CHAPTER XXI
A TOUCH OF A BLIZZARD
"Those boys ought to be more careful," said Snap, as he watched Giant and Whopper plunge along after the wounded duck.
"Well, you told them to beware of holes," answered Shep.
The two ducks that had been killed were picked up and put in the game-bags, and then Snap and Shep started to follow their comrades, but at a more moderate rate of speed.
"Hark! they are calling for help!" exclaimed the leader of the Gun
Club, a moment later.
"They are in a hole!" said the doctor's son. "Look, I can just see their heads!"
"We must help them out! My! how the wind is blowing!"
The increase in wind was rapid and by the time Snap and Shep drew close to where Whopper and Giant were still floundering, it carried the loose snow around in a perfect whirlwind.
"Can't you crawl out?" asked Snap, coming as close as he dared.
"Every time we try we seem to sink deeper!" gasped Giant.
"Then keep still and I'll aid you," answered the leader of the Gun
Club. "Come, Shep."
"What we you going to do?"
"I'll show you. Be quick."
Walking to the nearest bushes, Snap cut them down with the hatchet he had insisted upon carrying. Shep now understood, and both lugged the bushes to the edge of the fast sinking snow. Then more bushes were brought, and at last, almost exhausted, Giant and Whopper crawled forth on their hands and knees, their snowshoes held in the air. Then they got up on their feet and lost no time in gaining a point of safety.
"I told you to be careful," said Snap, rather severely. "And Jack Dalton warned you, too. It is a lucky thing you didn't sink into the marsh up to your head."
"We were after the duck and didn't think," answered Whopper. "But you can bet I'll be careful next time."
"So will I be careful," came from Giant. "Where's the duck?"
"Flew away—I saw it," answered Shep. "Gracious, how the wind is rising!" he added, pulling his coat collar closer to his neck. "It's going to be a hammer of a snowstorm."
"I think we had better get off the Marshes," said Snap, after a look at the sky and the whirling snow. "This looks to me as if it was going to turn into blizzard."
"Going to leave with only two ducks?" asked the doctor's son. "It seems a pity—after tramping such a distance, too!"
"Maybe we'll strike some more going back," said Snap, cheerfully.
All of the young hunters were willing to leave the Marshes, for the increasing wind made the situation decidedly unpleasant. When they turned back they had both the wind and the pelting snow in their faces and could scarcely see where they were going.
"Isn't this fierce!" gasped Shep, after they had walked less than fifty yards. "I never felt the wind blow so strongly!"
"We get the full sweep of it out here," answered Shep. "It won't be so bad when we reach the timber again."
The mind was fairly whistling around them now. They could not tell how much snow was falling, for much of it was caught up from where it lay and sent hurtling along, now in straight dashes and then in mad circles that blinded and bewildered them. More than once they had to turn around to catch their breath and clear their eyes.
"I wish we we-were to th-the timber!" gasped Giant. "I feel as if the wind was going to pick me up and carry me away!"
"Let us keep close together," said Whopper. "There is no telling what will happen with such a wind tearing down upon us."
They were all scared and with good reason, for to be caught in a blizzard on that wide stretch of marshland was a serious matter. Sticking as closely together as possible they hurried on, as fast as the gale and the flying snow would permit. The air was growing darker and heavier every moment.
"Are you sure you are heading for the timber?" questioned Whopper, presently. "I must confess I am completely turned around."
"So am I," added Shep.
"I—I think the timber is in that direction, but I am not certain," answered the leader of the club, pointing with his hand.
All stared around them in bewilderment. They scarcely knew how to turn.
"Well, one thing is sure, we can't stay here," said Shep. "Come on," and he started off in the direction his chum had pointed out.
"Mind you, I don't say I am right," called out Snap.
"We'll go that way anyhow—if we can make it," said Whopper.
It was slow traveling, and they had to rest frequently, for the wind seemed to fairly take the breath out of their bodies. Once they came up to a clump of bushes and were half tempted to make a prolonged stop there. But Snap demurred very strongly.
"It won't do, fellows," he said. "The snow is piling up fast and the bushes will be snowed under in another hour or two. We have got to reach the timber somehow. It's our only chance of safety."
Again they struggled on, so out of breath and weak they could scarcely draw one snowshoe after the other. Giant fell down and had to be raised up.
"I—I am afraid I ca—can't go another step!" he blurted out. "I am as we—weak as a—a cat!"
"We'll help you," said Snap, kindly. "Come, Shep, you take one arm and I'll take the other. Whopper can go in front, to break the force of the wind for us."
At the end of ten minutes more all were ready to drop. They were numbed with the cold and their breath came in quick, short gasps. It looked as if they must give up and perish.
"Oh, if only we were back at camp!" sighed Whopper.
"Don't give up!" urged Snap. He stopped and gazed over his left shoulder. "Am I mistaken, or is that a tree yonder?"
"I'll soon see," answered Shep and turned in that direction. "Yes, it's a tree and the timber is back of it!" he cried in delight.
This announcement put renewed courage in the young hunters, and once again they struggled on against the fierce wind, which was now blowing little short of a hurricane. The trees came into sight dimly through the swirling whiteness, and a minute later they sank down under the overhanging boughs of a big spruce.
"Safe at last!" murmured Shep.
"Oh, how glad I am of it!" added Giant. "I—I thought we'd be lo—lost sure!"
"We must have a fire, first of all," said Snap. "My feet are half frozen already!"
"I brought some carbide along, so we can easily start a blaze," added Whopper. "But we've got to be careful in such a wind as this. Just listen!"
They listened, and it made them shiver to hear the shrieking of the wind as it went ploughing through the forest, often snapping off a bough here or a tree top there. The spruce they were under bent and swayed, but it was strong and healthy and it did not give way.
Leaving his companions for a few minutes, Snap did his best to look around the vicinity. He could see but little, but made out three big trees growing somewhat close together on the edge of the marshland. At one side of the trees was an irregular rock five or six feet in height.
"That will have to do," he told himself, and called for his companions to join him. But they did not hear, owing to the raging of the storm, and he had to go after them.
"We'll fix up some sort of shelter among the trees," he said. "And we can build a fire against that rock. Let us get to work at once, before it grows colder and the snow gets worse."
The brief respite had rested them, and while Whopper and Giant cut some wood and built a fire, Snap and Shep broke down some spruce branches and piled them up around the clump of trees. Then they kicked up the snow into something of a wall leading from the side of the rock to the nearest tree.
"There, now we can keep fairly warm if nothing else," said the leader of the Gun Club.
It was still very dark and the fire did little to dispel the gloom, the wind having a tendency to blow the smoke in several directions at once. But the fire kept them fairly warm and for that they were thankful.
"If this isn't a blizzard it is next door to it," remarked the doctor's son, as he gazed at the display of the elements. "And the worst of it is, there is no telling how long it is going to last."
"Will we be snowed in?" asked Whopper.
"It looks like it."
"And with nothing but a rabbit and two ducks!" cried Giant. "Boys, it doesn't look as if Christmas was going to be such a cheerful day after all."
"Never mind Christmas," put in Snap. "Let us be thankful if we are not snowbound so completely that we starve to death!"