Part 20 (1/2)
With eager fingers Marian straightened out the twelve feet of double-strand leather thong
”There! There! They're dohispered Lucile
”You stay here If they rise and fly away, callaround two piles of ice, Marian threw herself flat and began to crawl the re distance across a flat pan of ice Her heart was beating wildly, for in her veins there flowed a strain of the hunter's blood of her Briton ancestors of enerations back
Now she was forty feet away, noenty, now ten, and the ducks had not flown Stretching out the thong, she rose on an elbow and set the balls whirling over her head Once, twice, three ti and with one h the air
The young ducks, craning their necks with curiosity, did notat the toward the had encircled, this move was too late, for Marian was upon hi very ray duck dangling froht arm, Marian returned in triuot him!”
”Fine! You shall have a medal,” said Lucile
”But hoill_ we cook hiht, ”it's growing colder; going to freeze hard They say freezingit I don't know--”
”Look!” cried Marian suddenly, balancing herself at the crest of a high pile of ice ”What's all that black a little way over there to the left? It's not like ice Do you suppose it could be an island?”
”Is the ice piling there?” Lucile asked, clinging to her friend's side
”No, it isn't, so it can't be an island, for the island would stop the ice as it flows and make it pile up”
”But what can it be?”
”We can't go over there, for we can't see our flag from there”
”Yes, we can,” said Marian ”I'll take off my petticoat and put it on this ice-pile We can see it fro”
This new beacon was soon established Then, with treirls hastened to what appeared to be an oasis in a desert of ice
CHAPTER XIII
STRANGE DISCOVERIES
It was a strange sight that irls as they paused halfway to the dark patch on the surface of the ice which looer feet they dashed on, leaping narrow chas over ice barriers in their mad rush
The revelation which came as they rounded the last pile of ice was both a surprise and a disappointment Great heaps of ashes, piles of bottles and tin cans, frozen e; junk of every description, froe, raveyard,” s people don't want”
”That some people didn't want!” corrected the more practical Lucile
”Marian, we're rich!”
”Rich?” Marian stared