Fig. 190. The Combination Lock. notch would be in line, and the door could then be opened. Of course, this combination was known to the members of the club only, and any one outside who tried to open the door might have tried for some time without bringing the tooth and notch into line with each other. Occasionally we changed the combination by loosening the screws which held the washers, and turning them so that the notch and tooth came opposite different numbers on the dials. This was done so that if any one should chance to learn our combination he could not make use of it very long.
CHAPTER XVI.
SCOOTERS.
“Hello, Dutchy! What in thunder have you got there?”
It was Bill who spoke. We were on our way home for the winter holidays, and had been held up at Millville by Reddy Schreiner, who had informed us that Dutchy was down by the river with the boat to give us a sail up to Lamington.
A vision of a fleet ice boat skimming up the river at express train speed swam before our eyes. But the next moment, as we turned the corner into River Street, we were surprised by the sight of our old scow just off the pier at anchor, and in open water. It was rigged up with a jib and mainsail, which were flapping idly in the wind. It had also been altered by decking over the top, with the exception of a small cockpit, evidently for the purpose of keeping out the water when she heeled over under the wind. We were disappointed and quite annoyed at not finding the ice boat on hand; furthermore, our annoyance was considerably heightened by Dutchy’s broad grin of evident delight at our discomfiture. “The river wasn’t all frozen over,” he explained, “and we couldn’t bring the ice boat down, so we rigged up the scow and she came down splendidly.”
A Sail in the Scow.
There was nothing to do but to jump in, though I, for one, would have taken the train in preference had there been one inside of two hours. Dutchy, however, seemed to be in a surprisingly good humor, and kept up a lively chatter about things that the club had made in our absence. The skis, which have already been described on page 42, had been built under Reddy’s guidance, and they had already used them on Willard’s Hill, coasting down like a streak and shooting way up into the air off a hump at the bottom. Then there was the toboggan slide down Randall’s Hill, and way across the river on the ice.
Our Craft Strikes the Ice.