Page:The Secret of the Caves.djvu/93

"I wonder who on earth piled it in here?" remarked Biff.

Chet shrugged.

"Why worry about that? The main thing is that some thoughtful soul has been kind enough to put it here, and we're the boys who are going to use it. Where shall we light the fire, Frank?"

"Right here, I guess. This is far enough back from the entrance so that we won't have to worry about the rain beating in. It's certainly queer how that wood comes to be here, though."

"Probably the mysterious chaps who are doing all the yelling and shooting," said Biff. "We'll be out of luck if this is their cave we've stumbled on."

"It's ours now. I don't see any 'No Trespassing' signs." Frank began carrying wood over to the center of the cave. Then he set down the flashlight, took out his pocketknife, and whittled at a particularly dry stick until he had a small heap of shavings. Carefully stacking a few of the smaller sticks over the shavings and the larger sticks above, crosswise so that there were plenty of air spaces, he took a match from his waterproof case and ignited it, putting it to the shavings. They flared up brightly.

Anxiously, the boys watched the little blaze.