ed Phil. He gave a yawn. "I almost wish I had remained in bed
myself. We won't have a thing to do here."

"I noticed a bowling alley next door, Phil," announced Roger. "If we
can't do anything else to-day we can bowl a few games. That will be
fine exercise."

"Do the girls know about bowling?" questioned Ben.

"Not very much," answered Dave. "Laura has bowled a few games, I
believe. But it will be fun to teach them, if we don't find anything
better to do."

The boys walked through the small lobby of the hotel and into the
smoking room. Here several men were congregated, all talking about the
storm and the prospects of getting away.

"The snow is nearly two feet deep on the level," said one man; "but
the wind has carried it in all directions so that while the road is
almost bare in some spots there are drifts six and eight feet high in
others."

"Looks as if we were snowed in good and proper," returned another man.
"I wanted to get to one of those stores across the way, and I had
about all I could do to make it. In one place I got into snow up to my
waist, and it was all I could do to get out of it."

"Doesn't look like much of a chance to get away from here," observed
Roger.

"We are booked to stay right where we are," declared Phil; "so we
might as well make the best of it."

"Let us go out to the barn and see what Wash Bones has to say,"
suggested Dave. "He has probably been watching the storm and knows
just how things are on the road."

"All right," returned Ben. "But I am going to put on my cap and
overcoat before I go. It must be pretty cold out there even though
they do keep the doors shut."

"Yes, I'll get my cap and overcoat, too," said Dave. Phil and Roger
had taken their things up to the third floor the night before, and now
had their overcoats over their arms.

The large rack in the hallway of the hotel was well filled with
garments of various kinds, so that Ben had to make quite a search
before he found his own things. In the meantime, Dave was also
hunting, but without success.

"That's mighty queer," remarked the latter. "I don't seem to see my
cap or my overcoat anywhere."

"Oh, it must be there, Dave," cried his chum. "Just take another look.
Maybe the overcoat has gotten folded under another."

Both youths made a thorough search, which lasted so long that Phil and
Roger came into the hallway to ascertain what was keeping them.

"Dave can't find his overcoat or his cap," explained B