The edge of that ice is rotten." The canoe had drifted alongside the ice, and Rod began pounding it with his paddle.

For a distance of two feet it broke off in chunks, then became more firm.
"I believe that if we cut our way in for a canoe length or so it would hold us," he declared.
Wabi reached for an ax.
"We'll try it!" Mukoki shook his head.
But for a second time that day Wabigoon persisted in acting against the old pathfinder's judgment, something that Rod had never known him to be guilty of before.

Foot by foot he broke the ice ahead of the canoe, until the frail craft had thrust its length into the rotten field.

Then, steadying himself on the bow, he stepped out cautiously upon the ice.
"There!" he cried triumphantly.

"You next, Rod! Steady!" In a moment Rod had joined him.