“This sure is heavy going,” observed Jack, as he plunged tiresomely along.
“That’s right,” agreed Bert.
“I don’t see how Towser keeps it up,” spoke George, for the dog was having hard work to get through the drifts.
“He seems to enjoy it,” commented Tom. “But it is deep. I think——”
He did not complete the sentence, for, at that moment, he stepped into some unseen hole and went down in a snow pile to his waist.
“Have a hand!” invited Jack, extending a helping arm to his chum, to pull him up. “What were you trying to do, anyhow?”
“I don’t know,” answered Tom, looking at the hole into which he had fallen. “But I think we’re off the road, fellows.”
“I do, too,” came from Bert. “It seems as though we were going over a field. Yes,” he went on, “there’s a stump sticking up out of the snow. We’re in some sort of a clearing. We’re clean off the road!”
It took only a moment for the others to be also convinced of this.
“We’d better go back,” George said. “We’ve probably come the wrong way. I don’t believe this is the road to Ramsen at all.”