Part 2 (2/2)
Of course the very swiftness of their pa.s.sage would be one means of safety; for the ice-boat could skim across a small stretch where a skater would most surely break in. But Fred did not mean to take any more chances than necessity demanded; and Bristles, though commonly known as a reckless fellow, had promised to steer clear of any spot which his companion told him was unsafe.
Both of the boys were very fond of this sort of sport. It was a delight to them to feel themselves being carried along over the ice at a merry clip, with the steel runners singing a sweet tune, and the wind humming through the dangling ropes.
The sh.o.r.e fairly flew past them, once the iceboat got fairly started; and it seemed almost no time before they glimpsed the smoke from the factories of Mechanicsburg, which was just three miles above their home town, and on the same bank of the frozen Modunk.
”Keep a bright outlook while we're pa.s.sing!” called out Fred; ”they may have been cutting ice up here, as they were early in the Winter, though the openings froze over again.”
”Looks a bit suspicious over to the right, and I'll hug this sh.o.r.e. Give me a call if you see any hole ahead, so I can sheer off, Fred.”
”That's what I will, Bristles, you can depend on it!”
Already they had come abreast the lower houses. The breeze had even freshened a little, or else the bank was somewhat lower, so they caught its full force. At any rate, they fairly rushed past the busy manufacturing town, where there were a number of big mills and factories, giving employment to hundreds of hands.
”Somebody's waving his hat to us on the bank up there, and shouting in the bargain,” called Bristles, who was too busily engaged in looking straight ahead to turn his eyes aslant.
”Yes, and I think it's Felix Wagner,” admitted Fred. ”Looked like his figure, but I can't squirm around so as to see again. Doesn't matter much anyway. Hi! there, turn out a little more, Bristles; you're heading for a hole! Not too far, because there's another just as bad stretching out from the other side. Careful now, boy; a little too much either way, and we're in for a ducking!”
”Just room enough to get through, I reckon, Fred. Whee! that's going to be a tight hole for us. I hope we can make the riffle, all right!”
”Steady, a little bit more to the left; now a quick swing the other way, and we're over safely enough. Say, that was as pretty handling of an ice-boat as I ever saw done. You deserve a heap of credit for that job, Bristles, and that's straight!”
”Thanks, awfully, Fred,” said the other, in rather an unsteady voice; ”but all the same, I'm glad we're well across the narrow pa.s.s. My heart seemed to climb right up into my throat. I tell you I never would have made it only for you tipping me off the way you did.”
”Yes you would, Bristles, even if you'd been alone, because you must have seen how the lay of the ice ran for yourself. But I hope we don't strike another place like that above. I don't think we shall, though they cut ice and let it float down till it gets opposite the town; but that's done only on one side, as a rule.”
They had quickly left the smoky town far behind them, and on both sides of the river could now be seen snow-covered farms, patches of woods, sloping hillsides, and now and then little hamlets. Once they pa.s.sed what seemed to be a lumber camp, at which some st.u.r.dy men were at work, getting logs ready to float down the river with the usual Spring freshet.
Occasionally it was not so easy to make progress. This was when the crooked river took a sudden turn, and they had the breeze from a different quarter. But since Bristles knew how to manage his strange craft very well, they overcame all such difficulties, and continued to make rapid headway for some little time.
”The holes seem to be getting worse up around here,” remarked Bristles, after he had had to execute several speedy movements in order to avoid running into dangerous spots.
”Yes, and as it's getting rougher in the bargain, as well as narrow between the banks, perhaps we'd better call a halt, and start back,”
suggested Fred.
”Let's make that turn up yonder,” urged the skipper. ”I remember there's something of a wider span there, and I'd like to try swinging around without stopping, if I can. Last time I made a stab at doing the same, I piled up ash.o.r.e in a wreck; but the wind's in my favor to-day. You can't down a Carpenter, that's all there is to it.”
”Just as you say, Bristles; I'm game to stick it out with you. Swing over a little farther, so as to get all the s.p.a.ce you can for turning.
Listen, wasn't that somebody screaming; or could it have been a locomotive whistling for a crossroad?”
”I heard it too, Fred,” said Bristles, hastily, ”and give you my word for it I think it came from around the bend there. We'll turn in before you can count twenty. There it is again, Fred, and worse than before.
Somebody's in, the chances are, and I only hope we get on hand in time to be of help.”
As the flying ice-boat turned the bend and they could begin to see the wider stretch of the Mohunk, both boys eagerly waited to discover what the cause of all that screaming could be.
CHAPTER IV
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