunting a bear in these mountains some two years ago and wounded
him, when he started to retreat. I followed him as fast as I could, when
he put straight for this heap of stones, and he would have got away if I
hadn't come in sight just in time to see him pull that doo