on as his head came up, "you're going to get what's
coming to you!"

Steve, battling for breath, gasping and gurgling, tried to wrench away,
but the clasp on his neck was too strong for his efforts and down he
went, squirming and struggling, until his head was under water. He
managed to reach around and get a grip of Sawyer's bathing trunks, but
that was small advantage. The big fellow had him at his mercy. Steve's
head was throbbing when at last he was allowed to lift it out of the
water again, gasping for breath. But the grip on his neck didn't relax.
He was conscious that the laughter had died away, conscious of Sawyer's
grinning face beside him, and then down he was plunged again without
warning, just managing to draw a little breath into his aching lungs
before the water closed over him. It seemed that his tormentor held him
down longer this time, and when, at last, he found the lights in his
eyes again and could breathe once more, he was ready to give up the
struggle. He had long since released his hold on Sawyer's trunks, and
now his hands were clasped desperately about the other boy's wrists. And
yet when Sawyer's growling voice said in his ear, "Had enough, kid? Beg
my pardon?" Steve managed to shake his head.

"Want more, eh?" asked Sawyer. "All right, kid!" The clasp on his neck
tightened again and he felt himself being once more thrust downward. And
then, suddenly, he was free, and when, fighting his way back to the
surface, he looked dazedly, there was Tom clinging to Sawyer's neck,
thrashing and squirming.

"You let him be, you big bully!" Tom was saying. "You let him be!"

"Let go of my neck, you silly little fool!" gasped Sawyer, striving to
break the boy's hold.

"You let him be!" gurgled Tom, half-drowned but clinging like a limpet.
"You let him be, you big bully!"

Then the two went under and Steve, recovering his breath, wrenched them
apart somehow and pulled poor Tom to the side of the tank. Sawyer,
breathing with difficulty after Tom's choking grasp about his neck,
floundered to the edge, got a sustaining grip on the rim of the tank and
glared angrily at the two boys.

"I'll get you for this, you smart Alecks," he declared chokingly.
"You're too fresh, both of you. Don't you know better than to grab a
fellow around the neck in the water, you fool kid?"

But Tom was too far gone to answer. "That's what you did, isn't it?"
Steve demanded. "That's a funny way to talk!"

"It is, is it?" snee