Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE STUTTERING VOICE There was a stir of interest and exclamations of surprise as those in the store crowded closer; to get a better view. "That explains it," said Mr. Talley, as he examined the missile. "I was sure that no mere ball of snow could break that heavy window. To put such a stone in a snowball was little less than criminal," he went on gravely. "If that had hit any one on the temple it would almost certainly have killed him." "It was coming straight for my head when I dodged," said Bob. "That's another proof that it wasn't any ball we threw that broke the window," put in Joe. "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 ray 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....