All hands started for the cave, with Stacy Brown in the lead, full of importance. It was quite a rough climb to the scene of Stacy’s discovery, and the boy took the worst course he could find to reach it, which the others of the party suspected ere they had gone far on their way.
“Look out for bear traps!” warned Chunky. “You know I haven’t looked about much on the inside. There! Look at that, will you?” he demanded, parting the bushes and revealing a small dark opening in the rocks.
“You aren’t going into that hole, are you?” cried Emma.
“I went in, didn’t I?” returned Stacy. “I didn’t have a crowd of women with me, though.”
Hippy entered first, using his pocket lamp to light the way, followed by Stacy and Tom, then the others filed in, leaving Woo Smith on the outside to see that they were not surprised by the former occupants of the place.
Once inside, the Overlanders found that the roof of the cave was high enough to permit them to stand erect, but beyond them the darkness was so deep that they could not see the end of the hole in the mountain.
“Br-r-r! I’m afraid,” cried Emma.
“That’s because you aren’t a man,” answered Stacy. “Hulloa! There’s some stuff that I didn’t see.”
“Pullman car blankets!” exclaimed Tom Gray. “This looks as if we had made a real discovery.”
“You mean I have,” corrected Stacy.