"If we only had skates this would be fine," declared Dave. "But as we haven't any we've got to make the best of it."
"As the servant girl said, when she told her mistress that she couldn't make sponge cake because they didn't have any sponges," answered the senator's son.
"Say, that puts me in mind of a story about a----" began Shadow. But just then one of the boys put out his foot and down went the story-teller of the school on the ice. "Hi, you!" he roared and pulled the other youth on top of him. Then began a wild scramble on the part of both to see who could get up first, and the story was forgotten.
When the Gee Eyes came in sight of the old boathouse they were surprised to learn it was well past midnight.
"We'll have to rush matters," said Dave. "If we don't, somebody may report us, and the doctor won't let us off very easily if we stay out too late."
"Maybe we'd better postpone the other initiations," suggested Luke.
"Oh, no, go ahead!" cried half a dozen. "We are safe enough."
Entering the old boathouse, the boys lit all the lanterns they possessed, and those who had lost their head-coverings tied masks over their faces. Then some approached the closet in which the Soden twins had been confined.
"They must have broken out and run away!"
Such were some of the exclamations indulged in when it was found that the apartment was empty. A hasty examination was made of the hasp and staple of the door, and they were found intact. A wooden peg had served to keep the hasp in place.
"It looks to me as if somebody had let them out," said Dave, after an examination.
"But who would do that, Dave?" questioned Phil.
"Somebody not a member of the Gee Eyes--some enemy of the club."
"But why should the Soden boys run away?" asked Shadow. "They were willing to be initiated."
"Perhaps they got cold feet--mentally as well as physically," ventured Henshaw. "They may have got to talking things over in the dark and got scared."
"They didn't break out, that's sure," declared the senator's son. "Somebody on the outside removed that wooden peg."
"Well, we didn't do it," said one of the boys.
Some of the boys began a search, but this was in vain--the twins had disappeared.
"We may as well give up for to-night," said the president at last.