A bush at the
bottom concealed the entrance of the cave, so that no one who was not in
the secret would have suspected that beneath that innocent looking knoll
were gathered the members of the "Big Bug Club."
The Big Bug Club.
[Illustration: Fig.186. A Section through the Completed Cave.]
Of course, we had to organize a secret society, to occupy our subterranean
dwelling. In that I fear we overstepped the rules of the school. Of
course, Mr. Clark knew of our cave, in fact he visited us there once,
lowering his dignity sufficiently to squeeze into the narrow passageway,
and playing Bill a game of chess at our club table. He seemed quite
pleased with our work, and complimented us very highly on the masterful
way in which we had built the underground house. We told him that we had
organized a club of the older fellows to play indoor games and have
occasional spreads, but we did not tell him that most of our spreads were
held at the dead of night, when there was no moon and the stars were
hidden by clouds. At 10 o'clock each night the bell rang for us to turn
out our lights, and after that the six members would each, in turn, keep a
half-hour watch, that is, first one would sit up and try to keep awake for
half an hour, after which he would waken the next fellow, who at the end
of a half hour would rouse the third, and so on, until 1 o'clock, when the
sixth watcher would wake up the entire club.
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