!"

"Hurrah!" shouted Charley, now thoroughly awake. "Isn't it great, Toby!
We'll start to-morrow, and to-morrow night we'll be at good old Double
Up Cove again! Hurrah!"

Charley "heard" the silence, the impressive, gravelike silence that had
fallen upon the world. No longer was there a lapping of waters upon the
rocks. No breath of wind murmured through the trees. There was a silence
so complete, so absolute that Charley declared he could actually hear
it.

The boys hurried down to the shore to scan the bay, and sure enough it
lay gray and still under a coating of smooth, dark ice. Toby tried it
with a stick, and already it was tough enough to bear his weight near
shore.

"I'm doubtin' 'tis fast out in the middle yet," said Toby, "but she'll
be freezin' all day, and she'll be fast enough all over by to-morrow,
whatever."

It was a busy day of preparation and excitement. On the morrow they were
surely to be relieved from their island prison and from an experience
that had been most trying and that they would both remember while they
lived. All of the boat gear that they had brought ashore and other
equipment and belongings were gathered together in a pile.

"'Tisn't much," said Toby, "but 'twould make for weariness to pack un on
our backs. I'm thinkin' I'll fix up a riggin' to haul un. 'Twill be
easier than packin'."

He proceeded to lay two of the long boat oars parallel upon the snow,
and about eighteen inches apart. The blade end of the oars he connected
with half a dozen sticks, the end of the sticks lashed firmly to the
oars. The handle end of the oars he connected with a piece of rope,
drawn taut, and securely tied to the handles.

"Now stand betwixt the handles, Charley, and lift un up so's the rope'll
be against your chest," Toby directed.

Charley complied, and Toby tied another piece of rope to the end of one
of the oars, and where the chest rope was tied to it. Then passing the
rope up and in front of the shoulder, then behind the neck and down in
front of the other shoulder, he secured the loose end to the other oar.

"There, now," said Toby, surveying his work, "she'll ride on the ice
and she's right for easy haulin'. The rope up around the back o' your
neck holds she so you won't have to be holdin' she up with your hands,
and you can have un free, and the rope across your chest fixes un so's
you can haul by just walkin'."

"Am I going to haul this rig?" asked Charley.

"We'll be takin' tur