Page:Tom Swift in the Caves of Ice.djvu/220

210 But his honor was an empty one—no one cared to dispute it with him.

"Bless my refrigerator! What's to be done!" exclaimed Mr. Damon.

"Start from here as soon as possible," decided Abe.

"Why, do you think the natives will come back?" asked Ned.

"No, but we have only a small supply of food, my lad, an' it's hard to git up here. We must hit th' trail fer civilization as soon as we kin!"

"Go back—how; without the airship?" asked Tom, blankly.

"Walk!" exclaimed the miner, grimly. "It's th' only way."

They realized that. There was no hope of digging through that mass of fantastically piled ice to reach the airship, and, even if they could have done so, it would have been crushed beyond all hope of repair. Nor could they dig down for food, though what they had hastily saved was little enough.

"Well, if we've got to go, we'd better start, suggested Tom, sadly. "Poor old Red Cloud!"

"Maybe we can get a little more gold," suggested Ned.

They walked over to the hole whence they had taken the yellow nuggets. The "pocket"