They hung the walls with skins of deer which
they killed in the adjacent woods, and these walls furnished many
nooks and crannies for the storing of necessities. They also,
with much hard effort, brought many loads of firewood, which Long
Jim was to use for his cooking. He built his little fireplace of
stones so near the mouth of "The Alcove" that the smoke would
pass out and be lost in the thick forest all about. If the wind
happened to be blowing toward the inside of the cave, the smoke,
of course, would come in on them all, but Jim would not be
cooking then.
Nor did their operations cease until they had supplied "The
Alcove" plentifully with food, chiefly jerked deer meat, although
there was no way in which they could store water, and for that
they had to take their chances. But their success, the product
of skill and everlasting caution, was really remarkable. Three
times they were trapped within a few miles of "The Alcove," but
the pursuers invariably went astray on the hard, rocky ground,
and the pursued would also take the precaution to swim down the
creek before climbing up to "The Alcove." Nobody could follow a
trail in the face of such difficulties.
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