Around the Horse-shoe it was like a quiet nook, and the snow fell almost perpendicularly. At Rocky Point there was more wind again. Peering out through the windshield, the Superintendent could scarcely see anything, but by signs more than actual sight he knew that the snow-noses were many and were building far out. He could never exactly figure any logic to the ways of drifting snow. Against a telephone pole the snow always built out on the windward side. But at the crest of a cliff and along a cut in the road, it built out on the lee side. Farther and farther it would reach into space until the big blunt nose hung six or eight feet in the clear over the highway. Then eventually it grew too heavy and dropped, not doing any harm except to make a lot of mess for the plows to clean up. Some time, he supposed, a snow-nose would light on top of a car. Even so, it would probably not hurt anything, but it would certainly surprise the people in the car, and half scare them to death.

Below Rocky Point he met another rotary, also working up-grade on the inside. It seemed too close to the first one, but probably the operator was following orders from the foreman. Passing, the Superintendent leaned out, and caught a glimpse of big Peters in the rotary’s cab.

He drove to the gates at the lake. Even at this slight distance to the east of the Sierra the snowfall was noticeably lighter. Beyond this point the rotaries were only needed occasionally, and a few miles farther was the open sage-brush country of Nevada which got hardly any snow at all.

As usual some drivers had come to this point without chains. A tow-car from a Truckee garage was standing by, like a vulture, waiting for people to get into trouble. The garage-man was putting chains on one car, but around another car two men were working unskillfully in the snow while a woman now and then lowered the window-glass far enough to yell advice at them.

The Superintendent drove up the highway again. A big snow-nose had fallen, but it had left one lane still open. He passed the rotary, and tooted to Peters and Swenson. Just then he saw a tire-chain lying in the road; he stopped the car, and got out to pick up the chain so that it wouldn’t get tangled up with the rotary.