A trapper named Sam Baker, had entered a cabin several miles from the town of Big Elk, and had stumbled over an old carpet that was hiding a trapdoor in the floor. Thinking it must be a cellar, he opened the trapdoor and saw narrow wooden stairs leading into the gloom below, so went to fetch a candle, and then descended the stairs into a big cellar where he stood looking wide-eyed at what was before him.