name Gizzard quailed; Cottontop
showed signs of nervousness; and Cathead furtively glanced at the window
by means of which they had entered, as if to be sure that it was still
there. But Sube was no craven. He let out a howl of derision.

"That big boob! Ha--a--a ha! He's a big bag of wind! Why, he wouldn't
hurt a fly! Say, I ain't any more afraid of him than I am of ol' Joe!
You know what I'd do to him if he should come buttin' in here? I'd take
'im down into that little ol' mershum swimmin'-hole, and I'd duck 'im
and duck 'im till he went home bellerin'! Gee! I wisht he would come in
here. Wouldn't we have fun with him, though!"

Gizzard was not naturally timid. Rather was he inclined to be
venturesome; and in addition to that he had carefully schooled himself
to fear nothing that Sube was not afraid of. It was accordingly not long
before he was able to force his unwilling tongue to say slighting things
about Dr. Mossman. And, encouraged by Sube's contemptuous
animadversions, he finally found himself saying that if the "Big Noise"
should come botherin' around _him_, he'd lick him with one hand.

"Well, if that's the way you feel about it," remarked Sube, "what's to
hinder our havin' a little swim in this mershum swimmin'-hole?"

Gizzard was taken completely by surprise. He had supposed that the
episode would end with the villification of the minister. For a moment
he was silent.

"What's the matter? Afraid?" taunted Sube.

"No, I ain't," replied Gizzard weakly.

"Will you go in if I will?"

"If you do, I will; but what'd we do if anybody should come in and catch
us?" Gizzard equivocated.

"That's easy," blustered Sube. "We'd stay right in the water, and these
two fellers would shut the thing up and duck under the seats with our
duds, and wait till they went out again!"

It sounded so reasonable and so safe that Gizzard resisted no longer.
And soon the two boys were floating about in the delightful depths of
the baptistry. There was not a great deal of room for swimming, but they
repeatedly expressed their unqualified approval of mershum as a pastime.

Cathead had done his best to keep the boys from going into the water,
and he now began to urge them to come out.

"I tell you it ain't safe," he was saying. "Somebody is liable to come
in here--"

As if in response to the suggestion, there was a metallic sound from the
front door which indicated the introduction of a key into the lock. This
was followed