Piercing shrieks greeted their appearance, followed quickly by the din and confusion of a panic. The terrified boys brushed the water from their eyes and gazed in trembling awe at the havoc of which they had been the innocent cause. They saw Dr. Mossman pulled down by a pack of frenzied women who trampled him underfoot as if he had been a doormat, and then fought, tore, scratched and screamed their way to the door. Gizzard was the first to speak. "What is it?" he asked in a voice husky with terror. "S'pose the church is on fire?" Sube's teeth chattered violently as he shook his head and managed to say, "I don't know; but I guess we better be gettin' out of here!" They had ascended the little steps before they realized that they were naked. Looking about in brainless bewilderment Gizzard asked, "Where's our clo's?" And although Sube knew, he was never able to tell, for at that instant he saw rising before him like a Phoenix from its ashes the battered remains of Dr. Mossman. It then became apparent that Sube had lost some of his contempt for the minister, for he tried to avoid him and jump hastily back into the water. But alas, he was too late. Dr. Mossman seized him with an iron grip and drew his shivering body across a large pious knee--and for the next few moments forgot all about his hobby. When Sube appeared at Sunday School the following day he was nursing a bad cold. "Did you catch an'thing 'sides a cold?" asked Gizzard under his breath. "Not buch I didn't!" returned Sube. "Bud we godt a bystery over to our house." "A mystery? What is it?" "By bother found the Baptis' bidister's overcoat hangin' in our frondt hall last dight, and dobody in the house could tell her how it godt there!" Sube punched the grinning Gizzard jovially in the stomach as he continued, "She hadt me take it to him, but he didn't know how it godt there either!" "We got a mystery over to my house, too!" howled Gizzard. "My mother's been tryin' to figger out how I could lose off my undershirt and one stockin' without knowin' it!" When they had sufficiently calmed down the boys passed into Sunday School, winking knowingly whenever their eyes chanced to meet. CHAPTER XXVIII THE TIMBER CRUISER Jealousy is about as reasonable as lightning; it is fully as deadly, and often much more unexpected. And because Biscuit Westfall's mother's brother-in-law (who was a farmer with a fine woodlot) when bringing in the annual Christmas tree for Biscuit, had also brought one for Nancy Guilford's Christmas party, he had aroused Sube's groundless jealousy of Biscuit to the striking point.