"Good for you, old kid! How'd you get away from all those old hens? Come 'ere, let's see if I can't wipe off some of that ol' paint with my undershirt--" It took the underwear of the entire party to make Biscuit presentable, and meanwhile he had given an account of the proceedings at the church. "She never noticed the paint at all!" he declared. "She jus' asked me if I could swim, and when I said I didn't know, she sent me back to find out." "You'll find out all right!" came a gruff voice from behind him. Turning around, Biscuit beheld Seth Bissett, the terror of the town, who had received his preliminary training in a reform school and had afterwards finished in the penitentiary. The other boys dived into the pool and swam to safety on the farther side of the creek; but Biscuit, forgetting for the moment his theoretical mastery of the deep, attempted to effect his escape by land, and ran into the arms of Warren Sours, the ally and familiar friend of Seth Bissett. "How many times I gotta tell you little rats to keep away from this swimmin'-hole?" cried Seth with the assistance of several ever-ready strong words, as he roughly grasped Biscuit by the shoulder and faced him around. "Can you swim, bo?" "Yes, sir," replied Biscuit proudly, little suspecting what was to follow. "That's blankety-blank lucky!" the big fellow went on, suddenly catching Biscuit by an ankle and a wrist, "because now you're goin' to have a chanct." Warren seized him by the other ankle and wrist. And as they swung him back and forth as in the game called "beetle and wedge" Seth counted: "One!... Two!... Thr-e-e!" Biscuit went sailing through the air and struck far out in the pool with a tremendous splash; then disappeared from view. Without waiting for him to come up, Seth and Warren hastily snatched up the clothes that were lying about on the grass, and flinging them into the pool, made off into the bushes without so much as a glance at the place where Biscuit had gone down. CHAPTER XVII AN OLFACTORY RETORT Up to the time that Biscuit struck the water he had uttered no outcry. He had perfect confidence in his ability to swim and accordingly took the affair in the light of a rough joke. But when he came to the surface after his initial ducking he uttered a piercing shriek and went down again. "He can't swim a stroke!" cried Sube as he hurriedly swam towards the spot where Biscuit had disappeared. When Biscuit came up the second time Sube grabbed him by the hair, and with the assistance of Gizzard towed him to shore. He was soon stretched out on the grassy slope, head downwards to insure better drainage. And even before the water was all out of him he gulped out spasmodically: "I can swim all right, only they threw me in upside down! I ain't learned to swim that way yet!" "You're all right, Biscuit!" Sube assured him. "You can swim like a fish!" "Sure I can!... Didn't I swim to shore?"