e. "Each one of us is willing to swear that there was
no stone in any ball that we threw."

"Not only then but at any time," put in Herb. "Only a mean coward would
do a thing like that. None of us has done it any time in his life."

"I believe that," replied Mr. Talley. "I've known all you boys ever
since you were little kids and I know you wouldn't be capable of it."

"That's all very well," said Mr. Larsen. "But that doesn't pay for my
window. Whether any of you boys threw the ball or not you can't deny
that you were engaged in a snowball fight right in front of my windows.
If the fight hadn't been going on the window wouldn't have been
smashed."

There was a certain amount of justice in this, and the boys were fair
enough to acknowledge it.

"I suppose you are right there, Mr. Larsen," said Bob regretfully. "We
ought to have kept out of range of the windows, but in the excitement we
forgot all about that. Then, too, we never would have supposed that any
ordinary snowball would have broken the window. Perhaps that was in the
back of our minds, if we thought of it at all."

"Is the window insured?" queried Mr. Talley.

"Yes, it is," answered the storekeeper.

"Well, then, that lets you out," remarked Mr. Talley, with a note of
relief in his voice. "That puts the matter up to the insurance company.
If they want to take any legal steps they can; and of course they ought
to be compensated by the parents of the boy who may be found guilty of
having thrown the ball with a stone in it. For my part, I doubt very
much that it can ever be proved, unless the boy himself owns up to it."

"Think of Buck Looker ever owning up to anything!" muttered Jimmy.

"As for these boys," continued Mr. Talley, "I am perfectly sure in my
own mind that they are telling the truth. You'll have to look for the
culprit in the other crowd, and I've already told you who they are, or
who one of them is, at least."

"Well," said the storekeeper, who by this time had cooled down
considerably, "that, I suppose, will be something for the insurance
company to settle. But by the terms of my contract with them I'll have
to help them all I can to find out the responsible party, and I'll have
to give them the names of all the boys concerned in the fight."

"That's all right," responded Bob. "You know our folks and you know that
they're good for any judgment that may be found against them. But I'm
sure it will be somebody else that will have to pay