“I’ll tell you,” said Bob, seeing no use in keeping Lucy in the dark indefinitely. “It’s about that same stupid mystery. I wish Alan had stayed here to ferret it out. Why did I ever dissuade him?”
“Go on, will you?” begged Lucy.
“All right. A couple of days ago I went to Coblenz to see——Phew!” He stopped to plunge one hand into his collar. “This snow is getting down my neck. Would you believe it could come down so thick all of a sudden? Why, the sky was blue in spots when we started out.”
“Look here, Lucy, you know where that lodge of Herr Johann’s is, don’t you? It must be near, for here’s the road you spoke of.” Larry paused beside the winding forest track, looking along it and through the trees on either side as well as the swirling snowflakes would permit.
“Yes, it’s near here,” said Lucy, “but why?”
“We’d better go there for shelter. The snow may stop and it may not. We’re still two miles from home.”
“But, Larry,” protested Lucy, surprised, “it can’t hurt us. Why, how often I’ve been out in snow-storms!”
“I know, it can’t hurt you, nor Miss Michelle, nor me. But it can hurt Bob. His lungs were touched when he was frozen up in Archangel. The surgeon himself told me he mustn’t risk any exposure.”
“Oh, Larry, what rot! I’m strong enough,” scoffed Bob.
But Lucy was an instant convert to Larry’s side. “He told me that, too. What an idiot I am,” she said in one breath. Then, looking anxiously around her, “Where would you say that hunting-lodge was, Michelle? I know it’s near the road. If we follow along it——”