went to work, and four pairs of willing hands soon
caused the building to take definite shape. Seeing them at work, the
other miners also got at it, and soon there was sawing and hammering all
day long beneath the cliff.

Of necessity the cabin was a simple affair. It was set partly on the
flat rock and partly on the hard ground, and was twenty feet wide by
twelve feet deep, the back resting almost against the cliff. In the
front was a door and a window, and there was another window at the end
nearest to the door. Inside, a spare blanket divided the space into two
compartments, the first, the one having the door, being the general
living-room, and the second being the sleeping-room. In the living-room
was placed a cooking-stove, a rude table, and four home-made chairs,
while the sleeping-room was provided with four bunks, ranged along the
rear and end walls. Later on a closet was built for the
cooking-utensils, but for the present these were piled up in a corner.

Foster Portney was very particular that all the cracks in the side walls
of the cabin should be filled in with mud, and the top, which was nearly
on a level with the cliff, was also made water and wind tight, excepting
where a circular hole was left for the upper section of a stovepipe.

As soon as the cabin was in habitable shape, an account of all the
provisions on hand was taken. It was found that the canned vegetables
had run low and that they also needed more flour. A list of necessities
was made out, and Earl and his uncle started away to Dawson City to
purchase them, knowing that prices were advancing every day and that the
goods on hand at the store were liable to give out long before the
demand for them should cease.

Fred had asked to go out into the woods to see what he could shoot, he
being a fairly good shot and thoroughly familiar with the use of a gun.
It was thought best not to let him go alone, and he and Randy went
together, leaving the cabin in care of the miners who were building
close at hand.

The hunt in the woods was hardly a success. After tramping around for
two hours they brought down several birds of a species unknown to them
and one small deer, smaller than any Randy had ever seen in Maine.
Otherwise the woods were bare of game, and by the middle of the
afternoon they gave it up.

"When Earl comes back I'll ask my uncle to let the three of us go over
to the river," said Randy. "I've heard there are good chances there for
wil