night Alice awakened and, going to the
window, looked out. She could make out a dim whiteness, but that was
all. Around the window there was a little drift of snow on the sill,
where it had been blown through a crack.

And in the morning they were snowbound. So heavy was the fall of snow,
and so high had it drifted, that some of the lower windows were
completely covered, from the ground up. And before each door was such a
drift that it would be necessary to tunnel if they were to get out.

"The worst storm I ever see!" declared Mr. Macksey, as he closed the
door against the blast. "It would be death to go out in it now. We are
snowbound, by hickory!"

CHAPTER XIX

ON SHORT RATIONS

Apprehensive as all had been of the coming of the big storm, and fully
warned by the hunter, none of the picture players was quite prepared for
what they saw--or, rather, for what they could not see. For not a window
on the lower floor of the Lodge but was blocked by a bank of snow, so
that only the tops of the upper panes were clear of it. And through
those bits of glass all that could be seen was a whirling, swirling
mass, for the white flakes were still falling.

Not an outer door of the house but was blocked by a drift, and it was
useless to open the portals at present, as the snow fell into the room.

"But what are we to do?" asked Mr. Pertell, when the situation had been
made plain to him. "We can't take any moving pictures; can we?"

"Not in this storm," Mr. Macksey declared. "It would be as much as your
life is worth to go out. It is bitter cold and the wind cuts like a
knife!"

"I wish I could get some views," spoke Russ. "It would give New York
audiences something to talk about, to see moving pictures of a storm
like this."

"You might go up in the cupola on the roof," suggested Mr. Macksey. "You
could stand your camera up there and possibly get some views."

"I'll do it!" cried Russ.

"And may I come?" asked Alice, always ready for an adventure of that
sort.

"Come along!" he cried, gaily.

The cupola was more for ornament than use, but it was large enough for
the purpose of Russ. After breakfast he took his moving picture camera
up there, and managed through the windows, to get some fairly good
pictures. The trouble was, however, that the snow was falling so thickly
that it obscured the view. At times there would come a lull in the
storm, and then Russ was able to get scenes showing the great black
woods