“Come on, fellows!” Jack tried to call to his chums, but his mouth was stopped for an instant by the soft rolls. Besides, there was no need for his invitation, since Ed and Walter, whether they wanted to or not, found themselves being drawn in with irresistible force.
By this time the girls had run up, not without some little alarm, and they saw the boys come through the rolls.
“Oh—they—they’re all—all right,” gasped Belle, her hand on her heart.
“Of course,” cried Jack, with a laugh. “We’re most done, ladies. Then it will be your turn.”
“Never!” declared Cora.
“Oh, you’ll like it, ladies,” the attendant assured them. “Next comes the blueing water,” and Jack and his friends, together with a number of other persons who were undertaking the ordeal, were once more on a moving sidewalk, sliding up and down, from side to side, and over a mass of blue, rushing water, which, seen through the sections of the walk, looked as if, every minute, it would surge up all about their feet. But they were as dry as the proverbial bone.
“Now if you will kindly step this way you will be hung out to dry,” called the attendant, and a door opened, and the boys with several others were fairly shot out into a yard, where they saw what they supposed were persons hanging over clothes lines.
Jack recoiled at this.
“Go ahead. Be a sport,” urged Ed.
Then Walter burst into a laugh.