"But where shall we hide them?" asked Sam Lawson. "It'll have to be a pretty safe place, for Mrs. Grumpy will turn the town upside down hunting for her precious turkeys, you may be sure."
While all this talk was going on, Harold Kent had been sitting on an upturned box which served him as a chair, without opening his mouth. Now, however, taking advantage of the pause which followed Sam's question, he said quietly,—
"Why not hide the gobblers in one of the empty rooms in Squire Hardgrit's building? You know, the squire's been trying to get these Bronze Gobblers from Mrs. Grumpy for ever so long, and she won't let him have them; and if they're found on his premises, she'll be sure to think that he had something to do with hooking them."
It was just like Harold to propose something so original and daring in its conception as to fairly take his companions' breath away, and they now looked at him with feelings divided between admiration and amazement.
The chairman was the first to speak. Bringing his hand down upon his knee with a crack that made the others jump, he cried,—
"Magnificent! Boys, we'll do it, or perish in the attempt."
Whereat the others shouted in chorus,—
"Hoorah! We'll do it!"
"Since we're all agreed, then," said Charlie, "the next business before the meeting is to plan how to do it."
As before, all sorts of wild suggestions were put forward, and again it was left for Harold Kent to advance the most practicable scheme.