“Then we’ll stay,” said Jerry. “I would like to investigate the lake a little more. We did not go very far along the shore. Perhaps there might be an outcropping of gold somewhere around this locality.”
“And maybe we will see the hermit, or the ghost, or whatever it is,” added Ned. “Let’s stay.”
“Then we ought to rig up some kind of shelter,” went on Jerry. “It may rain in the night, and it’s not the most pleasant thing in the world to sleep in a mud puddle.”
“We can build a shack of boughs,” said Bob.
And this they did. They had often done the same thing before. Branches from a pine tree, stacked up against a sapling cut to fit between the crotches of two trees, with the same sort of boughs for a roof and floor, made a very good shelter. Rubber blankets on top insured the rain being kept out, and with woolen coverings for inside, beds were made that were very comfortable.
When these preparations had been made it was growing dusk. While Bob and Ned were getting supper, and the professor was busy arranging his specimens gathered that day, Jerry removed one of the big search-lights from the auto.
“What are doing that for?” asked Bob.
“I’m going to try and find out what that white thing is,” said Jerry. “I’m going to rig up a lantern in front of the shack, facing the lake, and if the hermit or whatever it is, shows up, I’m going to flash the light on it.”
“Maybe it won’t come to-night,” suggested Bob.