it is. Pity all the lads
don't belong to the Boy Scouts. We'd have less trouble, I'll warrant. I'll
just leave a man here to watch the place. But they won't be back. They
don't mean any real harm, as it is. It's just their spirits--and their
being a bit thoughtless, you know."

"All right," said Franklin. "Glad we came along. Good-night, sergeant. Fall
in! March!"

There was a cheer from the crowd that had gathered to watch the disturbance
as the scouts moved away. A hundred yards from the scene of what might have
been a tragedy, except for their prompt action, the Scouts dispersed. Dick
Mercer and Harry Fleming naturally enough, since they lived so close to one
another, went home together.

"That was quick work," said Harry.

"Yes. I'm glad we got there," said Dick. "Old Dutchy's all right--he
doesn't seem like a German. But I think it would be a good thing if they
did catch a few of the others and scrag them!"

"No, it wouldn't," said Harry soberly. "Don't get to feeling that way,
Dick. Suppose you were living in Berlin. You wouldn't want a lot of German
roughs to come and destroy your house or your shop and handle you that way,
would you?"

"It's not the same thing," said Dick, stubbornly. "They're foreigners."

"But you'd be a foreigner if you were over there!" said Harry, with a
laugh.

"I suppose I would," said Dick. "I never thought of that! Just the same, I
bet Mr. Grenfel was right. London's full of spies. Isn't that an awful
idea, Harry? You can't tell who's a spy and who isn't!"

"No, but you can be pretty sure that the man you suspect isn't," suggested
Harry, sagely. "A real spy wouldn't let you find it out very easily. I can
see one thing and that is a whole lot of perfectly harmless people are
going to be arrested as spies before this war is very old, if it does come!
We don't want to be mixed up in that, Dick--we scouts. If we think a man's
doing anything suspicious, we'll have to be very sure before we denounce
him, or else we won't be any use."

"It's better for a few people to be arrested by mistake than to let a spy
keep on spying, isn't it?"

"I suppose so, but we don't want to be like the shepherd's boy who used to
try to frighten people by calling 'Wolf! Wolf!' when there wasn't any wolf.
You know what happened to him. When a wolf really did come no one believed
him. We want to look before we leap."

"I suppose you're right, Harry. Oh, I do hope we can really be of some use!
If I ca