n, Len drew aside dramatically.

"In with him!" shouted the youngsters.

Then they halted in sheer amazement. For the first time the boys
noted that no water was running in the fountain, and that the
basin underneath was wholly dry.

"My enchantment has worked," chuckled Len.

"How did you do it?" demanded one puzzled youngster.

"Never mind," Len retorted mysteriously. "Now, if you don't instantly
put Dick Prescott on his feet and leave him alone, I'll work an
enchantment that will raise hob with every boy who lays as much
as a finger on Dick."

So Prescott was allowed to slide down to his feet. He was laughing,
enjoying every moment of the fun.

"We could have run him down to the next fountain," suggested one
of the schoolboys.

"It would do you no good, and Prescott no harm," Len retorted
dryly. "At three o'clock this afternoon the fire department turned
off all of the public fountains in order to clean 'em."

Now Dick's late tormentors began to feel that they had been badly
"sold" all around. After the manner of boys, they grinned sheepishly,
then more broadly and finally ended by laughing heartily. But
the crowd did not break up at once. All waited, with a vague
hope that some kind of mischief would happen.

A smaller boy went by, calling the evening newspaper. Tom Reade
bought one and stood at the edge of the crowd, reading.

"Here comes Hi Martin!" called someone. That youth had just turned
a corner, swinging from his left hand a pudgy rubber bag of the
kind that is used for holding a wet bathing suit.

"Hello, Prescott," was Hi's greeting. "Are you all ready to be
left behind in the spray tomorrow?"

"If you can leave me there," Dick smiled. "Been out for a practice
swim, have you?"

"Yes," nodded Hi; "and if you had seen my speed this afternoon
you'd have been scared away from the river for to-morrow."

"Well, I hope one of us wins," grinned Dick.

"One of us?" sniffed Hi. "Of course, one of us has to win when
there are only us two in that race. And, after I beat you to-morrow,"
Hi added consequentially, "I'll be off and away for a good time.
Saturday father is going to take our family to New York for three
weeks."

"Going to stop at one of the big hotels there?" Reade inquired,
looking up from his newspaper.

"Of course we are," Hi rejoined, swelling out his chest. "We
shall stop at one of the biggest and finest hotels in the city."

"Then don't get a room too high up from the ground,