It was snowing heavily as they started down the trail but the boys scarcely noticed it in their excitement. They even forgot that they had not had their lunch.
"If the outlaws haven't beaten us to it," declared Frank, "we'll have that gold before the day is out!"
CHAPTER XVIII
The Blizzard
The Hardy boys set off down the trail at a good pace. The wind howled down from the crags and whistled through the trees. The entire mountain was veiled in a great mist of swirling snow and, as the wind rose, the snow stung their faces and slashed against them.
"Storm coming up," said Frank, burying his chin deeper into his coat collar.
"I hope it doesn't get any worse. We'll never find the place."
"We won't give up now. If we wait until to-morrow it may be too late."
The storm grew rapidly worse. The snowfall was so heavy that it obscured even the tops of the great masses of rock and it quickly drifted over the trail so that the boys were forced to follow the path by memory. This was difficult, as in some places the trail had wound about through tumbled masses of boulders and when it was hidden by snow they had to guess at its intricate windings. Several times Frank lost it altogether, but he was always able to pick up the trail again in some place that was sheltered from the storm.