CHAPTER XIX
_A Stress of Circumstances_
The next few weeks brought nothing of adventure to the boys. Their workwent on wonderfully well. They sent down the mountain innumerable tiesand all the cordwood that the trees yielded after the ties were cut.They sent down also a large number of great timbers for use in bridgebuilding and the like, but nothing occurred to justify the name of theircamp--Camp Venture.
Their firelight conversations were briefer and less spirited thanbefore, because they were working so strenuously now that they wereover-weary when supper was done, and they went to bed at least an hourearlier than they had done before. The earlier novelty of camping had atlast worn out and with it the excitement that tends to keep peopleawake.
Nevertheless they constituted a happy company, all the more so becausetheir work was producing larger results even than they had anticipated.They were sending down the mountain more ties, more cordwood and manymore of the high-priced bridge timbers than they had expected to send.
Looking over the accounts one evening in February, when the snow wasbeginning to melt, Jack said:
"Boys, we've already accomplished more than we expected to do during thewhole winter and spring. If we keep it up at the same rate we shall earnquite twice the money we expected to make. So Camp Venture is clearly asuccess. It is getting so well along in the year now that we need notfear deep snows or avalanches, or anything of that sort to bother us orinterfere with our work."
"Nevertheless," said the Doctor, returning from an examination of hisscientific instruments, "we're in for a snow storm to-night. It isalready beginning and so far as my instruments are to be trusted, it islikely to be very heavy, with high winds."
The boys all went out and took a look at the sky. There was as yet nowind of any consequence, but the snow, in fine, dry, meal-like flakes,was coming down in a way that promised a heavy fall.
About nine o'clock the boys went to bed--all but Harry Ridsdale, whostayed outside as the sentry. About ten o'clock the wind rose to a galeand the roaring of it awakened the Doctor, who instantly arose and witha brand from the fireplace to serve as a torch, went out to consult hisinstruments. When he returned his stamping and brushing off of snowaroused the others, and the howling of the tempest brought them all intoa very wide-awake condition.
"I say, boys," said the Doctor, throwing the brand he had carried intothe fire again, "this is an awful night. The snow is coming down inblankets, the wind is blowing at a rate which is between a whole galeand a hurricane, and of course the snow is drifting terribly."
"All right," said Jack. Then he went to the door and called,--"Come inhere, Harry! We shall have no use for pickets to-night."
In answer to some questions he said:
"No mountaineer is going to prowl about the hills in such a storm asthis. If he did he would be smothered in a snowdrift before he got ahundred yards from his cabin door. We're perfectly safe for this nightwithout a sentry, so we'll all crawl into our bunks and go to sleep."
The soundness of Jack's opinion was obvious enough, and so no moresentries were posted that night. The fire was reinforced with some biglogs and all Camp Venture ventured for once to go to sleep.
The hours passed on. The wind howled more and more fiercely, and but forthe solidity of its thick log walls the house would have shaken in a wayto wake the heaviest sleeper. As it was the boys slept on undisturbed.Finally the fire burned low, so that it gave very little light in thecabin. Little Tom waked and feeling no need for further sleep he got upand piled on some additional logs. Then he went back to bed, but somehowhis eyes would not close again. The other boys also waked up, and, turnover as they might, could not go to sleep again. Finally Harry, seeingthat all were awake, called out:
"I say, fellows, let's get up and have some breakfast. I for one amhungry."
"So am I," answered Jack, springing out of bed.
"So say we all of us," responded Tom. "By the way, what time is it?"
Harry fumbled among the Doctor's belongings and looked at thatgentleman's watch.
"Doctor, you forgot to wind your watch last night. It has run down at aquarter past nine."
"No, I didn't," answered the Doctor, leaping out of bed, where he hadlazily lingered for a time. "I certainly wound it before I went tobed."
With that he went across the cabin, took the watch, looked at it, andthen put it to his ear.
"It's running all right," he presently said, whereupon the other twomembers of the company who had watches brought them out.
All pointed to a quarter past nine.
Just then Jack opened the door and something like half a ton of snowfell into the house, but no light came with it.
"Boys!" he cried, "we're utterly snowed in. It is a quarter past nine inthe morning, but the house is completely buried in snow! You see thereis no light coming in even through the loosely laid roof, while theDoctor's windows are as black as midnight. Yet by looking up the chimneyyou can see daylight plainly. The fire has kept that open."
"Can there have been twenty odd feet of snowfall in a single night?"asked Harry in astonishment.
"No, certainly not," answered the Doctor. "We're caught in a snowdrift,that's all. You see with the fearful gale that has been blowing allnight the snow has drifted greatly and now that I think of it, our houseis peculiarly well situated to be caught in a drift."
"How so, Doctor?"
"Why, the wind has been from the north, northwest, or very nearly north.Our house stands on a plateau on the northerly side of the mountain.Less than a hundred feet south of it, rises a high cliff. That, ofcourse, catches all the snow that comes on a north, northwest wind. Thenagain the house itself is an obstruction, catching and holding all thesnow that strikes it. The snow storm has been a tremendous one, probablya three-foot fall, and we are caught under all of it that ought to havebeen scattered over several miles of mountainside."
"Let's postpone the explanations, fellows," broke in Tom, who alwaysdevoted himself to the practical, "and give our attention for thepresent to the problem of What to Do Now. That is after all the thing tothink about in every case of emergency, and this is a case of emergencyif ever there was one."
"How do you mean, Tom?" asked Jim Chenowith.
"Why, in the first place, we have less than a quarter of a cord of woodin the cabin, and, after such a storm, it is likely to turn very cold.So we must first of all dig a passageway to one of our wood piles, orelse we must freeze to death. We can't get to the spring, of course, andif we did, it would be frozen up. But we can get all the water we needby melting snow. The worst of our problems is that of a food supply."
"That's so," said Jack, in something like consternation. "We haven't apound of fresh meat on hand and I remember that you, Tom, intended to goout with your gun to-day to get some. We have eaten up all our hams andbacon, and we haven't anything left except the coffee, two small piecesof salt pork, some corn meal and the beans."
"That means," said Tom, "that we've got to dig our way out of here in ahurry, and we haven't a shovel in the camp."
"No," said Jack, "but we've got a pile of leftover clapboards over therein the corner, and we can soon make some snow shovels. Let's get to workat that."
After a breakfast on corn pones--for the pork must be saved for use withthe beans--the boys set to work to manufacture rude shovels that woulddo as implements with which to handle snow. For handles they used suchround sticks as they found in their meagre supply of fire wood.
In half an hour the whole company of boys were armed for an attack uponthe snowdrift. In the meantime Tom had thought out methods.
"First of all," he explained, "we must attack the snow directly in frontof the door, and work our way to the top of the drift. We must shovelthat snow into the house, because we haven't any where else to put it.We'll put on all the kettles we have and reduce as much as we can of thehoused snow to water for use in drinking, cooking, washing and so forth.When we break through to the top, we can shovel the snow to
the rightand left till we open a passageway to the wood pile."
"It's going to be mighty hard work," said Ed, "for the snow is so softthat we'll sink up to our waists in it."
"Yes," answered Harry, "but light snow like that will be easier tohandle than if it had settled and frozen."
With that the boys set to work to break a passage from the door to thetop of the snowdrift. When they had accomplished that they found, totheir sorrow, that it was still snowing heavily, a fact which threatenedto undo much of their work after it was done. Still the snow was dry andlight, and standing up to their waists in it, they shovelled it to rightand left, making a passageway through it that led towards their nearestwood supply. They did not pause for a midday meal, and yet when nightcame they had not reached the wood pile, while the snow continued tofall as heavily as ever. Fortunately the high wind had gone down, sothat no more great drifts were blown into their trench.
They had not tried to dig to the ground in making their passageway. Theyhad simply created an upward incline from the door of their house to thetop of the drift, and then dug a sort of inclined trench towards thewood pile.
"Now I say, fellows," said Jack, as they left off work to get suchsupper as they could, "we've got to keep this thing up all night. Wehave barely wood enough left to get supper and breakfast with, and wesimply _must_ get to that wood pile by morning. Of course we can't allwork all night; we must have some sleep; so I propose that we divide thecompany into three shifts of two boys each, one shift to keep up thework of shovelling while the others sleep. We'll let each shift work foran hour and then wake up the next shift to take its place. That will letevery fellow have two hours' sleep between his one hour spells of work."
The plan seemed in all respects the best that could be devised. Threesticks of wood were all that now remained in the cabin and it wasdecided not to burn any of these during the night, but to save them foruse in cooking breakfast in the morning. Breakfast, it was agreed,should consist of a kettle of corn meal mush, with two slices of saltpork and a pint of coffee to each member of the party. The boys wouldhave foregone the pork, saving it for a worse emergency, but the Doctoradvised against that course.
"With so much work to do," he said, "we shall need the strength thatcomes from meat."
"And besides," said Tom, "this snow will pack down pretty soon andfreeze over with a crust hard enough to bear a man. As soon as thathappens I am going out to get some game."
The night's work was awkwardly pursued, owing to the darkness, which wasrendered intense by the continued and very heavy snow fall. But whilethey had not reached the wood pile by daylight, they were nearing it andin fact believed themselves to be almost over it--for they had madetheir trench a shallow one, in order to hasten their advance. So, whenthe working shift was called to breakfast, Harry reported:
"We're almost over the wood pile. After breakfast, when we all get towork, we'll soon make a sloping path down to it. As it is still snowing,without a sign of quitting, I move that when we reach the wood, we allset to work to bring a houseful of it in here, against emergencies."
"That's our best plan," said the Doctor. "If we are destined to live onstarvation rations and it should turn very cold, as is likely, we musthave artificial heat to replace that which a full supply of food wouldmake. A starving man practically freezes to death. So the first thing isto bring into our cabin as large a supply of wood as it will hold.Luckily we have plenty of it. There are twenty cords at least in thatfirst pile."
With that the boys set to work on their scant breakfast of coffee, mushand salt pork.