"Ah, I thought so—now I have it!" murmured Polly, finding a nest of leaves and soft feathers packed down with bits of fur and dry grass.
"What have you found?" eagerly asked three voices.
"The lair of a grizzly. I've got him!" cried Polly, triumphantly.
Instantly, three girls screamed and turned to run, and Polly laughed.
"I've got him on the outside, girls! He can't get in with that fire smoking his front doorway, you see." "Oh, hurry back and pile more wood on the fire!" cried Eleanor, quaking with fear.
"Yes, yes, Polly! Come away and let's build more fires!" added Barbara, not knowing which one of the girls to hide behind, and looking at the horses as if pondering a refuge with them.
"What! And use all of our 'safety first' before dawn! If you waste the wood now, what will you do when old grizzly comes prowling home and finds your fires dying down?" said Polly.
"Well, do have one of us go and tend the fire carefully so it can't possibly die down and let him in!" added Anne.
"We are almost through exploring, so we may as well finish! Then we will all go and have supper and feed the animals."
The remainder of the cave proved to be a rocky wall gradually sloping down until it reached the entrance again. But, just at one side of the "thumb" was an aperture from which the wind blew in, as could be seen when Polly held her torch down to the opening.