OUR CAMP ON WALNUT CREEK 



ging our dugout; but, as our winter quarters were 

 to be only about half the size of the stable, we 

 soon had the new excavation finished. 



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 plas- 

 tered a lot of mud around the pipe to prevent it 

 setting fire to the timbers. Then spreading buf- 

 falo-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, 



147 



