ard that the wreck of the snow castle was heard clear to
the outskirts of the town. The _Morning Post_ said that it was
disgraceful that the school authorities had allowed it to be built.
Parents and guardians were inclined to rail against what they had
previously praised the boys for doing.

The fact remained, and the calmer people of the community admitted it,
that as soon as there was any danger the boys had warned everybody out.
That one headstrong girl--and she, only--was caught in the wreckage, did
not change the fact that the boys had been very careful.

At the moment the roof of the snow castle crashed in, the only thought
of those in sight of the catastrophe was of Trix Severn.

"Oh! save her! save her!" Ruth Kenway cried.

"She's killed! I _know_ she is!" wept Agnes, wringing her hands.

Joe Eldred and Wib Ketchell were as pale as they could be. None of the
little group at the entrance moved for a full minute. Then Neale O'Neil
brought them all to life with:

"_She wasn't under that fall!_ Quick! 'round to the rear! We can save
her."

"I tell you she's dead!" avowed Wilbur, hoarsely.

"Come on!" shouted Neale, and seized a shovel that stood leaning against
the snow wall. "Come on, Joe! The roof's only fallen in the middle. Trix
is back of that, I tell you!"

"Neale is right! Neale is right!" screamed Agnes. "Let's dig her out."

She and Ruth started after Neale O'Neil and Joe. Wilbur ran away in
terror and did much to spread the senseless alarm throughout the
neighborhood that half the school children in town were buried beneath
the wreckage of the snow castle!

But it was bad enough--at first. The Corner House girls and their boy
friends were not altogether sure that Trix was only barred from escape
by the falling rubbish.

Neale and Joe attacked the rear wall of the structure with vigor, but
the edge of their shovels was almost turned by the icy mass. Axes and
crowbars would scarcely have made an impression on the hard-packed snow.

It was Ruth who pointed the right way. She picked up a hard lump of snow
and sent it crashing through the rear ice-window!

"Trix!" she shouted.

"Oh! get me out! get me out!" the voice of the missing girl replied.

Another huge section of the roof, with the side battlements, caved
inward; but it was a forward section.

The boys knocked out the rest of the broken ice around the window-hole
and Neale leaped upon the sill which was more than three feet across.