CHAPTER XXI
ADRIFT IN THE STORM
"We shall freeze to death if we stay here!"
Madge Steele spoke thus, and the situation precluded any doubt as tothe truth of the statement. The six girls from Snow Camp were indeedin peril of death--and all were convinced of the fact.
Lluella Fairfax was in tears, and her chum, Belle Tingley, was onthe verge of weeping, too. Helen Cameron had hard work to keep backher own sobs; even Jennie Stone, the stout girl, was past turning thematter into a joke. And Madge Steele was unable to suggest a singlecheerful portent.
As they clung to each other in the driving snow they seemed,intuitively, to turn to Ruth Fielding. She was the youngest of thesix girls; but she was at this moment the more assertive and heldherself better under control than her mates.
It had been against her advice that they had left their temporaryshelter under the tree. Now they could not beat their way back to it.Indeed, none of them now knew the direction of the burrow that hadsheltered them for more than an hour.
What next should they do?
Although unspoken, this was the question that the five silentlyasked of the girl of the Red Mill. She had displayed her pluck andgood sense on more than one occasion, and her friends looked to herfor help. Particularly did Helen cling to her in this emergency, andalthough Ruth was secretly as terrified as any of her mates, shecould not give in to the feeling when her chum so depended upon her.
"Why, we're acting just as silly as we can act!" she cried, speakingloud so that they could all hear her. "We mustn't give up hope. Theboys, or Mr. Cameron, will find us. It can't keep on snowing forever."
"But we're freezing to death!" said Belle, and broke out sobbinglike her chum.
"Stop, you silly thing!" cried Madge, trying to shake her. But shewas really so cold herself that she could not do this. Indeed, thekeen wind would soon make movement impossible if they stood still forlong.
"Let's keep moving!" shouted Ruth. "Take hold of hands, girls--twoby two. Helen and I will go ahead. Now, Belle, you take Lluella.Madge and Heavy in the rear. Forward--march!"
"This is a regular Amazon March; isn't it?" croaked Heavy, frombehind.
"But where shall we march to?" Belle queried.
"We'll keep going until we find some shelter. That's the best we cando. Indeed, it is all we _can_ do," replied Ruth.
It was impossible to do more than drift before the gale. Ruth knewthis, and likewise she was confident that they were by no meansgetting nearer to the camp when they followed such a course. But shehoped to find some shelter before the weakest of the girls gave out.
This was Lluella Fairfax. She was delicately built, and unused tomuscular exertion of any kind. She seldom took up any gym work atBriarwood, Ruth knew; therefore it was not strange that she should bethe first to give out.
For, although the sextette of girls went but a short distance, andtraveled very slowly, it was indeed a fearful task for them. Thestorm drove them on, and suddenly, when Jennie Stone gave utteranceto a wild whoop and disappeared from view, Lluella and Belle burstout crying again, and even Madge showed signs of weakening.
"Help! help!" she cried. "She's fallen down a precipice!"
"She's smothered in a snow-bank!" gasped Helen.
Heavy uttered another cry, but seemingly from a great way off. Ruthscrambled back to Madge, and suddenly found her own feet slippingover the brink of some steep descent. She cried out and clung toMadge. Helen took hold of Madge's other hand, and they drew Ruth backto safety.
"Look out!" commanded the older girl. "You'll be down in that hole,too, Ruth."
"No, no! We must make some attempt to get her up. Jennie! Jennie!where are you?" shrieked Ruth.
"Right under you. Girls! you want to be careful. I've slid down abank and am standing on what appears to be a narrow shelf along theface of this bank, or hill. And the snow isn't drifted here. Comedown."
"Oh, I wouldn't dare!" cried Lluella.
"If the place will afford us any shelter from this awful wind, whynot?" demanded Helen. "We might try it."
"How deep are you down, Jennie?" asked Madge.
"Only a few feet. You couldn't ever haul me up, anyway," and thestout girl laughed, hysterically. "You know how heavy I am."
"Let me try it," said Ruth, eagerly. "Here's where Jennie slid over.Look out, below!"
"Oh, come on! you can't hurt me," declared the stout one, and in amoment Ruth had slipped over the edge of the bank and had landedbeside Heavy.
"It's all right, girls!" shouted Ruth at once. She could see thatthe shelf widened a little way beyond, and was overhung by a hugeboulder in the bank, making a really admirable shelter--not exactly acave, but a large-sized cavity.
After some urging, Lluella and Belle allowed themselves to belowered by Madge and Helen over the brink of the bank. Then Helenherself slid down, and then the oldest girl. When Miss Steele landedupon the shelf beside them, she cried:
"This is just a mercy! Another five minutes up there in the wind andsnow, and I don't believe I could have walked at all. My, my! ain't Icold!"
The six girls cowered together under the overhanging rock. The snowblew in a thick cloud over their heads and they heard it sifting downthrough the trees below them. They were upon a steep side-hill--thewall of a steep gully, perhaps. How deep it was they had no means ofknowing; but several good-sized trees sprouted out of the hill neartheir refuge. They could see the dim forms of these now and then asthe snow-cloud changed.
But although they were out of the beat of the storm, they grew nowarmer. More than Madge Steele complained of the cold within the nextfew minutes. Ruth, indeed, felt her extremities growing numb. Theterrible, biting frost was gradually overcoming them, now that theywere no longer fighting the blast. Exertion had fought this deadlycoldness off; but Ruth Fielding knew that their present inaction wasbeckoning the approach of unconsciousness.