ugh to see where he was.

"It's no go," he muttered. "I'm stuck here like a pig in a poke. Unless
I keep mighty still, I'll have another avalanche from the surface."

Just then he heard two lusty shouts, and the voices seemed to come from
straight in front of him.

"Hurrah!" he yelled. "Brick! Jerry!"

The response quickly floated back, and at the same instant the wind
drove a stinging shower of fine snow into his face.

Hamp wiped the snow off, and was about to utter another shout when he
heard a shrill crackling above the din of the storm. As he stared
upward he saw the disk of open air suddenly eclipsed by a sheet of
blackness. More from instinct than logic, Hamp divined what this meant.
Quick as a flash he dived downward with arms and head, and sought to
burrow under the drift.

He was none too quick. He heard a dull crash, and felt himself seized by
some mighty force and driven roughly against the very ground. There was
a considerable weight of loose snow upon him, and when he had beaten it
away from his face, his outstretched hands caught hold of something that
was solid, but prickly and yielding.

He recognized it as the branch of a pine tree. Then he twisted about and
thrust his hands down toward his middle. Here he found the trunk of the
tree, resting with no little weight upon his thighs.

No bones were broken, nor was he even badly bruised. But, nevertheless,
he was pinned fast. He lay partly on one side, with his head turned in
the direction whence the voices of his friends had come.

The canopy of branches above admitted plenty of fresh air, and there was
quite an open gap in front of his face. He made a strong effort to drag
himself free, but stopped as soon as he found masses of snow dropping
down upon him. Then he shouted several times, and heard a faint
response. The cries continued at intervals, and now they actually seemed
to be coming closer.

"Brick and Jerry are tunneling this way," said Hamp, to himself. "I
wonder if they will succeed in reaching me. I didn't tell them how I was
going to dig. I only hope they won't get in the same fix that I was in
a few minutes ago."

The chance of rescue--slim though it was--cheered him considerably, and
gave him patience. He lay quite still, shouting from time to time. There
were no longer any responses, but he concluded that the boys were afraid
to shout for fear of a cave-in.

Twenty minutes of thrilling suspense slipped away. Then he heard a du