It was rather a scary scene, with dusk falling, amid a silence that was more startling than noise would have been. The old man rose up from the snow-covered bushes, seeming to tower more than six feet in height. He looked steadily at the boys.

Then Sammy found his voice again, and yelled:

"Come on, fellows, run!"

"That's right! I'm with you!" added Frank.

And by this time Bob Bouncer had gotten over his first fright, so he, too, added his voice to those of his chums.

"Hit him!" he cried. "Throw a snowball at him!"

"Don't you dare do it!" came from Sammy. "That'll make him awful mad! Run for all you're worth!"

This seemed the best advice, for really the old man, in spite of his long white hair and beard, that made him look something like the pictures of Santa Claus, had not a kindly-appearing face. He scowled, as though very angry at the boys.

As yet he had not said a word, only, as he rose to his full height, he made a move as if to come from behind the bushes, back of which he seemed to have been hiding.

[Pg 41]

[Pg 41]

"Here he comes!" yelled Sammy. "Come on, fellows!"

They needed no other warning. The three boys took to their heels, and crashed over the snow and bramble-covered ground to the edge of the frozen lake.

"You'd better get away from here!" yelled the strange old man after them. "If I catch you around here again, I'll——"

But the boys did not stop to hear what he would do to them. They did not even stop to fasten on their skates, but ran over the ice, slipping and sliding.

"Is—is he coming?" gasped Bob.

"I don't know. Look back and see for yourself," said Sammy.

Bob did so, but as one cannot very well run over slippery ice and look backward at the same time, what happened to Bob can be easily imagined.

Down he went in a heap, rolling over and over, and sliding along as well.

 Prev. P 27/86 next