d him out. He
could not speak for a moment and he had lost his cap.

"How did you do that?" demanded Bob. "What does it mean?"

"Think--think I did it on purpose?" demanded the overwhelmed youth. "I'm
no Samson to pull down the pillars on top of me. Gee! that snow came
sudden."

"Where--where did it all come from?" demanded his sister.

"From the top of the cliff, of course. It must have made a big drift there
and tumbled down--regular avalanche, you know--just as I tried to look
out. Why! the place out there is filled up yards deep! We'd never be able
to dig out in a week."

"Oh, dear me! what shall we do?" groaned Belle, who was beginning to get
nervous.

"Have supper," suggested Heavy, calmly. "No matter what we have to face,
we can do it better after eating."

They laughed, but took her advice. Nobody failed to produce an appetite at
the proper time.

"Dear me!" exclaimed Belle, "if only mother knew we were safe I'd be
content to stay all night. It's fun."

"And if we had some salt," complained Lluella. "I don't like fish without
salt--not much."

"You're a fine female Robinson Crusoe," laughed Tom. "This is real
'roughing it.' I expect all you girls will weaken by morning."

"Oh, oh!" cried his sister, "you talk as though you thought we would be
obliged to stay here, Tom."

"I don't just see how we're to get out to-night," Tom returned, grimly.
"Not from this end of the cave, at any rate. I tell you, tons and _tons_
of snow fell into its mouth."

"But you know the other way out, Ruthie?" urged Lluella, half inclined to
cry.

"I think so," returned the girl of the Red Mill.

"Then just hunt for the way," said Belle, firmly. "If it has stopped
snowing I want to go home."

"Don't be a baby, Belle," advised her brother Ralph. "Nothing is going to
hurt us here."

"Especially as we have plenty of fuel and grub," added Bobbins,
thoughtfully.

But Ruth saw that it would be wiser to try to get through the tunnel to
the brookside. Nobody could dig them out at this end, that was sure. So
she agreed with Tom and Ralph Tingley to try to follow the same passages
that Jerry Sheming had taken her through upon the occasion of her first
visit.

"How shall we find our way, though, if it's dark?" questioned Ralph,
suddenly. "_I_ can't see in the dark."

"Neither can the rest of us, I guess," said Tom. "Do you suppose we could
find torchwood in that pile yonder?"

"Not much," Bobbins told them. "And a torc