ADRIFT IN THE STORM
"We shall freeze to death if we stay here!"
Madge Steele spoke thus, and the situation precluded any doubt as to
the truth of the statement. The six girls from Snow Camp were indeed
in peril of death--and all were convinced of the fact.
Lluella Fairfax was in tears, and her chum, Belle Tingley, was on
the verge of weeping, too. Helen Cameron had hard work to keep back
her own sobs; even Jennie Stone, the stout girl, was past turning the
matter into a joke. And Madge Steele was unable to suggest a single
cheerful portent.
As they clung to each other in the driving snow they seemed,
intuitively, to turn to Ruth Fielding. She was the youngest of the
six girls; but she was at this moment the more assertive and held
herself better under control than her mates.
It had been against her advice that they had left their temporary
shelter under the tree. Now they could not beat their way back to it.
Indeed, none of them now knew the direction of the burrow that had
sheltered them for more than an hour.
What next should they do?
Although unspoken, this was the question that the five silently
asked of the girl of the Red Mill. She had displayed her pluck and
good sense on more than one occasion, and her friends looked to her
for help. Particularly did Helen cling to her in this emergency, and
although Ruth was secretly as terrified as any of her mates, she
could not give in to the feeling when her chum so depended upon her.
"Why, we're acting just as silly as we can act!" she cried, speaking
loud so that they could all hear her. "We mustn't give up hope. The
boys, or Mr. Cameron, will find us. It can't keep on snowing forever."
"But we're freezing to death!" said Belle, and broke out sobbing
like her chum.
"Stop, you silly thing!" cried Madge, trying to shake her. But she
was really so cold herself that she could not do this. Indeed, the
keen wind would soon make movement impossible if they stood still for
long.
"Let's keep moving!" shouted Ruth. "Take hold of hands, girls--two
by two. Helen and I will go ahead. Now, Belle, you take Lluella.
Madge and Heavy in the rear. Forward--march!"
"This is a regular Amazon March; isn't it?" croaked Heavy, from
behind.
"But where shall we march to?" Belle queried.
"We'll keep going until we find some shelter. That's the best we can
do. Indeed, it is all we _can_ do," replied Ruth.
It was impossible to do more than drift before the gale. Ruth knew
this, and likewise she was confident that they were by no means
getting nearer to the camp when they followed such a course. But she
hoped to find some shelter before the weakest of the girls gave out.
This was Lluella Fairfax. She was delicately built, and unused to
muscular exertion of any kind. She seldom took up any gym work at
Briarwood, Ruth knew; therefore it was not strange that she should be
the first to give out.
For, although the sextette of girls went but a short distance, and
traveled very slowly, it was indeed a fearful task for them. The
storm drove them on, and suddenly, when Jennie Stone gave utterance
to a wild whoop and disappeared from view, Lluella and Belle burst
out crying again, and even Madge showed signs of weakening.
"Help! help!" she cried. "She's fallen down a precipice!"
"She's smothered in a snow-bank!" gasped Helen.
Heavy uttered another cry, but seemingly from a great way off. Ruth
scrambled back to Madge, and suddenly found her own feet slipping
over the brink of some steep descent. She cried out and clung to
Madge. Helen took hold of Madge's other hand, and they drew Ruth back
to safety.
"Look out!" commanded the older girl. "You'll be down in that hole,
too, Ruth."
"No, no! We must make some attempt to get her up. Jennie! Jennie!
where are you?" shrieked Ruth.
"Right under you. Girls! you want to be careful. I've slid down a
bank and am standing on what appears to be a narrow shelf along the
face of this bank, or hill. And the snow isn't drifted here. Come
down."
"Oh, I wouldn't dare!" cried Lluella.
"If the place will afford us any shelter from this awful wind, why
not?" demanded Helen. "We might try it."
"How deep are you down, Jennie?" asked Madge.
"Only a few feet. You couldn't ever haul me up, anyway," and the
stout girl laughed, hysterically. "You know how heavy I am."
"Let me try it," said Ruth, eagerly. "Here's where Jennie slid over.
Look out, below!"
"Oh, come on! you can't hurt me," declared the stout one, and in a
moment Ruth had slipped over the edge of the bank and had landed
beside Heavy.
"It's all right, girls!" shouted Ruth at once. She could see that
the shelf widened a little way beyond, and was overhung by a huge
boulder in the bank, making a really admirable shelter--not exactly a
cave, but a large-sized cavity.
After some urging, Lluella and Belle allowed themselves to be
lowered by Madge and Helen over the brink of the bank. Then Helen
herself slid down, and then the oldest girl. When Miss Steele landed
upon the shelf beside them, she cried:
"This is just a mercy! Another five minutes up there in the wind and
snow, and I don't believe I could have walked at all. My, my! ain't I
cold!"
The six girls cowered together under the overhanging rock. The snow
blew in a thick cloud over their heads and they heard it sifting down
through the trees below them. They were upon a steep side-hill--the
wall of a steep gully, perhaps. How deep it was they had no means of
knowing; but several good-sized trees sprouted out of the hill near
their refuge. They could see the dim forms of these now and then as
the snow-cloud changed.
But although they were out of the beat of the storm, they grew no
warmer. More than Madge Steele complained of the cold within the next
few minutes. Ruth, indeed, felt her extremities growing numb. The
terrible, biting frost was gradually overcoming them, now that they
were no longer fighting the blast. Exertion had fought this deadly
coldness off; but Ruth Fielding knew that their present inaction was
beckoning the approach of unconsciousness.