. Upton poked
a sleepy face out from his bunk.

"What you fellers doing?" he demanded.

Pat grinned. "Getting dinner. Will you have some or will you wait for
supper?"

Walter felt for his watch and looked at it. Then he tumbled out in a
hurry. "Hey, you fellows!" he yelled. "Are you going to sleep all day?
It's eleven o'clock and Alec is cooking dinner. We've missed breakfast
and----"

"My tummy, oh, my tummy!"

murmured a sleepy voice from the opposite bunk. "What you giving us? It
isn't morning yet." Hal thrust out a tousled head and blinked stupidly.

"It isn't to-morrow morning, but it will be this afternoon in about an
hour," laughed Pat. "'Tis the way they do in Noo Yor-r-k, turn day into
night," he explained to Alec.

"No such thing!" protested Hal indignantly. "It isn't more'n daylight
now."

There was some foundation in fact for Hal's statement, for the little
cabin, but dimly lighted at best, was even at this late hour in a semi
twilight, due to the snow that partly covered the windows; the effect
was very much that of daybreak. The odor of frying bacon, however, was a
potent inducement to get up, and by the time dinner was ready the boys
were ready for it. There was considerable good-natured joshing over
their ability to sleep and Pat warned them that if they repeated the
performance they would be taken out and dropped in a snow-bank. It had
been a good thing for them, however, just what they needed after their
strenuous experience of the previous day, and beyond some stiffness
they confessed that they never had felt better in their lives.

"What are we going to do this afternoon--start scouting for those
thieves?" Hal asked as he wiped the dishes.

Pat laughed. "Not so that you'd notice it, me bye. We're going to stay
right here. The storm's not over yet, and if it keeps on I'm thinking
we'll be buried completely. However, it looks to me as if it will break
away shortly, and then you'll have a chance to show what good little
diggers they raise in Noo Yor-r-k."

"And in the meantime?"

"We'll enjoy all the comforts av home." Pat yawned and stretched.

"Which means, I suppose, that we'll sit around and play Simon says
thumbs up, or something like that, all the afternoon," laughed Hal.

"Perhaps ye'd like to sleep some more," suggested Alec slyly.

"And perhaps you've got another guess coming," retorted Hal. "What's
that thing you're whittling on?"

"A stretching board for marten," repl