Julia Crosby was skating backwards now, facing the others.

"Catch me if you can," she called, and the wind carried her words to them
as they flew after her.

Then Grace, who had been anxiously watching the skater and not the ice,
stumbled on a piece of frozen wood and fell headlong. She lay still for an
instant, half stunned by the blow, but even in that distressful moment she
could hear the other girl's derisive laughter.

Tom called again:

"You'll be drowned, if you don't look where you are going."

"Why don't you learn to skate?" was Julia's answer.

"O Tom," exclaimed Grace. "Leave me. I'll soon get my breath. Do go and
stop that girl. The pond's awfully deep there."

"Miss Crosby," Tom Gray called, "won't you wait a minute? I have something
to tell you."

"Catch me first!" she cried.

She turned and began skating for dear life, bending from the waist and
going like the wind.

"I think I'll try and catch her from the front," he said to himself. "I
don't propose to tumble in, too, and leave poor Grace to fish, us both