Tired though the boys might be after such a strenuous day, their faces were full of eager enthusiasm. The spirit that animated each fellow made him forget his aches and pains. Fond of camping out, the idea of being allowed to patrol the town with the full permission of the mayor appealed very strongly to every scout, and they were impatient for Hugh to announce his plans.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ALARM.
“How are we going to do this patrol work, Hugh?” asked Billy Worth as he and Jack Durham pushed their way to the front of the group surrounding the assistant scout master.
“I’ll appoint squads, and they are to be divided into couples,” replied the leader of the troop. “No scout is to go alone because he may be set upon, and with two, it’s always possible to give the alarm. Then we’ll have signs and passwords. If help is wanted, you must call out with the sign of your patrol—the Hawks giving their ‘Kree-kree-eee,’ the Wolves a loud ‘How-ooo-ooo,’ the Foxes ‘Skee-eee-eee,’ and the Otters ‘Yap-yap-yap’! You all understand that only in case help is needed are you to utter these patrol calls.”
“And if we catch any fellow trying to litter up the town, what’s going to happen to him?” asked Alec Sands grimly.
“I want to get the sentiment of the troop on that subject,” said Hugh. “Don’t all talk at once, but tell me what you think we ought to do. You know the mayor hasn’t exactly ordered us to do it, but probably he expects that if we catch any of that crowd doing what the proclamation forbids, we ought to hand the fellow over to one of the police force, to be taken to the lock-up.”
The scouts did not seem to favor this idea very much. All sorts of dissenting notes arose.
“Huh! and if we did that how many of you expect he’d reach the cooler?” demanded Dick Bellamy, who was of a skeptical turn when it came to believing any good of the police.
“Chances are they’d let the fellow slip through their fingers and then say it was an accident that couldn’t be helped,” added Monkey Stallings, the boy who was so agile that he could perform all manner of circus tricks as though born to the spangles and the sawdust arena.
“Hugh, don’t make us take that bitter medicine,” urged Spike Welling. “Make up some other scheme of your own. Seems to me we ought to take the case into our hands if we manage to make a capture. Somebody might carry a whip along, and we’d give him a taste of strap oil that’d cure him from prowling around nights, spoiling the looks of things.”