First of all, from hooks, he suspended Dodge and Bayliss' "ghosts" of the night before.
"What does that mean?" asked the wondering onlookers.
Then an unexploded bomb bearing the trademark of the Sploderite Company was put in the window. It was followed by the siren whistle that Bayliss had dropped in his flight. Then four "Quaker" wooden guns, a red-stained bandage and a partly used bottle of strawberry ice cream coloring appeared.
Promptly at six o'clock newsboys appeared on the street with the exciting announcement:
"Extree! Extree 'Bla-ade'! All about Dick & Co.'s latest! The best joke of the season!"
Papers went off like hot cakes. Before the evening was over more than two thousand copies of that edition had been sold. Many more than two thousand people had crowded to the "Blade's" show window to catch a glimpse of the exhibits described in the rollicking news story.
"Pshaw! Dodge and Bayliss, the heroes!" shouted one man in the crowd, as he ran his eye through the story.
"Punk heroes!" answered someone else in the crowd.
The story was cleverly told. Dodge and Bayliss were not mentioned by name, but described only as a pair of amateur jokers whose plans had miscarried. Yet the plain, unvarnished story cast complete ridicule over Bert and his friend.
While the fever of the reading crowd was at its height someone shouted: