“Not till the ghost is laid, I suppose, Jerry,” remarked Frank.

Jerry walked along at his side, still grumbling as if he had a difficult matter to solve and could hardly make up his mind.

Thus they came to the spot where the late catastrophe had taken place.  The hole gaped at them in the trail.

“Say, this is a dangerous thing to leave uncovered.  Some one else might fall in, perhaps one of that lumberman’s kids if they happened to be playing hereabouts,” remarked Frank, as they paused to look down once more into the dark depths.

“I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to slip over that edge.  My! but it was a queer sensation I had when falling.  Let’s cover the hole up again,” remarked Jerry.

“If we can find the planks it would be a good idea,” echoed Will.

They started a search immediately.  When Andy and his followers had removed this cover, to substitute the frail one of slender sticks, quilted with dead leaves and a scattering of soil to deceive the eye, they could not have taken the boards far away.

“I’m dead sure they ain’t in the hole,” observed Jerry, as they hunted.

“Lucky for you they were not, as you might have broken a leg in striking hard planks instead of soft soil,” remarked Frank.

“Here they are, boys!” sang out Will just then.

It took but a short time for them to carry the heavy planks back to the place, and cover up the hole the crazy gold-hunter had dug so many; years ago.

“Hope those sillies won’t think to steal them off again.  They might trap one of that lumberman’s kids, and then the penitentiary for theirs, for sure,” said Jerry, as he made sure the cover was secure on all sides.

“I rather think they’ve had a lesson this time, and won’t be in any hurry to repeat the dose,” laughed Frank; “come along boys.”

Somehow Jerry seemed to lag behind the others.

“What’s the matter with him?” asked Will, turning his thumb backward over his shoulder.

“Perhaps conscience is at work.  Jerry has queer freaks, you know.  Wait and see what develops,” answered Frank, mysteriously, and, although his companion tried to get him to say more he absolutely declined.

It was a short time after this that they heard the boom of a gun.

“Hunters abroad, somewhere around.  There goes a second, yes and a third.  Game must be plenty where they are,” remarked Will.

Frank did not reply, but the other saw that he was smiling as if his thoughts might be pleasant just then.

“I just bet he’s thinking of my sister Violet,” was what passed through the mind of the boy; but for once he was wrong.

They finally arrived at a point not a quarter of a mile from camp.  Frank turned to see if Jerry was coming along, for he had not heard a sound from him.

“How about that venison you insisted on carrying?  I hope you didn’t leave it in that miserable pit, now, for I was calculating on having a feast for supper?” he asked, seeing that Jerry still plodded along close by.