en forced to join the other victims, and the seven were
marched a distance of a quarter of a mile. The crowd came out on the
bank of the river, at a spot where several ice-houses had recently been
erected.

"Now, we'll give you the famous slide for life!" cried Buster, and
pointed to the upper portion of one of the ice-houses, where a big
wooden slide led downward into the Leming River.

"I can't stand cold water!" cried the victim who had previously tried to
run away.

"'Twill do you a power of good!" answered Sam, in a deep voice.

"Say, you ain't going to dump me into the river from that thing!" roared
Nat Poole. "I won't stand it!"

"Then sit down to it, Nat!" came a voice from the rear.

Of a sudden the seven victims were blindfolded. Several protested
weakly, but the others kept silent, for they knew it would do no good to
attempt to hold back; indeed, it might make matters worse. Yet nobody in
that crowd wanted a ducking, for the water was cold, and they were quite
a distance from the school.

Some narrow stairs led to the upper portion of the ice-houses, and
blindfolded as they were, the victims were forced to mount these and
were then taken to a room in the back of one of the buildings.

"Now for Number One!" sang out Buster, and one of the victims was rushed
forward to a slide.

"Hope you can swim, Carson!" said one of the hazers.

"The water isn't over ten feet deep," said another.

"Swim hard and then you won't take cold," added a third.

"If you find yourself really drowning, yell for help," put in a fourth.

"I--er--I don't think this is quite fair----" commenced poor Carson, and
then he was tripped flat on his back and sent downward with a plunge.
"Oh!" he screamed, and then continued to go down, with great rapidity,
for the slide had been looked over by the boys, and made as smooth as
possible. He shut his mouth tightly, expecting every instant to strike
the chilling waters, but of a sudden his feet struck a heap of sawdust,
and into this he slid up to his knees. Then eager hands seized him, and
the bandage was torn from his eyes. In the semi-darkness he saw that he
had not come down the slide over the water, but down another, which
ended in the sawdust pit of the ice-house. He looked decidedly sheepish.

"Have a fine swim, Carson?" asked one of his tormentors.

"What a sell!" muttered the victim. "But anyway, it's better than the
river!" he added, with much satisfaction.

One after an