ey thought it great
fun to be shoved along and to lean back against it like a supporting
hand, but going against it was an entirely different matter. It was all
they could do to stand on their feet and at times they simply could not
move an inch forward. The roaring in the treetops seemed full of menace,
and branches began to fall around them. Not far away a whole tree went
down with a sounding crash.

"We're all going to be killed!" cried Gladys hysterically, as they
huddled together at the sound of the falling tree. A wild blast that
rang like the scream of an enraged beast came like an answer to her
words, and a sapling maple snapped off like a toothpick. Sandhelo
snorted with fear and began to kick out.

"We must get out of these woods as fast as we can," said the Captain, to
whom the others had all turned for advice.

"You don't see any of us lingering to admire the scenery, do you?" asked
Katherine drily.

Terrified almost out of their senses and expecting every minute to have
a tree fall on them, they made their way toward the shore and came out
spent and exhausted and too breathless to talk. But glad as they were to
get out of the woods in safety, they were filled with dismay when they
looked at the lake. To their excited eyes the waves, black as the sky
above them, seemed mountain high.

"They'll never come for us in the launch in _that_," said Katherine
after a few moments' silent gazing, voicing the fears of the others.

"We should never have started out on a day like this," said Hinpoha.
"Why did you insist so on our coming, Gladys?"

"Well," Gladys defended herself, "Katherine said there was enough blue
to patch the Dutchman's breeches and----"

"But it was you who said that was enough to start out on," retorted
Katherine. "And you wanted the balsam boughs the worst, so it's your
fault."

"Don't let's quarrel about who's fault it was," said the Captain. "None
of us were obliged to come; we came because we wanted to. It's
everybody's fault, and what is everybody's is nobody's. We're here now
and we'll have to make the best of it."

"Maybe it will calm down before very long," said Gladys hopefully.

"Not much chance," said the Captain, "with the wind rising every
minute."

There seemed nothing else to do but wait, so they crouched behind rocks
to find shelter from the gale and tried to be patient. Every little
while a dash of spray would find someone out and then there would be a
shriek and a