n return for these two sockdolagers."

They hastily gathered up several snowballs apiece, which were easily
made because the snow was soft and packed readily, and ran toward the
alleyway just in time to see Buck and his crowd emerging from their
hiding place.

There was a spirited battle for a few minutes, each side making and
receiving some smashing hits. Buck's gang had the advantage in that they
had a large number of missiles already prepared, and even in the
excitement of the fight the radio boys noticed how unusually hard they
were.

"Must have been soaking them in water until they froze," grunted Jimmy,
as one of them caught him close to the neck and made him wince.

As soon as their extra ammunition was exhausted and the contending
forces in this respect were placed more on a footing of equality, Buck
and his cronies began to give ground before the better aim and greater
determination of Bob and his comrades.

"Give it to them, fellows!" shouted Bob, as the retreat of their
opponents was rapidly becoming a rout.

At the moment he called out, the progress of the fight had brought the
radio boys directly in front of the windows of one of the largest
drygoods stores in the town.

In the light that came from the windows Bob saw a snowball coming
directly for his head. He dodged, and----

Crash! There was the sound of splintering glass, and the snowy missile
whizzed through the plate glass window!

CHAPTER II

IN A DILEMMA

There was a moment of stupor and paralysis as the meaning of the crash
dawned upon the radio boys.

Buck and his crowd had vanished and were footing it up the fast-darkening
street at the top of their speed.

The first impulse of the radio boys was to follow their example. They
knew that none of them was responsible for the disaster, and they were
of no mind to be sacrificed on behalf of the gang that had attacked
them. And they knew that in affairs of that kind the ones on the ground
were apt to suffer the more severely.

They actually started to run away, but had got only a few feet from the
scene of the smash when Bob, who had been thinking quickly, called a
halt.

"None of this stuff for us, fellows," he declared. "We've got to face
the music. I'm not going to have a hunted feeling, even if we succeeded
in getting away. We know we didn't do it and we'll tell the plain truth.
If that doesn't serve, why so much the worse for us. But at any rate we
won't be despising o