The burning of the cook shack, accidental though it was, has probably been enough to frighten Fred Ripley so that he and his crowd will soon start for Gridley, if they haven't headed in that direction already." "Then suppose you and I stay here this morning," proposed Dave Darrin, "and let the other fellows get out for this morning ?" "All right," agreed Dick.
"And you'd better keep the shutters over all but one window," suggested Tom.

"You can close and fasten that one quickly, at need.

And, when you're inside the cabin, have the bar on the door and don't open, even to us, unless you recognize our voices." "Why, we'll feel as if we were living in a fort, at that rate," Dick laughed.
"One has to, in the face of an enemy," Greg asserted.

"But you can call it a blockhouse, instead of a fort, Dick, and the logs will look more in keeping." Before four of the Grammar School boys departed on a forenoon tramp all hands turned to and laid in a goodly supply of firewood and water.
In the afternoon Dick and Dave headed a party of young explorers, leaving Tom and Greg on guard at the cabin.
The day after, morning and afternoon, the Grammar School boys fished through the ice on the pond, catching enough pickerel and trout to last famished boys for two meals.
During these two days neither Mr.Fits nor the Ripley crew made an appearance.

Still, the camp was not left unguarded.