56 WILD BROTHER 
close to the door of the cave. If the fire should 
come, it would take them only a few minutes, they 
said, to stock and provision their place of refuge. 
To be sure, the log cabin would go, but they would 
be safe; in a few hours the fire would spend itself 
and pass on. 
It seemed foolhardy for anyone to take such 
chances, but there was money to be made by the 
cutting and getting out of cedar trees. A good stand 
of this timber grew close by, and cedar is valuable 
for railroad ties and telegraph poles. Only three 
men were now at the camp. The rest of the crew 
had left when the river-driving was over. 
Bruno was an active member of the Weldon fam- 
ily. He could climb like a squirrel, and if the tree 
were hollow, he liked to crawl inside and from a hole 
watch his comrades at their games, as if he were 
playing hide and seek with them. Another one of 
his favorite pastimes was trying to help when the 
cook was splitting kindling wood, though Mr. 
Weldon considered him more of a hindrance than 
a help, for Bruno would rush in from behind and 
try to pull away a piece of wood that was being 
split, and sometimes was in great danger of losing 
his paws, for the axe was sharp. He loved to pick 
up the small pieces as they fell from the chopping- 
block. Holding them in his mouth, he would 
prance about like a puppy, chasing up and down 
