“What’s that thing over there?” he asked.
“Across the river. It looks like a boat, but I don’t see how any one can sail a boat when there isn’t any water.”
“Oh,” answered Roy, joining him, “that’s an ice-boat, you silly galoot. Haven’t you ever seen one before?”
“No, but I’ve seen pictures of them. I didn’t recognize it, though. Say, that’s pretty slick, isn’t it? Look at the way it scoots around over there! How the dickens is it made?”
“Oh, you make a frame-work of timbers kind of three-cornered like and stick a skate or a runner at each corner, and put a mast in with a sail or two, and have another runner at the back with a tiller for steering, and there you are.”
“You don’t say? Well, that’s the most--er--enlightening explanation I ever heard, Roy; lucid’s no name for it!”
“Well, it’s the best I can do,” Roy laughed. “If you want further particulars I advise you to run over and take a look. I’m no boat-builder.”
“That’s what I’ll do,” answered Dick, tightening the straps of his skates. “Come along!”
“Are you crazy? Want me to freeze myself?”
“Freeze nothing! It’ll warm you up. Come on; it won’t take but a minute or two.” Roy hesitated. Then:
“All right,” he consented, “I’ll go you. Only it isn’t likely that the boat’s going to stay there and wait for us.”
“Bet you I can catch her if she doesn’t have too big a start,” said Dick.
“Oh, sure!” scoffed Roy. “She only makes about thirty miles an hour!”
“That’s right, though,” answered Roy. “They say some of them can do pretty near a mile a minute in a good wind. I don’t know about that one there, though; don’t think I ever saw her before; she’s got a red hull, hasn’t she?”
“Yes, if you call that thing a hull,” replied Dick. “Are there any more around here?”
“Well, then, maybe I’ll let this one go if it tries to get away,” Dick said. “Are you ready?”
Roy said that he was, but at that moment Chub hailed them.
“Across the river,” answered Roy. “Dick wants to study ice-boats. Want to come?”
Chub and Harry and Sid joined them, the latter begging them to wait until he could get his skates on.
“All right, slow poke,” answered Roy. “How about you, Harry? It’ll be beastly cold out in the middle there.”
“Oh, I’m nice and warm,” answered Harry. “What did you say about an ice-boat?”