illed nicely on the longer tack, and the _Fly-by-Night_
swept out from the Poketown dock at a very satisfactory speed.

"We'll hit the Landing in two hours, at the longest, Miss Janice,"
declared Nelson Haley. "Keep your head down. This wind cuts like
needles. Too bad you haven't a mask of some kind."

He was wearing his motorcycle goggles, while Marty had one of those
plush caps, that pull down all around one's face so that nothing but
the eyes peer out, and was doing very well.

As the ice yacht gathered speed, Janice found that she could not face
the wind. Nor could she look ahead, for the sun was shining boldly
now, and the glare of it on the ice was all but blinding.

The timbers of the boat groaned and shook. The runners whined over the
ice with an ever-increasing note. Ice-dust rose in a thin cloud from
the sharp shoes, and the sunlight, in which the dust danced, flecked
the mist with dazzling, rainbow colors.

When the ice boat came about, it was with a leap and bound that seemed
almost to capsize the craft. Janice had never traveled so fast
before--or so she believed. It fairly took her breath, and she clung
to the hand-holds with all her strength.

"Hi, Janice!" yelled Marty, grinning from ear to ear. "How d'ye like
it? Gittin' scaret?"

She had to shake her head negatively and smile. But to tell the truth
there was an awful sinking in her heart, and when one runner went
suddenly over a hummock and tipped the ice boat, she could scarcely
keep from voicing her alarm.

CHAPTER XIX

CHRISTMAS, AFTER ALL?

Janice Day possessed more self-control than most girls of her age. She
would not, even when her heart was sick with apprehension because of
the story in the newspaper, give her cousin the opportunity of saying
that she showed the white feather.

She lay close to the beam of the ice boat, clung to the hand-holds, and
made no outcry as the craft flew off upon the other tack. Had the wind
been directly astern, the course of the _Fly-by-Night_ would have been
smoother. It was the terrific bounding, and the groaning of the
timbers while the boom swung over and the canvas slatted, that really
frightened the girl.

It seemed as though the mast must be wrenched out of the boat by the
force of the high wind filling the canvas. And the shrieking of the
runners! Janice realized that the passage of an ice boat made as much
noise as the flight of a fast train.

She could scarcely distin