CHAPTER XI
A HAIR’S BREADTH FROM DEATH
The horses faced the wind as they struck into the Long Bridge road, andshook their heads impatiently till the bells on the harness rang again.Billy crouched a little behind Dan’s bulkier shoulder, for Dan wasdriving.
“Whew! some breeze this,” said the younger boy, who could not keepsilent for long.
“At our backs, if we coast down Shooter’s,” said Dan.
“That’s so. But we’ll have to face it going up—and dragging the girls,too.”
“Good thing we haven’t any girls to-night, then, Billy,” said hisbrother.
“Huh!” grunted Billy, who was not yet in a forgiving spirit. “I hopethat Barry Spink makes Lettie walk up hill every time. He looks likethat sort of a fellow to me.”
“If they have iced the course,” Dan was saying, reflectively, “and withthe wind blowing right down the hill, there will be some great sleddingthis night. Why! if we lay down a couple of lengths of the roadsidefence at the bottom of the hill, we ought to be able to cross the flatand slide right out on the river!”
“Some slide!” exclaimed Billy, with enthusiasm.
“The river’s two and a half miles broad there,” said Dan, still speakingthoughtfully.
“And Shooter’s Hill is another two miles from foot to summit—that’ssure,” added Billy. “Some slide!” he added, repeating his exclamatorycomment with gusto. “But do you think there’d be momentum enough tocarry a sled across the river to this side?”
“No; I don’t,” admitted Dan. “But——”
“But what, old boy? What’s working on you?” demanded Billy, eagerly,beginning to see that Dan’s remarks pointed to some tangible idea.
“Let’s drive around by the house first,” said Dan, quickly, turning Boband Betty into a side road.
The horses accelerated their pace at once, for they thought their stallswere just ahead of them.
Dan tossed the reins to Billy when they drove into the yard, and boltedinto the house at once without saying another word. He was gone some fewminutes, and Billy saw a lamp shining through a garret window before hisbrother appeared again.
When Dan did come out he bore an object that filled Billy first withamazement and then with delight.
“For goodness’ sake! what’s that for?” the younger boy demanded. “Thatold kite? Sure! you can put it up all right in a wind like this. But whowants to fly a kite on a moonlight night, when there’s bobsledding inprospect——”
“Great Peter, Dan! I get you! I see! Say, boy! you’ve got the greatesthead ever,” declared the slangy and enthusiastic Billy. “Lay it down inback there so the wind won’t get it. And plenty of cord?”
“Here’s line that would hold a whale,” chuckled Dan, climbing back tothe seat. “What do you think? Will we show those fellows something?”
“We’ll show Let Parker that she made a mistake,” growled Billy, goingsuddenly back to his bone of contention with the town clerk’s livelydaughter.
The horses were off again in a moment, and it was not long before theycame in sight of the Long Bridge and the glistening, snow-covered sloperising from the far bank of the river, and just beyond the bridge.
Dan and Billy could see their school friends and companions scatteredover the coasting course on their bobsleds. There were smaller sleds,too; but several big “double-runners” carried parties of shouting youngfolk down the two-mile slope and almost to the entrance to the bridge.
They did not mind the sharp wind—excepting while dragging the sleds tothe top of the hill. But even that task was accomplished amid laughterand merriment.
The Speedwell boys drove across the bridge and put their horses underthe shed of a farmer who lived on the bank of the river. They lifted outthe huge kite carefully and with it, and their bob, hurried to join thecrowd just then starting up the hill for another trip.
“What under the sun you got there, Dan?” demanded Money Stevens. Hecouldn’t approach to examine the kite, for he was dragging one of thesleds himself and there were already three girls upon it.
“Oh! we’re going to show you fellows a new trick,” said Billy, proudly.“You wait and see.”
Billy was looking for Lettie Parker, and he saw her now on a brand-newbobsled which was being drawn by Barry Spink and the biggest Greene boy.Mildred was with her.
“Hullo, Billy Speedwell!” shouted Miss Parker. “I didn’t know you boyswere coming over here.”
“Well, I hope you see us, Let,” said Billy, with an air of carelessness.“We’re right here—and we’ll come pretty near leaving that bob you’re on’way behind.”
“Just about the way your old _Fly-up-the-Creek_ leaves my iceboatbehind,” scoffed Barry Spink. “I believe you milkmen are a couple ofblow-hards!”
But Billy only laughed and he and Dan hastened their steps along thesnowy road. Where the hill dipped to the level of the flats theSpeedwells stopped and threw down two lengths of the fence. This openeda course to, and down, the easily sloping bank of the river.
“Aw, say!” cried Biff Hardy, who was with another bob; “that won’t makeyou anything. We can’t get momentum enough to clear that little risebetween here and the river.”
“Hold your horses, Biff!” advised Dan. “Let’s see what we can do.”
“And with a kite!” scoffed one of the other fellows. “What do you thinkyou’re going to do?”
But Dan would not be led into any discussion, while Billy was not justsure what his brother was intending. Once on the top of the hill Danshowed Billy what to do, in a hurry. They waited for the other sleds togo, so as to have a clear field. Then Billy raised the kite, Dan holdingthe stout line attached to it.
The stiff wind blowing from behind them, seized the big kite almost atonce. She rose with a bound, Dan letting the line whistle through hisgloved hands. She made one swoop when a flaw struck her, and thenmounted again and the wind caught her full and square.
There she soared, steady and true, and the Speedwells hastily boardedtheir heavy sled. Dan fastened the line to a ring in front of the tillerwith which he steered the sled. Billy, hanging on behind, started thesled over the brow of the hill by striking his heel sharply into thehard-packed snow.
The runners squeaked a little, and then the sled plunged downward. Hadthe wind been lighter, the momentum the sled gathered on the firsthalf-mile of the hill would have forced the coasting Speedwells ahead ofthe kite.
But the gale was strong and steady. Away the great kite flew, with theline taut most of the way to the bottom of the hill.
“She ain’t helping us a bit,” objected Billy, shouting into Dan’s ear.“Those other sleds went just as fast.”
“Wait,” commanded Dan, untroubled as yet.
The sled whizzed down to the bottom of the hill and then Dan steered outof the beaten track. The crowd watched the Speedwells in wonder. Thesled went slower and slower, passing through the break in the roadsidefence and over the drifts toward the river.
But the great kite was tugging now. It drew the sled on, over the shortrise, and then they pitched down the bank and out upon the river! Theygained speed again and quickly left the cheering crowd behind, neverstopping until they reached the other bank of the river.
“What do you know about this?” yelled the delighted Billy. “We got ’emgoing this time, I guess.”
The kite fluttered over the trees on the bank and the boys were able tobring it to earth quickly, and without damaging the kite. It was coveredwith strong, oiled paper, and was not easily torn.
But it was a job to drag the sled all the way back again, and the kite,too. The other young folk had made a couple of trips on the shorterroute before the Speedwells returned to the top of Shooter’s Hill.
Nevertheless, Lettie Parker and Mildred Kent were waiting for them.Lettie had insisted upon leaving Messrs. Spink and Greene in the lurch.She was determined to “go sailing” with the Speedwell boys.
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“Do you think it is dangerous, Dan?” asked Mildred.
“Of course it isn’t,” declared Lettie, before Dan could answer. “I’m notafraid to do anything that Billy Speedwell does.”
“If you really want to try it, Milly,” Dan said, “we’ll take you girlsfor one trip.”
“You’ll break all your necks fooling with that kite,” growled BarrySpink.
He and his partner took some other girls on their bob and started atonce for the bottom of the hill. They switched out of the beaten trackand went through the break in the fence; but the momentum gathered bythe bob would not take it over the little hill.
The Speedwells did not notice that Barry left the rest of the partythere and went over the hill himself. He was back in a moment, and justthen Billy got the kite into the air, and it began to tug at theSpeedwells’ bobsled.
“All aboard!” yelled Billy, and ran to take his place behind the girls.
Down the track they rushed and out across the flat. The kite tuggedbravely and carried them over the rise. And just as they went over thislittle hill Dan uttered a cry of alarm. Right across their track, on thesteep bank of the river, lay a great tree-branch that had not been therewhen the boys made their first trip behind the kite!
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