to find
themselves in the snug shelter of the cabin once more.

Brick looked at his watch and wound it up. It was just half-past eight
o'clock in the evening. Of course, the boys were not sleepy, and it
looked as though they would have to turn night into day. They were
savagely hungry, and longingly eyed the cartridge box that held the
scanty remnants of their supper. But they put the temptation aside with
stern fortitude, knowing that greater need would come with the morning.

All hands prudently exchanged their damp clothes for dry ones, and then
huddled together under blankets in a corner of the cabin.

It was four o'clock when the boys finally dropped off to sleep, overcome
more by mental than physical exhaustion. They rested soundly, and awoke
to find that another day had dawned--dawned hours before, for Brick's
watch indicated eleven o'clock. The hands could be barely seen by the
meager gray light that filtered through a crevice in the roof.

The storm was over--the wind, part of it, at least. The silence was
oppressive. Evidently the drifted snow was piled many feet above the
cabin. What scanty light penetrated to the boys filtered through the
outspreading branches of the fallen pine.

CHAPTER XII.

DECOYED TO DANGER.

The first thing was breakfast. Prudence was no match for ravenous
hunger, and the boys greedily devoured the last scrap of food. They even
searched the pine boughs for fallen crumbs.

"It don't seem as though I had eaten anything at all," said Brick,
mournfully.

"Well, it won't be long till we get a good, square meal," said Jerry.
"The snow must be packed pretty hard by this time, so the tunnel won't
take so long to dig."

"And there won't be much danger of caving in," added Hamp.

The boys sat talking for a while before they began the great
undertaking. Their very lives depended on reaching the storehouse.

"I hope we can get out of this," replied Brick. "I'm sick of this part
of the country. I've been wondering what became of those two men."

"They're either dead, or snowed up so badly that they can't help
themselves," declared Hamp. "It's our duty to go to their assistance as
soon as we get a chance. That fellow, Raikes, put himself in danger to
help us, you know."

It was shortly after midday when the three entered the tunnel in single
file. Jerry took the lead, and the others followed close at his heels.

The