furs.

"I'm thinking," said Dick, "that you and I, Al, might turn fur
hunters." This seems to be an isolated corner of the mountains.
It may have been tapped out long ago, but when man goes away the
game comes back. We've got a comfortable house, and, with this
as a basis, we might do better hunting furs here than if we were
hunting gold in California, where the chances are always against
you.

The idea appealed to Albert, but for the present they contented
themselves with improving their house and surroundings. Other
bears, cougars, and wolves came at night and prowled around the
Annex, but it was secure against them all, and Dick and Albert
never troubled themselves again to keep awake and watch for such
intruders.

Winter now advanced and it was very cold, but, to Dick's great
relief, no snow came. It was on Albert's account that he wished
air and earth to remain dry, and it seemed as if Nature were
doing her best to help the boy's recovery. The cough did not
come again, he had no more spells of great exhaustion, the
physical uplift became mental also, and his spirits, because of
the rebound, fairly bubbled. He was full of ideas, continually
making experiments, and had great plans in regard to the valley
and Castle Howard, as he sometimes playfully called their cabin.

One of the things that pleased Albert most was his diversion of
water from a hot spring about fifty yards from the cabin and
higher up the ravine. He dug a trench all the way from the pool
to the house, and the hot water came bubbling down to their very
door. It cooled, of course, a little on the way, but it was
still warm enough for cooking purposes, and Albert was hugely
delighted.

"Hot water! Cold water! Whatever you wish, Dick," he said;
"just turn on the tap. If my inventive faculty keeps on growing,
I'll soon have a shower bath, hot and cold, rigged up here."

"It won't grow enough for that," said Dick; "but I want to tell
you, Al, that the big game in the valley is increasing at a
remarkable rate. Although cold, it's been a very open winter so
far, but I suppose the instinct of these animals warns them to
seek a sheltered place in time."

"Instinct or the habit of endless generations," said Albert.

"Which may be the same thing," rejoined Dick.

"There's a whole herd of elk beyond the far end of the lake, I've
noticed on the cliffs what I take to be mountain sheep, and
thirty or forty buffalos at least must be ranging