CHAPTER VIII.

ONE USE FOR WOODCRAFT KNOWLEDGE.

“What do you mean by putting us scouts in a bad hole, Ralph?” asked Hugh, quickly, for what the other boy had said startled him.

Ralph glanced hurriedly about, as though to make absolutely certain that no eavesdroppers were near by to overhear what he said. Then he drew closer to Hugh and assumed a most mysterious manner that could not help having an effect upon the surprised scout chief.

“Oh! they’re as mad as hops, let me tell you, Hugh,” Ralph commenced.

“Of course you mean, Ralph, those fellows who were hurt when we put the lid tight on Oakvale, and stopped their sneaky business, whatever it may have been?”

“Yes, and they’ve got together and mean to fight back, that’s how it stands now, Hugh,” he was told.

“We knew they had employed lawyers and were meaning to do everything they could to get the mayor’s acts called unconstitutional,” Hugh remarked.

“Oh! they’ve made up their minds, I guess,” Ralph continued hastily, “that when it comes to a show-down of law they haven’t got a chance to win out. Hugh, let me tell you again some of that bunch are the most desperate men going. Why, nobody would ever have believed we had such monsters here in little old Oakvale.”

“Whew! you’re going pretty strong when you use a word like that, Ralph!”

“They deserve it every time, I tell you,” persisted the other. “What else would you call men who even scheme to have a store in this town robbed, and then fix it so that marked bills or pieces of jewelry will be found in the pockets of certain scouts, you among the number?”

Hugh stared hard at Ralph as though he could hardly believe his ears.

“You haven’t been dreaming that, have you, Ralph?” he finally asked, as he took hold of the other’s sleeve and drew him around so that he could look straight into Ralph’s eyes, which, however, did not waver before his gaze.

“Not much I haven’t, Hugh,” he was told like a flash. “I give you my word of honor I heard that very scheme spoken of by three of the leading spirits in this fight against a clean town—Gaffney, who used to run that poolroom; Slimmons, the retired boxer, who used to be athletic trainer at the schools before somehow he took to drinking so heavy they had to drop him (and he’s hung around Gaffney’s place ever since trying to pick up some sort of living giving boxing lessons, etc.). There was a third man present, but he doesn’t really live in town. I suspect he’s been interested on the quiet in dodging the law here by supplying shady resorts with booze, and is losing money as long as they stay shut up.”

“Where did all this take place, tell me, Ralph?”

“Listen then, Hugh. I happened to be coming across lots down at the bowling alley corner when I saw those three men dodge into the place. You know it’s been closed to play ever since they found things were going on there that had no business in Oakvale. Well, I thought there was something queer about the way those three men acted before they dodged in, and my old sense of investigation at once began to urge me to take a peek and see what they might be up to. If any sort of game was going on, the police ought to know, you understand, Hugh?”

“Yes, and you were acting within your rights as a member of the regular police force, in figuring on doing so,” the other assured him.

Ralph smiled grimly as though pleased to receive that reassurance from the one in whom he placed unlimited confidence.

“Well, it was as easy as falling off a log for me to discover a window that I could crawl through,” Ralph went on to say, “and nobody saw me do it either. I haven’t been watching mink, otter, and foxes pull off their sly tricks without learning a thing or two. So once I got inside the old building it wasn’t much of a job to find where they were sitting, jabbering away like everything, in low voices, as if they didn’t want to be heard outside.

“Hugh, I couldn’t begin to repeat what I heard. All of them were excited, and in dead earnest, too. Each one had suggestions to make that sometimes made my blood run cold. Their well-paying business has been closed up, you see, and that’s what makes them so bent on striking a blow to end this silly ‘racket,’ as they contemptuously call the uplift movement.

“And, Hugh, just as I said in the beginning, they’re actually planning to have a robbery committed, and manage it so that some of the stuff that’s taken will be found on a number of the scouts. Just how this is to be done they hadn’t fully settled; but it’s all going to be fixed this very night, so that before another forty-eight hours have passed the dirty game can be worked. Why, I never dreamed so dreadful a thing would come slap up against us scouts. They want the people of Oakvale to suspect us of being common, every-day thieves.”

“Don’t worry, Ralph,” said Hugh, firmly. “I don’t believe the game could have been carried out successfully at any time, even if none of us so much as suspected a thing. Now that you’ve warned us, why, it’s bound to fall flat. Mayor Strunk and the women of this town know the scouts too well to ever believe they’d disgrace their uniforms and honor badges by stealing.”

“Do you know, Hugh, while I lay there straining my ears like everything so’s not to lose much of what those plotters said, I was thinking what a bully thing it would be if the scouts could turn the tables on ’em.”

“You mean, Ralph, fix things so the fellows who actually did the robbery would be nabbed in the act—with the goods on—before they found a chance to deposit any of the plunder in the pockets of the scouts, or at their homes, where it would be found when a search started?”

“That’s what I had in mind,” confessed the other, eagerly.

“It would be just what they deserved,” declared Hugh, “and what some folks would call retribution. We would save ourselves a whole lot of trouble and explanations, and at the same time might get rid of an undesirable bunch of crooked people that Oakvale never would miss.”

“Of course you understand, Hugh, that I was so worked up by what I managed to hear, I felt nervous about staying too long, for fear those men found me out. I tell you they’re mad enough to do almost anything to us scouts. So I concluded it would be wise to creep back, and get out of that same window again before anything happened to me. This I proceeded to do, and say, I breathed free again when I found myself under the blue sky once more.”

“The last you saw of them they were still sitting in the old bowling alley place talking things over, eh, Ralph?”

“Yes, and figuring on how soon they could do that nasty job, too, Hugh. From all I heard they won’t let the grass grow under their feet before getting things moving.”

“If only we knew whose store was to be robbed we would have something to work on,” suggested the scout leader, invitingly.

“Oh! I think I know that much even now,” admitted Ralph. “They seemed to be talking about the easiest way to get in, and I heard them mention old Mr. Ainslee several times, as if it was to be his jewelry store.”

Hugh would not have been human if he had not felt a chilling sensation pass over him upon learning to what extreme lengths the enemies of reform were willing to go in order to accomplish their purpose. This was to upset the prevailing conditions, and put the town back into the old rut that was winked at by the police and authorities, it being impolitic to notice them too closely.

His determination was immediately taken, for Hugh could often reach a conclusion as speedily as on other occasions he took time to make up his mind.

“Ralph, I was headed for home when you stopped me,” he went on to explain, “but after hearing what you’ve just said, I want to have Mr. Dobbs and the mayor know what those desperate men are thinking of doing. Would you mind coming with me and repeating your story to them?”

“Not a bit, Hugh; fact is, I expected that you would ask me to do so, and I’d made up my mind what to say. Sure, I’ll go along, and repeat every word.”

Accordingly the pair trudged their way to the parsonage, and were fortunate enough to find the minister in his study. Mr. Dobbs was a venerable man who always took a great interest in all the activities of the Oakvale boys. The scouts had no more sincere friend and advocate than he proved to be, even when the organization had been young, and much doubt had been expressed among the better people of the town as to the wisdom of allowing such a movement to crystallize.

He greeted the boys with his customary warmth.

“I’m very glad to have you drop in on me this way,” he told them. “If it is in search of any advice or other assistance, I shall be glad to know what I can do for boys I think so highly of. Tell me what your errand is this time, Hugh, my son.”

Of course the parson was highly indignant when he heard to what actual depths of depravity some of those men were willing to descend in order to undo the work of the loyal scouts, and the better elements among the residents of Oakvale.

“It all goes to prove how fearfully lax we had become here,” he observed after Ralph had told all he knew. “It also shows what a crying necessity for a radical cleaning-up movement there must have been when such criminal elements, working to undermine the characters of our young men and boys, as these, could effect a lodgment in our town. It was high time we woke up and took our coats off for business. Ralph, I want to thank you in the name of every respectable woman and mother in Oakvale for what you have discovered this day. ‘Forewarned is forearmed,’ they say, and before we are through with Gaffney, Slimmons and Company, they will realize that they have been up against a threshing machine.”

Hugh liked to hear the old minister talk like that, for he understood that Mr. Dobbs was really a Civil War veteran, and in the old days had once been known as the “Fighting Parson.” If those unruly men fancied that because he was a shepherd of a flock he would not fight to save his pet lambs from the devouring wolves they made the greatest mistake of their whole lives.

So Mr. Dobbs quickly got the mayor on the wire and asked him to come over to the parsonage without a moment’s delay; also to fetch Doctor Kane along with him if he could possibly do so.

“I’ve got something to communicate that will give you an electric shock, if that hint will cause you to speed your car any the faster, Mr. Mayor,” the boys heard the minister say in conclusion.

It was not a great while before they arrived, for apparently the mayor had either met Doctor Kane on the street or managed to find him at his house. Then once more Ralph was influenced to tell his startling story. He had deeply interested listeners. Hugh could see the mayor gritting his teeth as he had a way of doing when thoroughly aroused.

“These two wide-awake scouts have suggested,” said Mr. Dobbs, after everything had been told, “that we keep very quiet about this discovery, and lay a trap so that when the robbery is actually attempted we may arrest those who are implicated. If they are caught in the act, before they can have any opportunity to place the blame on any one else, we will have no trouble of ridding our town of unworthy citizens. Mr. Mayor, it rests with you to decide.”

“Nothing would please me better!” exclaimed the mayor, strenuously. “Before we go into details with regard to any plan I want to thank these brave boys from the bottom of my heart on account of what the scouts have done and are doing to purge Oakvale of every element that stands, as a blot on a town’s fair name.”