“I’ve got it” exclaimed Dan, suddenly. “I bet that’s a forge.”
“They’d want a tall chimney for a forge on account of needing a strong draft,” declared Dan. “That’s what it is.”
“But a forge in a cave?” queried his brother, doubtfully. “What for?”
“Ah! that’s another question,” returned Dan. “I don’t see that far, yet.”
But in secret Dan believed he had guessed the business of the men who had once, at least, occupied the cave, whether they were there now, or not. He said nothing to Billy about this, however.
The younger boy had stumbled into a heap of split wood. Dummy—or somebody else—had spent some time in preparing a great heap of fuel against just such a storm as this that now raged over the valley of the Colasha.
“And Dan,” whispered Billy, eagerly, “wouldn’t he have his woodpile pretty near to the door of the cave? What do you think?”
“I think you’ve got a good head on you,” returned Dan, promptly. “Let’s go careful here.”
Right at hand was a thick, low clump of bushes. The snow was heaped upon and into this brush, until it was waist high, only the tops of the bushes sticking out.
And, strangely enough, there seemed to be a narrow path, crooked as a ram’s horn, but quite plain—through the midst of this brush-clump.
“Look, there!” exclaimed the watchful Dan. “Leads right to the steep side of that rock. Come on.”
“But there’s no way of getting through that big boulder!” gasped Billy.
He stooped as he spoke and tossed the snow aside. He got below the interlocked branches of the bushes, and knelt upon the stony ground. There _was_ a sort of a tunnel under the brush. The ground was packed hard.
“By the paws of some wild animal that must have used this runway once,” whispered Dan. “It leads to his den.”
“I hope it isn’t at home,” chattered Billy.
“But there will be somebody else at home—sure! Come on—softly.”
In half a minute the two boys, Dan ahead, and both on hands and knees, had crept to the foot of the huge rock that seemed so impassable from a little distance.
Underneath the foot of the boulder, however, was a narrow passage entering the hillside. Without doubt it had once been the lair of a wild animal.
But Dan and Billy did not apprehend the appearance of any such tenant of the hollow in the hillside. It was long since any dangerous animal had been seen in the woods about Riverdale.