The lad grasped the tiller. He was soon to find out how sensitive the rudder of an ice-craft can be, for the sudden application of the helm all but capsized the sleigh.
"Steady, man!" shouted Guy warningly, at the same time keeping Hawke in his seat, for the injured man had fainted again.
A very little practice on the smooth ice convinced Leslie that he had the sleigh under control. He had yet to negotiate the hummocks and the gaps of open water.
As the sleigh gathered way and finally settled to a forty-mile-an-hour pace, the lust of speed possessed the youthful helmsman.
The exhilaration of the swift motion made him forget his surroundings. He was beginning to enjoy something akin to the sensation of flight. As a passenger he had revelled in the outward trip; now, as helmsman and operator, he knew what being in charge of the speedy sleigh meant.
The first hummock Leslie took almost "bows on." The sleigh, striking the slopes rather obliquely, seemed to leap upwards and sideways in the air; then, hitting the ice with tremendous force, it rocked from side to side for about a hundred yards, before it steadied itself on its main runners.
Suddenly Leslie saw before him a broad gap in the ice. It must have widened considerably since the outward journey.
Approaching the dangerous crevasse almost at the rate of an express train, there was no avoiding it. To attempt to swerve sufficiently would mean disaster; to take it otherwise than "bows on" would spell certain death. Even as it was, it seemed impossible for the sleigh to leap across the widening space.
"Neck or nothing," thought Leslie. He shut his jaws tightly and gave the motor full throttle.
As luck would have it, the breaking of the ice had resulted in a small mound being thrown near the edge of the gap. Like a bird the sleigh mounted the incline, and with its own momentum completely cleared the death-trap beyond. Well it was that the runners were strong and true, and that the body of the sleigh was well sprung, for with a crash the swiftly-moving vehicle alighted on the far side.