With his sheath knife he hacked at it until a stream of water came bubbling up and he heard the wild rush of the current that raced on beneath it.
“Not more than half an inch thick!” he breathed to himself.
The next instant he was on his feet, backing off the ice and shouting: “Hey! Hey, there! Danger! Danger! Thin ice! Dan—”
He did not complete the last word, for just at that minute there came a wild shout of despair.
Splitting from end to end, the ice caved in at the middle. For a moment the man clung to the edge, then the current seized him.
Just before he disappeared his right hand went up and a shower of “sparks,” which glimmered and glistened like stars, went shimmering away across the dark water to light upon a broad stretch of ice which had not broken.
“Diamonds!” breathed Curlie. “Diamonds and rubies from Russia! He was the smuggler chief. Wonder why he threw them that way?”
The question had no answer. Yet, there they lay, thousands of dollars worth of jewels.
“Out of a fellow’s reach for the present,” Curlie told himself, “but I guess if the ice doesn’t break up any more for a day or two it will be easy to come out and pick them out of the ice.
“And now,” he told himself, “I must get in some quick work in behalf of our friends, the explorers. With a whole reindeer herd at my disposal I ought to be able to do something.”