He resolved, therefore, that instead of throwing the boots away, he would hide them so securely that no one else could possibly find them.

"Then," thought he, "if the worst comes to the worst I can find 'em, and still stick to it that I didn't take 'em away." An opening in the pile of drift-wood just at hand, was suggestive, and Jake crept into it passing under a great log that lay lengthwise just over the entrance.

The passage way through the drift was a very narrow one but it did not come to an end at the end of the great log as Jake had expected, and he felt his way further.

The passage turned and twisted about, but he went on, dark as it was.
After a while he found himself in a sort of chamber under one of the great trees, and inside the line of its great twisted roots.

He did not know where he was, however, but Sam or Tom or Joe could have told him all about the place.
[Footnote 1: The Big Brother, published by G.P.