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"Building an inlet of air for the fire. In a closed-up cave the fire won't last without air. So, we build a small tunnel, cover it, and build the fire."
"That's ingenious." Frank remarked. "You figure that out by yourself?"
"Not hardly." Aiden laughed. "The Frenchman that raised me, taught me. He was in the wars, way before our time and he learned from the other soldiers, said one was a ships mate and one was a builder of some kind. They taught him all kinds of tricks to stay alive."
"Glad he passed them on to you," Frank smiled.
"Yeah," Aiden chuckled. "See if you can break some of those left-over rocks on that big rock over there against the wall. We'll need them to cover the tunnel with. We don't want to smother it, just keep it so it's headed for the fire."
"Alright," Frank seemed almost eager now to help. He gathered several bigger rocks and went to the stone and pounded them into small pieces, then carried them to Aiden. "This what you need?"
"That's great. You can place them over this little tunnel, very gently, and everyone be careful not to stumble over them."
Frank did as he asked. It took a while to cover the entire small tunnel but as Angus built the fire, it seemed to work.
"Good." Aiden smiled.
"Now what?" Frank asked.
"There's an opening up there, we need to reinforce it, with mud and stick and bit of rock, so it stays open and the melt doesn't put the fire out."
"How do we do that?"
"Go to the entrance and dig on the other side of the entrance, bring me as much mud as you can put in that old worn out hat laying over in the corner on top of that barrel. Then we'll use sticks from that big branch that Angus brought to make a mud cover for it. We'll pack it in hard and it should hold while we are here."
"It's a lot of work, isn't it?" Gloria noticed watching them work steadily.
"Yes, but then the smoke will go out, and the air will come in, and we can keep a fire going. Otherwise it would go out and we'd eventually freeze or be frostbitten by the time we get out of here."
"I wish I knew that Frenchman you talk about, so I could thank him for his knowledge." Frank smiled. "I'm glad you are here with us, I wouldn't know what to do. But I guess I'm learning." Frank told him.
"We all are." Aiden grinned.
Frank gathered the mud and brought it over to Aiden who was going to stand on Angus' shoulders to doctor the outlet in the top of the cave. Angus was a big man and he held Aiden without a bit of trouble. Aiden was tall enough to reach the opening, and he pasted the sticks together with the smaller rocks on the walls of the opening. Aiden patched the sides of the hole the best he could, and he could smell the smoke as he stood on Angus shoulders. He started coughing and got down quickly.
When he came down, he was satisfied with his work.
With that taken care of Aiden felt more confident of surviving in the cave for a few days.
Gloria was just now getting back to life. She'd been so wrapped up in her grief, she wasn't functioning, but with her husband being so understanding of her feelings, she began to relax, and she'd obviously put the experience with Peggy behind her for a while. She seemed proud that Frank could help in the work too.
The cave was big, and it showed signs of other humans camping here before them too. There were a couple old barrels looked like rain barrels to the back, a leftover blanket that was more dust than blanket, a long-ago campfire too and a hat.
Aiden had gone out to check on the horses, the snow was coming down faster now and the temperature was dropping. The horses couldn't stay out in this. He'd have to make a place for them.
The girls were just beginning to make a little camp, setting saddles down and blankets for everyone sit on, when out of the back of the cave came a huge black bear. No one expected a bear to come stumbling out at them. He looked very much as though he just woke from a long sleep. The bear seemed to take note of who was there, then roared loudly, as he raised himself on his hind legs. Gloria and Frank shrieked and leaned against the wall of the cave. Their faces mirrored the horror, sweat ran down Franks face, as fear held him still. Pumpkin backed away but handed Angus his rifle. Angus didn't hesitate to take his rifle and with three shots fell the bear. Pumpkin hadn't been afraid at all. She knew Angus would kill him.
Lucy grabbed the other rifle, but it had no bullets. Still she could fight it off with it, if Angus missed.
Aiden heard the shots and came running. He saw the bear at Angus feet. Angus had killed him only a few feet from his body. He hadn't wavered though, and knew he'd take him down.
Lack of fear, good aim and a trusted gun was all that was needed.
Pumpkin was already dressing him out. Lucy helped her.
"Looks like we've had a visitor." Aiden chuckled.
"A very unwelcome one," Gloria muttered.
