Smash!
Splash!
"Gracious!" gasped d.i.c.k, believing that the store window had been broken.
A yell from Tom arose as the contents of the pitcher deluged him.
Reade was up and away like a shot, reaching the street only to cause a hue and cry to be started after him as he ran.
So swiftly had Tom moved, that by the time d.i.c.k Prescott reached the street both pursuers and pursued were a block away and going fast. d.i.c.k was about to join the chase when his father called after him:
"d.i.c.k! d.i.c.k! Come back here!"
"Yes, sir," replied young Prescott, halting, wheeling, then springing back. "But that scoundrel smashed the rear store window!"
"No, he didn"t," laughed Mr. Prescott. "That was Tom Reade, and he was playing a trick on you---with our permission. Now he"s being chased. Do you want to go out and aid that crowd in capturing him?"
"Of course I don"t, sir," replied d.i.c.k, who knew full well that such a st.u.r.dy high school athlete as Tom Reade was in very little danger of being caught by any citizen runners to be found on the street at that time of night. "But what did Tom do, Dad?"
"I don"t just know," admitted the bookseller. "Reade told us there would be a smash of gla.s.s, but that it would be harmless.
He warned your mother, d.i.c.k, so that she wouldn"t he startled when it came. Tom did the right thing in warning your mother.
I wish all boys could realize that only cowards and fools go about frightening women."
"But something else happened," insisted Mrs. Prescott. "I wonder what it was?"
"Suppose we take a lantern and go out in the back yard and see,"
proposed d.i.c.k.
While d.i.c.k was finding the lantern the elder Prescott closed the front of the store, also drawing down the shades for the night.
d.i.c.k"s mother followed him into the rear yard. The fragments of the bottle under one of the store windows told the whole story to one as experienced in jokes as d.i.c.k Prescott.
"But see how wet the ground is," Mrs. Prescott remarked after d.i.c.k had explained the trick.
"That was because I didn"t recognize the joker, and emptied the contents of my water pitcher on him just as he broke the bottle,"
d.i.c.k smiled. "Poor old Tom. That was really a shame!"
"But why did you pour the water on him?" asked Mrs. Prescott.
"Because I felt sure that the prowler was up to some mischief, and I wanted to mark him for identification, mother," d.i.c.k explained.
"If we had found a fellow on the street looking as though he had just come out of the river, we"d have known our man, wouldn"t we? Poor Tom! I don"t blame him for letting out that yell when that drenching splash hit him."
"I hope he didn"t get caught by the men who started after him,"
sighed Mrs. Prescott.
"Don"t worry about Tom, mother," urged d.i.c.k. "No one about here could catch him, unless he happened to be a member of the Gridley High School Eleven!"
But was it true that Tom Reade had escaped without disaster?
That remained to be seen.
CHAPTER II
DODGE AND BAYLISS HEAR SOMETHING
"If we start to-morrow we must hustle all day long to-day," declared Dave Darrin.
"That"s true," agreed Greg Holmes, as the two boys stood on a side street not far from Main Street in Gridley.
"I wish the rest of the fellows would hurry along," Dave went on impatiently.
"At all events, I wish d.i.c.k would hurry up, as he has charge of the arrangements," Greg made answer. "Oh, my! But I"m getting anxious to see the fish nibble."
"I thought you didn"t care especially about fishing," Dave murmured, regarding his friend.
"Probably, as far as mere fishing goes, I don"t care so very much,"
young Holmes a.s.sented. "But when fishing means weeks of outdoor life, free from the noise and dust of the town---then I"m simply wild about fishing as an excuse for getting away. Probably at the end of our fun we"ll all be so sick of fish, from having had to eat so much of it, that any one of us will run away and hide when we suspect that the home folks are planning to send us on errands to a fish store. It would be all the same to me if we were going clamming, or hunting, or on any other kind of expedition, as long as it brought us to life under canvas and sleeping in the very place where pure, fresh air is made. Here comes d.i.c.k now!"
Young Prescott came swiftly up to his friends.
"Well, I think I"ve gotten about everything fixed," d.i.c.k announced.
"Tell us all the plans," urged Greg eagerly.
"What"s the matter with waiting until all the other fellows show up?" Prescott inquired. "That will save me from having to go twice over the same ground. While we"re waiting I"ll tell you Tom Reade"s latest one."
"A funny trick?" queried Greg.
"Needless question!" rebuked Dave Darrin. "Tell us about the latest one, d.i.c.k."
Thereupon the leader of d.i.c.k & Co. told of Tom"s scheme for making people think one of their windows broken.
"Did it sound real?" Dave demanded.
"Did it?" inquired d.i.c.k. "It fooled me. I thought surely that our rear store window had been smashed to pieces. The sound is as natural as any joker could wish. But I haven"t told you the other half of the story."
Thereupon d.i.c.k told about the pitcher of water dumped so unerringly on Tom, and of Reade"s flight with the crowd pursuing him.
"I"d like to have been near enough to hear just what Tom said when the water struck him," laughed Darrin.
"Did the people running after him catch him?" asked Greg.
"I don"t believe so," d.i.c.k Prescott smiled. "When Tom gets under way in earnest, his middle name, as you may have observed, is Double Speed---and then a bit more."
"Who"s talking about me?" gruffly demanded Reade, coming up behind the group. "d.i.c.k, you old rascal! That was a mean trick you played upon me when you hurled that water down on me last night!