was indeed his plan, and it added some zest to his present
employment to think of what he meant to do next; this was nothing
less than to make a dugout in the cove.

To this enterprise he was prompted not only by a desire to vary his
monotonous days, but to insure safety from possible foes. Should
a skulking savage, or, what would be worse, a stray member of the
robber band catch sight of him among the hills, the spy would spread
the news among his fellows. A relentless search would be
instituted, and even if Willock succeeded in escaping, the band
would not rest till it had discovered his hiding-place. If they
came on the dugout, their search would terminate, and his home in
the crevice would escape investigation; but if there was no dugout
to satisfy curiosity, the crevice would most probably be explored.

"Two homes ain't too many for a character like me, nohow," remarked
Brick, as he set the wagon-tongue and long boards on end to be drawn
up through the crevice. "Cold weather will be coming on in due
time--say three or four months--and what's that to me? a mere
handful of time! Well, I don't never expect to make a fire in my
cave, I'll set my smoke out in the open where it can be traced
without danger to my pantry shelves."

He was even slower about building the dugout than he had been in
arranging the miscellaneous objects in the cavern on top of the
mountain. Transporting the timbers across a mile of ridges and
granite troughs was no light work; and when his tools and material
were in the cove, the digging of the dugout was protracted because
of the closeness of water to the surface. At last he succeeded in
excavating the cellar at a spot within a few yards of the mountain,