“Not a doubt in the world what he’ll say,” replied Joe. “He’ll swear till he’s blue in the face that he never dreamed of using a stone in the snowballs. Do you remember how he told us that he’d lie in court to keep us from putting anything over on him? Any one that expects to get the truth out of Buck is barking up the wrong tree. I guess the insurance company would better kiss their money good-by.”
“I’m afraid so,” returned Bob. “It was dark and there probably weren’t any witnesses who saw them put the stones in, and it is likely that the company will have to let the matter drop.”
The lads had reached Bob’s gate by this time, and they separated with a promise to come over and listen in on the radio later on.
Bob told the whole story to his parents at the supper table that night, and his father and mother listened with great interest and some concern.
“I’m sorry you were mixed up in the thing at all, Bob,” his father remarked thoughtfully. “Being in it, however, you acted just as you should have done. Just how far you and your friends may be held responsible, in case they can’t find the one who actually threw the ball that broke the window, I’m not lawyer enough to say. It’s barely possible that there may be some ground for action on the score of culpable carelessness in taking part in a snowball fight in front of store windows, and of course you were wrong in doing that. But the total amount involved is not very great after all, and it would be divided up among the parents of the four of you, so there’s nothing much to worry about. It would gall me though to have to pay for damages that were really caused by that cub of Looker’s.”
“I’m sorry, Dad,” said Bob. “I’m hoping yet that something may develop that will put the thing up to Buck, or whoever it was of his gang that actually threw the ball.”
“Let’s hope so,” returned Mr. Layton, though without much conviction in his voice, and dismissed the subject.
A little while afterward the other three boys came over to Bob’s house to listen in on the radio concert. So much time, however, had been taken up in discussing the afternoon’s adventure that they missed Larry’s offering, which was among the first on the program. This was a keen disappointment, which was tempered, however, by the probability that they could hear him some evening later in the week.
“Sorry,” remarked Joe. “But it only means that we still have a treat in store when the old boy begins to roar and growl and hiss so as to make us think that a whole menagerie has broken loose and is chasing us. In the meantime we can fix up that aerial so as to get a little better results.”
“Funny thing I noticed the other day,” remarked Bob, as they embarked upon some experiments.