"No doubt of it. Somebody had been so kind as to stretch a wire cable across the river. They got it in the shed at the quarry. You know the river is narrow there, and the wire came down to about eight feet or more above the ice. It wasn't there when we went up; but we ran slap against it coming down."
"Oh! how awful! And what happened, Frank?" breathed the girl, her eyes fastened on the laughing face of her brother.
"Oh, we went over, all right. Something had to give, and it was our mast. We happened to be moving rather slowly at the time, and tacking across the river, so it fell to one side, and not on us. Of course we were tumbled off, and I cut the back of my left hand, either on some sharp ice, or a runner of the boat. After a bit we managed to get the mast stepped again in a way, and came home."
Mr. Allen shook his head seriously.
"It has got to stop, that's all there is to it. If that vicious boy keeps on he will do something terrible some day with his pranks."
Nothing more was said, and Frank hoped his father would let the matter drop. He had his own plans as to how he could settle his long overdue account with Lef Seller, and believed that the time was nearly ripe for an accounting.
Calling up some of the school athletic committee, he announced that he had brought back an acceptance to the challenge. It was quickly arranged that they come to his house and act upon it that very night. Time was valuable, since Christmas was almost upon them, and the match on the ice scheduled to take place on the second day after.
Presently, fellows began to arrive. Mrs. Allen and Helen, as was customary, prepared some cake and lemonade for refreshments after the meeting had been dismissed.
Of course there was much satisfaction over the prompt and manly acceptance of the challenge on the part of their up-river rivals.
"A little bombastic, fellows, don't you think?" remarked Jack Comfort, who was one of the Columbia Seven, and had likewise done good work in previous athletic contests that past season.