the bill."

There was nothing more to be done for the present, and the boys filed
out of the store, after having expressed their thanks to Mr. Talley for
the way he had championed their cause.

"Gee!" murmured Joe, as they went up the street toward their homes, "I
know how a fellow feels now after he's been put through the third
degree."

"It was rather a hot session," agreed Bob. "But I'm glad we had it out
with him instead of running away. It's always best to take the bull by
the horns. And you can't blame Mr. Larsen for feeling sore about it. Any
one of us would probably have felt the same way."

"Sure thing," admitted Herb. "But think of that dirty trick of Buck
Looker in putting stones in snowballs! It wasn't only that one that went
through the window. Every time I got hit it made me jump."

"Same here," said Jimmy. "I was thinking all the time that they were the
hardest snowballs I ever felt, but it never came into my mind that there
were stones in them."

"Trust Buck to be up to every mean trick that any one ever thought of,"
returned Bob. "He hasn't got over the way we showed him up at Mountain
Pass. He thought he had us dead to rights in the matter of that burned
cottage, and it made him wild to see the way we came out on top. He and
his gang would do anything to get even."

"It will be interesting to see what he'll say when this matter of the
window is put up to him and his pals," remarked Herb.

"Not a doubt in the world what he'll say," replied Joe. "He'll swear
till he's blue in the face that he never dreamed of using a stone in the
snowballs. Do you remember how he told us that he'd lie in court to keep
us from putting anything over on him? Any one that expects to get the
truth out of Buck is barking up the wrong tree. I guess the insurance
company would better kiss their money good-by."

"I'm afraid so," returned Bob. "It was dark and there probably weren't
any witnesses who saw them put the stones in, and it is likely that the
company will have to let the matter drop."

The lads had reached Bob's gate by this time, and they separated with a
promise to come over and listen in on the radio later on.

Bob told the whole story to his parents at the supper table that night,
and his father and mother listened with great interest and some concern.

"I'm sorry you were mixed up in the thing at all, Bob," his father
remarked thoughtfully. "Being in it, however, you acted just as you
should have done