After putting the roof timbers on our dugout we placed the stove in its corner, put on the extra joints of pipe provided for the purpose, extending it up through an opening in the slabs, and plastered a lot of mud around the pipe to prevent it setting fire to the timbers. Then spreading buffalo-hides over the timbers, we heaped up the earth on it, as we had on the other one, and our winter residence was ready for its furniture and tenants.
Our ten-foot-square room was rather cramped quarters to hold us and all that we had designed to put in it, and we found it necessary still to use the tent to store such of our plunder as would not need protection from the cold.
Without giving any reason, Tom insisted on moving the tent up as close against the rear side of the pile of dirt that constituted the roof of our dugout as we could get it. I suspected then that this was one of his strategic plans, and a few days later my surmise was verified when we found him at work digging a tunnel from the dugout room to the centre of the tent. By this underground connection we could go from one place to the other without being exposed and, if necessary, could use the tent as a lookout station.
On the evening that we moved into the dugout, as we sat down to our first meal in winter quarters, Tom remarked with evident satisfaction:
"Now, men, we've got things in shape so that we're ready for a cold snap, snow-storm, or norther ef one chances to come this way. From now on we can take it easier. There will be a lot of trimming an' tidying up to do about camp yet for several days, an' while I'm putting on the finishing touches you two can light out and go to poisoning wolves an' trapping beaver or hunting any other game that you can find. You ought to explore the neighborhood for ten or twelve miles around in every direction. It's about time, too, for one of us to take a trip over to the fort to get our mail an' find out what's going on in the world."
"Well, Tom, what are the orders for to-morrow?" said I.
"Why, you an' Jack had better go out an' kill a few more buffalo for baits an' Jack can set his traps for some more beaver. You might both of you ride up or down the creek for a few miles now and then, to learn the country like an' maybe pick up an antelope or some wild geese or ducks, to make a change in our bill of fare. An' about to-morrow or next day or the day after, when I get things pretty well shaped up about camp, I think I'll ride over to the fort an' get our mail an' see what's going on in the United States."
"In a little while," remarked Jack, "if our luck holds out, we'll be gettin' a big lot of wolfskins dried. How are we going to stow 'em away to take care of 'em till spring?"
"Well," replied Tom, "in a few days I'll rig up a lever to press 'em with, an' then as fast as we get a hundred or so dried we'll put fifty of 'em in a pile, press 'em down tight, an' tie 'em in bales with rawhide strips an' then store the bales away in the tent."