Then Tom had to hurry over to Blixton, Dick going with him, while Hazelton went down to the breakwater to superintend the day’s work there.

Only a little time had to be spent in the justice’s stuffy court.  Hawkins and his fellow gamblers and bootleggers were arraigned and held in one thousand dollars’ bail each for trial.  As none of them had the money the eight men were sent to the county jail pending trial.

“That’s queer,” mused Tom, aloud, as he and Dick walked back to camp.  “You’d think that professional gamblers would have money enough to put up small bail.”

“Not if they’re working for other people,” suggested Dick.  “These men may be merely the agents of some larger crowd.”

“Meaning that the larger crowd may be a sort of vice trust, operating in many fields at the same time?” queried Reade.

“Something of the sort,” replied the young army officer.  “To-day nearly everything has been capitalized on a large scale of combined capital.  Why shouldn’t vice be?”

“I begin to think you’re more than half right in your guess,” Tom admitted.  “Your explanation is about the only way to account for a fellow like Hawkins not having a thousand at his instant disposal.  However, if these fellows represent a vice trust, then I suppose it will be a question of only a little time when the trust sends down money enough to put up the needed bail.”

“That will undoubtedly happen,” nodded Dick.  “And then you’ll have to look out for that fellow, Hawkins, and all the men he can command.  Hawkins looked at you, in court, as though he’d enjoy pulverizing you.”

“I’m ready, when he is,” laughed Tom.  “If he’d only fight in the open I wouldn’t be at all afraid of him.”

Tom now led the way down to the retaining wall.  Prescott gazed with great interest at the signs of activity.  On a closer inspection he was even more interested.  He was capable of understanding very fully what was being done here, for every graduate of the United States Military Academy is supposed to be a capable engineer.

“You’ve a difficult task on hand, but your basic principle is sound, and you’re doing the work finely and economically,” Dick declared with emphasis.

Harry came in from the outer end of the wall and joined them.  He listened with pride to the praises that the army officer showered on the engineers.

“I wish Mr. Bascomb, the president of the company, could hear you,” said Harry.  “He isn’t altogether sure that we know what we’re about in anything that we’re doing.”

“Then I’ve a very good mental picture of Bascomb,” declared Dick, bluntly.  “Bascomb is something of a chump.  By the way, if you want to get square with Mr. Bascomb, why don’t you coax him down here to help you look out for the evil-doers who are combined against you?”

“He wouldn’t be much use,” sighed Tom.  “He’s an impossible sort of chap.  He wanted us to stop our crusade against camp vice.  Said it was hurting business.”