The High School Freshmen Part 31

"No; does that disappoint you, d.i.c.k?"

"N-no," he said, slowly. "Still, it's fine to see every event all but crowded."

"In how many events are you entered?" asked the girl.

"Only one, the freshman's mile. That will be swift work, and there are two turns, the way the course is to be laid out."

"Why didn't you enter more of the freshman events?" Laura asked.

"Well, it will take a lot of good wind to keep going at a swift pace for a mile. I want to save all my strength and wind for that one event."

"What is the prize in the freshman's mile?" asked Laura, fumbling in her m.u.f.f for the card of the day's events.

"You noticed that handsome Canadian toboggan, didn't you?"

"The one with the side hand-rails?" Laura asked, looking up brightly into his face. "Yes; that ought to have been one of the prizes in the girls' events."

"Why?" queried d.i.c.k, looking a bit disconcerted.

"Why, those hand-rails are meant for timid girls to take hold of. A boy would never want a toboggan with hand-rails."

"Perhaps the fellow who's going to win the freshman's mile expects to invite some of the young ladies to go out tobogganing with him," hinted young Prescott.

"Is it _fixed_ who shall win that race?" demanded Laura, teasingly.

"Hardly that," d.i.c.k rejoined, dryly.

"Then how do you know the coming owner's intentions, if you don't know who is going to win the race?" Miss Bentley insisted.

"Well, you see, it's this way?" d.i.c.k admitted, "I've made up my mind to win that race."

"So you regard the race as being as good as won by yourself?"

smiled the physician's daughter.

"It's one of the rules of d.i.c.k & Co.," Prescott answered, as they turned and skated slowly back toward the center of the cove, "when we go into anything we consider it as good as won from the outset."

"Well, I like that spirit," Laura admitted. "Faint heart never yet won anything but a spill."

Laura had her card out by this time, and was studying it leisurely, trusting to her companion to guide her.

"I see Fred Ripley is entered for the grand event in fancy skating,"

she observed.

"Yes; are you interested in him?"

Something in the directness of the question caused the girl to bite her lips.

"Now, that's hardly fair, d.i.c.k," she cried, flus.h.i.+ng with vexation.

"No; the fact is, I'm hoping he'll lose."

"Why?"

"Because, Fred has never been very nice to you, d.i.c.k."

That was direct enough, and d.i.c.k flushed with pleasure.

"Thank you, Laura; that's more handsome than what I said to you."

"I accept your apology," she laughed. "Look! There goes Fred Ripley now! How foolish of him."

Fred was heading straight out of the cove toward the river. He was a fine skater, and now he was showing off at his best. He had adapted a "turn promenade" step from roller skating, and was whirling along, turning and half dancing as he sped along.

It was a graceful, rhythmical performance. Despite the fact that young Ripley was not widely liked, his present work drew considerable applause from the spectators.

That applause acted like incense under the young man's nostrils.

He determined to go farther out, maintaining his present step unbroken.

"Look out, Ripley!" warned Thomp. "The ice won't bear out there."

Fred didn't reply by as much as a look. He kept on out toward the thin ice.

Cra-a-ack! Splas.h.!.+ The thin ice had broken. Ripley, moving backwards, did not realize his fix until his feet; shot into the water. Down he came on his back, breaking more of the ice.

A yell, and he was gone below the surface.

And now everybody seemed shouting at once. A hundred people ran to and fro, shouting out what ought to be done.

"Get a rope! Run for a doctor! Bring fence rails! Telephone for the police!"

That's the usual way with a crowd, to think up things that others ought to do.

d.i.c.k Prescott espied Dave Darrin ahead. Dropping Laura's arm without a word, d.i.c.k skated swiftly up to Dave, called Darrin, then lightning. As he worked young Prescott shot out a few hurried orders.

Then another great cry went up. d.i.c.k Prescott was sprinting fast toward the thin ice. Close to where Fred Ripley had gone down there was another great rent in the ice.

d.i.c.k Prescott was "in the freeze," in quest of his enemy!

CHAPTER XIX

d.i.c.k & CO. SHOW SOME TEAM WORK

So suddenly and heavily did he break through the thin ice that d.i.c.k went underneath the surface.

"Help!" roared Fred, in a frenzy, as he came to the surface.

The skates on his feet clogged all his movements, and acted like lead.