Dick took it and crawled a few feet into the hole.
"There's water all along on the floor here," he called, "but just a dribble. Come in here and you'll find that you can stand up."
It needed no urging to induce the other boys to follow. Then they stood up, in almost complete darkness, save when the flashlight showed them their surroundings.
Some parts of the cave rose to a height of perhaps sixteen feet. Twelve feet was about the average height. From what the boys could see as they moved along, the cave extended for some sixty feet.
"I don't believe there's anyone in here except ourselves," muttered Darry in disgust, peering all around him. "In that case, we are wasting our time in this cave. Phew! How cold it is in here!"
"And well it might be," laughed Dick. "Do you see that mass just ahead of us?"
"What is it?" asked Dan. "Flash the light on it."
"Come over and look at it," Dick went on. "No one could live in this cold place. It is chilling me to the bone, just to stand here. And now you see why that little trickle of water keeps moving out through the mouth of the cave. Fellows, we're in one of nature's icehouses."
"But we're not after ice," Dave protested.
"We won't turn down ice in the wilderness, when we can find it in July," Dick rejoined.