“Sam! Sam!” cried Jack. “Put your pole down.”
This would slew the sled to one side. Sam, bearing in mind what had happened when Nat put his sapling down too suddenly, gently dug his point into the snow. But, so great was the speed, that the sled was slewed around almost as badly as before.
But it cleared the rock, and then righted itself.
“Say, but we’re going some,” remarked Bony.
Jack nodded.
“Too fast,” he called. “Put on the brakes, fellows.”
Nat and Sam prepared to obey this order. They bore down on the saplings, but the sled seemed only to go the faster.
“Put on brakes! Hard!” yelled Jack.
“We’re trying to,” called Sam.
He and Nat bore down with all their force. They could hear the ends of the saplings scraping over the frozen snow, but they did not seem to take hold. There was no shower of frozen crystals—no depressions behind the runners.