"Did it?" inquired Dick. "It fooled me. I thought surely that
our rear store window had been smashed to pieces. The sound is
as natural as any joker could wish. But I haven't told you the
other half of the story."

Thereupon Dick told about the pitcher of water dumped so unerringly
on Tom, and of Reade's flight with the crowd pursuing him.

"I'd like to have been near enough to hear just what Tom said
when the water struck him," laughed Darrin.

"Did the people running after him catch him?" asked Greg.

"I don't believe so," Dick Prescott smiled. "When Tom gets under
way in earnest, his middle name, as you may have observed, is
Double Speed---and then a bit more."

"Who's talking about me?" gruffly demanded Reade, coming up behind
the group. "Dick, you old rascal! That was a mean trick you
played upon me when you hurled that water down on me last night!
But say, didn't it sound just like a three dollar pane of glass
going to pieces?"

"It certainly did," laughed Prescott. "And by the way, Tom, did
the water, when it struck, make you think at all about what you've
read of Niagara Falls?"

"Hang you!" grumbled Tom, shaking a fist. "Why did you pour the
wet stuff on me like that?"