One morning, as the boys were entering the cave to go to work, they discovered that one of the cows had fallen into the cave. In trying to reconstruct what had happened, it looked as though one cow had hooked another, causing one to fall into the cave. [Illustration: Artist's sketch shows family cabins set up near cave's entrance.] The boys butchered the animal right there, carrying the cow out piece by piece. I have often wondered if Simms ever knew that we were enjoying fresh steaks from one of his herd! Often on evenings or Sundays the boys would get together and hold what they called a Kangaroo Court, thus helping to pass the time away. First, they would select one of their number to serve as judge. Then, from the group, one of the fellows would be selected for some misdeed he had committed while on the job that day. After the testimony was heard, his fellow workers, who served as an impromptu jury, would decide the verdict, which was most always "guilty," and the judge would impose the sentence, such as requiring the guilty culprit to take a small pail and a coal oil lantern and go back into the deep recesses of the cave alone and return with the pail full of water. Entertainment during the evenings varied, depending upon the mood of the men and what their particular likes and dislikes were. Card games were always popular, and a hot game of poker was the favorite with most of the men. Many times after they had finished a busy day in the Big Cave they would roll out a tarpaulin, deal out the cards, and proceed to have a gay time. More than once these games would last all night, or until one man would win all the money and the rest had no more cash to play with. Johnny Queen must have been lucky at love because he certainly wasn't lucky at cards. In practically every poker game he would soon lose all his money and would be out. On cold nights the fellows found the playing not very comfortable, and after a while they got the bright idea of asking Johnny to build a fire for them, since he was only watching anyway. This Johnny did, using sotol[C] for fuel. Sotol is a type of desert plant that grew in the area around the cave. With a warm fire to comfort them, the games would go longer than ever. [Footnote C: Sotol--a desert plant (dasylirion) having a stiff stalk and crowded leaves.] Johnny, however, couldn't understand why he should gather fuel and tend fire while they enjoyed all the fun, so he got the bright idea of charging the players a dollar. They were glad to pay. Needless to say, there were many nights when Johnny ended up with more money than most of them did! 6 The Big Cave Is Explored After the mining operation had been under way for some time I found I wasn't so busy and had a little free time to myself to sort of rest up and think of something besides getting the guano to the surface and off to the Hawaiian Fertilizer Company of San Francisco.