THROUGH THE ICE
How long he lay in the blackness, which was caused by the blow on his
head, Rick did not know. But when he opened his eyes, to find himself
lying half under his sled which had fallen with him, it was dark all
about him--that is, all dark except a faint light which came from the
snow pile into which he had tumbled. That made a gleam of whiteness even
when all else was black.
"I wonder--I wonder what happened?" asked Rick, speaking in a faint
voice.
Then it came back to him--how he had taken one last coast down the hill,
how something had slipped and how he had fallen down into the hole in
the snow.
That was where he found himself now, and, as he opened his eyes, though
his head hurt him very much as he did this, he saw the snow all about
him.
And then Rick heard the barking of a dog, and at once he knew whose dog
it was.
"That's Ruddy!" he murmured. "Good, old Ruddy! Here, Rud! Rud!" he
called.
The barking came louder, and Rick looked up toward the top of the hole.
It was as if he were down in a well, the sides of which were made of
snow. At the top he could see the sky, from which the last glow of the
sun had faded, but a few stars were glittering there. And Rick saw
something else. It was the head of Ruddy.
Ruddy was leaning over the hole in the snow drift, looking down at Rick
who had fallen to the bottom.
"Come on down, Ruddy. Come and help me up!" called Rick, after he had
tried to move and found that he could not. Something seemed to be the
matter with one of his legs, and when he turned his head the least bit,
he felt dizzy. It even hurt him to call to his dog.
And no sooner had Rick told Ruddy to jump down into the snow hole with
him than he wished he had not done so.
"If Ruddy comes down here," thought Rick, "he can't get out either, and
then we'll both be in a hole! Stay back, Ruddy! Stay back!" he called,
faintly.
But there was no need to tell Ruddy that. The setter was a wise dog, and
though he very much wanted to aid his master, he was not going to run
into danger himself, and so make it impossible for him to help Rick.
Ruddy was a wise dog.
He had seen Rick go down in the snow drift, and at first thought nothing
of it. It was not the first time Rick had toppled into the snow that
day.
But when several minutes went by, and Rick did not come out, laughing as
he always did, Ruddy became uneasy. He ran down the hill, almost as fast
as the coasting sled had gone down, and when he came to the edge of the
hole he stopped. That was where Ruddy was wise.
If he had gone on much farther he would have slipped into the drift
himself, and, while he might have been able to flounder his way out, he
would not have been of any use to his master.
So Ruddy stopped on the hard, firm edge of the hole, at the place where
Rick had toppled in. And there Ruddy stood, looked down at his master,
and barked.
Ruddy could not see as well, by looking down into the hole of snow, as
Rick could see by looking up, but the dog knew his master was there.
"Stay up there, Ruddy! Stay there!" called Rick, faintly, trying to
fight off the feeling of weakness and the blackness that appeared to be
trying to cover him with a heavy blanket. "Stay up there--and go get
help! Go home, Ruddy!"
Ruddy barked again, and there was a different meaning to it. If another
dog had been there he could have very easily have understood what Ruddy
was saying. It was this:
"All right, Master! I'll go home! I'll go get help! But I just wanted
you to know that I wasn't going to run off and leave you all alone. I'm
going to help you, but I can't do it if I jump down there with you."
Giving a last bark, as if to tell Rick to keep up his courage and not to
worry, Ruddy sprang away, and raced up the hill toward home.
Rick had a final glimpse of his dog as the animal drew back from the top
of the well-like hole in the snow. Then Rick decided to try to do
something for himself.
"I wonder why I can't get up and dig my way out?" he asked himself. "I
can use my sled for a shovel."
But when he tried to move he felt such a sharp pain in his leg, and his
head pained him so, and he felt so dizzy, that he had to stop. The night
seemed to be settling down now, blacker than ever. Rick could see no
stars now, but he began to feel a warm glow coming over him, as though
he had drawn near some blazing fire.
Somehow Rick remembered reading that travelers, overcome in the snow,
felt this warmth before they lost their senses and froze to death. And
he tried to fight off the drowsiness.
"I must wake up! I must wake up and dig my way out of here!" he said to
himself over and over again. But each time he tried to move he was
unable.
And then for a time he knew nothing. He just lay there, all crumpled up
at the bottom of a deep hole in the snow.
The next thing Rick knew was that he heard voices. At first they seemed
to be a long way off, but they came nearer. Then he felt himself being
moved, and he opened his eyes to see lights gleaming. He saw his father
bending over him, lifting him up, and he heard his father's voice
saying:
"Well, Rick, my boy! Ruddy did you another good turn! He brought us to
you! Now you're all right!"
And somehow, though his leg still hurt him, and his head pained, Rick
knew it was all right. He settled back in his father's arms, and felt
himself being carried along, through a sort of snow tunnel.
And that is just the way Rick was taken out of the hole into which he
had fallen with his sled. Ruddy, after leaving his master, having
barked, as well as he knew how to tell him what he was going to do, had
raced home. There he acted so strangely, grasping Mr. Dalton by the
coat, and fairly pulling the boy's father toward the door, that Mazie
cried:
"Oh, what makes Ruddy act so funny? Something must be the matter!"
"Something has happened to Rick!" exclaimed Mrs. Dalton. "I know it!"
"I think that must be it," her husband replied. "I'll go with Ruddy and
see."
Quickly putting on his hat, Mr. Dalton went out with the dog, and Ruddy
showed, very plainly by his joyful barks, that this was just what he
wanted.
"It's just like the time Rick fell out of the tree when he was
chestnutting," said Mazie.
"But he wouldn't be climbing trees now," said Mrs. Dalton, who was
beginning to get worried. "Rick went coasting."
"Maybe he went so fast that his sled climbed a tree," suggested the
little girl.
And Ruddy led Mr. Dalton right to the hole down which Rick had fallen
with his sled. Mazie had not guessed it quite right. The sled had taken
her brother down, not up.
Flashing the rays of a pocket electric torch he carried, down into the
hole in the snow, Mr. Dalton saw Rick lying at the bottom, and it did
not take the father long, with the help of some neighbors who brought
shovels, to dig a tunnel through the snow to where Rick was and carry
him out of the drift. If they had started to get him from above they
might have caved the pile of snow down on top of him.
"But what made my head feel so funny?" asked Rick, when he had been
taken home, put to bed and the doctor called.
"You struck on your head pretty hard," answered Dr. Wayne with a smile.
"It made you partly unconscious at times, and then you got numb with the
cold, and almost went too sound asleep."
"Is my leg broken?" asked Rick. "I couldn't stand up on it."
"No, it was only twisted by your fall," the doctor told him. "You will
be all right in a few days."
And so Rick was, but during those few days he had to stay in bed, though
part of the time he could lie on a couch and look out of the window at
the snow. And all this time Ruddy never left him. The dog stayed beside
his master, only going out at night to his kennel when Rick had fallen
asleep.
"And don't let that old sailor or the junk man get him," Rick begged of
his father and mother, when it came time to put Ruddy out.
"I guess Ruddy himself won't let them come near him again," spoke Mr.
Dalton.
And so there grew between Rick and Ruddy a firmer bond of love and
affection than ever. When Rick grew tired of reading or of looking out
of the window he would glance toward Ruddy. And the dog, who had been,
perhaps, asleep on the rug near his master's chair, seemed to know the
minute Rick looked at him, even if the dog's eyes were shut, for Ruddy
would give a low bark of pleasure and his tail would thump the floor.
That was Ruddy's way of talking.
The winter days passed. Rick grew strong again and went out to play in
the snow and on the ice with Ruddy. And all the boys wished they had
such a dog as was the red setter.
There came a thaw, a rain and then a freeze. Instead of the ground being
covered with snow, all the ponds, lakes and streams were frozen over.
"Now for some skating!" cried Rick. And Ruddy barked joyously. For,
though he could not skate, and though he slid over the ice when he tried
to walk on it, still he had fun, and loved to be out of doors with his
master and the other boys.
One day Rick, Chot and Tom were down on Weed River with their skates.
Rick had taken Mazie with him, and while she skated with some other
little girls, her brother and his chums started a game of hockey.
They were in the midst of it, and Rick's side was winning, when,
suddenly, there sounded a loud, cracking noise.
"There goes the ice!" cried Chot. "Skate to shore, everybody! The ice is
breaking!"
Forgetting their game, Rick and the others headed for the safe shore.
But even as Rick glided along, followed by Ruddy, the boy glanced down
toward where he had left Mazie. He could not see her, but he noticed the
other girls fleeing toward the river bank. And then from one of them
came the cry:
"Mazie's in the water! Mazie went through the ice!"