But what can she want, for certainly her house won't be in any danger yet awhile ?" said Miles, looking across the wide waste of waters to where a little brown hut was pitched high up on the bank.
"Hush! What is she saying ?" cried Katherine, and put her hand to her ear to show that she was listening.
Mrs.Jenkin saw the motion, and lifted her voice afresh.

"There is a man--danger--house--Oily Dave!" That was all they could hear, for the wind carried the words away, and a great block of ice crashed against the front of Oily Dave's abode, making the wooden hut shiver with the force of the blow.
"Oily Dave is shut up in his house, and Mrs.Jenkin wants us to save him," said Katherine, waving her arms to show the woman on the bank that she heard and understood.
"The old baggage isn't worth saving, but I suppose we shall have to try what we can do," Miles answered, then shouted to Katherine to look out.
The warning came only just in time, for at that moment the huge block of ice which had struck the house before came swirling round in their direction, and they had to dodge it as best they could.
"We must get round to the front, if we can," said Katherine, when they had got the boat safely away from the danger of collision with the ice.
"Not possible; look there!" shouted Miles excitedly, as a great sheet of ice came gaily floating on the swift current, caught against the corner of the house, and stuck there, banging, grinding, and jarring with the movements of the swirling water, and threatening to beat the house down like a battering ram.

At the same moment they heard a cry for help from inside the house, and the woman on the far bank shouted and gesticulated more wildly than before, while the whole structure groaned and shivered like a creature in pain.
Katherine turned pale, but seized the oars resolutely.

"There is only one thing to do, Miles, and I am going to do it.

Can you hold the boat at the edge of the ice for five or ten minutes ?" "You are not going to get on to the ice ?" he protested, his voice sharp with dismay, as he looked at the bowing, bobbing fragment many square yards in extent, which was grinding against the side of the house, but which might split into fragments at any moment.
"Yes, I am.