n, and cut so sharply
across the path of the _Spider_, that Allen narrowly avoided a
collision.

"Why don't you look before you come out?" he called sharply to the
steersman of the smaller craft.

"Why don't you keep more to the middle of the river?" was the retort,
and then the boat shot around and took the same direction as the one in
which the _Spider_ was going.

"Why, there's Alice Jallow in that boat!" exclaimed Betty. "Did you see,
girls?"

"Sure enough! So it was!" agreed Mollie. "But who is that fellow with
her?"

"Harry Brook," answered Will.

"Do you know him?" demanded Grace, quickly.

"A little. He's a new lad in town."

"Has he been going with--her--long?" asked Betty.

"I don't know. First time I ever saw him with her. Mind that chunk of
wood just ahead, Allen."

"I see it, thanks. That fellow gave me a scare, though. I never saw him
until I was almost into him."

"That's right," assented Frank. "I guess he doesn't know much about
running one of these things. How are you coming on with your----" he
added, looking at Will.

"Do you think it will rain?" asked Will, promptly, looking up into the
cloudless sky, and nudging Frank sharply. "Keep still," he whispered.

"What is it?" demanded Grace. "Do you know his secret, Frank?"

"If he tells--I'll have revenge!" cried Will in theatrical fashion.
"Mum's the word, old man," and he glanced significantly at Frank.

"All right--don't worry," was the retort.

"They seem to think they are having a race with us," remarked Allen,
nodding in the direction of the other boat. It was a little distance
ahead, but off to one side, a considerable space of glittering ice
separating the two craft.

"Maybe he saw us coming, and shot out that way to make Alice think he
was some ice yachtsman," suggested Will. "I'll tell him what I think the
next time I see him."

"Oh, don't make any more trouble, Will," begged his sister. "We seem to
be on the outs enough with the Jallow family. I only hope we don't meet
Mr. Jallow up in the woods."

"He wouldn't dare annoy you," spoke Allen. "I know something about your
father's case, and I think, when it is next tried, that Jallow will
lose. He deserves to, I think, and I have gone over most of the
evidence."

"If we could only get that missing lumberman to testify," said Grace,
"it would end it all in papa's favor. But I suppose that is too much to
hope for."

They were moving swiftly along now, and were a little