“I’m going to bring seven boys home with me.  We are going to spend the vacation in the mountains, with the cave as headquarters.  Will you have the stove hauled there and set up and keep a fire in it a good deal of the time to dry the place out thoroughly?  We will come to Hollyhill on an early train, so as to have plenty of time to haul the mattresses and other outfittings to the cave and get it ready for habitation.  We will all have guns and will have some great times shooting game.  Of course, you will be in on all this.”

Paul did as requested.  When the patrol arrived at the Hunter home, he reported to his brother that the latter’s instructions had been carried out and all was in readiness for the removal of the outing outfit from the storeroom over the garage to the cave.  Everything but the mattresses were piled into Mr. Hunter’s seven-passenger touring car, the eight boys piled in on top and the first run to their holiday headquarters was made.

As the machine drove up toward the mouth of the cave, the boys were startled at seeing two rough looking men emerge from the entrance and slink away to the south, half hidden by the unevenness of the ground and the thick shrubbery.  Their hurried movements and evident desire to avoid meeting the boys marked them as suspicious characters.  Fearing that they might have committed some malicious act to render the place uninhabitable, Ernie hastened toward the cave, followed by the other boys, to make an inspection.

Before entering, however, Ernie, who was the patrol leader, asked four of the boys to return and watch the automobile.  Division of the patrol with this in view was quickly arranged, and Ernie, Clifford Long, Harry, Gilbert, and Jerry McCracken proceeded into the cave.

The entrance of the cave was protected against the cold by a heavy blanket hung over a pole anchored at either end in the rocky side at the top.  Pushing aside this wilderness portiere, the four investigators stepped in, lighting their way with two or three electric flash lights.

They were relieved to discover that no damage had been done to the cave or to the stove set up within.  After satisfying themselves on this score they proceeded to replenish the 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.