s they came to Pringle's pond. The wind had swept the ice
fairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting. Also it
looked quite thick and strong. Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, found
that it bore her, and tested it with some care. She even jumped up and
down on it. It cracked, but it did not break; and she told herself
that ice always cracks, more or less. She set about putting on her
skates; and the joyful Wiggins, all fear of disappointment allayed,
followed her example.

When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, she
looked at him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently. No; she
would not tell him that the Terror had charged her not to let him skate
till he came. . . . She could look after him quite as well as the
Terror. . . . She had tested the ice thoroughly. . . . It was
perfectly safe.

Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him. The
ice cracked somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals it
cracked again. Erebus paid no heed to its cracking beyond telling
Wiggins not to go far from the edge. She skated round and across the
pond several times, then settled down to make a figure of eight,
resolved to have it scored deeply in the ice before the Terror came.
Wiggins skated about the pond.

She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure of
eight that it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash and
a shrill cry from Wiggins. She turned sharply to see the water welling
up out of a dark triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where a
row of pollard willows had screened the ice from the full keenness of
the wind.

Wiggins was in that hole under the water.

She screamed and dashed toward it. She had nearly reached it when his
head came up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice. Two more
steps and a loud crack gave her pause. It flashed on her that if she
went near it, she would merely widen the hole and be helpless in the
water herself.

"Hold on! Hold on!" she cried as she stopped ten yards from the hole;
and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringing
through the still winter air.

She screamed again and yet again. Wiggins' face rose above the edge of
the ice; and he gasped and spluttered. Then she sank down gently, at
full length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread out
so as to distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible,
t