"Can you get 'em out?" asked Sammy. "Shall we run for help?"
"Time help gets here they'll be gone!" groaned Jed. "Oh, why didn't I see that crack?"
"Help! Help us out!" came faintly from the black water that could be seen through the opening of the ice.
Sammy and his chums, looking under the mast of the overturned ice-boat, saw two forms struggling in the water. Their hands clung to the edges of the ice, only to have it break off in their grasp. Then they would bob under again.
"We've got to save them!" cried Sammy.
"We can't!" moaned Bob. "Let's go for help!"
"Can you reach them?" asked Sammy of Jed, paying no attention to what Bob said.
"I could if I had a rope to throw to them. But I can't get a rope! Oh, what shall I do?"
Sammy was doing some hard and quick thinking. Something like a rope was needed so that Jed could hold one end and throw the other to the floundering lads. A rope? Where could they get one now? True there were ropes on the iceboat, but they could not be reached.
"I have it!" cried Sammy. "Our book straps! Quick, fellows, take the straps off your books!"
It was a bright idea. The straps were the very thing needed.
Now it happened that Sammy and his chums had very long book straps, much longer than were really needed. They were at least a yard in length, and often only a few books were carried in them. But the boys had a habit of also including their skates, and other playthings, in with their books, so they declared that long straps were needed.
Frank and Bob at once grasped Sammy's plan. In a trice they had loosed the buckles, and handed him their straps.
