The bottle broke, and in an instant the black liquid was spattered all over Andy, Sam and Pete. It could not have been done more effectively if Tom had thrown it by hand. All over their clothes, their hands and faces, and the front of the car went the dreary black. Tom looked on, hardly able to believe what he saw.
"Wow! Wup! Ug! Blug! Mug!" spluttered Sam, who had some of the stuff in his mouth.
"Oh! Oh!" yelled Pete.
"You did that on purpose, Tom Swift!" shouted Andy, wiping some of the blacking from his left eye. "I'll have you arrested for that! You've ruined my car, and look at my suit!"
"Mine's worse!" murmured Sam, glancing down at his light trousers, which were of the polka-dot pattern now.
"No, mine is," insisted Pete, whose white shirt was of the hue of a stove pipe.
Andy wiped some of the black stuff from his nose, whence it was dropping on the steering wheel.
"You just wait!" the bully called to Tom. "I'll get even with you for this!"
"It was an accident! I didn't mean to do that," explained Tom, trying not to laugh, as he dismounted from his motor-cycle, ready to render what assistance he could.