"Yes, you can. Put it around your shoulders. I'll show you how." And he did it quickly, wrapping it warmly around her.
"Here, Alice, you take mine!" cried Paul, as he saw what his companion had done. "You need it more than I do, and I can't get at that ice with a big coat like this on."
In spite of her protests he put it about her, and the added warmth of the garments was comforting to the girls.
The boys, really, were better off without them, for they had much vigorous work before them, and in the narrow quarters the heavy coats only hampered them.
For it was an exceedingly narrow space in which they had to work. The fall of the mass of ice had crushed part of the opening into the cave, so that Russ and Paul had to crouch down and stoop in a most uncomfortable position in order to reach the block that had closed the doorway.
With their knives they hacked away at the frozen mass, sending the chips flying. Much of it went in their faces and soon their cheeks were glowing from the icy spray of splinters. Then, too, they had to stop every now and then to clear away the accumulated ice crystals that fell before the attack of their knives.
"Keep moving, girls," Paul urged Ruth and Alice. "Keep circling around or you'll surely freeze."
"Let's dance," suggested Alice.
"Oh, how can you think of such a thing!" cried Ruth, "when it was that which caused all the trouble."
"I'm not going to believe that!" declared Alice, firmly. "And it isn't such a terrible thing to think of, at all. It will keep us warm, and keep up our spirits."