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Presently the clouds lifted and broke, showing blue sky and one streak of sunshine But the augury ithout warrant The wind increased A huge black pall bore down fro in sheets fro wall Soon it enveloped the fugitives
With head bowed, Helen rode along for what seeray rain that blew al a finethe ray, wet plain a dreary sight Helen's feet and knees were as wet as if she had waded in water And they were cold Her gloves, too, had not been intended for rain, and they et through The cold bit at her fingers so that she had to beat her hands together Ranger misunderstood this to mean that he was to trot faster, which event orse for Helen than freezing
She saw another black, scuddingsheets of rain, and this one appeared streaked hite Snow! The as now piercingly cold Helen's body kept warly She gazed ahead grio on Dale and Roy were hunched down in their saddles, probably wet through, for they wore no rain-proof coats Bo kept close behind them, and plain it was that she felt the cold
This second storm was not so bad as the first, because there was less rain Still, the icy keenness of the wind bit into thewhich the horses trotted on, trotted on Again the gray torrent roared away, the fine ain, darkened for another onslaught This one brought sleet The driving pellets stung Helen's neck and cheeks, and for a while they fell so thick and so hard upon her back that she was afraid she could not hold up under the coverlet of marbles of ice
Thus, storrew nuers, because of her ceaseless efforts to keep up the circulation, retained the stinging pain And now the wind pierced right through her She marveled at her endurance, and there were many times that she believed she could not ride farther Yet she kept on All the winters she had ever lived had not brought such a day as this Hard and cold, wet and windy, at an increasing elevation--that was the explanation The air did not have sufficient oxygen for her blood