A great deal of satisfaction and joy had come into Glen Mason's life in the last few days. He felt it in the companionship of Apple and Chick-chick as they marched up Buffalo Mound together that night, carrying their firewood and blankets for the bivouac. There was a new bond of fellowship between them, a bond which Glen would have found it quite impossible to state in words but which was none the less genuine and fixed. The little service at the camp-fire meant more to him than anything he had ever experienced; he had really started his journey, he was definitely lined up with God's people, he had enlisted for actual service. In the few quiet minutes while he lay wrapped in his blanket waiting for sleep to come, and meanwhile looking up at the starry vault which seemed to him to represent God's heaven, he experienced the greatest peace that had ever come into his life.
Only hardened campaigners and boys can sleep the dreamless sleep of nature next to mother earth, with no soft mattress to pad the irregular outlines of bony prominences, and even boys are apt to waken earlier than common. So it is no wonder that daybreak found Glen and Apple glad to shake themselves free from their blankets and climb the few feet necessary to get the best of the justly celebrated view from Buffalo Mound. Miles and miles over the flat prairie country could they see in the clear morning air, and with the assistance of Mr. Newton's field glass they could draw far away objects very near to their field of vision. It was interesting to see the little towns, each with its two or three church spires, its one or two large buildings and its collection of dwellings; to see eight towns in six different counties from the same spot was an exciting experience for these boys.
But they did not get their real excitement until they turned their glass down the west side of the Mound, and there came in the range of their vision an Indian engaged in some mysterious occupation on the bank of Buffalo Creek.
"He's at the Ice Box," declared Apple. "Now what do you suppose that Indian's doing? Look at him dive."
"How can he stay under so long?" asked Glen, after they had watched two or three minutes without seeing a head appear.
"I can't tell you. Maybe he swam under water and has come up in some other place that we can't see."
But fully ten minutes later, while they still watched in great curiosity, his head came into sight at about the place where he had dived in, and a moment later they saw him draw his glistening body out of the water.
"Where's he been?" said Apple. "He hasn't been under water all that time."
"But neither did he come up anywhere that I could see," said Glen. "I know what's happened," he added in an excited tone. "He's been in the cave."
"I believe you," said Apple. "We guessed right. Ice Box and Deep Springs mean the same place. I don't know about any Twin Elms but that cave is there, at the Ice Box. I don't know why we never saw it, unless because it's on the far bank and we always looked this side."