"Up with it then," cried the doctor, seizing the snow, and lifting it
to the top of the door." Hand me those bits of stick, Harry; quick,
man, stir your stumps.--Now then, skipper, fix them in so, while I
hold this up."

The skipper lent willing and effective aid, so that in a few minutes
the snow was placed in such a position that upon the opening of the
door it must inevitably fall on the head of the first person who
should enter the room.

"So," said the skipper, "that's rigged up in what I call ship-shape
fashion."

"True," remarked the doctor, eyeing the arrangement with a look of
approval; "it will do, I think, admirably."

"Don't you think, skipper," said Harry Somerville gravely, as he
resumed his seat in front of the fire, "that it would be worth while
to make a careful and minute entry in your private log of the manner
in which it was put up, to be afterwards followed by an account of
its effect? You might write an essay on it now, and call it the
extraordinary effects of a fall of snow in latitude so and so, eh?
What think you of it?"

The skipper vouchsafed no reply, but made a significant gesture with
his fist, which caused Harry to put himself in a posture of defence.

At this moment footsteps were heard on the wooden platform in front
of the building.