CHAPTER VI
A FINE CHANCE
The boys, following Sammy, broke into a run. With anxious eyes they looked toward where the ice-boat had broken through a great crack in the frozen surface of Rainbow Lake.
"There's somebody climbing out!" cried Frank, as he saw a figure pull itself up on the side of the overturned boat.
"But there are some others there!" exclaimed Sammy. "We've got to save them all! There's nobody else around!"
It was true. That part of the lake was deserted at this moment.
"How are we going to save them?" asked Bob, as he plodded on.
"I don't know how, but we've got to do it!" panted Sammy.
"Don't go too close, or the ice will give way with us," cautioned Frank.
"I was thinking of that," answered Sammy.
They were now nearing the boat. Part of it rested on firm ice, but the front part sagged into the water, and the sail was half covered. Sitting astride of the side of the craft was a boy whom Sammy and his chums recognized as Jed Burr.
"Anybody else there?" cried Sammy, as he came to a stop, and looked at the ice to see if it would be safe to go further.
"Yes!" cried Jed, as well as he could from shivering, for he was wet through, and very cold. "Hank Blair is there, and Jim Eaton!"
"Can you get 'em out?" asked Sammy. "Shall we run for help?"
"Time help gets here they'll be gone!" groaned Jed. "Oh, why didn't I see that crack?"
"Help! Help us out!" came faintly from the black water that could be seen through the opening of the ice.
Sammy and his chums, looking under the mast of the overturned ice-boat, saw two forms struggling in the water. Their hands clung to the edges of the ice, only to have it break off in their grasp. Then they would bob under again.
"We've got to save them!" cried Sammy.
"We can't!" moaned Bob. "Let's go for help!"
"Can you reach them?" asked Sammy of Jed, paying no attention to what Bob said.
"I could if I had a rope to throw to them. But I can't get a rope! Oh, what shall I do?"
Sammy was doing some hard and quick thinking. Something like a rope was needed so that Jed could hold one end and throw the other to the floundering lads. A rope? Where could they get one now? True there were ropes on the iceboat, but they could not be reached.
"I have it!" cried Sammy. "Our book straps! Quick, fellows, take the straps off your books!"
It was a bright idea. The straps were the very thing needed.
Now it happened that Sammy and his chums had very long book straps, much longer than were really needed. They were at least a yard in length, and often only a few books were carried in them. But the boys had a habit of also including their skates, and other playthings, in with their books, so they declared that long straps were needed.
Frank and Bob at once grasped Sammy's plan. In a trice they had loosed the buckles, and handed him their straps. He fastened the three together and thus had a leather rope almost ten feet long.
"That's the idea!" cried Jed, still shivering on the side of the ice-boat. "I can reach 'em with that!"
"You'd better—better reach us—s-s-s-soon!" called Jim Eaton, his teeth chattering with cold.
"That's—ri-ri-right!" shivered Hank Blair.
"Have you out in a jiffy now!" called Jed. "Throw me the strap, Sammy!"
"I'll bring it to you," said Sammy.
"No, don't. It mightn't be safe. The whole boat might slip into the water."
So Sammy tossed the three straps, fastened together as they were, to Jed, who caught them. The next moment, holding firmly to one end, Jed swung the other to Hank. Hank grasped it and carefully began to pull himself forward so he could reach the edge of the ice-boat. A very little help, from a person on a solid place, will allow a person in the water to lift himself up. The water buoys him, so to speak. You boys who have been in swimming know that if you keep low in the water you can support yourself by merely placing one finger on the edge of a pier or a boat.
It was so with Hank. Slowly, by means of the straps, he was pulled up until he could grasp the ice-boat.
"I—I'm all right now," he panted. "Get after Jim!"
He released his hold of the strap, and it was tossed to Jim. And not any too soon, either, for Jim could not hold on much longer. He was weak from the cold.
But he, too, was soon safely towed to a place where he could grasp the half-submerged ice-boat. All three was now comparatively safe.
"Now look out!" called Jed, as he threw back to Tommy 
Sammy tossed the three straps, fastened together.
the buckled straps. "I'm going to work my way to the solid ice, and you two fellows follow. Can you do it?"
"We've got to!" cried Jim, desperately.
"Go ahead—I'm with you!" exclaimed Hank.
Slowly Jed edged his way to where the stern of the iceboat rested on the solid, frozen surface. In a few seconds he was in safety, though he was wet and shivering, and his clothes were beginning to freeze to him.
"Come on!" he called to Hank and Jim, and they followed, but more slowly, for they were quite exhausted. But soon they, too, were safe.
"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Sammy Brown.
"So am I!" echoed his two chums.
"And maybe we aren't also, youngsters!" chattered Jed "We won't forget this on your part!"
"I should s-s-s-say n-n-n-not!" stammered Hank. "Those straps saved our lives!"
"Well, you'd better run home as soon as you can," advised Frank, "or you'll catch your death of cold."
"That's good advice," said Jed. "Come on. We can leave the ice-boat where it is for a while. I'm going to run and see if I can get warmed up. See you later, Sammy!"
He set off on a trot toward shore, his two soaked friends following. Sammy and his chums remained to look at the iceboat. Some men and boys came up then, too late, however, to help in the rescue. Then the men got ropes and pulled the ice-boat up on the hard surface, whence it was hauled to where it was kept tied up. Some of the ropes had broken, so that it could not be sailed.
"Sort of a queer accident," remarked Jerry Grow, who, with his dog Prince, had come up with the crowd. "Those fellows could have sailed almost anywhere else on Rainbow Lake and not gone through. But they had to pick out a spot over a spring, where it never freezes very thick, and of course they went through. There ought to be a mark put up here to warn ice-boats and skaters to keep off."
"We'll put one up," said Sammy, and a few days later they did mark the danger spot in the ice. It had frozen over again, and could not have been noticed except for the red box which Sammy and his chums placed there. Thus further accidents were avoided.
As for Jed and his companions, prompt action saved them from anything worse than slight colds. They got home, took hot baths, drank plenty of hot lemonade and, in a day or so, were out again.
It appeared that the three larger boys had bought the iceboat at second-hand from a man in another town. It was the first time they had tried it that they sailed over the thin ice, and went in.
"But it won't happen again," said Jed to Sammy, when he and Jim and Hank again met the three chums. "Thanks to you chaps we'll know where the danger spot is now."
"And thanks to them that we're not down there under the ice now," added Hank, with a slight shiver.
"That's right," chimed in Jim. "Say, any time you boys want a ride in our ice-boat, let us know."
"Sure enough!" exclaimed Jed. "Maybe you fellows would like to take a sail. It's perfectly safe on the lake now, and we've fixed the boat where she was broken that day."
"Is the ice safe?" asked Sammy.
"Sure," answered Jim. "It's frozen ever so much thicker than it was the day we went out, and besides, we won't go near the danger spot. Don't you want to come for a trip?"
"Fellows, I've an idea!" cried Sammy, looking at his chums.
"What, another?" asked Bob.
"Yes," went on Sammy, with a grin. "This is a fine chance for us. Christmas vacation starts next week. Why can't we go to Pine Island on the ice-boat, camp there a few days with Mr. Jessup, and have Jed come back for us—that is if he will?" and he looked at the former bully.
"Of course we'll come for you!" he exclaimed. "We'd do anything for you boys. We'll take you to Pine Island any time you say!"
"Then it's all settled!" spoke Sammy, though it was far from that. "We'll go camping with Mr. Jessup, and—we'll find out the secret of the old hermit," he added in a whisper to his chums.