This time Norman made the visit across the river and he was not gone much
over an hour and a half. To facilitate the delivery of his stores, which
were considerable, he pressed a horse and wagon into service and a little
after twelve o'clock Roy was glad to see his companion reappear in the
delivery wagon. The spitting snow had begun again. No time was lost in
luncheon this day, but the fresh meat, eggs and butter and a few fresh
vegetables were quickly stored in the rear of the cockpit.

There were no telegrams this time, but a larger quantity of mail with
considerable for the boys, some of which Norman had examined. At twelve
thirty o'clock everything was in readiness. On the wind-swept heights it
was now cold. Before mounting into the cockpit the boys put on their
winter caps, Mackinaw jackets and gauntlets.

Then, elevating the front protecting frame, they started the _Gitchie
Manitou_ on its return flight, the wind and snow already smiting its
resonant sides in a threatening manner.

The young aviators had little to say concerning the situation. They were
not alarmed and could not afford to be, as their surroundings were mild
compared with the conditions that the unique monoplane had been made to
overcome. And yet they were now beyond theorizing, and it looked as if
before the day was done they were to prove the merits or weaknesses of
their much-lauded craft.

"I'm glad of one thing," suggested Roy, a little later; "we're going to
have daylight all the way back."

"I hope so," answered Norman, but not very confidently.

"We ought to be there by seven o'clock!" retorted Roy.

"That's all right," said Norman in turn, "but I've seen snow in the
daytime so heavy that it might as well have been night."

"Anyway, as long as we don't lose the river," suggested Roy, "we can't go
far wrong. And the compass ought to help some."

"A compass is all right to keep you in a general direction," answered
Norman, "but the best of them, in a three hundred mile run, won't land
you at any particular street number."

"I think," suggested Roy again, a little later, "that we might as well
put up these shelters and have something to eat."

By this time the wind had died somewhat and the volume of the snow had
increased. It was falling so heavily that the top of the car was white.
Norman's silence giving approval, Roy managed to elevate the protecting
sections, which in turn immediately began to be plastered with soft
flakes. A