They emerged from a little clump of woods, and then they felt the full force of the blast in their faces.
"Oh, Alice, we can't go on!" cried Ruth, halting and turning her face aside.
"But we must!" Alice insisted. "We've got to get back. We can't stay out in this snow. It's a small-sized blizzard now, and it is growing worse."
"Oh, what shall we do?" cried Ruth, almost sobbing.
"We must keep on!" declared Alice, grimly.
They locked arms and bent their heads before the blast. They tried to keep to the path, but after a few moments of battling with the storm, Ruth cried:
"Alice where are we?"
"On the way to Elk Lodge, of course."
"No, we're not. We're off the path! See, we didn't come past this big rock before," and she pointed to one that reared up from the snow.
Alice paused for a moment, and then, with a curious note of fear in her voice, she said: