For a half hour, her body beaten and torn by the wind, her face cut by driving sleet, she fought her way onward into the night. She had reached the shore of the lake and was making her way south, or at least thought she was. So dense was the darkness that it was with the utmost difficulty that she kept her directions.
“Wish—wish I had tried getting a place to stay nearer the university,” she half sobbed.
As if in answer to these words, the storm appeared to redouble its fury. Seizing her with its whirling grip, it carried her in a semicircle, to land her at last against a stone wall. So great was the force of her impact that for the moment she lay there at the foot of the wall, only partly conscious of what was going on about her.
When at last she was able to rise, she knew that she had completely lost her way.
“Might as well follow the wall,” she thought desperately. “Little more sheltered here. Bring me to some place after a time.”
The fury of wind and snow continued. At times she fancied she felt the spray from waves dampen her cheeks. She heard distinctly the break of these waves—“Against the wall,” she told herself, shuddering as the thought came to her that she might suddenly reach the end of this wall and be blown into the lake.
“Anyway I can’t stay here,” she muttered. “Too cold. Face is freezing, I guess.”
She paused to remove a glove and touch her cheek. The next instant she was rubbing it vigorously. “Frozen all right. Have to get in somewhere soon.”
Just at that moment her heart leaped wildly. For a moment the drive of snow had slackened. In that moment, a great, black bulk loomed up at her right.
“Some building,” she thrilled, and at once doubled her efforts to escape from the storm and reach this promised shelter.