woods below--let's strike fer that, lad. It will
mean shelter an' firewood, at least."

They hurried on, pulling the long drag after them. They were in a
valley and suddenly they came to a broad patch of ice and Sam went
sprawling on his back. His brother helped him to arise, and onward
they went once more, but with added caution.

"This must be a lake," said Dick, as, after traveling for some time,
they found the ice still under their feet. "Or else a river."

"Can it be safe?" asked Sam. "Why, it wasn't frozen over four days
ago!"

"We'll be careful," cried Wumble. "Even if it is hard enough, there
may be airholes around."

The situation seemed to grow steadily worse. The wind blew so hard
that at times they were fairly carried along by it. The snow cut off
the view from all sides, so they could not determine in what direction
they were traveling.

"Here's something ahead!" cried Wumble presently. "A hut--a miner's
hut!"

"Let's get inside, just as quickly as we can," returned Sam, his teeth
chattering. "I'm mo--most frozen stiff!"

The hut was on a small bank, evidently on the shore of the lake, or
river, on which they had been traveling. It was closed up tightly, and
a pounding on the door brought no response.

"Nobuddy home, I reckon," said Jack Wumble. "Well, here goes to git
in," and he pushed on the door.

It was not locked and swung inward, revealing a single room, about
twelve feet square and lit up by one small window. Opposite the door
was a fireplace, partly filled with cold ashes. On a shelf and on a
rude table rested some cooking utensils, and to one side of the hut was
a bunk containing some pine tree boughs and several old blankets.

"Hello!" cried Dick. "Anybody in here?"

There was no answer, and a quick look around convinced them that nobody
had been in the place for several days if not weeks. Yet on a shelf in
a rude locker were a number of stores--beans, coffee, a side of bacon,
and several other things.

"Let us start a fire, first thing, and get thawed out," suggested Sam,
and this was done, the boys finding plenty of wood piled up behind the
hut. They had already brought Tom in from the drag and placed him in
the bunk, and now they closed the door.

"In this awful blow, we'll have to watch that fire carefully," warned
Wumble. "Ef we don't, we may burn down the shebang over our heads."

The blaze soon warmed them all up and even Tom said he felt better.
The b