CHAPTER XI
THE “ICEBIRD” IN TROUBLE
THE cries of the children, as they slid over the ice, were lost in the howling wind.
Suddenly Nan felt a thud through her whole body and found she had been slammed against a dock. She got up cautiously, still clinging to one of the pilings, and was glad to find she had not been injured.
“Bert! Harry! Dorothy!” she called. There was no answer. Nan’s heart sank.
As she looked around fearfully, Nan noticed that the gale had died as suddenly as it had come up. The slate-gray clouds had passed over and a feeble ray of sunlight shone on the ice.
“Nan! Nan!” Bert called as he struggled toward the overturned iceboat. Where are you?”
“Over here,” his twin answered and waved from the dock.
Turning around, she was surprised to see Dorothy clinging to another piling at the far end. “Are you all right?” she called to her cousin.
“Just a little battered,” the girl answered cheerfully. “How are the others?”
In reply Nan pointed toward the Icebird. Harry and Bert were struggling to right it. The two girls made their way over to the boat, and in a few minutes the four children had pulled it to the dock.
“Whew!” Bert gasped. “That was some experience. It’s a lucky thing none of us was hurt!”
“What happened?” Harry asked.
“I don’t know,” Bert admitted. “Let’s see if we can find out.”
Carefully the two boys examined the mainsheet which had snapped in the gale, causing the craft to tip over.
Suddenly Bert exclaimed, “This line was cut! Sliced almost halfway through ! See?” He held up both ends of the rope, pointing out that only half the strands had frayed apart. The others had obviously been cut. “I can’t understand why I didn’t notice it before we started!”
“Somebody did this deliberately,” Harry said grimly. “But who?”
Bert dropped the rope and looked up. “Good night!” he exclaimed. “It must have been the guy I saw getting off the boat!”
“What do you mean, Bert?” Nan asked. “When did you see anybody?”
Her brother told them about the figure he had seen running from the iceboat as they drove up.
“What did he look like?” Dorothy asked.
“We were too far away for me to see that,” Bert explained. “He was medium height and had on a black coat and cap.”
“Perhaps it was the Black Monster!” Nan exclaimed.
“Well, he really is a monster to cut that rope on the Icebird,” Dorothy remarked indignantly.
“Of course having the line break wouldn’t have been too dangerous if it hadn’t been for that heavy wind,” Bert countered. “Why do you suppose he did it?”
“To keep us from going to Snow Lodge!” Dorothy exclaimed.
“He can’t do that,” Bert replied determinedly. “Come on, Harry, let’s splice the mainsheet right now. The Icebird seems perfectly all right otherwise.”
With fingers stiff from the cold, the boys took more than fifteen minutes to repair the line. Nan and Dorothy chased one another around the dock to keep warm.
When the splicing job was finally completed, Nan made a suggestion. “Why don’t we see if we can make a fire, then have the sandwiches and doughnuts and hot chocolate that Dinah gave us?”
“Great,” Harry agreed. “I’m about frozen!”
The children scurried about accumulating stray sticks of dry wood and in a short while had a small fire going. “Boy! This feels good,” Bert commented as he stretched his cold hands toward the blaze.
Nan opened the box of sandwiches and passed it around while Dorothy poured the steaming cocoa into paper cups.
“Mm yum,” Harry remarked as he bit into a cheese sandwich. “Now I’ll be able to make it to Snow Lodge!”
When they had finished the doughnuts and the last drop of cocoa, Nan stood up. “How about skating, Dorothy?” she suggested. “We ought to be able to keep up with the boat for a while. We can climb aboard again when we get tired.”
Dorothy nodded enthusiastically, and the girls laced on their skates. Bert and Harry shoved the boat off and hopped aboard.
“Let’s see if we can make the Icebird outrun them,” Bert whispered to Harry.
Grinning, Harry nodded and took over the tiller. Soon the little craft began to pick up speed. Nan and Dorothy skated faster and faster trying to keep up. But little by little they fell behind.
Finally Nan called. “You win! Slow down so we can come aboard!”
The boys hove to, and the girls climbed onto the deck. “Wow!” Dorothy cried. “I think I’d just as soon ride the rest of the way!”
A short while later Bert glanced uneasily at the western horizon where dark, menacing clouds were gathering rapidly. “Looks like another storm,” he remarked. “I hope we can make Snow Lodge before it breaks. The house can’t be too far from here.”
For a few minutes it looked as if they might be able to reach the lodge ahead of the storm. The rising wind bellied the Icebird’s sail and sent the craft whizzing over the ice much faster than before. But the skies continued to darken, and soon Nan felt a snowflake on her cheek.
With astonishing speed, the snowfall thickened until the shoreline was only a hazy line seen through the wind-driven flakes. Desperately Bert and Harry peered ahead, straining their eyes to keep the shore in view so the craft could hold on course.
Huddled together with their backs to the wind, Nan and Dorothy were too cold and worried to say a word. Soon the snow was like a thick cotton veil, covering the boat and shutting out all sound. Gradually the wind slackened and the Icebird slowed to a turtle’s pace.
“I can’t see the shore!” Bert shouted. “But I guess it doesn’t matter. The snow’s so thick on the ice that the runners are beginning to get bogged down.”
“And now the wind’s almost gone,” Harry added. “Looks as if we’re marooned, kids.”
Nan tried to remain calm. “Can’t we go the rest of the way to Snow Lodge on foot, Bert?” she asked. “We must be almost there.”
“We’ll have to try,” Bert agreed in a grim voice. “Everybody over the side. We’ll haul the Icebird to shore and tie her up.”
The children pulled on the boat’s mooring line steadily, knowing the shore could not be far away. Soon they spotted a stump and lashed the craft fast, then furled the sail.
“Now,” Bert said encouragingly, stamping his cold feet, “if we hug the shoreline and just keep going, we’re bound to find Snow Lodge.”
Nan and Dorothy nodded gamely, suppressing shivers. The air had grown bitter during the past half-hour and seemed chillier with every passing moment.
“Bert, you lead the way, then Nan and Dorothy follow,” Harry directed. “I’ll bring up the rear. Let’s go—one, two, three, march!” he shouted cheerfully, trying to sound like an army sergeant.
A few minutes later the wind picked up again, hurling its cargo of snow at the struggling children. They had to bend almost double to keep their balance, and progress seemed impossible at times.
“Any sign of the lodge, Bert?” Harry shouted. But the howling wind swept away his words, and they all plodded along silently.
Finally, blinded by the stinging flakes and half frozen, the children huddled together behind a fallen tree trunk away from the wind. “We’ll rest here a minute, then go on,” Bert gasped.
Nan’s fingers and feet were numb, and she knew the others were equally miserable. The snow was like a heavy white blanket which seemed to smother them.
“Will we ever find Snow Lodge in this storm?” Dorothy murmured.
“We’ll freeze if we stay here,” Harry said after a few minutes. “We’ll have to start on if we’re ever going to find Snow Lodge.”
“Yes, we must hurry,” Nan agreed. “And I’ll bet Mother and Dad will be terribly worried about us in this storm.”
The four scrambled to their feet and resumed plodding single file through the blinding snowstorm. Trying to follow the shoreline, they were forced to scramble over rocks and detour around fallen trees.
A little later Dorothy broke the silence to exclaim, “I think the snow’s letting up a little. I can make out things ahead more easily.”
Raising their heads, the others saw that Dorothy was right. Wearily they stumbled on, but now with a tiny spark of hope to warm them.
Fifteen minutes passed. Then Nan gave a sharp cry and sat down in the snow with such suddenness that Harry, walking behind her, nearly fell over her. Bert and Dorothy turned back.
“What’s the matter, sis?” Bert asked anxiously.
“I—I’ve got a Charlie horse in my leg,” Nan said with a wince. “What a time to have this happen!”
“Try to stand up,” Dorothy suggested. “Maybe it will work out.”
Nan struggled to her feet, grimacing with pain. She stamped on her foot to get rid of the cramp in her leg. But it did no good. Finally Bert and Harry, although their hands were numb with cold, massaged her leg enough to relieve the muscle tension and to stir up the circulation.
“It’s better now,” Nan said in relief. “I think I can go on all right.”
With Bert in the lead again they struggled on, each one concentrating only on putting one foot ahead of the other.
Suddenly Dorothy gave a happy cry. “A light! I see one through the trees!”
