I ever miet that Bill. Oh! shucks! but ain't it just too mean for anything. There—I was just about to say the rest of it. Bill—Bill—when it slipped up on me—Smith, Jones, Brown, whatever can it be?"
Frank laughed derisively at the persistence of his friend.
"I see that nobody is going to have any peace till you bark up that name. Wish I could help you out; but as it happens I don't seem to feel the same way. If I ever met him before it was when he looked different from what he does now."
"There! perhaps that may be the key to unlock the closed door. You've given me an idea that may do the trick. There's that wind heading us off again, so that I've got to tack to get on. But it's jolly good fun, anyhow. Whoop! what's happened?"
Lanky let out a yell with these last words. Even the steady Frank experienced a sudden thrill; for the ice-boat was brought up with an abrupt shock, and her tall mast, sail and all went crashing down over the starboard side, narrowly missing striking the crouching skipper in its descent!
When the Athletic Committee Met
CHAPTER IV
WHEN THE ATHLETIC COMMITTEE MET
"Wrecked in sight of port! Was there ever such luck?" groaned Lanky Wallace, as he picked himself up, having rolled off the tilting ice-boat upon the smooth surface of the frozen Harrapin.
Frank was already scrambling to his feet.
"Well, I declare, that's mighty funny!" he was muttering; as he looked at the wreck of the once proud and towering mast, now dragging over the side of the sadly demoralized craft.
"What hit us? You see we're away off from the shore, and for the life of me I can't see any rock or other obstruction on the ice. It's as smooth as velvet back where we tumbled. And that mast was strong enough to hold a big blow. Can you get on to the secret, Frank?" begged Lanky, rubbing his elbow ruefully.
"The thing upset, all right, but didn't you notice that she seemed to rear up like a horse on its hind legs. Say, come back here a little to where it happened. We've been carried past, on account of our momentum. Now, this was about the very spot where the cyclone struck us," and Frank drew his chum along until they had retreated a dozen or more yards.
"Well, show me! I must be blind, for outside of that rug which we dumped, bless my eyes if I can see anything here that would kick us that way," and rubbing his knuckles into his eyes Lanky stared around.
"That's so, as far as the ice is concerned; but I think I've caught on to the answer to the puzzle," remarked Frank, with a touch of sudden anger in his voice.
"Then tell me about it. I'm just dying for information. It's bad enough to be worrying about that Bill mystery without having another shoved on me. What turned us turtle, and snapped off my beautiful mast like a pipe stem, eh?"
"Look up and see!" remarked Frank, grimly. No sooner had the startled Lanky done so than he gave utterance to a cry of astonishment and chagrin.
"Why, what's that? As sure as I live it looks like a cable stretched across the river in this narrow place. How did we ever come to miss it before when we came up?" he ejaculated.
"We didn't have to. You know as well as I do that if that cable had been there we'd have seen it; and neither of us did," replied Frank, gravely.
"Do you mean—ginger! somebody must have put it there since we went up! Is that what you mean, Frank?" cried Lanky.
"Doesn't it stand to reason? Perhaps you might even guess who'd be most likely to play such a nasty trick as this?" went on the other.
"Lef Seller and Bill Klemm! Of course it was them! They knew we'd be coming back this way, and meant to upset us, perhaps smash my boat. Where'd they ever get the cable, do you suppose?" Lanky asked, perhaps a trifle stunned by the enormity of the prank indulged in by those under discussion.
"Wake up. Lanky, and think," said Frank, energetically. "Don't you see, we're directly opposite the quarries where the brown stone is taken out in summer? The place is shut up now, but under a shed a lot of material is lying. I can remember seeing a strong wire cable there that was used for something. Lef knew about it too, and I suppose the idea flashed into his scheming brain to use it in upsetting your boat."
"He did it, all right; broke my mast off, seems like, or wrecked it anyway. I'd just like to hammer him for this. Why, what if the thing had smashed down on our heads, it might have cracked our cocos!" exclaimed the other, in indignation.
"Lef seldom considers what a serious result may follow, when he sets about carrying out a joke. Remember the time he cut the electric light wires when we were having that entertainment in the big school hall, leaving the audience in the dark? Came near having a panic then that might have been terrible. Well, what are we going to do about it, Lanky?"
"Let's take a look at the mast. If it can be put up temporarily perhaps we can wiggle home yet with decency. Otherwise I guess it's a case of push with us," and the angry skipper of the wrecked craft hurried back to take a reckoning.
"Give us a hand here, Frank; I'm going to try to see if it can be stuck in once more, strong enough to hold out. There she goes up! Now, a little this way, and hold steady while I chuck in a few wedges to grip her."
"She seems to stand pretty good," remarked Frank, presently.
"Sure as you're born; and we're going to get home under our own steam, as we'd say if we had a boat that ran that way. Well, we're some lucky, after all. The fellow who never has an accident deserves little credit; but those who meet with all sorts of trouble, and conquer, ought to get special mention. And we belong to that class to-night, with our two collisions," and Lanky patted himself on the chest in appreciation.
"Hear! hear! Never were truer words spoken in jest. And if this sort of luck only follows us all through our career when we get out in the big world, there's nothing on earth going to keep us from bringing the bacon home," Frank observed.
"All aboard again then, passengers for Columbia! I'm getting ravenously hungry, and my folks will be sending to the police to look for me under the ice if I don't show up soon. Ready, Frank? Then off we go!"
"Better luck this time. Be ready for anything unexpected; for when that Lef Seller starts in to doing stunts he never knows when to stop. I'm going to watch overhead, and you keep close tabs on the ice. Lanky."
But they met with no new adventure, and after a little the ice-boat was brought safely into the cove where Lanky had a house in which he could place his novel craft, after unstepping the mast.
"Fll get at it in the morning, and repair damages," he remarked, as he locked the door after stowing things away.
"It's been a pretty lively afternoon, all told," remarked Frank.
"I should say so, what with that race, the deliberate attempt to bust my boat into flinders, the acceptance of the challenge, and our meeting with that upset on the way home. Then there's that plagued mystery hanging over Bill. Wish I could only say it right out, Bill, who? I guess Tm a punk hand to solve riddles, when I can't even remember a name."
"Perhaps you'll have it revealed to you in a dream to-night," suggested Frank, humorously, and digging his companion in the ribs.
"Well, stranger things have happened. I'll be thinking of it when I drop on my downy couch, all right," grumbled the other, who took the matter seriously.
"Why, a fellow would think the fate of nations depended on your remembering just where you happened to meet that tramp before. It's funny how you carry on. Lanky, old boy. Tell me when you suddenly see a great light, won't you?"