CHAPTER XV

THE SNOWSLIDE

"Well," said Herb, philosophically, "'it is an ill wind that blows n.o.body any good.'"

Bob, who had been shaking a tree for nuts and had shaken down more snow than anything else, looked at Herb inquiringly.

"Now what's the poor nut raving about?" he asked slangily of Jimmy and Joe, who were also engaged in nut gathering.

"I was just thinking," said Herb, with an attempt at dignity, "how sorry I am for all those poor sick people in Clintonia."

"Oh, yes, you were," scoffed Jimmy, who was eating more nuts than he saved. "You were thinking how lucky we are to be here picking nuts in the woods instead of slaving away in Clintonia High."

"Gee, that fellow must be a mind reader!" exclaimed Herb, grinning, and Bob, coming near, made a pa.s.s at him.

"Say, get busy, old bluffer," he said. "You're getting slower than Doughnuts here. You haven't got half the nuts that I have."

"But I'm having twice as much fun," countered Herb, unmoved "A fellow can't work all the time."

"I wish I knew what was worrying Mr. Salper," said Joe, suddenly. "I wonder if that Wall Street bunch, is really out after his money."

"Gee, he sure does know how to change the subject," murmured Herb, and Bob threw a nut at him, which he successfully ducked.

"He seemed rather cut up about it, anyway," said Bob, in answer to Joe.

"I wouldn't trust those Wall Street sharpers out of my sight myself,"

added Jimmy solemnly.

"Gee, listen to the financier," gibed Herb. "He's lost so many millions in Wall Street himself."

"Not yet," said Jimmy, plaintively. "But wait, my boy, my life is all before me."

"Say," cried Joe, "if you two fellows don't look out I'll put you in my pocket with the other nuts."

"Mr. Salper seems kind of a nut himself," said Joe, continuing with his own reflections. "He seems to have a grouch on everything and everybody."

"No wonder, with all the worries he's got," said Jimmy, adding dolefully: "You see the penalties of extreme wealth."

"One thing you'll never have to worry about," said Herb, and Jimmy grinned good-naturedly.

"I'd rather have my sweet disposition," he sighed, "than all of Salper's wealth."

"I don't see why you think he's so wealthy," Bob objected. "Everybody who trades in Wall Street isn't a millionaire, you know."

"Say, wait a minute!" cried Bob suddenly, with an imperative wave of his hand. "Did you hear anything?"

They listened for a moment in breathless silence and it came again, the call that Bob's sharp ears had first detected. In the distance it was, surely, but a distinct cry for help, nevertheless.

"Come on, fellows! We're needed!" cried Bob, and, dropping his bag of nuts in the snow, he started off at a swift pace in the direction of the sound.

The rest of the radio boys needed no second invitation. They started after Bob, pushing swiftly through the deep snow.

But as the seconds pa.s.sed and they heard no further outcry, they thought that they must have been mistaken or that they had started in the wrong direction.

However, as they stopped to consider what to do, the cries began again, louder this time, a fact which told them they had been on the right track all along.

They hurried on again, sometimes plunging into snowdrifts that reached nearly to their waists, but keeping doggedly on to the rescue.

It was enough for the radio boys that some one was in trouble. Even roly-poly Jimmy, puffing painfully, but running gallantly along in the rear, had but one thought in his head, and that to help whoever needed help.

As they came nearer the cries became louder, and they thought they could distinguish three voices, and one seemed to be that of a woman.

Another minute they came upon a cleared s.p.a.ce and stopped still for a moment to stare at the amazing scene which met their eyes.

A woman stood, nearly knee deep in snow, waving her arms wildly, and even in that moment of astonishment they recognized her as Mrs.

Salper. She was gesticulating toward something in front of her and calling urgently to the boys to hurry.

Then the lads saw the cause of her distress. At the foot of a steep rise of ground, almost a small hill, was all that was to be seen of two girls. These latter had their heads above the snow that enveloped them and they were trying desperately to work their arms free of the icy blanket. From their expressions and from their wild cries for help it could be seen they were panic-stricken.

"A snowslide!" Joe, who was standing close to Bob, heard him mutter.

"Those girls had a narrow escape to keep from being buried entirely!"

The next moment he was dashing off in the direction of the two prisoners, shouting encouragement to Mrs. Salper. The others were close at his heels.

"We'll get you out all right," he called to the frightened girls, who had stopped their struggling and were looking at him hopefully. "Just keep still for a moment and save your breath. We'll have you out of there in a jiffy.

"Dig, fellows, for all you're worth," he added to the boys, who, as usual, looked to him for directions. "These girls must be pretty cold by this time."

For answer the boys did dig manfully, the imprisoned girls helping them as much as they could with their numb fingers, and before many minutes they had the snow cleared away sufficiently to be able to struggle through it to a spot where it was not so deep. The girls were, of course, Edna and Ruth Salper, the pretty daughters of the Wall Street broker.

Edna and Ruth were trembling with cold and with the shock of their recent accident, and Mrs. Salper ran to them, putting an arm about each of them protectingly and pouring out thanks to the embarra.s.sed boys.

"That's all right," said Bob, modestly. "We couldn't very well have done anything else, you know. I hope," he added with a glance at the shivering girls, "that the girls won't take cold."

"They will if I don't get them home quickly," said Mrs. Salper, adding, with a worried frown: "I wish we hadn't come so far from the house."

It was then that Joe broke in.

"I tell you what," he said, eagerly. "It isn't far to Mountain Rest----"

"And there's sure to be a fire in the grate up there," Bob finished for him.

"And it's a fire that will warm you up in a jiffy," added Herb with his most friendly smile.

"If we can only make it," sighed Mrs. Salper.

The radio boys knew of a short cut from this spot to Mountain Rest and along this they led the others as swiftly as they were able to travel.

And on the way they learned how it was that the girls had happened to be in such a predicament.