"Speak!" said he, seizing Perry fiercely by the shoulder.
The uproar of the Works seemed to hush for an instant, while the lad stammered faintly,—
"There's somebody carried off in the ice by Skerrett's Point. It looks like a woman. And there's nobody to help."
CHAPTER XII.
IN THE ICE.
"Help! help!" shouted the four trip-hammers, bursting in like a magnified echo of the boy's last word. "Help! help!" all the humming wheels and drums repeated more plaintively.
Wade made for the river.
This was the moment all his manhood had been training and saving for. For this he had kept sound and brave from his youth up.
As he ran, he felt that the only chance of instant help was in that queer little bowl-shaped skiff of the "Ambuster."
He had never been conscious that he had observed it; but the image had lain latent in his mind, biding its time. It might be ten, twenty precious moments before another boat could be found. This one was on the spot to do its duty at once.
