What had at first seemed like a lark in the eyes of other boys not members of the troop presently became a serious matter. When some of them started to annoy members of the new Auxiliary Police they were soon startled by a visit at their homes by the stern Chief himself, who warned their folks that a second offense would mean severe punishment. Possibly some of those parents took it upon themselves to start operations by selecting a nice stout switch and keeping it in view.
However, gradually order came out of chaos. Hugh worked faithfully trying to remedy whatever proved to be faulty, and, of course, there were numberless things that constantly required attention.
Those were busy days for the regular police, and it kept them on the go, warning offenders against the sanitary code that affairs must be speedily altered; for those wide-awake eyes of the thirty scouts on duty all the time seemed to discover a myriad of things that were not being conducted according to law, and were a disgrace to any decent community.
The mayor was now heart and soul in the work. He realized that he had the backing of the solid people of the town, as well as all the church members, and the women besides.
Once Oakvale had experienced the delight of being really clean it would require an upheaval to make them change back to old conditions. There was an element, however, as is always the case in every community, that looked upon these happenings with more or less angry mutterings and frowns, for with the change had passed their source of gain and livelihood. They knew better than to talk openly against the new order of things, but whenever and wherever the opportunity arose they would try to excite derision for the “uplift” movement.
It seemed as though these people who loved darkness rather than light felt especially sore toward Hugh Hardin and his scouts. They believed that somehow the khaki boys were the backbone of the whole business, as they were the ones whose eyes detected offenses and reported the same to headquarters every day. With a score and a half of bright lads constantly on the scent it was difficult for anything unlawful to escape notice.
Without the help given by Hugh and his scouts the movement could never have attained such wonderful success from the beginning—that was as good as acknowledged by almost every one on both sides. It was not singular then that some of the lower elements, finding themselves hedged about with so many difficulties in gaining a livelihood in such a spick-and-span town, should get their heads together with the object of devising some shrewd method by means of which the old conditions might be brought back again.
Plainly then to do this the easiest way would be to conjure up some means whereby the new order of things would be brought into contempt. Hugh himself had more than once been given obscure threats that unless he relaxed his vigilance and shut his eyes to certain things if they started up again, he would find himself in a peck of trouble.
Not once did the boy flinch, even though he felt that some of these men were of a desperate nature, and would descend to almost any mean depths when their former lawless habits were interfered with. Hugh consulted with the minister, Mr. Dobbs, and the mayor of Oakvale, both of whom promised to stand by the scouts through any difficulty.
These things aroused the women greatly when they heard of them. Plainly the enemies of the community were becoming alarmed, thinking they had been cast out for good. If conditions did not soon improve there would have to be considerable emigration to other communities that did not have ambitions to merit the name of “Spotless Town.” But it was believed that before they yielded up the fight these people would very likely make one last great effort to turn the tables on the reformers.