end while I go out."

There was a scraping sound and the end of a stout branch appeared in
front of Sanson. Then, more slowly, Sherman's head and shoulders came in
sight as he crept cautiously out along it.

"I'll take him first," he said. "Can you raise him up a little?"

"I'm afraid not. My arm's all numb, and--"

"All right," interrupted the patrol-leader. "I'll manage. Hold fast back
there."

He wriggled forward a bit more and, reaching down, managed to catch
Trexler under the arms. To draw him out of the water was a more difficult
business, but Sherman had good muscles and accomplished it without
accident. The ice creaked and groaned, but evidently had not been much
weakened by the treacherous spring, and it held. The arm with which
Frank had been supporting the boy had absolutely no feeling in it, and
the strain of gripping the slippery ice was growing unendurable. He
shifted his hold to the stick, however, and a moment later he was half
lifted, half helped out on the solid ice.

"Yours for the cabin, quick!" said Ward, tersely. "Here, Ted, give us a
hand."

MacIlvaine stepped quickly forward, and together they hustled Sanson
across the ice. At first, Frank could scarcely move his feet and had
to be practically carried along. But gradually the rapid motion, the
stumbling, recovering, and general jolting-up began to send the blood
tingling back into his chilled body. Ahead of them he could see Ranleigh
and Dale Tompkins supporting Trexler, and making even better speed than
his own conductors. The sight of that limp body, with one hand dangling
helplessly, brought to Frank a sudden stinging pang of remorse and
apprehension as he remembered the frenzied blow he had struck the fellow.

"Paul--" he gasped; "is he--"

"It's the cold and shock mostly, I think," answered Sherman. "He's all
in, but not really unconscious. Did he go down?"

"I don't think so. Not more than once, anyway."

There was no more conversation until after they reached the cabin. Frank
was able to stumble up the rocky slope unaided, and, once inside, his
clothes were stripped off and he was rolled in blankets that had been
heated before the roaring blaze. Muffled in these, with some of the boys
deftly rubbing his legs and arms, it wasn't long before a delicious
languor crept over him and he actually felt like dozing off to sleep.

He might have yielded to the impulse but for his anxiety about Trexler.
Paul lay in the opposite bunk and