As yet he had not said a word, only, as he rose to his full height, he made a move as if to come from behind the bushes, back of which he seemed to have been hiding.
"Here he comes!" yelled Sammy. "Come on, fellows!"
They needed no other warning. The three boys took to their heels, and crashed over the snow and bramble-covered ground to the edge of the frozen lake.
"You'd better get away from here!" yelled the strange old man after them. "If I catch you around here again, I'll——"
But the boys did not stop to hear what he would do to them. They did not even stop to fasten on their skates, but ran over the ice, slipping and sliding.
"Is—is he coming?" gasped Bob.
"I don't know. Look back and see for yourself," said Sammy.
Bob did so, but as one cannot very well run over slippery ice and look backward at the same time, what happened to Bob can be easily imagined.
Down he went in a heap, rolling over and over, and sliding along as well.