"Drive lively now, boys!" called the hunter. "It's getting late, and will soon be dark, and the roads aren't any too good."
"Oh my!" groaned Mr. Sneed. "I'm sure something will happen!"
With cracks of the whips, and a jingling of sleighbells, the little cavalcade started off. The gloom settled slowly down, but Ruth and Alice helped dispel it by singing lively songs. Over the snow-covered road they went, now on a comparatively level place, and again down into some hollow where the drifts were deep. The horses pulled nobly.
They came to a narrow place in the road, where the snow was piled high on either side. There was room for but one sled at a time.
"I hope we don't meet anyone here," said Mr. Macksey. "If they do we'll have a hard job passing. G'lang there!" he called to his horses.
They were half-way through the snow defile, when the leading sleigh, in which rode Ruth and Alice, swerved to one side. There was a crashing sound, a splintering of wood, and the two forward horses went down in a heap.
"Whoa! Whoa!" called Mr. Macksey, as he reined in the others.
"What's happened?" asked Mr. DeVere.
"Some sort of a breakdown," answered the hunter.
"Serious?" the actor wanted to know, trying to peer ahead in the gloom.