"Here he comes!" yelled Sammy. "Come on, fellows!"
They needed no other warning. The three boys took to their heels, and crashed over the snow and bramble-covered ground to the edge of the frozen lake.
"You'd better get away from here!" yelled the strange old man after them. "If I catch you around here again, I'll"
But the boys did not stop to hear what he would do to them. They did not even stop to fasten on their skates, but ran over the ice, slipping and sliding.
"Is—is he coming?" gasped Bob.
"I don't know. Look back and see for yourself," said Sammy.
Bob did so, but as one cannot very well run over slippery ice and look backward at the same time, what happened to Bob can be easily imagined.
Down he went in a heap, rolling over and over, and sliding along as well.
"Hey, fellows!" he cried. "Don't leave me. Help! He'll get me sure! Stay with me!"
His appeal touched the hearts of his chums.
"We can't leave him like that!" said Frank.
"No," panted Bob. "We'll have to stay with him."
They slid along, unable at first to stop on the slippery ice, and then they slowly came to a halt. Turning, they went back to pick up Bob, but he had already scrambled to his feet, and was running after them.
"He isn't coming," said Frank, catching sight of the strange man, standing on the shore of the island, near where the boys had landed. "I guess he isn't going to chase us."
"It's a good thing, too," panted Bob.
"Why?" asked Frank, with a smile.
"Because if he'd come after me I'd have hit him with my skates; that's what I would!" boasted Bob.
