more a push than a pull, and the three rolled to
the bottom, and half way across the flooded ditch. The ditch was frozen
over, but they were shaken, and smothered in snow. The whole howling
party came streaming down the embankment. Dannie held aloft his torch
and discovered Jimmy lying face down in a drift, making no effort to
rise, and the Thread Man feebly tugging at him and imploring some one
to come and help get Malone out. Then Dannie slunk behind the others
and yelled until he was tired.

By and by Jimmy allowed himself to be dragged out.

"Who the thunder was that come buttin' into us?" he blustered. "I don't
allow no man to butt into me when I'm on an imbankmint. Send the fool
back here till I kill him."

The Thread Man was pulling at Jimmy's arm. "Don't mind, Jimmy," he
gasped. "It was an accident! The man slipped. This is an awful place. I
will be glad when we reach the woods. I'll feel safer with ground
that's holding up trees under my feet. Come on, now! Are we not almost
there? Should we not keep quiet from now on? Will we not alarm the
coons?"

"Sure," said Jimmy. "Boys, don't hollo so much. Every blamed coon will
be scared out of its hollow!"

"Amazing!" said the Thread Man. "How clever! Came on the spur of the
moment. I must remember that to tell the Club. Do not hollo. Scare the
coon out of its hollow!"

"Oh, I do miles of things like that," said Jimmy dryly, "and mostly I
have to do thim before the spur of the moment; because our moments go
so domn fast out here mighty few of thim have time to grow their spurs
before they are gone. Here's where we turn. Now, boys, they've been
trying to get this biler across the tracks here, and they've broke the
ice. The water in this ditch is three feet deep and freezing cold.
They've stuck getting the biler over, but I wonder if we can't cross on
it, and hit the wood beyond. Maybe we can walk it."

Jimmy set a foot on the ice-covered boiler, howled, and fell back on
the men behind him. "Jimminy crickets, we niver can do that!" he
yelled. "It's a glare of ice and roundin'. Let's crawl through it! The
rist of you can get through if I can. We'd better take off our
overcoats, to make us smaller. We can roll thim into a bundle, and the
last man can pull it through behind him."

Jimmy threw off his coat and entered the wrecked oil engine. He knew
how to hobble through on his toes, but the pleated coat of the Boston
man, who tried to pass through by stooping, go