They gave vent to various whoops and cries when they saw that Paul and Harry were starting off without waiting for their arrival.
“Hi! aint you goin’ to let us have a look-in at the new boat, before you smash her with that Jonah aboard?”
“Listen, Paul! Just you keep right on up the river, and my word for it you’ll get yours before you come back!”
“Wow! look at her go, would you? Say, fellers, she’s all to the mustard, you c’n tell me what you please about the Glider. Paul knew what he was doing when he gave the order for that dandy contraption. Gee! don’t I wish I was on her right now!”
These last words just barely reached the ears of the two who lay flattened out on the delicate flooring of the ice yacht. Harry heard his chum chuckling, as if somehow the last remark had given him a good feeling.
The skaters started after them, but were speedily left far behind, and presently gave the chase up as useless. And now the whole river lay before the two iceboat chums, with not a single person to interfere with their sport; since it was as a rule farming country above Rivertown, on both sides of the watercourse.
Few rivers offered better fields for this sport than the Conoque. While not of any great depth, it was as a rule quite wide; and in places presented a magnificent spread of smooth, clear ice, over which the sharp runners glided like magic, as the favoring breeze filled their sail, and urged them on at tremendous speed.
Then again, once in a while they would come to a neck where the going was quite different, since the ice was rougher, and they had to look out for airholes. In the Summer season, when the water was lower, these places were called the “rips”; being in reality small rapids, where the water rushed with noisy volume, and the fishing was considered prime.
“Well, what d’ye think of that?” called out Paul, after they had been booming along in this manner for a little while, passing a couple of the narrow places, where considerable care had to be exercised to avoid trouble.
“Splendid! Never went like this before! You’ve got a wonder here, Paul, and don’t you forget it,” answered Harry, whose face was now rosy with the action of the keen wind and the cold air; while his eyes sparkled much as they had been wont to do before this trouble came upon him, to crush his young spirits so completely.