"It would have been good-bye to the tunnel and the shack and us too, I guess," muttered Leslie.
"I told you," declared Weimer, "vat vould happen, hein? I told you last nicht. Now ein avalanche you haf seen."
Neither boy contradicted his first statement. With the last they agreed rather breathlessly, for an avalanche they surely had seen!
"I hope," said Ross carelessly as they entered their shack, "that the McKenzies are still in Miners’ and that they heard that blast!"
CHAPTER XIV
A PERILOUS JOURNEY
The following morning the three inhabitants of Meadow Creek Valley began work again in the tunnel. The air was filled with a smother of snow which fell unaccompanied by wind. When, the following day, the sky cleared, over the path of the avalanche and over the ruins of Soapweed Ledge lay a concealing blanket of snow three feet deep.
"Whew!" shivered Ross as he led the goggled Weimer over the snow to the tunnel that morning. "Wish we had a thermometer up here. This is some cold. Must be minus zero by a long way."
"Mine nose ist my thermometer," complained Weimer, rubbing that whitening member. "Aber dis weather it holds nicht. Anoder snow falls in dree, four days."
The third day proved the truth of this prophecy. The atmosphere became many degrees warmer and the sky lowering.