“Well, we can go on along the snow until we angle into the ice and rock under that high barren hill in front of us. They’ll think we climbed the hill, and will go on to pick up our tracks in the next patch of snow. There’s where we’ll fool them. We’ll double on our trail where we can’t leave any footprints, and hide somewhere until they give up hunting for us.”
“Sounds pretty good to me,” replied Sandy. “Let’s mush!”
Quickly, then, the boys carried their plan into execution. They ran on to the point where the snow gave way to barren rock and ice, swept clean by high winds. Here they removed their snowshoes and turned almost squarely about. Running lightly across the stones and ice, they covered about a quarter of a mile on the back trail leaving no tracks to show where they had gone. Then they began looking for a hiding place.
It was Dick who spied a hole under the shelf of a cut bank, which led back under ground. There were no signs that the cavern had been inhabited recently by any wild animals, and after calling Sandy to his side, Dick got on hands and knees and crawled into the dark passage.
The hole grew larger as the boys traversed it, and finally they were able to run along at a crouch.
Presently Dick stopped Sandy. “We’d better not go too far,” he cautioned. “Why not go back to a point where the hole is smaller and block it up with stones and ice? Then if they happen to discover the entrance to this cave they’ll run into where we’ve plugged it up and they’ll think that is the end of the cave.”
Sandy agreed that this was an excellent idea and they hurried back to carry it out. Ten minutes later, feeling much more secure with the barrier thrown up in the small end of the passage, the boys decided to follow the underground corridor to its end or to a point where it branched off into a larger cave.
As they advanced, the passage rapidly grew lighter, until finally they came out into broad daylight. Looking around, they saw they had reached a sort of amphitheater formed by walls of ice-covered stone about fifty feet in height. The floor of the place was about a hundred feet in diameter, but what set the hearts of the boys to pounding frantically, was the fact that a man sat with his back to the wall not fifteen yards away, and a little further on, lying with his face against the side of a broken dog sledge, was another man.
Were they friend or foe? The boys did not know. Something in the very stillness of the two figures boded no good. But they were between two fires, and they must take a chance.
“Hello, there,” called Dick, boldly.