At first but slow progress was made, owing to the stiffness felt by the members of the Zero Club from the toboggan accident. But gradually they warmed up to the work, and then they glided over the smooth ice rapidly. Pickles, who was a good skater, despite the shortness of his legs, kept close to Jack’s side.
“I wish we were provided with clubs,” said Boxy. “We may have a rough time of it with Sully and his gang. He hasn’t forgotten how we got the best of him at snowballing, and most likely he’s prepared to fight us off.”
“He’ll give up the iceboat fast enough, never fear,” returned Jack. “You must remember, I can have him arrested for stealing our property if I want to.”
“But you wouldn’t do that, would you?” asked Harry.
“Not unless he got positively ugly. But he must be taught to remember that we intend to stand no nonsense.”
On and on down the frozen river swept the five boys, until Rudskill was left far behind. The sun mounted higher in the sky, tempering the wind and making skating more agreeable.
“We’ll soon be up to Thompson’s Bend, and then we’ll have a straight course before us,” said Andy.
“If I’d thought, I would have taken the field-glasses from the pack,” said Boxy. “Then we could have seen the Icicle even if she was miles off.”
“I kin see dat Isticle fur ’nouf, nebber fear,” said Pickles. “My eyes hab been trained since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.”
The bend Jack had mentioned was reached five minutes later, and in a bunch the boys swept around the last projecting headland. A straight course for twelve miles lay before them.