the
youngsters, when they were through with breakfast, and in a cabin now
warm from one end to the other, felt, as Dick expressed it:

"Say, we're at peace with the whole world, aren't we?" he asked.

"Yes," agreed Dan solemnly. "Mr. Fits is snowed in tight."

"We're even at peace with Hen Dutcher, the miserable shirk," rumbled Tom
Reade.

"That reminds me," said Dick, turning. "Hen, it's up to you to wash all
the dishes, and to do it tidily, too."

"I won't," retorted Hen defiantly. "I'm no servant to you fellows."

"Hen," observed Dick, with a light in his eyes that meant business,
"it's past the time now for you to tell us what you'll do and what you
won't do. We didn't invite you here, and you didn't pay any share of the
expenses that we have been under. Accident made you our guest; we didn't
really want you here at all. The same accident that makes it necessary
for you to stay here for the present has kept away the rest of your
crowd--Fred Ripley and his pals. While you stay here you'll do your full
share of the work. If you don't, you'll soon wish you had. Now, your
first job is to wash and dry the dishes. After that you'll tidy up the
cabin. I'll show you what's needed in that line. Get to work!"

Hen had grown meeker during this address, for he saw that the other
fellows approved all that their leader was saying.

"All right," he muttered; "I'll do it, but it ain't a square deal. I'm
your guest and I ought not to work."

CHAPTER XII

BLIZZARD TOIL AND A MYSTERY

"Our old college chum, Mr. Fits, isn't stirring yet," reported Greg
Holmes, after looking out through the rear window that offered the best
view of the cook shack at the rear.

"Too bad," muttered Tom Reade, turning away from a front window where he
was watching only the steady fall of the flakes. "If he were a neighbor
worth having he'd come out and offer to shovel the paths."

"I wonder how cold it is outdoors?" pondered Hazelton aloud.

"Somewhere below zero, certainly," rejoined Tom. "Suppose we call that
definite enough?"

"I'd like to get out into this storm," hinted Dave.

"So would I," nodded Dick with energy. "It would be fine to be out in
the grandest storm that we've ever seen! Down in Gridley I suppose the
folks have the sidewalks cleaned off."

"Don't you believe it," objected Dan Dalzell. "Not in this storm. Horses
couldn't get through it to drag a plow, and it would take an army of men
to shovel the snow away,