CHAPTER XXII
THE ICE BOAT
Fordham Hill was over a mile long, and it was so wide that several bigbobsleds could go down abreast. Thus a race could be going on, andindependent coasting could be indulged in at the same time.
“Let me steer, Jerry,” begged Ned, for the tall lad had taken his placeat the wheel.
“Why do you want to steer?”
“I want to beat that sneak, that’s why! He thinks he’s all there is,with his bunch of girls from town. I’m going to beat him!”
“All right,” Jerry assented. “Only look out for yourself, that’s all.I’ve heard of Frank’s bob. It’s a fast one, and he knows how to handleit. Ours is a bit stiff.”
“Oh, I’ll beat him all right. You get the crowd aboard.”
It was perhaps but natural that Ned should wish to win against hisenemy, and Frank was Ned’s enemy rather than that of either Bob orJerry.
“Pile on! Get your places!” yelled Bart. “Here’s where we win the hotchocolates!”
“Get ready, boys!” called Jerry, who went to the rear of the bobsled,there to handle the brake lever. For the big bobsleds had brakes--asort of spike that dug down in the snow and retarded the progress ofthe sled. Frank’s bobsled was similarly equipped, and Bill Hamilton wasto be the brakesman.
A number of girls from Fordham, whom Jerry, Ned and Bob had met atdances, took their places on the sled of our heroes. There were aboutthe same number of boys as girls on Frank’s coaster also.
Several lads volunteered to push off, and for a time there was moreinterest in the race than in the other coasting.
“All ready?” asked Bart of Jerry, from the rear where he sat.
“All ready,” Jerry answered.
“Push!” cried Bart.
“Push!” echoed Jerry.
The boys behind the two bobsleds exerted their strength, and the longcoasters, with their loads of laughing, shouting and merry boys andgirls, began to move slowly. Once over the crest of the hill theygathered momentum, until they were shooting down the moonlit streak ofice and snow at ever increasing speed.
In places water had been poured over the snow, and this in freezing hadadded a glair that increased the speed of the sleds.
A coasting race is a peculiar one. Given two sleds of exactly the samesize, with equally polished runners, and with weights nearly the same,start them at the same time, and one will get to the bottom of the hillahead of the other.
Try it again, and the results may be reversed. Just why this is so itis hard to say, unless it is that the winning sled may, without theknowledge of the rider, strike more slippery places than the other. Ofcourse, weight has something to do with it, once the sleds are started,the more heavily laden one acquiring greater momentum. But sometimeseven that may not count.
The bobsled of our heroes and that of Frank Watson were about evenlyweighted, but, as Jerry had said, the steering gear of theirs was alittle stiff, while their rival had a new sled in excellent condition.
“But we’ll beat him,” said Ned to Bob, who sat behind him.
“I hope so,” agreed Chunky.
So far the sleds were on even terms, almost in a straight line with oneanother. Then, as the slope of the hill became steeper, Frank graduallyforged ahead.
“He’s going to win,” said Bob.
“The race isn’t over yet,” muttered Ned, yet he was a bit doubtful nowas to the outcome.
“Come on there! Come on!” shouted those on Frank’s sled to those on theother. “Come on, we’re leaving you behind!”
“We’re coming!” shrilly cried the girls on the second bobsled.
“We’ll tell them that when we reach the bottom of the hill,” answeredtheir rivals.
Farther and farther ahead forged Frank’s sled. It was half a lengthin the lead now, and though Ned tried to pick out the smoothest andslipperiest places, he could not gain anything.
Then, suddenly, without any apparent reason for it, unless it was thatit came to a glair in the ice, Frank’s bobsled shot swiftly ahead,until, in a few seconds, it was leading by two lengths.
“Oh you hot chocolates!” taunted the leaders, laughingly.
And then, still apparently for no reason, Frank sent his sled, whichwas on the right of Ned’s, diagonally across the course, in front ofthe sled behind, a rather dangerous proceeding.
“What’s he doing that for?” cried Ned. “Brakes there, Jerry, or we’llrun into him!”
Jerry jammed down the brakes, and only just in time, for their bobsledseemed suddenly to acquire new speed, and it almost crashed into theone ahead.
There was a scraping in the hard snow, which flew up in a showerbehind, and several of the girls screamed. Then Ned cried:
“All right! Off brakes! Now we’ll beat him!”
For Ned saw on the course Frank had chosen to abandon, a long stretchof hard, icy snow, and he knew that his vehicle could acquire speed andmomentum over there.
In a moment he steered for it, so that the positions of the sleds werereversed, Ned’s being on the right hand side going down.
On and on raced the sleds. That of the three chums was rapidlyovertaking the rival coaster.
“Frank thought he’d get on an icier place by cutting across that way,”said Ned to Bob. “But he missed his guess. We’re going to win now.”
“I wish I could think so.”
“We are; you watch!”
And as Bob and the others behind him looked, they saw Ned skillfullyhold to the icy course. It gave them more speed, which seemed to beconstantly on the increase. They were now so close to Frank’s bob thathe dared not cut across again, had he so desired.
“Here we go!” cried Ned, as, having passed over a place where loosesnow retarded them a bit, they shot out on to a spot that was solidice. “Here’s where we win!”
And win they did. For a moment later the bottom of the slope wasreached with Ned’s bobsled well in advance, and as there was only astraight course left on which to bring up, there was no chance forFrank to acquire further speed.
“We win! We win!” cried the boys on Ned’s vehicle, as they got off whenthe sled came to a stop. “We win!”
“Oh you hot chocolates!” shrilled the girls at their less luckycompanions.
“Does whipped cream go with it, Bart?” asked one of the winning girls.
“Well, seeing that you whipped us, so to speak, I guess it does,”admitted Frank’s chum. The latter said nothing, but there was a glumlook on his face as he got up from the steering wheel. He was a poorloser.
“As headstrong as ever,” thought Jerry. “I wish something would happento change him. If he keeps on holding a grudge against us this way wewon’t stand any chance on the baseball nine, for, as captain, Frank hasnearly all the say there.”
With shouts and laughter the victors chaffed the vanquished, and thenthey made their way to the Band Box, the most popular confectioneryand ice cream store in Fordham, and there hot chocolates and cake wereprovided by the losers for their more fortunate rivals.
It was a good-natured, jolly crowd, all save Frank, and he waspleasant enough with every one but the three Cresville chums.
“Why don’t you fellows mix in with them a bit?” asked Jake Porter ofFrank, Bart and Bill a little later.
“Because I don’t want to,” said Frank. “We agreed that they’d try torun things here, and they have. They’re too fresh. And you were one ofthose, Jake, to agree to snub ’em. Now you’re sticking up for ’em.”
“I know; but I’ve found out they aren’t half bad. They’re real jolly.”
“I like Jerry all right,” confessed Bart. “He did me a good turn. Maybeit’s time to make better friends with them, Frank.”
“Not for me! You fellows can do what you like!” exclaimed theheadstrong youth.
“Ned and Bob are all right, too,” said Bill Hamilton. “I was broke theother day and Bob lent me some money.”
“And you took it?” asked Frank, sharply.
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“Of course. Why not?”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“You weren’t around, and I wasn’t going to cut off my nose to spite myface. I think maybe we made a mistake, Frank.”
“Well, I don’t. I’ll not make friends with ’em!”
The coasting was over, and as the boys returned to college with theirsled, Jerry remarked:
“Well, you did beat him, Ned. It was a clever piece of work.”
“I’d like to beat him more ways than one, the cad!”
“You’ll never get anywhere feeling that way about Frank.”
“I don’t want to get anywhere with _him_. I want to be in a position toprove he gave away the picture game and then I’ll go for him.”
There came a thaw. The snow disappeared, and there followed a period ofwarmer weather and rain. Then it became cold again, so cold that LakeCarmona was frozen over solidly, and there was the best skating thathad been enjoyed in years, so some of the older students declared.
Ned, Bob and Jerry were on the ice one afternoon enjoying the sport,when Jerry, who had been quiet for some time, burst out with:
“I think I’ll do it if you fellows will go in with me.”
“What’s he talking about now?” asked Bob.
“Oh, this is all right,” Jerry went on. “I was thinking aloud, I guess.I heard of a fellow who has an ice-boat for sale up the lake. What doyou say to our buying it, or hiring it, and having some fun? It’s lotsof sport.”
“Let’s go and see the ice-boat first,” suggested Ned practically.
“Come on,” cried Jerry.