The boys walked around the ruin several times and lifted up a few of the half-burnt logs. It was easy to see that the cabin was a total wreck. Snap heaved a mountainous sigh and so did the others.
"We'll have to clear all this stuff away and build a brand new cabin," said Shep. "All these old logs are good for is firewood."
"That is true, Shep," answered Snap. "What I am thinking of is, what are we to do to-night? We can't stay out in the open air. It is growing colder every minute."
"Well, I am not going home," came quickly from Giant. "I'd rather freeze!"
"Who said anything about going home?" demanded Whopper. "Why, I wouldn't go home in a thousand years, cabin or no cabin. We can rig up some sort of shelter of pine boughs and then build another cabin."
"I know a dandy spot for another cabin," said Snap. "Don't you remember I mentioned it to you, Shep, last summer? The spot where the young trees stood so close together in a circle?"
"Just the place," answered the doctor's son.
Standing around was cold work and the young hunters lost no time in cutting some dry brushwood and building a fire, on which they placed several of the half-burnt logs. It was now the middle of the afternoon and they knew they must work vigorously if they wanted any sort of a suitable shelter against the cold before nightfall.
The spot Snap had mentioned was less than two hundred feet up the lake front. Here, behind some bushes which would keep off considerable wind, was an almost perfect circle of trees, the diameter inside being about fifteen feet. The trees were mostly young and not very tall and the lower branches were not over ten feet from the ground on an average.
"We can cut off the tops of the trees and then bind in some of the branches for a roof," said Snap. "Over those branches we can bind others, with strips of bark between. We can cut the trees higher on one side of the circle than on the other, so the snow and rain can run off. Then we can bind in brushwood and bark for the sides, between the trees, leaving one spot open for a rough sort of chimney, which we'll have to build up of flat rocks. It won't make as nice a cabin as the other was, but it is the best we can do in this wintry weather, and I think, with a good fire going, we can make it fairly comfortable inside."