o trouble 'bout it, ef this snow wuzn't so thick."

As they advanced farther into the mountains the noise of the wind
increased. Confined in the gorges it roared in anger to get out, and
then whistled and shrieked as it blew along the slopes. The snow did not
cease to fall. The road had long since been covered up, but Reed led
them on with sure eye and instinct.

An hour later he was able to detect another figure on the crest of a
ridge, this time to their left, and he observed the waving of the signal
with great satisfaction.

"It's all right," he said to Colonel Winchester. "They're waitin' for us
in the cove, not many uv 'em, uv course, but they'll help."

"Have we much more riding?" asked the colonel. "I don't think the men
are suffering, but our horses can't stand it much longer."

"Not more'n an hour."

They passed soon between high cliffs, and faced a fierce wind which
almost blinded them for the time, but, when they emerged they found
better shelter and, presently, Reed led them off the main road, then
through another narrow gorge and into the cove. They had passed around a
curving wall of the mountain and, as it burst upon them suddenly, the
spectacle was all the more pleasant.

Before them, like a sunken garden, lay a space of twenty or thirty acres,
hemmed in by the high mountains, which seemed fairly to overhang its
level spaces. A small creek flowed down from a ravine on one side,
and dashed out of a ravine on the other. Splendid oaks, elms and maples
grew in parts of the valley, and there was an orchard and a garden,
but the greater part of it was cleared, and so well protected by the
lofty mountains that most of the snow seemed to blow over it. In the
snuggest corner of the cove stood a stout double log cabin and, in the
open space around, great fires were roaring and sending up lofty flames,
a welcome sight to the stiff and cold horsemen. Fully twenty
mountaineers, long and lank like Reed, were gathered around them, and
were feeding them constantly.

"What's this I see?" exclaimed Warner. "A little section of heaven?"

"Not heaven, perhaps," said Dick, "but the next door to it."

"This wuz Dick Snyder's home an' place, colonel," said Reed. "On account
uv the gorillers he found it convenient to light out with his folks three
or four days ago, but he's come back hisself, an' he's here to he'p
welcome you. Thar's room in the house, an' the stable, which you can't
see 'cause uv the tr