"Here! Use this to amuse yourself with while _we work!"_ said
Eleanor, taking a neatly folded handkerchief from her coat pocket.
When Eleanor turned again to the others, she found Anne had unharnessed
the burros and piled the saddles upon a stone projection near the
opening of the cave.
There were numerous little finger-like caves that branched out from the
main cave, but they led nowhere and seemed empty. Polly noticed that
the dry leaves and loose shale scattered about appeared to have been
undisturbed for months. Some of the leaves were from the harvest of the
previous fall, so she felt sure no beast had prowled about the
"fingers."
Coming to a much larger extension than any of the others had been,
Polly called out: "This must be the thumb of the hand!"
"Sure it isn't the arm!" laughed Eleanor.
"Ah, I thought so--now I have it!" murmured Polly, finding a nest of
leaves and soft feathers packed down with bits of fur and dry grass.
"What have you found?" eagerly asked three voices.
"The lair of a grizzly. I've got him!" cried Polly, triumphantly.
Instantly, three girls screamed and turned to run, and Polly laughed.
"I've got him on the _outside,_ girls! He can't get in with that
fire smoking his front doorway, you see." "Oh, hurry back and pile more
wood on the fire!" cried Eleanor, quaking with fear.
"Yes, yes, Polly! Come away and let's build more fires!" added Barbara,
not knowing which one of the girls to hide behind, and looking at the
horses as if pondering a refuge with them.
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