"And I'm more afraid to stay here. We must keep on the move, Ruth."
"Yes, I suppose so. Oh, if we could only see our way! We can't be so very far from Elk Lodge."
"We are not," agreed Alice. "We did not walk fast, and we have not been gone very long. The Lodge can't be more than two miles away; but it might just as well be two hundred for all the good that does us in this storm."
Indeed the snow was so thick that it was impossible to see many feet ahead. The white flakes swirled, seeming to come first from one direction, and then from another. The wind blew from all points of the compass, varying so quickly that the girls found it impossible to keep it at their backs.
"Well, there is one thing we can do," said Alice, when they had advanced a few steps and then retreated, not knowing whether it was better to keep on or not.
"And what is it?" asked Ruth. "If there's any one thing to do in a case like this I want to know it."
"We can go over behind that rock and get a little protection from the wind and snow," Alice went on. "See, the snow has drifted on one side; and the other is quite bare. That shows it affords some shelter. Let's go over there."
"Come on," agreed Ruth. She caught her sister's arm in a firmer grasp, and the two girls plowed their way through the snow. They had, heretofore, been on a sort of path, that had been formed over the crust. The girls had on their snowshoes or they would have scarcely been able to progress. As it was the going was sufficiently difficult.
"Oh, wait a moment!" panted Ruth, half way to the sheltering rock.
"What's the matter?" asked Alice, quickly. "Are you ill?"