he fire, by putting in several
cuts of spruce, a good supply of which had been provided by Ernie's
brother. The cave was still warm and had been well dried out by the
steady fire kept up by Paul for two or three days.

The entire patrol now reassembled and mapped out a plan for completing
their day's work. It was decided that Ernie should return in the
automobile to his home a mile and a half away and bring the mattresses
and a supply of food that was being prepared for them at the house,
while the others took upon themselves the task of cutting a supply of
brushwood to lay on the floor of the cave as a kind of spring support
for the mattresses. Accordingly Ernie got into the machine and drove
away, while the other boys got busy with the task assigned to them.

The patrol leader returned, in less than an hour, accompanied by Paul
and a farm hand employed by Mr. Hunter. They brought with them not
only four mattresses, but the shotguns and rifles shipped by the boys
from the academy for their mid-winter hunting. Ernie announced that
their trunks and valises also had arrived and that George, the farm
hand, would return for them in the automobile.

The work progressed rapidly and by the time the trunks and valises
arrived the mattresses were all in position, the food and cooking
utensils were stored away in the narrowest compass of space that could
be arranged for them and a large pile of resinous wood had been
gathered.

It was now 4 o'clock and the boys felt that they were entitled to a
rest. A large boulder with a flat end two and a half feet in diameter
was rolled into the cave and propped into position, with slabs of
stone for a table. On this was placed a large kerosene lamp, which,
when burning, lighted up the cave very well. A supply of camp chairs
had been brought with the first load, so that everybody had a seat.

"I call this something swell, from the point of view of a smart rustic
who hasn't absorbed any city nonsense," observed Miles Berryman,
seating himself comfortably in a chair and gazing about with great
satisfaction. "I think, Ernie, that we must all agree that you are a
very wide-awake opportunist."

"Is that the kind of musician who plays an opportune at every
opportunity?" inquired John St. John in a tone of gravity as deep as
the cavern in which they were housed.

"Now, see here, Johnnie Two Times," exclaimed Miles portentously: "you
know what we came near doing to you six months ago for spri