How still it seemed after they had been posted in their hiding places. Some of the scouts must have thought they could actually hear the beating of their own hearts, such was the stress under which they labored.
Luckily Hugh had used discretion when making his selections. He had not chosen them merely for brawn alone, but for an ability to keep a good grip on their spirits, and bravely face exciting conditions that might well try the nerves of experienced officers.
An hour passed. It did not slip by, as most of the waiting scouts would have readily agreed. In fact, that was one of the longest hours they ever knew, and as ten boomed from the church clock, they could hardly believe their ears, for surely, they figured, it must be that a longer time had elapsed.
Hugh allowed them a chance to change their positions when cramped, but insisted that it be done with due regard to caution. They could not tell when suspicious ears would be listening for any sound to indicate trouble. When the thieves did come they would do so—silently, and without any trumpet to announce their mission.
The second hour was worse by far than the first. How their lower limbs did seem to want to “go to sleep,” as the boys termed it when circulation of blood ceased, and a species of numbness resulted. Various were the remedies resorted to in order to overcome this unpleasant feeling. When eleven struck some of the crouching figures moved uneasily and came as near groaning as they dared.
Still, it could not be long now before something was likely to happen, Hugh whispered to Tom, with orders to pass it along the line, and then become mute again.
Hugh himself was wondering whether or not all these preparations were doomed to disappointment. What if the grand scheme had fallen through, or the intended robbery been postponed because of good and sufficient reasons? He felt that he would be grievously disappointed, for somehow he had come to set much store on being able to strike this telling blow against the worst of the offenders of decency in Oakvale.
He had an impression that this would mark the final effort to break down the new order of things; that if the robbery of the jewelry establishment, and the subsequent placing of the crime at the door of certain innocent parties, could be balked in its perpetration, the last barrier would have yielded, and after that the reform people would have a clean order of things.
It must have been pretty near the midnight hour when a door was heard to close. That little piece of carelessness on the part of the thieves was likely to cost them dear in the end, since it gave ample warning of their coming.
One soft hiss from Hugh and every scout flattened himself as low as he could, so that discovery might not follow in case those who had entered the store produced any sort of light.