dropped but a few feet and landed unhurt in absolute darkness.  
“Thought you’d drop in.”
 
It was Bob’s voice and the next moment Bob’s arm was about his shoulder.
 
“Keep still now and they may go past us,” he whispered.
 
“But suppose they drop in too?”
 
“I think they are too far to the right. Listen.”
 
The sound of their pursuers could be plainly heard now as they pushed their way rapidly through the woods.
 
“I tink we geet ’em plenty queek, now,” they heard one say.
 
“Oui, they only leetle distance off,” another answered.
 
“You bet we mak’ short work dis time we geet em.”
 
But their voices were growing fainter and soon died out all together.
 
Bob gave a big sigh of relief.
 
“Talk about luck,” he said. “Whoever dug this bear pit and covered it over so slick certainly did us a good turn.”
 
“He sure did. They’d have had us by this time.”
 
“We’d better stay right where we are for awhile. When they find out that we aren’t ahead they may come back.”
 
He was correct in his for inside of a half hour they heard them returning.
 
“Here they come,” he whispered. “Keep perfectly still and perhaps they won’t find us.”
 
Then men were now talking rapidly in French and they could only catch a word here and there, but they got enough to understand that they were puzzled to know what had become of them.
 
“Don’t move,” Bob whispered. “They are pretty close.”
 
For a half hour they could hear the men beating the woods all about them but their luck held and finally they must have given up the search for all was quiet. They waited another half hour to be sure that they were not coming back then Bob said:
 
“Now the question is are we going to be able to get out of here.”
 
It was pitch dark in the pit, the covering having sprung back into place as soon as they had dropped through. By feeling about they found that it was nearly circular and about eight feet in diameter, with walls.
 
“How deep should you say this pit is,” Bob asked. “Not far from eight feet, I should judge.”
 
“Just my estimate. Now, you’d better get up on my shoulders and see if you can climb out.”
 
But the pit was a little deeper than they had thought, and on his brother’s shoulders, Jack found that he could barely touch the covering with the tips of his fingers.
 
“No go that way,” he announced as he jumped down.
 
“Then I’m afraid we’re in a .”
 
“Where’s your flash?”
 
“Lost it yesterday morning. It must have fallen out of my pocket. Got yours?”
 
“I have it all right but the battery’s played out. It must have been a punk cell that fellow gave me for it hasn’t been used but a little. Wait till I see him again.”
 
“If you ever do,” Bob said and then quickly added, “I didn’t mean to say that. We’ve been in worse fixes than this and came out all right.”
 
“Yep, but I don’t recall any of them just now,” and Bob noticed a note of despair in his brother’s voice.
 
“How are you for matches?” he asked.
 
“Got a box about half full.”
 
“Suppose you light one and we’ll take a look. I used the last one I had the other night.”
 
Jack struck the match and as the light up they looked eagerly about them but the sight was not encouraging. Beside themselves there was absolutely nothing in the pit.
 
“Doesn’t seem to be much here to work with,” Jack said gloomily as the match died out “Not a whole lot that’s a fact.”
 
“Suppose we can dig toe holds in the side?”
 
“I’m afraid it’s too soft but we can try it.”
 
Bob’s surmise was correct. They had no difficulty in digging in the sides of the wall with their knives but the earth was so soft that it away as soon as they tried to step in them.
 
“Failure number two,” Bob tried to make his voice as cheerful as he could but feared that he was not very successful.
 
“How about the third?”
 
“The third is going to be slow but I believe it will be sure. You said that you could just touch the top didn’t you?”
 
“Yep, just brushed it.”
 
“All right then. Now all we’ve got to do is to take our spoons and dig into the wall till we get a a foot or more high, then I guess you can make it.”
 
“Brains do come in handy once in a while for a fact,” Jack declared much more cheerfully.
 
They lost no time but went about the task at once. To their great satisfaction they found that the work went much faster than they had thought it would. The wall was of soft dirt, and with the strong spoons they could scrape it down with little difficulty. Every few minutes they would stop and heap the dirt up in a mound against the side of the pit and pat it down with their feet. It was just damp enough to pack well and in a little less than two hours Bob declared that he believed they had a pile high enough.
 
“If it’ll only hold,” he said as he tested it with his weight while Jack struck a match and held it close.
 
“It’s none too solid,” he announced. “But mebby she’ll do.”
 
He got to his brother’s shoulder’s while he stood to one side of the mound.
 
“Go easy now,” he cautioned as Bob stepped forward.
 
“Easy it is.”
 
But for their hopes. The added weight of Jack was to much for the mound of dirt and it gave away just as his fingers reached the covering.
 
“I was afraid it wasn’t strong enough,” Bob said as Jack again jumped from his shoulders.
 
“And your fears were well founded, worse luck,” Jack .
 
“Well, no use in crying over spilt milk or dirt either for that matter. We’ll have to dig more down and build it stronger that’s all.”
 
So they worked for another hour when Jack declared that they must have about enough dirt to fill the pit with.
 
“If we keep on much longer we can build a mound clear to the top,” he declared.
 
This time they took more pains in packing the earth good and solid and it held. Jack found that his head just hit the covering when he stood on Bob’s shoulders. Leaning his back against the wall he reached up with his hands and started to make an opening. This proved easy as the top was spanned with long poles which in turn were covered with on which was laid a covering of dirt and leaves. Quickly he pulled aside some of the boughs letting in a flood of light.
 
“Steady now,” he called. “I’m going up.” Grasping hold of two of the poles he had little trouble in raising himself through the opening and a moment later was on the ground.
 
“Just a minute now till I find a pole for you to climb up on,” he called back.
 
In a few minutes he had found what he wanted in the shape of a small fallen pine a............