Chapter Four Summary

Violet and Klaus are standing at the entrance to the cave as Chapter Four opens. The voice they heard is that of Carmelita Spats, an especially mean girl they know from Prufrock Preparatory School. Carmelita demands to know who they are, not recognizing them herself because they have kept their faces covered. They respond they are simply hikers who want to escape the snow gnats.

Carmelita and several other young people are seated back in the cave around a campfire. They are dressed all in white, with mesh masks over their faces that protect them from snow gnats. Their leader is a man named Uncle Bruce, who also wears a mask. He invites the Baudelaire's in over Carmelita's protests and gives them masks.

Uncle Bruce explains that he is the leader of the Snow Scouts, a youth organization that goes on...