ne of the latest popular airs, and Ruth and Alice slid
about.

"Come on!" cried Paul to Russ. "I'm getting the craze, too."

The two young men danced together a moment, and then came an
interruption that caused them all to look at one another.

There was a grinding, crashing sound outside, and the next moment the
entrance to the cave was darkened.

CHAPTER XVII

THE RESCUE

"What happened?"

"There must have been an ice slide!"

It was Alice who asked the question, and Paul who answered it. Standing
in the darkened ice cave, through the walls of which, however, some
light filtered, the four looked anxiously at one another.

"It was the dancing that did it," declared Ruth, in a low voice. "It
loosened the ice and it slid down."

"Perhaps not," said Paul, not wanting Alice blamed, for she had proposed
the light-footed stepping about on the slippery floor of the cavern. "It
might have slid down itself."

"Well, let's see what the situation is," proposed Russ. "We can't stay
in here too long, for it's freezing cold."

"Yes, let's see if we can get out," added Paul.

"See if we _can_ get out!" repeated Ruth. "Why, is there any danger that
we can not?"

"Every danger in the world, I should say," spoke Russ, and there was a
worried note in his voice. "I don't want to alarm you," he went on, "but
the fact is that we are shut up in this ice cave."

"Oh, don't say that!" cried Ruth.

"Why shouldn't he--if it's true?" asked Alice. "Let's face the
situation, whatever it is. Russ, will you see just how bad it is?"

Without speaking, the young moving picture operator went to the hole
through which they had stooped to enter the cavern. In a moment he came
back.

"It's closed tighter than a drum," he announced. "A lot of ice slid down
from above and closed the entrance to the cave as if a door had been
shoved across it. We can't get out!"

For a moment no one spoke, and then Paul asked, quietly:

"What are we going to do?"

"Have you a knife?" asked Russ.

"A knife? Yes, but what good is that?"

"We've got to cut our way out--that's all."

Ruth and Alice looked at each other. They began to understand what it
meant.

"Someone from Elk Lodge may come for us--if we don't get back,"
murmured the younger girl, in what was almost a whisper.

"Yes, they may, but it's dangerous to wait," said Paul. "It is cold in
here, and it isn't getting any warmer. It's like being locked in a
refrigerator. We've g