It seemed as though the wind increased with every minute as they hurried through the thick woods, and before they were half way to the lake a few stray flakes began to sift their way down through the trees.
“We’re going to get it all right. Think we’d better go back?” Bob asked, as a strong blast of wind tore its way through the forest.
“Nix on the going back stuff, as I’ve often heard you say,” Jack replied with a light laugh. “Who’s afraid of a little snow? We’ll make it all right.”
By the time they had reached the lake the storm had set in in earnest and the snowflakes, driven here and there by the gusts of wind, were coming down with ever increasing rapidity.
“It’s lucky we got the wind at our backs, I’d sure hate to have to face it very far,” Jack said as they started down the lake. “This is going to be a corker,” he added a few minutes later, as driving snow began to blot out the shore of the lake.
The walking rapidly grew harder as the freshly fallen snow increased in depth, and before they had covered a mile their shoes were sinking several inches at each step.
“My, hear that wind howl. It’s enough to blow the hair off a bald man’s head,” Jack declared as he pulled his cap down farther over his ears. “I sure pity anyone who’s coming up the lake tonight,” he added.
“They’d need it,” Bob agreed. “I don’t think I ever saw it snow so fast. I’ll bet it’s making an inch in five minutes. We don’t want to get too far from the shore, and I think we’d better turn in a bit. If we lose sight of it and the wind should change, we could get lost as easy as falling off a log.”
They were hardly twenty feet from the shore at the time, but so thick was the falling snow that it was barely visible and they at once took Bob’s advice and it was not long before they realized the wisdom of the move. Almost in a moment it seemed the wind shifted and like sharp particles of ice the snow was being driven against the side of their faces.
“You spoke just in the nick of time,” Jack shouted, as he turned his head to the storm. “Hope it don’t reverse entirely,” he added a moment later.