but emerged glowing from the
effects of exercise and the cold water. As they were getting into their
clothes they heard voices coming toward them, and they had hardly
finished dressing when the voices' owners came crashing through the
underbrush close to where the boys were standing.

The two groups stared in astonishment for a few moments, for the
newcomers were none other than Carl Lutz, Buck Looker, Terry Mooney, and
another older fellow, who was a stranger to the radio boys.

Buck's expression of surprise quickly gave place to an ugly sneer, and
he turned to his friends.

"Look who's here!" he cried, in a nasty tone. "I wonder what they're up
to now, Carl?"

"We're not hiding from the cops because we broke a plate glass window
and were afraid to own up to it," Bob told him.

"Who broke a window?" demanded Buck. "You can't prove that it wasn't a
snowball that one of your own bunch threw that broke that window."

"We don't throw that kind of snowballs," said Joe.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Buck.

"Are you trying to say that we put stones in our snowballs?"

"I don't have to say it," retorted Joe. "You just said it yourself."

Too late Buck realized his mistake, and his coarse red face grew purple
as Herb and Jimmy grinned at him in maddening fashion.

"Don't you laugh at me, Jimmy Plummer!" he exclaimed, picking on Jimmy
as being the least warlike of the radio boys. "I'll make you laugh out
of the other side of your mouth in a minute," and he started to dash
past Bob to reach his victim.

But to do so he had to pass between Bob and the bank of the lake, which
just at this point was a foot or so above the water.

As he rushed past, Bob adroitly shot out a muscular arm and his elbow
caught the bully fair in the side. Buck staggered, made a wild effort to
regain his balance, and with a prodigious splash disappeared in the icy
waters of the lake.

For a few seconds friend and enemy gazed anxiously at the spot where he
had gone under, but he soon came to the surface, and, sputtering and
fuming, struck out for the shore and dragged himself out on to dry land.

He made such a ludicrous figure that even his cronies could not forbear
laughing, but he turned on them furiously and their laughter suddenly
ceased. Then he turned to Bob.

"If I didn't have these wet clothes on, I'd make you pay for that right
now, Bob Layton," he sputtered. "I'll make you sorry for that before
you're much older."

"Why