Now that they were safe from the storm, all of the Rovers felt in better humor. Uncle Barney showed them how they could obtain water by melting some snow and ice, and soon they had enough to make a pot of chocolate and another pot of coffee. In the meantime, the old lumberman, assisted by Jack, opened up a box of sardines fried some bacon, and also warmed up a can of green corn which had been among the stores. They had no bread, so they used up one of the boxes of soda crackers which they had purchased.
"It's too bad we haven't got some game to cook," observed Randy.
"Let's be thankful that we've got some sort of a roof over our heads, and that we can rest," put in Fred. He had not yet gotten over the struggle to get through the snow.
With nothing else to do, the boys and the old lumberman took their time over the evening meal, and never had anything tasted better than did this first supper on Snowshoe Island to the Rovers.
Outside the wind was blowing as strongly as ever, and the snow still came down steadily. To make sure that they would not suffer from the cold, all of the lads went out with Uncle Barney and brought in a large supply of firewood. Then they built up a good blaze, around which they sat in a semicircle on the sled and the boxes brought along, and on a rude bench of which the little cabin boasted.
"When I first came to Snowshoe Island, twelve years ago, I thought I would locate at this end," remarked Barney Stevenson during the course of the conversation. "But after staying here a short while I concluded that it was nicer at the upper end, so I went there."
"Did you buy the island as far back as that?" queried Jack.
"Oh, no, lad. In those days I only leased the island. You see, it belonged to an old lady named Martinson. She had a son who drifted out to California, and then went to Alaska. When the old lady died, Luke Martinson came back home, and then he came to see me. He wanted to get rid of all his property around here so he could go back to Alaska, and he offered this place to me, and I bought it. That was several years ago."
"It's nice to own an island like this," observed Fred. "A fellow can have a regular Robinson Crusoe time of it if he wants to."
"When I bought the island I thought I'd have no difficulty in holding it," continued Barney Stevenson. "But since that time I have had a whole lot of trouble. Two men claim that Luke Martinson never had any rights here—that the old Martinson claim to the island was a false one. They have tried two or three times to get me off the place, but I've refused to go."