“Oh, don’d you think dese pen der most fun I efer had!” gurgled Hans. “Dese peen der vay to got a shoke a ghost on. Yaw! Vot do I think uf dese ghost pusiness now, hey?”
“Haw! haw! haw!” roared Ephraim, holding onto his sides, and doubling up with laughter. “Gol darned ef this wouldn’t make a kaow larf! Give it to um, Hans!”
“Oh, yaw, I peen goin’ to cool them down. After ’dese don’d you pelief me ven dey toldt you I vos scared mit a ghost. Hello, Raddleton! Oxcuse me uf you got der vay in. I didn’d seen you pime-py. You oxbect I vos havin’ a goot time, hey?”
Harry had been untangling himself from the others, and now he tried to get up, but the stream of water struck him behind the ear, and keeled him over once more, plumping his head with great force fairly into Browning’s stomach.
“Thunder and lightning!” roared the big fellow. “I’d rather be in a football rush! I’ll give ten dollars to anybody who will pull me out of this and get me out of the room. My eyes are full of water, and I can’t see.”
“You don’d haf to took a shower path der morning in, Prowning,” laughed Hans.
Then St. Ives and Merriwell got hold of each other, and made a break for the door, doing it so suddenly that they escaped before the Dutch boy could turn the hose on them. They remained outside, laughing and calling to the others, who came stumbling blindly out, one by one, dripping wet and hopping mad.
“The joke is on us, boys,” laughed Frank, “and we may as well make the best of it. It’s no use to kick.”
CHAPTER XXIII—CHOICE OF PONIES
Fearing the boys would attempt to retaliate, Hans and Ephraim closed and barricaded the door, and the Dutch boy shouted that he would “soak” anybody who tried to force an entrance.