THE SNOWSLIDE
"Well," said Herb, philosophically, "'it is an ill wind that blows
nobody any good.'"
Bob, who had been shaking a tree for nuts and had shaken down more
snow than anything else, looked at Herb inquiringly.
"Now what's the poor nut raving about?" he asked slangily of Jimmy and
Joe, who were also engaged in nut gathering.
"I was just thinking," said Herb, with an attempt at dignity, "how
sorry I am for all those poor sick people in Clintonia."
"Oh, yes, you were," scoffed Jimmy, who was eating more nuts than he
saved. "You were thinking how lucky we are to be here picking nuts in
the woods instead of slaving away in Clintonia High."
"Gee, that fellow must be a mind reader!" exclaimed Herb, grinning,
and Bob, coming near, made a pass at him.
"Say, get busy, old bluffer," he said. "You're getting slower than
Doughnuts here. You haven't got half the nuts that I have."
"But I'm having twice as much fun," countered Herb, unmoved "A fellow
can't work all the time."
"I wish I knew what was worrying Mr. Salper," said Joe, suddenly. "I
wonder if that Wall Street bunch, is really out after his money."
"Gee, he sure does know how to change the subject," murmured Herb, and
Bob threw a nut at him, which he successfully ducked.
"He seemed rather cut up about it, anyway," said Bob, in answer to
Joe.
"I wouldn't trust those Wall Street sharpers out of my sight myself,"
added Jimmy solemnly.
"Gee, listen to the financier," gibed Herb. "He's lost so many
millions in Wall Street himself."
"Not yet," said Jimmy, plaintively. "But wait, my boy, my life is all
before me."
"Say," cried Joe, "if you two fellows don't look out I'll put you in
my pocket with the other nuts."
"Mr. Salper seems kind of a nut himself," said Joe, continuing with
his own reflections. "He seems to have a grouch on everything and
everybody."
"No wonder, with all the worries he's got," said Jimmy, adding
dolefully: "You see the penalties of extreme wealth."
"One thing you'll never have to worry about," said Herb, and Jimmy
grinned good-naturedly.
"I'd rather have my sweet disposition," he sighed, "than all of
Salper's wealth."
"I don't see why you think he's so wealthy," Bob objected. "Everybody
who trades in Wall Street isn't a millionaire, you know."
"Say, wait a minute!" cried Bob suddenly, with an imperative wave of
his hand. "Did you hear anything?"
They listened for a moment in breathless silence and it came again,
the call that Bob's sharp ears had first detected. In the distance it
was, surely, but a distinct cry for help, nevertheless.
"Come on, fellows! We're needed!" cried Bob, and, dropping his bag of
nuts in the snow, he started off at a swift pace in the direction of
the sound.
The rest of the radio boys needed no second invitation. They started
after Bob, pushing swiftly through the deep snow.
But as the seconds passed and they heard no further outcry, they
thought that they must have been mistaken or that they had started in
the wrong direction.
However, as they stopped to consider what to do, the cries began
again, louder this time, a fact which told them they had been on the
right track all along.
They hurried on again, sometimes plunging into snowdrifts that reached
nearly to their waists, but keeping doggedly on to the rescue.
It was enough for the radio boys that some one was in trouble. Even
roly-poly Jimmy, puffing painfully, but running gallantly along in the
rear, had but one thought in his head, and that to help whoever needed
help.
As they came nearer the cries became louder, and they thought they
could distinguish three voices, and one seemed to be that of a woman.
Another minute they came upon a cleared space and stopped still for a
moment to stare at the amazing scene which met their eyes.
A woman stood, nearly knee deep in snow, waving her arms wildly, and
even in that moment of astonishment they recognized her as Mrs.
Salper. She was gesticulating toward something in front of her and
calling urgently to the boys to hurry.
Then the lads saw the cause of her distress. At the foot of a steep
rise of ground, almost a small hill, was all that was to be seen of
two girls. These latter had their heads above the snow that enveloped
them and they were trying desperately to work their arms free of the
icy blanket. From their expressions and from their wild cries for help
it could be seen they were panic-stricken.
"A snowslide!" Joe, who was standing close to Bob, heard him mutter.
"Those girls had a narrow escape to keep from being buried entirely!"
The next moment he was dashing off in the direction of the two
prisoners, shouting encouragement to Mrs. Salper. The others were
close at his heels.
"We'll get you out all right," he called to the frightened girls, who
had stopped their struggling and were looking at him hopefully. "Just
keep still for a moment and save your breath. We'll have you out of
there in a jiffy.
"Dig, fellows, for all you're worth," he added to the boys, who, as
usual, looked to him for directions. "These girls must be pretty cold
by this time."
For answer the boys did dig manfully, the imprisoned girls helping
them as much as they could with their numb fingers, and before many
minutes they had the snow cleared away sufficiently to be able to
struggle through it to a spot where it was not so deep. The girls
were, of course, Edna and Ruth Salper, the pretty daughters of the
Wall Street broker.
Edna and Ruth were trembling with cold and with the shock of their
recent accident, and Mrs. Salper ran to them, putting an arm about
each of them protectingly and pouring out thanks to the embarrassed
boys.
"That's all right," said Bob, modestly. "We couldn't very well have
done anything else, you know. I hope," he added with a glance at the
shivering girls, "that the girls won't take cold."
"They will if I don't get them home quickly," said Mrs. Salper,
adding, with a worried frown: "I wish we hadn't come so far from the
house."
It was then that Joe broke in.
"I tell you what," he said, eagerly. "It isn't far to Mountain
Rest----"
"And there's sure to be a fire in the grate up there," Bob finished
for him.
"And it's a fire that will warm you up in a jiffy," added Herb with
his most friendly smile.
"If we can only make it," sighed Mrs. Salper.
The radio boys knew of a short cut from this spot to Mountain Rest and
along this they led the others as swiftly as they were able to travel.
And on the way they learned how it was that the girls had happened to
be in such a predicament.
"I shouldn't have let them do it." It was Mrs. Salper who told the
story. The two girls were still too shaken from their adventure to say
anything. All they could think of was the comforting shelter of a room
and an open grate fire.
"They wanted to climb up that little hill to see what was on the other
side of it," the lady went on to explain. "I didn't want them to, for
I saw that the snow was deep. But they were in wild spirits, wouldn't
listen to me, said I didn't need to come if I didn't want to--which I
didn't!--and off they went.
"When they had nearly reached the top Edna started to fall----"
"No, it was Ruth, Mother," corrected the girl, showing the first sign
of returning interest.
"Well, it doesn't matter," said Mrs. Salper, with a sigh. "The result
was the same. One of them clutched at the other and they both toppled
down the hill. Their fall must have loosened a mass of the drifted
snow and it came down on top of them. Heavens!" she shuddered at the
memory. "It seemed as if the whole mountain side were falling on top
of them! I thought they would be completely buried!"
"Well, we were, almost," said Ruth, chafing her cold hands to bring
the circulation back into them. "Anyway," she added with a stiff
smile, "I feel almost as frozen as if I had been!"