ut there were
enough who went down to the ice to make an exceedingly hilarious party.

Ralph Tingley and Tom Cameron were the best pilots. The small iceboats
were built so that two passengers could ride beside the steersman and
sheet tender. So the girls took turns in racing up and down the smooth ice
on the south side of the island.

Ruth and Helen liked to go together with Tom, who had Busy Izzy to tend
sheet. It was "no fair" if one party traveled farther than from the dock
to the mouth of the creek and back again.

The four friends--Ruth and her chum, and Tom and Busy Izzy--were making
their second trip over the smooth course. Bobbins, with his sister and The
Fox, and Ralph Tingley, manned the other boat.

The two swift craft had a splendid race to the mouth of that brook which,
because of its swiftness, still remained unshackled by the frost. The
shallow stream of water poured down over the rocks into the lake, but
there was only a small open place at the point where the brook emptied
into its waters into the larger and more placid body.

When the two iceboats swung about, the one Bobbins manned got away at once
and swiftly passed down the lake. The sheet fouled in Tom's boat. Busy
Izzy had to drop the sail and the boat was brought to a halt.

"There are Mr. Tingley and Preston going over to talk to the constable and
his crowd," remarked Isadore. "See yonder?"

"I hope he sends those men off the island. I don't see what right they
have here, anyway," Helen exclaimed.

"If only Jerry knows enough to keep under cover while they are here," said
Tom, looking meaningly at Ruth. They both wondered if the fugitive had
ventured out of his cave to find the mattock and box of food they had left
for him the evening before.

The craft was under way again in a minute or two, and they swept down the
course in the wake of the other boat. Suddenly the sharp crack of a rifle
echoed across the island. Helen screamed. Ruth risked the boom and sat up
to look behind.

"There's a fight!" yelled Busy Izzy. "I believe they're after Jerry."

They saw Mr. Tingley and Preston hastening their steps toward the brook.
As the iceboat swept out farther from the shore, the four friends aboard
her could see several men running in the same direction. One bore a
smoking gun in his hand.

"Right towards that rock, Ruthie!" gasped Tom, venturing a glance behind
him.

"What rock do you mean?" demanded his sister.

"The rock where you fo