Polly, lass! he's fetched up thy Arthur by t' hair of his heead." It was strictly true.

The school-master told me afterwards how it was.
When he found that the ice would bear no longer, he rolled into the water on purpose, but, to his horror, he felt himself seized by the drowning man, which pulled him suddenly down.

The lad had risen once, it seems, though we had not seen him, and had got a breath of air at the hole, but the edge broke in his numbed fingers, and he sank again and drifted under the ice.

When he rose the second time, by an odd chance it was just where Mr.Wood broke in, and his clutch of the school-master nearly cost both their lives.
"If ever," said Mr.Wood, when he was talking about it afterwards, "if ever, Jack, when you're out in the world you get under water, and somebody tries to save you, when he grips _you_, don't seize _him_, if you can muster self-control to avoid it.

If you cling to him, you'll either drown both, or you'll force him to do as I did--throttle you, to keep you quiet." "Did you ?" I gasped.
"Of course I did.