PUTTING THE CLAMPS ON.
Hugh had figured it all out, and decided that the first thing he would
do after the business part of the meeting had been carried through,
would be to pick the fellows who were to help guard the jewelry
establishment with some of the regular police force, so as to surprise
the thieves, if they should come as expected.
He believed it might be unwise to tell the others anything about the
plan of campaign. This was not because he had reason to suspect the
loyalty of a single scout, but boys will talk as well as girls, and
unwittingly a fellow might let something escape him that, through
devious channels, would be carried to the ears of those who were
concerned in the contemplated raid on the store.
This plan was carried out to the letter. Those whose names were not on
the list of lucky ones felt a little aggrieved, but at the same time
they knew it would do no good to enter a complaint. Hugh had promised
they were to be given full particulars as soon as possible. He assured
them also that it was a move in the interests of the grand project that
engaged their labors—cleaning up Oakvale.
Once he found himself left with seven stout chums, Hugh proceeded to
gather them around him, and explained what was in the air. He had a most
attentive audience, and it would have been amusing to any one interested
in boys to watch the expressions of wonder and growing delight that
gradually crept over their faces as they drank in his words.
Say what you will, the seed of adventure has always taken root deep down
in the hearts of every healthy boy. The mere fact that they were scouts,
and had promised to observe the rules of the organization whose badge
they so proudly wore, did not mean that they must stifle this feeling,
which, if directed along the right channels, does a boy ten times as
much good as harm.
Dozens of eager questions poured in upon Hugh as soon as he had managed
to tell them about the dastardly plot that had been hatched up by those
desperate men who realized they were getting near the end of their rope,
and that the energy of the scouts was primarily responsible for the
whole thing.
Hugh acted with considerable patience and answered as best he might. He
realized that under similar conditions he, too, might have felt inclined
to ask for further information, because it was a tremendous subject,
truth to tell, and difficult to grapple with in the beginning.
“We’ll make our way by a round-about route to a place appointed,” he
went on to explain, “and there we’ll find Chief Wallis waiting for us.
He will have three of his men along with him, all that can be spared
from their night duties. Between us we’ll probably fix it so that a
complete cordon will be thrown around the jewelry store they’ve picked
out for robbery.”
How they hung upon his every word! Hugh would know just how to place
them in order that they might be able to throw themselves upon the night
prowlers after the latter had actually started to break into the store.
Hugh had explained that they must not be premature in unmasking their
batteries, or the thieves might find a loophole by means of which they
could escape from the meshes of the law.
When Hugh decided that it was time they started to effect a junction
with the regular police; he warned his followers for the last time how
to act.
“If it comes to actual fighting,” he said, impressively, “remember, you
must leave _that_ to the officers, who are armed to bear the brunt of
the attack. We can throw ourselves on any fellow, if the chance offers,
and hold him down. But all that will be arranged exactly after we meet
the other guards.”
He took them along an unfrequented street and by making several detours,
the little group finally found the threatened store looming up close by.
Hugh gave a prearranged signal and received a soft reply.
“The Chief is over there in that dense shadow,” he whispered to the
rest. “We must slip along and join him. First, Tom, here, can go, and
drop down when he finds himself in the dark spot. Then Alec will follow,
and in regular order Buck, Ralph, Jack, Bud and Sam are to imitate him.
I’ll fetch up the rear. Make a move, Tom.”
They were all on their mettle, and besides, had the reputation of being
clever scouts, well versed in most of the secrets of woodcraft.
Consequently the maneuver was carried out without a single hitch. Before
many minutes passed Hugh, having arrived on the spot, found his chums
crouching there close by the Chief.
In low whispers the head of the Oakvale police force now explained their
plan of campaign. It was not known whether any hostile eye kept watch
over the threatened store or not, but they must always believe that such
might be the case, and act accordingly.
That principle was also in line with a scout’s education, and pleased
the boys exceedingly. They had been taught never to underestimate an
enemy, and that it were far better to waste time in taking precautions
than have over-confidence ruin the best-laid plan.
One of the police and three of the scouts were to remain outside the
building, and their part in the enterprise was easily guessed. If the
thieves were like most of their class they would very likely leave one
of their number without to keep watch and give a signal should any
sudden peril loom up. It was to secure that sentry that the force
detailed to stay in the open had been marked off.
Hugh with the rest and the Chief meant to enter the store. He had
visited it often and ought to be well acquainted with its every detail.
Even at that Hugh never left a thing to chance when he could help it.
That very afternoon, after he had left Ralph and the others, the boy had
made some sort of excuse to drop in at Ainslee’s establishment. With his
scout ability he had been able to make a mental map, and had noted every
particular of the store, so that he believed he could, if necessary, get
around in the dark without colliding with showcases or pillars or
counters.
Chief Wallis must have found a way to communicate with the proprietor of
the store, for he certainly had a key that opened the side door, through
which numerous shadowy figures now silently slipped.
Here again Hugh proved of considerable value, for it was he who really
directed the others where to hide so that they might divide their force.
The Chief had a pocket electric light along with him, but he hesitated
to make use of it, lest some one passing and repassing the front of the
store, and looking in, take notice of the strange glow, and communicate
the alarm to his fellows.
Talking was absolutely forbidden among the scouts. They could only
indicate the tremendous interest they were taking in the proceedings by
numerous sly digs in the ribs, after the manner of lively boys unduly
repressed. None of these were given with such vigor as to elicit a gasp
or groan.
How still it seemed after they had been posted in their hiding places.
Some of the scouts must have thought they could actually hear the
beating of their own hearts, such was the stress under which they
labored.
Luckily Hugh had used discretion when making his selections. He had not
chosen them merely for brawn alone, but for an ability to keep a good
grip on their spirits, and bravely face exciting conditions that might
well try the nerves of experienced officers.
An hour passed. It did not slip by, as most of the waiting scouts would
have readily agreed. In fact, that was one of the longest hours they
ever knew, and as ten boomed from the church clock, they could hardly
believe their ears, for surely, they figured, it must be that a longer
time had elapsed.
Hugh allowed them a chance to change their positions when cramped, but
insisted that it be done with due regard to caution. They could not tell
when suspicious ears would be listening for any sound to indicate
trouble. When the thieves did come they would do so—silently, and
without any trumpet to announce their mission.
The second hour was worse by far than the first. How their lower limbs
did seem to want to “go to sleep,” as the boys termed it when
circulation of blood ceased, and a species of numbness resulted. Various
were the remedies resorted to in order to overcome this unpleasant
feeling. When eleven struck some of the crouching figures moved uneasily
and came as near groaning as they dared.
Still, it could not be long now before something was likely to happen,
Hugh whispered to Tom, with orders to pass it along the line, and then
become mute again.
Hugh himself was wondering whether or not all these preparations were
doomed to disappointment. What if the grand scheme had fallen through,
or the intended robbery been postponed because of good and sufficient
reasons? He felt that he would be grievously disappointed, for somehow
he had come to set much store on being able to strike this telling blow
against the worst of the offenders of decency in Oakvale.
He had an impression that this would mark the final effort to break down
the new order of things; that if the robbery of the jewelry
establishment, and the subsequent placing of the crime at the door of
certain innocent parties, could be balked in its perpetration, the last
barrier would have yielded, and after that the reform people would have
a clean order of things.
It must have been pretty near the midnight hour when a door was heard to
close. That little piece of carelessness on the part of the thieves was
likely to cost them dear in the end, since it gave ample warning of
their coming.
One soft hiss from Hugh and every scout flattened himself as low as he
could, so that discovery might not follow in case those who had entered
the store produced any sort of light.
They were not experts in this profession, Hugh guessed, for they took
certain chances of being discovered while at work. Nevertheless, they
depended on the vigilance of their outpost stationed on the street, as
well as the reputation acquired by the town night officers for shirking
their work when on beat.
When it was seen that the two men had actually commenced operations on
the big safe, as though meaning to break into it, and have “the game as
well as the name” now that they had gone to all this trouble, the
concealed boys could hardly keep from leaping up and throwing themselves
upon the robbers. Only the mastery which Hugh possessed over them
prevented such a break; for it had become second nature now with them to
wait for orders before making a move.
Apparently, there was no need of waiting further before showing their
hand. Those outside could take warning when they heard a sudden sound of
confusion within, and pounce upon the “outlook.”
The Chief had reserved to himself the giving of the signal, and every
one, man and boy alike, knew what his particular part in the surprise
attack was to be. If everything went right it would be like the
mechanical action of clockwork machinery. Hugh hoped no cog in the wheel
would miss connections, because that might interfere with the ultimate
success of the whole scheme.
The two men were bending low when there came a sharp exclamation. They
would have started up like a flash, but even then their action was just
a trifle too late, for something heavy dropped upon them, and flattened
both out upon the floor.
It was really the body of the Chief that had accomplished this coup.
Before either one of the astonished rascals could squirm out from under
his ponderous form the scouts became as busy as beavers. Hugh flashed
the little light handed over to him by the Chief, and kept it playing
full upon the focussing point where all their interest was centred.
Consequently Tom, Sam and the rest of the fellows had no trouble in
distributing themselves along the length of the recumbent figures of the
disturbed thieves.
Hugh felt sure that, as Billy Worth would have said, it “was all over
but the shouting,” when he saw how well pinned down the desperate
rascals found themselves. He advanced closer so as to be in a position
to carry out any wishes of the astute police head, such as slipping the
waiting handcuffs over the wrists of the prisoners, and rendering them
harmless, so that they might be stood up and looked over.
Several loud outcries from beyond the door announced that those who had
been given the task of trapping the third member of the audacious set
had taken a hint just as soon as they heard the first sound within the
store. They soon came into the building pushing a man before them, who
was lined up with the other pair.
Three more disgusted-looking fellows had likely never before been
paraded in front of the scouts. Just as Hugh and Ralph had suspected,
they turned out to be Gaffney, the former owner of the poolroom and
gymnasium that had been abolished by orders of council; Slimmons, once
the athletic trainer in the public schools before he took so heavily to
drink that he had to be let go; and that third man, a stranger whom Hugh
believed must be secretly interested in seeing Oakvale’s reform movement
slump, perhaps because he had some connection with the interests of
those who had been defying the law.
Caught in the act, it was likely to go hard with the three. Gaffney did
tell his mates not to open their mouths, but to leave it to him to get
them clear. Hugh believed they were leaning on a broken reed if they
entertained any hope that political influence was going to keep the
outraged law from taking its course. That day had gone for Oakvale, and
the degrading elements which such men as Gaffney represented, would have
to emigrate to other quarters if they hoped to be able to continue to
ply their evil vocations.
The trio of prisoners were marched through the now deserted streets to
the lockup, where Chief Wallis would see to it that there was no chance
for a getaway. The seven scouts, who accompanied Hugh and the little
group of officers surrounding the prisoners, would never be able to
forget the exciting experiences of that night. It would have to go down
upon the annals of scout achievements, and serve to add one more
glorious event to the string of exploits carried to a successful
conclusion by the boys of the Oakvale Troop.
Before Hugh dismissed his followers he took occasion to thank them
warmly for having acquitted themselves so splendidly. Tom Sherwood, in
particular, squeezed his hand with peculiar emphasis at parting, as he
said in a happy tone:
“This has been a white letter night for me, Hugh, and one I’ll never,
never forget. You know why, Hugh, and the first thing to-morrow morning
I’m going to buy those Belgian hares back if they are still in the
market. So good night, and thank you a thousand times, Hugh. It’s bound
to be a happy birthday for me, I tell you.”