They found the sled outside where Teddy had dropped it when they entered the cave, and then there began a long, hard struggle with the snow and the wind that the boy and girl were to remember long afterward.
They did not talk much, for they were too busy trying to keep up with Nick Budd as he floundered through the snow, and breath was precious. However, Billie did find a chance to ask the question that had been looming bigger and bigger with each second.
“Teddy, what do you suppose the boys and girls will think of our disappearing like that?” she asked him.
“I suppose they’ll think we went off in an aeroplane or something,” he answered, trying to be funny and not succeeding very well.
“Well,” sighed Billie, “I only hope they won’t go and say anything about it at school—not till we get back and have a chance to explain, anyway.”
Teddy glanced at her quickly.
“Nobody would be mean enough to do that,” he said, decidedly.
“No-o, I guess not,” agreed Billie, but in her heart she was not at all sure. She was thinking of Amanda Peabody.
CHAPTER XII—THE ACCUSATION
Nick Budd, plunging on in the snow ahead of the young folks, hardly once turned his head to look back. Evidently he had made this trip often and was used to wading through snow half-way to his waist, for he went so swiftly that Teddy was winded and Billie pretty nearly worn out when they at last reached the road.