"You'd have died of exposure."
For a while the two lads were silent as they thought of how narrowly the blizzard had been cheated of its victim. Then, when Joe had become warmed by the fire, they began to consider their course of action. Frank looked out at the storm.
"The wind seems to be dying down a bit," he said. "I can see farther down the mountain now than I could a while ago."
"Think we ought to start home?"
"Do you feel well enough now?"
Joe got to his feet.
"Sure. I feel fine now. There's no use staying up here until nightfall. This storm may last a couple of days."
"All right. Let's go."
They stamped out the fire and resumed their journey down the mountain. They stayed close together this time, taking no chances on again being separated. As Frank had noticed, the wind had indeed lost much of its fury, although it still howled and blustered on the mountain slope, and the snow still fell steadily in a drifting cloud. The trail was almost obscured by the snowdrifts but Frank was able to find and follow it and they finally reached the place where they had turned off toward the abandoned mine workings several days before.
Here they hesitated.