“Funny place for windows! And a queer room, I must say, with this heavy, damp air in it. It is so dark I’ll walk cautiously over to one of those windows, stand on my hind feet and find what I can see through them.”
Billy took two steps and found himself falling into inky blackness. Then he went kersplash! into deep water. He had fallen into a swimming tank. As this building was given over to Turkish bathrooms, barber shops and so on, Billy had fallen into the swimming tank, that was all. In a minute or two he realized where he was and he began swimming around to find some place to get out of the water. At last at one end he found a long board running down into the water to the floor of the tank, put there for the little boys who went swimming to climb out. So up this board he went. Then he walked around the platform that surrounded the tank until he came to the door. Once there, he stood still and listened to find if he could hear anyone coming, but all was still. He poked his head out the door and feeling a draft, he stepped out into the hall and ran along searching the cause of the draft, which led him to an outside door as he had supposed it would. It opened into a long back yard which ended on an alley. And just as he left the building, he heard the voices of the five boys as they came in the front door after him. He had made his escape none too soon. And as he leaped the back yard fence into the alley, who should he nearly land on but Stubby.
“Well, this is luck! But come on, Stub, don’t stop to ask any questions now for there are five boys on my trail this minute!” With a whirl of their tails, the two Chums disappeared down the alley.
When they stopped running, Billy said to Stubby: “Thank you for not laughing at my appearance. You are a true friend, Stub.”
“But why should I laugh at your appearance? You look just the same to me.”
“Look just the same? Come, Stub, that is going too far with friendship! How can you say I look just the same with my beard and eyebrows dyed black?”
“Beard and eyebrows dyed black! Are you crazy, Billy, or what is the matter with you? Your beard is no blacker than it ever was. You must be blind to think so.”
Billy now cast his eyes down at his long beard and, sure enough, it was white as snow, just as it always had been.
“Could I have dreamed it all?” thought Billy. “No, for I am as wet as a rat from my swim in the tank.” Then the thought came to him: “The water must have washed off the dye. But who ever heard of dye coming off in one washing of cold water?”
Billy never had, but what had been put on Billy was not a regular dye, but only some coloring matter that actors and actresses use when they wish to change from blond to brunette. It is a perfectly harmless preparation and washes off easily.