n the next couple of hours. We can hurry up
with our dinner at Lamont and be home again before it gets very
deep."

"All right, I'm willing if the rest are," returned Dave, who did not
wish to throw "cold water" on their sport. "Lamont it is! Go ahead,
Wash, we want to get there just as soon as possible."

On they plunged, the snow coming down thicker and thicker every
minute. Then, just as the outskirts of the town were gained, they
heard a curious humming sound.

"Oh, Dave! What is that?" queried Jessie.

"It's the wind coming up," he answered. "Listen!"

All did so and noted that the humming sound was increasing. Then the
wind came tearing through the woods and down the highway with great
force, sending the snow in driving sheets into their faces.

"My gracious, this looks as if it were going to be a blizzard!" gasped
Phil, who had started up to see what the sound meant. "We had better
get under some kind of cover just as soon as possible."

"We'll be up to dat hotel in anudder minute," bawled Washington Bones,
to make himself heard above the sudden fury of the elements. "Say!
dis suah is some snowsto'm!" he added.

Again he cracked his whip, and once more the four horses ploughed
along as well as they were able. They had to face both the wind and
the snow, and these combined made progress slow. By the time the party
came into sight of the hotel with the restaurant attached, the wind
was blowing almost a gale, and the snow seemed to be coming down in
driving chunks.

"Drive us around to the side porch," ordered Dave. "It will be a
little more sheltered there."

"Yassir," came from the colored driver; and soon they had come to a
halt at the spot mentioned. From under the snow and robes crawled the
boys and the girls and lost no time in running into the hotel. Then
the colored man drove the turnout down to the stables.

[Illustration: FROM UNDER THE SNOW AND THE ROBES CRAWLED THE BOYS AND THE
GIRLS--_Page 103._]

"My! did you ever see such a storm!" was Roger's comment. "And how
quickly it came up!"

"If it isn't a blizzard, it is next door to it," returned Dave. And
then he added quickly: "It looks to me as if we were going to be
snowbound!"

CHAPTER XI

HELD BY THE BLIZZARD

"Snowbound!" The cry came from several of the party.

"Yes, snowbound, if this heavy fall continues," answered Dave. "Just
see how the chunks of snow are coming down, and how the wind is
driving them along."

It