"I---I---I"m afraid," chattered Ripley. "You come with me!"
"It"ll be a good deal easier if you can go first, and alone,"
spoke the freshman, rather sternly. "I think I can keep myself afloat until you get over to solid ice. Then the rope can be thrown back to me."
"I"m afraid, I tell you," insisted Fred, his teeth clicking against each other. "Can"t you see that I"m all in?"
"You"ll have us both all in, if you don"t get some courage together,"
young Prescott insisted. "Come, be a man, Ripley!"
"I"m freezing to death here," moaned Ripley, closing his eyes.
Somehow---he could never tell just how, afterwards, d.i.c.k managed to slip the rope under Fred"s shoulders. With infinite effort---for he had to keep them both afloat, the freshman double-knotted the rope.
"Come, now, you"ve got to help yourself across the ice, while Dave hauls on the line," urged d.i.c.k.
Fred made a motion as though to bestir himself but he did it so feebly that Prescott gave him a sharp pinch.
"Ouch!" flared Fred, now seeming to be wide awake. "Prescott, you have the upper hand here. Don"t be a bully!"
"I don"t want to," spoke d.i.c.k, quietly, trying to keep his own teeth from rattling. "But you"ve got to stir yourself, or else I must do it for you. Now, get started over the thin ice.
Dave will haul. Never mind if the ice breaks under you; the rope is tied around you. You"re sure to be hauled to safety if you help yourself. Now, then, Dave! Begin to haul in!"
It needed another pinch to make Fred Ripley bestir himself properly.
He half whimpered in protest, but Prescott was past minding _that_.
Hardly had Ripley gotten his full weight upon the ice than it broke under him. He splashed into the water with a great howl, but alert Dave Darrin hauled in just enough of the rope. Ripley was safe, and could make the next attempt to get out on the ice.
Meanwhile, Prescott swam to another part of the ice edge. He rested his hands on that edge, not heavily, but just enough for some support. At the same time he kept his tired, aching, almost frozen legs in motion just to keep himself from growing any more numb.
Four times Fred Ripley broke through the thin ice, but each time Dave Darrin, astride the first raft, pulled in on the rope just in time.
After getting himself out of the water for the fifth time, Ripley crawled over stronger ice, and went on past the hole in which Dave sat on the raft.
Then Ripley was able to get to his feet, tottering toward the sh.o.r.e, shaking as though with fever and chills.
A cheer went up from those who watched. The enthusiasm would have been vastly greater had not the crowd had its eyes on d.i.c.k Prescott, who must yet be saved if aid could reach him before his numbed limbs could sustain him no longer.
"Get that rope off, Ripley," bawled Dave Darrin. "Hurry! I must throw it to d.i.c.k, or he"ll go down!"
"I can"t get it off," mumbled Fred, tugging vainly, almost aimlessly, as he still moved coveward.
As he was on staunch ice, now, three or four men ran toward him.
One, with a sharp knife, waved the others away and quickly slashed the noose away from Fred"s shoulders.
"Go on, you pup!" grumbled the man with the knife. "Now, we"ll try to get help to the _man_!"
Fred was not too far spent to flash angrily at that taunt.
"You"d better be careful whom you speak to like that!" snarled Ripley. "You"re a low-bred fellow, anyway!"
But the man who had slashed the rope free didn"t even hear. He had turned toward Darrin, to make sure that Dave could draw the rope toward him fast enough.
"One of you people get Ripley"s skates off for him, and help him ash.o.r.e," called Tom Reade.
"Why don"t _you_?" some one in the crowd answered.
"Because my job," retorted Reade, "is keeping my eyes on my chum, ready to help if anything comes up that I can do."
Four or five hurried to Fred"s aid. He had been walking on his skates, which, at best, is an awkward style of locomotion. Two men held him up, while two of the H.S. boys quickly took off his skates. After that Fred, leaning on one of the H.S. boys, made much quicker time to the sh.o.r.e.
Here a man with a sleigh waited.
"Pile him in here," directed the driver. "Dr. Gilbert has gone up to the Avery House and is getting things ready. I"ll have Ripley back in a jiffy."
"Oh, that"s all right," sang out a boy in the freshman cla.s.s.
"But the main thing is to hustle back and be ready to take d.i.c.k Prescott."
"And I"ll pray all through the round trip that you may get Prescott back to sh.o.r.e alive," fervently replied the driver, as he brought the whip down across the horse"s back.
Dave Darrin, too, was chilled. That was why, when he had drawn all the rope in and had coiled it, he made a throw that fell short.
"Courage, d.i.c.k, old fellow," he shouted. "I"ll get it to you, in a jiffy."
Nervously, quickly, Dave hauled in the rope. He coiled rapidly, yet with care.
"Now, may Heaven give me the strength to throw this coil far enough to do the trick!" prayed Dave Darrin, as he made the second cast.
There was frenzy behind that throw. Hurrah! There was four feet of rope to spare as it splashed into the open part where d.i.c.k still hung, though he was fast weakening.
"There"s a noose on the end---I fixed it, d.i.c.k! Get it over your head and under your shoulders!" bawled Dave Darrin.
It was only the coolness of a last desperate hope that enabled the freshman to adjust the noose sufficiently.
"All r-r-r-i-ight!" he called, unable to make any further effort to stop the rattling of his teeth.
"Come on, then!" cheered Dave.
It was team play between two freshmen, but it was worked out.
d.i.c.k, after a while, reached solid ice. Tom Reade and Dan Dalzell risked themselves a good deal in going far out to meet him. But they got their leader and rushed him toward the cove.
Soon a dozen H.S. boys were running around d.i.c.k. Some of them had him upon their shoulders; others were trying to help.
As they rushed him across the cove to the sleigh that had just arrived, the cheering was deafening.
Others in the crowd had already run up along the road, which was lined as d.i.c.k and Darrin were driven along as fast as the horse could go. Tom Reade stood on the runners behind. As soon as the door of the hotel was reached, Reade aided the driver in rushing the boys inside.
Even here the cheering followed them in volleys.
"Come on---into a cold room with you, at first," ordered Dr. Gilbert, appearing, while a dozen H.S. boys came in his wake. "You don"t want to get near a fire yet. Strip them, both, lads, and rub them down for all you"re worth. Don"t mind peeling a little skin off!"