“Magnificent!” The Falcon shouted back.
“I hope no poor, unfortunate souls are out in it!” cried Manzanita, as a flash of lightning played over her radiant face.
“I hope so, too!” he yelled.
From time to time they dozed through the night, and they had been able to sleep a little during the afternoon before the storm swept down upon them. They were as fresh as could be expected when morning came, with the wind still blowing a gale but no rain or snow falling.
Outside of their retreat the wind quickly cut the snow as no sunshine would have done at that high altitude. It remained between the rocks of their rendezvous, however, and the fugitives found difficulty in getting rid of it. But they made snowballs and rolled them about until they were of gigantic proportion, then left them outside to be whittled down by the wind at its leisure. Other small snowballs were used for a different purpose; and but for the fact that they dared not laugh and shout they thoroughly enjoyed the pastime.
Inside the shelter of the rocks again, they built a tiny fire on the stone floor of their half cave, and cooked their breakfast. The fire soon dried the inclosure, and as they were shut off from the worst of the wind they were comfortable.
“Well, the rain and snow are over, thank goodness!” said Little Apple. “But this wind probably will blow for days. I’d like to see the camps down on the desert. I’ll bet there’s not a tent standing.
“Now, listen,” she broke off suddenly: “I’m going to send Pa Squawtooth and Mart a message to-day. They can answer with signals; and I know where we can sneak out and get a glimpse of the desert in order to see what they signal back. I have my binoculars, thank goodness!”
“I can’t imagine how you expect to get messages to them,” he said.
“Well, I’m going to show you in a little. There’ll be some trifling risk in going out to send them, but the chances are only one in a thousand that we’ll be caught. I wonder——” She came to a pause and tilted back her head. “Say, maybe it’s possible to see the desert from the top of one of these tall rocks. They’re way higher than the chaparral.”