left in the rocks they would have to cut a
tunnel through possibly twenty feet or more of snow.

So impatient was Jud to take a hand that he soon begged the guide to
let him have a turn at the work. Tolly Tip prowled around, and some of
the boys wondered what he could be doing until he came back presently
with great news.

"'Tis smoke I do be after smellin' beyant there!" he told them.

"Smoke!" exclaimed Bobolink, staring up the side of the white hill.
"How can that be when there isn't the first sign of a fire?"

"You don't catch on to the idea, Bobolink," explained Paul. "He means
that those in the cave must have some sort of fire going, and the
smoke finds its way out through some small crevices that lie under a
thin blanket of snow. Am I right there, Tolly Tip?"

"Ye sure hit the nail on the head, Paul," he was told by the guide.

"Well, that's good news," admitted Bobolink, with a look of relief on
his face. "If they've got enough wood to keep even a small fire going,
they won't be found frozen to death anyhow."

"And," continued Jud, who had given the shovel over to Jack, "it takes
some days to really starve a fellow, I understand. You see I've been
reading lately about the adventures of the Dr. Kane exploring company
up in the frozen Arctic regions. When it got to the worst they staved
off starvation by making soup of their boots."

"But you mustn't forget," interposed Bobolink, "that their boots were
made of skins, and not of the tough leather we use these days. I'd
like to see Hank Lawson gnawing on one of _his_ old hide shoes, that's
what! It couldn't be done, any way you fix it."

The hole grew by degrees, but very slowly. It seemed as though tons
and tons of snow must have been swept over the crest of the hill, to
settle down in every cavity it could find.

"We're getting there, all right!" declared Bobolink, after he had
taken his turn, and in turn handed over the shovel to Paul.

"Oh! the Fourth of July is coming too, never fear!" jeered Jud, who
was in a grumbling mood.

"Why, Tolly Tip here says we've made good progress already," Tom Betts
declared, merely to combat the spirit manifested by Jud, "and that
we'll soon be half-way through the pile. If it were three times as big
we'd get there in the end, because this is a never-say-die bunch of
scouts, you bet!"

"Oh! I was only fooling," chuckled Jud, feeling ashamed of his
grumbling. "Of course, we'll manage it, by hook or by crook. Show me