"Can you take hold of
this rope, and keep hold of it" Can you climb across the thin
ice, holding onto the rope and being towed if the ice breaks?"
"I---I---I'm afraid," chattered Ripley. "You come with me!"
"It'll be a good deal easier if you can go first, and alone,"
spoke the freshman, rather sternly. "I think I can keep myself
afloat until you get over to solid ice. Then the rope can be
thrown back to me."
"I'm afraid, I tell you," insisted Fred, his teeth clicking against
each other. "Can't you see that I'm all in?"
"You'll have us both all in, if you don't get some courage together,"
young Prescott insisted. "Come, be a man, Ripley!"
"I'm freezing to death here," moaned Ripley, closing his eyes.
Somehow---he could never tell just how, afterwards, Dick managed
to slip the rope under Fred's shoulders. With infinite effort---for
he had to keep them both afloat, the freshman double-knotted the
rope.
"Come, now, you've got to help yourself across the ice, while
Dave hauls on the line," urged Dick.
Fred made a motion as though to bestir himself but he did it so
feebly that Prescott gave him a sharp pinch.
"Ouch!" flared Fred, now seeming to be wide awake. "Prescott,
you have the upper hand here. Don't be a bully!"
"I don't want to," spoke Dick, quietly, trying to keep his own
teeth from rattling. "But you've got to stir yourself, or else
I must do it for you. Now, get started over the thin ice.
Dave will haul. Never mind if the ice breaks under you; the rope
is tied around you.
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