"Let's try it," suggested Dick. "The wind is right down the lake, so it will make traveling that much easier."
They labored hard, in the darkness and wind, to construct a drag out of the ruins of the hut. On this they placed Tom and also such of their scanty traps and provisions as still remained to them.
But once out on the lake, they realized that the task before them was no easy one. Here the wind blew with terrific force, sending them further and further away from the shore which they wanted to skirt. It had stopped snowing and seemed to be growing colder.
"I—I ca—can't stand this!" gasped Sam, after a while. "I'm fr—freezing!"
"So—so am I," answered Dick. "Tom, are you all right?"
"I'm pretty co—cold," was the chattered-out reply.
"We can't make it, I reckon," said the old miner, who was as chilled as any of them. "We'll have to go ashore an' git out of the wind an' build a fire to thaw out by."
But getting ashore was out of the question. When they tried to turn around the fierce wind fairly took their breath away. So they continued to advance, the wind at times carrying them almost off their feet.
"We are on the ice and no mistake!" cried Dick, after a while. "See, the wind has blown the snow completely away."
He was right. All around them was the ice, dark and exceedingly slippery. They seemed to be in the midst of a great field of it.