Suddenly without warning, and with scarcely a sound, both horses sank through the ice, which bubbled up around them and over their backs in irregular rotted pieces.

Little Fabian Laveque shouted, and jumped down from his log.

Pat McGuire and young Henrys came running.
The horses had broken through an air-hole, about which the ice was strong.

Fabian had already seized Molly by the bit, and was holding her head easily above water.
"Kitch Jenny by dat he't!" he cried to Pat.
Thus the two men, without exertion, sustained the noses of the team above the surface.

The position demanded absolutely no haste, for it could have been maintained for a good half hour.