Poor Pat--she fancied Garrett was treating her like a little child! So she answered with a toss of her head:
"I haven't bothered to read the rules! I'm not afraid--if you are!" and she turned toward the Inlet.
"Pat--don't! It isn't safe--honest!"
The more earnest and concerned Garrett grew the more headstrong Pat! She started toward the Inlet, calling over her shoulder: "Oh, you're just a 'fraidy-cat'!"
Garrett watched her for a moment. There was no doubting her intention! He started after her and at the mouth of the Inlet overtook her.
"Pat," he begged, "mother'll be angry! I tell you it's one of the rules!"
But Pat simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Dare you to come with me, little boy!" she laughed teasingly. The Inlet, its banks rising steeply on each side, filled with dancing shadows made by the sun through the bare branches meeting overhead, looked very inviting! Thrilled with a sense of adventure, Pat skated with short strokes into the narrow opening.
Garrett had no choice but to follow her! Deeply alarmed, he again begged her to turn back! Now she pretended not to hear him!
But in a few moments she suddenly screamed and wildly waved her arms! At a bend in the narrow gorge the ice had cracked under her weight!