“Just see how the driver of that big touring car swings down with a rush, will you!” exclaimed Alec, indignantly. “He sounds his siren to beat the band, just as if he expected everybody to scatter like chickens crossing a road, and run for their lives. It’s a beastly shame!”
“Something’s got to be done, that’s all!” said Hugh, with compressed lips, and a flash in his eye that spoke volumes, as he looked after the reckless chauffeur of the car, now speeding away, with a nasty grin of conscious superiority on his face.
“If I was the mayor of this burgh in place of spineless old Strunk,” the impetuous Alec went on to exclaim, “you’d soon hear something pop. I would call the Council in session, and have ordinances passed that would keep these speeders under control. After a few of them had been locked up for a spell, as well as heavily fined, you’d notice a big difference.”
“That isn’t all, by any means,” Hugh chimed in, watching the approach of a bevy of small school girls with apprehension, for the traffic seemed to be at its heaviest. “There are a number of other bad spots in town that need attention. The railroad crossing is utterly unprotected, and last summer one man was killed there, you remember, while twice vehicles have been wrecked.”
“There were some other things you mentioned the last time we talked this over, Hugh, I remember,” said Buck Winter.
“Lots of them,” came the ready reply. “The whole town has grown careless again. True, people don’t litter the streets with waste paper now that they know about the cans placed for such trash—the scouts cured that evil—but there are other defects that ought to be attended to. For instance, some people persist in keeping garbage standing open for the flies to breed in. Others have nuisances about which their neighbors hate to complain of. I know six or seven places where this sort of thing is going on, and I reckon the scouts could trace dozens, if once they had the authority to start in on the job.”
“Oh, I guess I know what you’ve got in mind, Hugh!” exclaimed Billy, with sudden animation. “I was reading the other day how that very thing is being carried out with great success right down in New York City. Boys are given badges to wear, and are called the Auxiliary Police, or something like that. They have their precincts to watch, and report every sort of nuisance or infraction of the law to their friend, the police captain, who sees that it is abated. They say you would be surprised to see how well the boys do their duty. Things have taken on a new look since the scheme was started.”
“It could be done here a whole lot easier than in such a big city,” affirmed Hugh, eagerly. “We haven’t got such a raft of ignorant foreigners to handle, you see. A good many people up here have just fallen into careless ways, and all they need is to be waked up.”
“We did that other job first class,” said Billy, proudly, “and we’d win out again if only we had half a chance. But I don’t know what keeps on interfering. They must be asleep, and only some terrible accident will startle them to action.”
“Some of the boys have told me in secret about a blind tiger that is being operated since the saloons were shut out of Oakvale,” declared Hugh. “Then I’ve also learned that some of the mill hands get together and gamble, which is against the law. The police, thinking of the votes those fellows can control, seem to wink at such things. There’s no use talking, the women of Oakvale have got to be roused, and join hands with every church in town to clean up the place again, this time for good. The scouts stand ready to do their part.”