The chums skated as closely as possible to where the iceboat was drifting in a sheet of open water—a spot where some days before a farmer had been cutting ice. To the craft Coulter was clinging and still crying piteously.
"Help!" came in a chattering tone. "Please help me, somebody, or I'll be dro—drowned! I can't ho—hold on mu—much lon—ger!"
"We are coming, Coulter!" yelled Pepper.
"I'm nearly fro—frozen to de—death!" chattered the suffering cadet.
"If we only had a line we might throw it to him," said Andy.
"I've got an idea!" exclaimed Pepper. "Come on and get that fallen tree!"
He pointed to the shore, where a long sapling lay partly uncovered in the snow. He skated off for this, with Andy at his heels.
While Andy and Pepper were doing their best to get the sapling out of the snow and drag it over the ice, Jack circled the spot where the Rosebud was drifting. The iceboat was now within ten feet of the ice, so he could see Coulter quite plainly. The poor fellow had been ducked in the water and was shaking from head to feet from cold.
"We'll soon have you ashore, Gus!" he called out. "Keep up your courage."
"I—I can't hold on much longer!" was the gasped-out reply. "I am free—freezing to de—death!"