“Gee! You couldn’t have had much dinner,” he remarked.
“I brought it with me,” exclaimed the boy, who was a rather silent lad with an unusual capacity for enjoying his own company. “Anybody else coming out?”
“Sure; quite a bunch. Tried the ice yet?”
“No; I was just going to.”
“Come ahead, then,” urged Sanson, briskly. “It’ll be about our last chance, and I don’t want to lose any time.”
They put on their skates at the edge of the lake and then tested the ice. It was noticeably soft, especially near the shore, but seemed firm enough. Farther out it was better, and as they skated up and down together Frank decided that they would have their game even if they did get pretty wet before it was over.
“Guess I’ll go up a ways and sort of explore a little,” said Trexler, presently. It was almost his first remark since leaving the cabin, and his tone did not indicate any special desire for company.
“All right,” nodded Sanson. “Go ahead, only be careful about the ice. Mr. Grimstone says there are springs up there, and you know this is just the weather to make them dangerous.” For a moment or two he stood watching the thin, stooping figure sweeping up the lake; then he smiled. “He’s a queer duck,” he murmured. “I should think he’d get awful tired of just playing around with himself that way. Wish the others would hurry up.”
There were no signs of them, however, so he set himself to master an intricate figure he had been trying for several days past. Though there were no swimming facilities about the village, the annual flooding and freezing over of a flat meadow on the outskirts gave the fellows a very decent chance for skating, of which most of them had availed themselves. Sanson was one of the most proficient in the sport and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially now that the spacious lake gave them so much greater scope. His runners cut the ice in sweeping, graceful curves, and each time the momentum carried him nearer to the completion of the figure. Once or twice he noticed Trexler up toward the outlet, but it was in a vague sort of way, with a mind concentrated on his own evolutions.
“It’s coming all right,” he said aloud, pausing for a second to get his breath. “I’ve got the hang of it now. One more try and I can make it.”