midday
But the three just starting down the slide could not distinguish his words . Jennie shut her eyes tight the moment the toboggan lurched forward , so she could not possibly see anything that lay before them . Ruth peered over the stout girl 's shoulder , the wind half blinding her eyes with tears . But the moonlight lay so brilliantly upon the track that it was revealed like midday . Something lay prone and black upon the icy surface of the slide . It seemed to Ruth Fielding , as the toboggan dashed down the chute toward that strange object in their course , as though her lips were glued together . She could not speak -- she could not utter a sound .