"All my fault," remarked Bart gloomily. "I guess I'm a Jonah, I picked out the wrong moment to take a tumble. Now we're in a fine mess." "We've been in worse," said Billy cheerily, "and pulled through them just the same." "That's the way to talk!" exclaimed Frank heartily, giving Billy a slap on the back. "We'll get out of this scrape as we have out of a lot of others. At the worst, it's only a matter of having to wait till daylight. We're worth a dozen dead men yet. At any rate we've got grub with us, so that there's no danger of our starving." "How about freezing to death?" said Tom, who was always inclined to see the dark side of things. "We won't do that either," replied Frank. "That is, if we keep moving, and that's what we've got to do. It may not get us anywhere, but at least it will keep the blood circulating. Then too, there's the odd chance of our stumbling upon some hut or other where we can find some kind of shelter." "Better let me go first, then," put in Bart. "I'm good at stumbling. In fact it's my long suit." They all laughed and felt better. "We don't know where we're going, but we're on the way," sang out Billy, as they began to trudge forward. They had plenty of rations with them, and they munched some food as they went along. It was cold comfort, but it was comfort just the same. "Oh, you hot coffee!" murmured Billy, and at the picture that he conjured up the others groaned. The snow was now knee deep and showed no signs of letting up, though the wind had abated somewhat in violence. They plodded on through the heavy drifts that clutched at their tired legs like so many nightmare hands trying to hold them back to their destruction. They were young and hardy, but their physical strength was sorely tested by the battle with the elements. Their hearts were thumping as though they would burst through their ribs, and their breath came in gasps. Suddenly Frank's keen eyes caught sight of a dark mass that seemed to stand out even blacker than the darkness which was everywhere around them. He rubbed his eyes clear of the snow that clung to the lashes and looked again. Then he gave a shout. "We've found it, boys!" he yelled. "There's a building of some kind just ahead of us. See it? See it?" They looked and saw, and with a joyful shout make a break for shelter. CHAPTER IV THE RUINED CASTLE As the Army Boys drew closer, the building seemed to grow in size. Wing after wing detached itself from the mass that seemed to cover fully an acre of ground. There were no fences to hinder their approach, but there were great masses of broken blocks and masonry through which they had to wind their way before they found themselves before a frowning tower, whose peak rose above the top of a quadrangular group of buildings surrounding it. "Why, it's an old castle of some kind!" exclaimed Frank, as they paused at the foot of the tower, spent and breathless.