"Dick," called Tom, "take all of my gang except Harry. He and
I will lay the floor."
Reade and Hazelton thereupon began to carry in two-by-four timbers and lay them where they wanted them on the ground inside the tent. Next they nailed boards across. They had bought all of this timber in Gridley secondhand at a bargain.
"Dave, you and Dan can start the furnace, while Greg and I unpack supplies," suggested Prescott.
Thereupon Darrin and Danny Grin started in to move a small pile of bricks. Next a tub of mixed mortar was carried to the level spot decided upon as the place whereon to erect the "furnace."
It was not much of a stove that Dave and Dan built, yet it was fitted and destined for the preparing of many a meal in record time. First of all, Dave marked off the space to be used. Four parallel lines of bricks, each line five bricks long, were laid on the ground. Dave, with a two-foot rule, measured a distance of sixteen inches between each row. Then began some amateur brick-laying. It was not perfectly done, by any means, yet these four parallel walls of brick that were presently up afforded three "stoves" lying side by side. As soon as the mortar was reasonably dried—-and fire would help—-grates and pieces of sheet iron could be laid across the tops of the walls over the three fires. It was one of the simplest and most effective cooking devices that such a camp could have. There was even a gas-stove oven, an old one, furnished by Dick's mother.
"It makes me hungry to look at the stove," declared Danny Grin.
"It's four o'clock now, so you'll have two hours more to wait," smiled Dick, as he glanced at his watch.
Out of packing cases and some odds and ends of lumber Dick and
Greg had constructed some very fair cupboards, with doors.
"Oh, if we only had ice for use in this hot weather!" sighed Greg.
"But we haven't," returned Dick, "so what's the use of thinking of it."