k when we go home to dinner," Bert told himself, and
laid his plans accordingly.

As soon as Bert got out of school he hurried into a corner of the yard
and made three good, hard snowballs. These he concealed under his
overcoat and then waited for Danny to appear.

The big boy must have known that Bert would try to square matters with
him, for as soon as he came out he ran in the direction of one of the
main streets of Lakeport, just the opposite direction to that which he
usually pursued.

"You shan't get away from me!" cried Bert, and ran after him. Soon he
threw one snowball and this landed on Danny's back. Then he threw
another and knocked off the bully's cap.

"Hi! stop that!" roared Danny, and stooped to pick up the cap. Whiz!
came the third snowball and hit Danny on the cheek. He let out a cry of
pain.

"I'll fix you for that, Bert Bobbsey!" he said, stooping down in the
street. "How do you like that?"

He had picked up a large chunk of ice lying in the gutter, and now he
threw it at Bert's head with all force. Bert dodged, and the ice went
sailing past him and hit the show window of a small shoe store,
shattering a pane of glass into a hundred pieces.

CHAPTER IV

THE BROKEN WINDOW

Neither Danny nor Bert had expected such an ending to the snowball fight
and for the moment neither knew what to do. Then, as the owner of the
shoe store came running out, both set off on a run.

"Stop! stop!" roared the shoe dealer, coming after them. "Stop, I say!"

But the more he cried stop the harder they ran. Both soon reached the
corner, and while Danny went up the side street, Bert went down, so the
boys soon became widely separated.

Reaching the corner, the owner of the store did not know which boy to go
after, but made up his mind to follow Bert, who could not run as fast as
Danny. So after Bert he came, with such long steps that he was soon
close to the lad.

Bert was greatly scared, for he was afraid that if he was caught he
might be arrested. Seeing an alleyway close at hand, he ran into this.
At the back was a fence, and with all speed he climbed up and let
himself down on the other side. Then he ran around a corner of a barn,
through another alleyway, and into a street leading home.

The shoe dealer might have followed, but he suddenly remembered that he
had left the store unprotected and that somebody might come in and run
off with his stock and his money. So he went back in a hurry; and the