As luck would have it, two or three of the larger boys, in their efforts to get away, ran toward the side of the fountain where Dick stood. He tried to get out of their path, that he might not hamper them in their escape, but there was a fat man behind him and Dick stepped on his toes. "Ouch! My gracious! That's my corn!" cried the man, limping away. Dick started to apologize, but he had hardly begun it, when he was fairly overwhelmed by the lads leaping from the basin. They did not care where they landed, as long as they got away from the officer, and they toppled on Dick, splashing water on him from the fountain, and from their own dripping forms. Dick was knocked down, and one of the boys fell on top of him, the glittering drops splashing all about. Dick struggled to his feet, trying to get rid of the water in his eyes that he might see which way to go to run so as to get out of the way. But, just as he turned to go, he felt some one seize him, and a voice exclaimed: "Now I've got you, anyhow! Come along with me!" "Where to? What for?" asked Dick, and he looked up to see that a policeman had him by the shoulder. "Where to? Why, the station house, of course. And what for? I guess you don't have to ask that! I'll catch some more of you chaps for takin' a dip in the basin the first chance I get, too! You got ahead of me to-day." "I wasn't in the basin," declared Dick. "You wasn't? Say, what ye givin' me? Didn't I see ye runnin', an' ain't ye all wet?" "The water was splashed on me," asserted Dick. "I was just watching them, and some of the boys jumped on me." "Think I'll believe such a fishy yarn as that?" asked the officer, incredulously. "I seen ye in swimmin', an' ye'll have t' come with me." "But I wasn't in," insisted Dick, wishing Jimmy was now at hand to aid him. "Ain't I got eyes in my head?" asked the officer in contempt. "You can't lie out of it that way. Why, you're drippin' wet. You must have gone in with all yer clothes on." "I didn't go in at all." "Aw, cut that out an' come along." Dick did not know what to do. He looked around at the faces of the crowd that had gathered, hoping to see some one to whom he could appeal. But he saw no one. The officer was about to lead him away. All at once a man stepped forth from the throng. He was limping slightly. "What's he done, officer?" he asked. The man looked like an influential citizen, and the policeman decided it would be the best policy to answer him. "Swimmin' in the basin," he said. "Against the law." "I wasn't in," declared Dick, with tears of mortification in his eyes. "They splashed the water on me. Why, I was standing near you," he went on, for he recognized the man as the fat person, on whose toes he had accidentally stepped. "Why, bless my soul, so you were!" exclaimed the fleshy gentleman. "Officer, you are making a mistake."