"Stop, Izzy! There's something ahead! Look!"

Of course it was foolish to beg of the boy to stop. Nothing could
halt them once they had started upon the icy incline. But her cry
warned Isadore of the peril ahead.

He echoed her cry, and was as panic-stricken as the girl herself. At
first, the thing looked like somebody lying across the slide. Had one
of their friends fallen off either of the other toboggans, and been
too hurt to rise? Then, the next instant, both Isadore and Ruth knew
that the thing was too small for that.

It was really a jacket that Bob Steele had tied about his neck by
the arms. On the way down the sleeves had become untied and the
jacket had spread itself out upon the slide to its full breadth.

It didn't seem as though such a thing could do the coming toboggan
any harm; but Ruth and Isadore Phelps knew well that if it went upon
the outspread coat there would be a spill. It would act like a brake
to the sled, and that frail vehicle on which the three young folk
rode would stop so abruptly that they would be flung off upon the icy
course.

Ruth at least understood this peril only too well; but she made no
further outcry. Jennie Stone's eyes were still tight shut.

One moment the outspread jacket lay far before them, across the
path. The next instant--or so it seemed--they were right upon it.