CHAPTER VIII.

THE STOLEN ICEBOAT.

The other members of the Zero Club came to a dead halt.

“Gone!” burst out Andy and Boxy in a breath, while Jack looked as if he had not heard aright.

“Yes, gone!” repeated Harry.

“But I locked it fast to the piling!” exclaimed Jack. “You have the key.”

“I don’t care! she’s gone, and I can’t see anything of her.”

Without another word, the quartet hurried down to the edge of the ice. It was just as Harry had announced, the iceboat was nowhere in sight. Each of the boys looked at his comrades.

“What does it mean?” asked Boxy.

“It means that the _Icicle_ has been stolen!” cried Jack.

“Stolen?”

“Yes. It was locked up tight enough. Somebody has come here and either broken the lock or else had a key to fit it. Boys, we are in a hole!”

The faces of the Zero Club fell. Without their iceboat, with which to make the journey up the river, what was to be done?

“Who would have taken her?” questioned Boxy, after running out on the frozen river and looking up and down anxiously.

“Maybe some tramps,” suggested Andy. “I saw several of them hanging around yesterday.”

“I saw those tramps, too,” returned Harry. “It would be just like them, if they wanted to go to some other place on the river.”

“It’s a real shame!” muttered Jack. “Our trip spoiled at the very start.”

“If we only knew in what direction the boat had gone we might go after her,” said Andy. “Our skates are on the sled, you know.”

“That’s the ticket!” burst out Boxy. “Give me my skates without delay. It’s ten to one they went off this morning, and so they can’t be very far away.”

“I have an idea,” said Jack. “Supposing two of us skate up the river, and two down, on the lookout? We’ll go, say three or four miles, and if we don’t see anything we can return here.”

“All right,” returned Harry. “We can’t afford to let anybody run off with the _Icicle_.”

While the boys were talking over this plan in an excited way, and getting out their skates and putting them on, the well-known figure of Pickles Johnsing appeared in sight. The colored youth was running as fast as his short, fat legs would permit.

“Mos’ dun missed yo’!” he gasped. “An’ I made up my mind to see yo’ off, suah!”

“We’re not off just yet, Pickles,” said Jack.

“No? I t’ought yo’ wuz gwine soon as de sun shone up?”

“Our iceboat has been stolen. We just found it out,” said Boxy. “Do you know anything about it?”

“Wot? De _Isticle_ gone?” ejaculated the colored youth, with his big eyes rolling in wonder. “Yo’ don’t say! Who dun tuk her?”

“That’s what we want to know,” said Andy.

Pickles began to blink his eyes, as if in deep thought. Then suddenly he slapped his thigh with his broad hand.

“By de boots! I fink I know who dun tuk de _Isticle_!” he roared.

“You do?” came in concert from the members of the Zero Club.

“Yes, sah!”

“Who?”

“Sully, Dixon and dat low-down Len Spencer!”

The boys started.

“What makes you think so?” asked Jack, catching the colored youth by the arm.

“I heered dem a-talkin’ ’bout it las’ night on de toboggan-slide. Sully said he would like ter break up yo’r gwine away, and Dixon said de _Isticle_ was tied up down heah, an’ da could git hold ob it easy enought an’ put yo’ in de hole.”

“That settles it!” cried Harry, angrily. “Our old enemies are at work against us. They took the iceboat just to break up our tour.”

“But they sha’n’t break it up!” cried Boxy. “I’ll go on foot first!”

“So will I,” joined in Andy.

“If we only knew where they had taken the _Icicle_ we might go after them,” said Jack. “I don’t believe in letting them have their own way.”

“Nor I--after working so hard on the iceboat,” added Boxy. “Pickles, did they say anything about where they might go?”

“No, da didn’t,” replied the colored youth, slowly. “But, hol’ on--Len Spencer said he was gwine down to Lumberton to-day fo’ his father----”

“Then that’s where they have gone!” put in Jack, hurriedly. “Of course, they wouldn’t dare go up the river, knowing we were bound that way. I’ll bet a dollar they are on the way to Lumberton this minute!”

“I believe you,” said Harry. “Shall we go after them?”

“Of course!”

“Certainly!”

“Can we catch them?”

“We ought to be able to do so on our skates. The wind is almost full against them, so they will have to do a bit of tacking, while we can skate straight ahead.”

With frantic haste, the four boys completed the task of putting on their skates. Pickles had his pair along with him, and put them on also.

“I’se gwine wid yo’, if you lets me,” he said. “Maybe yo’ll want some help if yo’ gits in a muss.”

“Certainly, come on, Pickles,” said Jack.

The sled was left in a safe place, and then, without further delay, the five boys started down the river toward Lumberton, a small settlement ten miles distant.

At first but slow progress was made, owing to the stiffness felt by the members of the Zero Club from the toboggan accident. But gradually they warmed up to the work, and then they glided over the smooth ice rapidly. Pickles, who was a good skater, despite the shortness of his legs, kept close to Jack’s side.

“I wish we were provided with clubs,” said Boxy. “We may have a rough time of it with Sully and his gang. He hasn’t forgotten how we got the best of him at snowballing, and most likely he’s prepared to fight us off.”

“He’ll give up the iceboat fast enough, never fear,” returned Jack. “You must remember, I can have him arrested for stealing our property if I want to.”

“But you wouldn’t do that, would you?” asked Harry.

“Not unless he got positively ugly. But he must be taught to remember that we intend to stand no nonsense.”

On and on down the frozen river swept the five boys, until Rudskill was left far behind. The sun mounted higher in the sky, tempering the wind and making skating more agreeable.

“We’ll soon be up to Thompson’s Bend, and then we’ll have a straight course before us,” said Andy.

“If I’d thought, I would have taken the field-glasses from the pack,” said Boxy. “Then we could have seen the _Icicle_ even if she was miles off.”

“I kin see dat _Isticle_ fur ’nouf, nebber fear,” said Pickles. “My eyes hab been trained since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.”

The bend Jack had mentioned was reached five minutes later, and in a bunch the boys swept around the last projecting headland. A straight course for twelve miles lay before them.

“There’s the _Icicle_!” cried Andy, suddenly.

“Where? where?” came from the others.

“Over to the east shore! See, they are tacking this way!”

“You are right!” returned Harry. “And there is Bill Dixon standing at the bow.”

“An’ dat low-down Len Spencer in de back, alongside ub Pete Sully!” added Pickles. “Didn’t I dun tole yo’ da was comin’ dis way?”

“They have discovered us!” exclaimed Boxy, a second later. “See, they intend to turn on the other tack. Come on, fellows, we mustn’t give them a chance to get away!”

He started off at full speed on his skates, and the others quickly followed.

The iceboat was all of an eighth mile off, and speeding over the river as fast as the wind would carry her. Those on board had discovered the owners as quickly as they themselves had been revealed, and were now making frantic efforts to get out of the reach of their pursuers.