recognize the
one of their number whose home was in Hollyhill or another who had
been a frequent visitor there, the eight boys hastened to a corner
half a square away from the depot and boarded a street car that was
waiting for the time to start from this terminal point. The car
started almost immediately after they had seated themselves, moving in
a southwesterly direction through the business section of the city and
then directly west toward High Peak, passing along the northern border
of the mining colony and then making a curve to the north through a
more prosperous residence district.

The eight boys all wore Scout uniforms. They were the full membership
of one Spring Lake patrol, the leader of which was Ernest Hunter,
whose home was in Hollyhill, and who had invited all the Scouts of his
patrol to be his guests during the holidays. This invitation followed
the receipt of information that Marion Stanlock had invited the
members of her Camp Fire to spend the Christmas holidays with her.

Ernest Hunter was well prepared to entertain his guests in real scout
fashion. His parents' home was not large enough to afford sleeping
quarters and other ordinary conveniences for seven visitors in
addition to the regular personnel of the family, but the boy had taken
care of this deficiency long before he had ever dreamed that it might
occur. The Hunter home included a large tract of land running clear up
to the foot of the mountain, which, at this point, was rocky and
covered with a plentiful growth of white pine, hemlock and black
spruce. Hidden behind an irregular heap of boulders and a small timber
foreground was a cave, formed by nature and nature's anarchistic
elements, that could not fail to delight the most fastidious
wonder-seeker. The entrance was about the size of an ordinary doorway,
flanked by twin boulders like columns for an arched shelter. Within
was a large room with fairly smooth walls and ceiling of Silurian rock
and sandstone.

The cave as it now appeared would hardly have been recognized by its
aboriginal frequenters. It had been converted into a place of civil
abode or resort, retaining only enough of its pristine wildness for
romantic effect. Ernie Hunter had done his work well. He had provided
for heat for the cave by running a galvanized stovepipe up through a
crevice in the rocks and filling with stones and cement all the
surrounding vents to guard against the draining in of water from the
mountain