He had pressed Dick's other partners into service and as many of the High School boys as possible. They got off their skates in a rush.
"Tom," shouted Dave, "you and Greg get some of the fellows and rush down as many ties as you can from that pile by the railroad tracks. Dalzell, you and Harry get down at the edge of send him your way. Make a raft by laying four ties side by side, and lash the ends. Do it as quick as a flash. I'll be there by that time."
Tom and Greg quickly had a dozen men running for railroad ties, a pile of which stood less than an eighth of a mile away.
By the time that the man with ropes arrived, and two more behind him, bringing more, there were a dozen railroad ties on the ice by the outer edge of the cove. Harry Hazelton and Dan snatched short lengths of rope and knotted them around either end of the raft.
"Some of you men make another raft, just like that one!" shouted Dave, who, at the time, was busily engaged in making a noose at one end of a long coil of half-inch rope.
"Here, you two men get hold of the other end of this," ordered
Dave, running up with the coil of rope.
Then, hardly waiting to make sure that they had the rope, Dave turned to Harry and Dan, calling to them to help him push the raft out beyond the cove. A dozen men and boys tried to help, all at once, but Dave and Harry saw to it that no speed was lost by blundering.
The raft was not difficult to push out over the ice.
"Now, let me have it alone," shouted Dave. "The ice may break at any point beyond."
So Dave tugged and pushed, guiding the small raft before him.