"Not at all," replied David. "Only three hours."
"I'd rather be in a vault, with the dead, than out here," observed Hippy.
"Are we such poor company as all that, Fatty!" laughed Reddy.
"I've made a great find," announced Tom Gray in the midst of their chatter. He was standing on a bench examining something on a shelf suspended from the ceiling.
"What?" demanded the others in great excitement.
"A pair of snowshoes," he answered.
There was a disappointed silence.
"Well, don't all speak at once," said Tom at last. "Don't you agree with me that it's a great find?"
"We are sorry we can't enthuse," answered David, "but we fail to see how snow shoes can help us out of our present predicament."
"Nobody here knows how to use them," continued Reddy, "and even if he did, he couldn't out-run a pack of wolves."