“Hurry, or I’ll—be—choked!” gasped Boxy. “I—I can’t—breathe—any longer!”
“Lie down on the ground and you’ll breathe easier!” returned Jack.
He threw himself down, and all the others but Harry followed his example.
In a minute more Harry had a small opening. This he enlarged as rapidly as possible. Soon he was able to crawl through, and he did so, calling on the others to follow.
“That was a narrow escape!” cried Andy, as he took a deep breath of the cold, pure air that was sweeping up the creek and through the woods. “The hut’s a regular smokehouse, isn’t it?”
“We must do something to save it,” put in Jack, hurriedly. “All our things are in there, and we can’t afford to lose them.”
“What shall we do, we have no water?” returned Boxy.
“I kin cut a hole in de ice an’ fill de bucket,” said Pickles.
“You do that, Pickles, and we’ll do what we can with snow,” said Harry. “Come on, boys, snow is as good as water, if we use enough of it.”
Spurred on by the necessity of the occasion, and also by the novelty, the members of the Zero Club set to work with a will. Standing as close as they dared, they shoveled and threw great lumps of snow on the hissing flames, working first upon that portion of the fire nearest to the door of the hut. They were pleased to see that the flames were confined principally to the large fuel pile leaning against the hut, not to the hut itself.