“As for these boys,” continued Mr. Talley, “I am perfectly sure in my own mind that they are telling the truth. You’ll have to look for the culprit in the other crowd, and I’ve already told you who they are, or who one of them is, at least.”
“Well,” said the storekeeper, who by this time had cooled down considerably, “that, I suppose, will be something for the insurance company to settle. But by the terms of my contract with them I’ll have to help them all I can to find out the responsible party, and I’ll have to give them the names of all the boys concerned in the fight.”
“That’s all right,” responded Bob. “You know our folks and you know that they’re good for any judgment that may be found against them. But I’m sure it will be somebody else that will have to pay the bill.”
There was nothing more to be done for the present, and the boys filed out of the store, after having expressed their thanks to Mr. Talley for the way he had championed their cause.
“Gee!” murmured Joe, as they went up the street toward their homes, “I know how a fellow feels now after he’s been put through the third degree.”
“It was rather a hot session,” agreed Bob. “But I’m glad we had it out with him instead of running away. It’s always best to take the bull by the horns. And you can’t blame Mr. Larsen for feeling sore about it. Any one of us would probably have felt the same way.”
“Sure thing,” admitted Herb. “But think of that dirty trick of Buck Looker in putting stones in snowballs! It wasn’t only that one that went through the window. Every time I got hit it made me jump.”
“Same here,” said Jimmy. “I was thinking all the time that they were the hardest snowballs I ever felt, but it never came into my mind that there were stones in them.”
“Trust Buck to be up to every mean trick that any one ever thought of,” returned Bob. “He hasn’t got over the way we showed him up at Mountain Pass. He thought he had us dead to rights in the matter of that burned cottage, and it made him wild to see the way we came out on top. He and his gang would do anything to get even.”
“It will be interesting to see what he’ll say when this matter of the window is put up to him and his pals,” remarked Herb.