“For home protection! That’s the slogan, fellows, Hugh has given us. We’re going to take our coats off, figuratively speaking, you understand, and purify the atmosphere around the place we live in.”

When Billy Worth gave utterance to these rather boastful remarks he was standing, with a bunch of other fellows in khaki, near the building where the town council, as called together by the mayor, was still in session.
40

Undoubtedly the fathers of Oakvale were having a warm discussion, since they had been at it for more than two hours. Indeed, the scouts had held their meeting in the room under the church, and made all their arrangements for carrying out their part of the programme, if everything went smoothly as they expected. A goodly number of the energetic lads had immediately, after the meeting was adjourned, decided to hurry around to ascertain what had happened at the council chamber, to which citizens were admitted to the capacity of the room, but the line was drawn at fellows under the voting age.

“Yes,” Jack Durham immediately added, with his characteristic energy, “Oakvale is going to take its periodical bath, so to speak. This time we’ll scrub to the bone, and make an extra clean job of it.”

“The impudent drivers and chauffeurs must be made to respect the law, if fines and imprisonment will do the trick!” asserted Dick Ballamy, who, for a wonder, seemed able to turn his thoughts from fishing to a subject that was of far more importance.

“Huh! Not only that,” Sam Winter burst out impetuously, “but those sneaking dives known as ‘speak-easies’ have got to be squelched. Some people don’t believe any liquor is being sold in Oakvale just because we’re called a dry town. That fire the other day proved the foolishness of that joke, let me tell you, boys.”
41

“Just what it did!” declared Mark Trowbridge, who often lisped when he talked, an infirmity that was likely to follow him through life; “why, I thaw with my own eyeth two barrelth of bottleth half covered with a blanket, that had been carried from the cobbler’th thop.”

“Worse than that, even,” asserted Arthur Cameron in disgust. “I saw a man deliberately lift the cover, take out a bottle, and drain it there, with a dozen people standing around and laughing. Shows you how some of our laws are being made a joke. The police are aware of what’s going on, too; but they believe the sentiment of the town has heretofore been against enforcing certain statutes.”

“Well, they’re going to get a rude shock pretty soon, believe me,” said Billy. “Half an hour ago the mayor and Council sent for Chief Andy Wallis. He’s in there with them now, listening to the law being laid down. I reckon the Chief knows by this time that it’s going to be a clean town or we get a new head of police. The women have taken things in hand, and mean to purify the atmosphere, so that Oakvale boys and girls can breathe without being contaminated.”
42

“How fast the news spread all over town this morning,” observed Walter Osborne, the leader of the Hawk Patrol, a fine, manly looking fellow well liked by all his associates of the troop. “Why, my mother says they were talking of it in every store she visited, and father added that he was buttonholed half a dozen times by men who seemed chock full of the subject.”

“Old Doc Kane,” added Sam Winter, “carried the news wherever he went. He said it was going to be next door to a millennium for Oakvale, and that when the movement had exhausted its force he expected to have his business reduced one-half, because of the improved sanitary conditions that would prevail. That was one of the Doc’s little jokes.”

“He’s loaded to the muzzle with ammunition meant to boost the good cause along,” asserted another scout. “It’s among the mill people the good doctor does most of his missionary work. He knows how much a clean town means to fellows who haven’t comfortable homes to spend evenings in.”

“Of course, there’s no danger that the members of the town Council will try to dodge the question again, as they’ve done so many times?” Jack Durham was saying.
43

Billy gave a scoffing laugh.

“Not much they will!” he ejaculated; “with that wide-awake Mrs. Marsh present, backed by a lady who can strike out from the shoulder like Mrs. Beverly.”

“Besides,” added Walter, “don’t forget what Hugh told us about the sudden change of front on the part of Mayor Strunk. He saw a great light when he learned how his favorite little granddaughter had come near being run over by a team at that dangerous crossing of the three roads in town.”

“Then there’s another thing that’s bound to cut some figure in the decision of the town Council to-night,” said Billy. “Public sentiment has been aroused, and is at white heat. It seems as if everything combined to happen all at once, for this very afternoon old Mr. Merkle was knocked down by a speeding car that got away without anybody learning its number. He was badly hurt, and they took him to the hospital; but we’ve been told that the brave old chap, nearly eighty-five years of age, has sent a message of cheer to the ladies from his bed, telling them that he glories in being a martyr to the good cause.”
44

“Every fellow take off his hat to old Mr. Merkle, for he’s made of the stuff our Revolutionary fathers had in them when this country dared defy Great Britain,” and as Walter Osborne said this, each scout raised his campaign hat with a touch of respect for the grand old hero lying on his bed of pain, yet able to think of the reform movement that was sweeping through the town.

“Here comes Hugh now!” called out a fellow on the outskirts of the group.

“And he looks as if he felt satisfied with the way things were going,” another hastened to say.

The young assistant scout master quickly joined them. He was besieged by numerous questions. Indeed, so thick and fast did these come that Hugh laughed and threw up his hands, as though to shield himself from a fall of hailstones.

“Hold up, fellows,” he told them; “what do you take me for? When you send them at me like that it makes me feel as the street urchin did who crawled into an empty sugar hogshead, and, seeing the riches around him, wished for a thousand tongues. Give me a fair chance and I’ll tell what little I’ve been able to pick up.”
45

Accordingly they quieted down, though still pressing around Hugh, and hanging on his every word. Confidence in their leader is one of the highest attributes of praise scouts can show; and the members of Oakvale Troop felt this to the limit in the boy who had been elected to serve them in that capacity. So often had Hugh Hardin proved his ability to fill his exalted position that no one ever dreamed nowadays of contesting the leadership with him.

“I managed to interview Zack Huffman,” explained Hugh, “who had been inside, but had to go home to his family because his wife is sick. He could stop only a minute or so to talk, but he told me the sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of carrying out the whole sweeping programme. The ladies have got in the saddle, so he said, and mean to ride at the head of the procession. You remember Zack is something of a scholar, and you ought to have heard him tell how they expect to beat the record of Hercules in cleaning the Augean stables.”
46

“Hurrah for Zack!” cried one enthusiastic scout, for the boys were by this time so roused up over matters that they felt in the mood to cheer anybody and anything that favored their cause.

“Every now and then,” continued Hugh, “I could hear applause from above there. I’ve got an idea Mrs. Beverly was talking. If she was, you can wager not a single member of the Council will dare vote against the mayor’s programme after it’s been announced. It’s going to be carried with a whirl.”

“If it is, we ought to burn a few barrels to celebrate to-night!” suggested Sam Winter, for such a programme always pleased him immensely.
47

“Hold on,” Hugh instantly told him. “We want none of that sort of thing to-night. For once let’s show that boys can be dignified. This is no Fourth of July affair. Some of the church people have even contemplated holding prayer meetings after the Council adjourns, if everything seems favorable, for their hearts are right in this uplift movement. It wouldn’t seem just the right thing for scouts to be seen running like wild Indians all over town, and shouting their lungs out. We’ll just go home in a quiet way, and get ready to commence business on Monday. Time enough for a jubilee when the ladies appoint a day for celebrating the victory. Just now we’ve got work, and plenty of it, ahead of us.”

“Hugh, you’re right!” asserted Arthur Cameron.

“Forget that I said it, Hugh!” begged the impulsive Sam, abashed by the argument advanced by the scout master, because his better sense told him that was the proper way of looking at it.

“Hey, there comes Chief Wallis out of the Council chamber!” called a voice, and immediately every fellow turned his eyes in that direction, anxious to decide for himself what the appearance of the head of the police force would indicate.

Chief Wallis walked straight toward them. His face was inscrutable, but as he reached the group of scouts, with Hugh at their head, he thrilled the boys by raising a hand in salute.
48

“Come in and see me on Monday, Hugh,” the Chief said, dramatically, “and we’ll fix it up about what sort of badge you and your fellow Assistant Police can wear. The women have carried the day, and Oakvale is going to be purged,” and as he strode on the boys broke into a series of stirring cheers.