Then they saw Ike bear down on the tiller again, evidently trying to avert the catastrophe at the last minute. It had been a crude practical joke on his part, to frighten the lads.
Then he looked up, his face frightened, and shouted.
The tiller had not responded!
The big ice-boat did not change course. It was booming down on the smaller craft at terrific speed!
CHAPTER III
A Strange Note
Had it not been for Frank Hardy’s coolness and presence of mind, there would have been a disastrous collision.
His quick hand at the tiller averted the crash by a hairbreadth. How he did it, he could not later explain. At the time, Chet and Joe could see no possible chance of escape. But, just as the collision seemed imminent, their craft veered off to one side and the other boat went booming past at terrific speed, the two ice-boats so close together that their sides almost touched.
It was a narrow escape. Frank had swung the nose of his boat around just in the nick of time.
He brought the craft around in a circle, for the boys were in no mind to let the affront pass. Then they saw that the other boat had overturned. The boy at the helm, frightened by the imminence of peril, had lost his nerve, had swung the boat too far over, and it had gone on its side. The mast had snapped. The boat was wrecked.
The Hardy boys and Chet Morton went back to the scene. Tad Carson and Ike Nash were just crawling out from under their capsized craft.