“We saw a whole lot of those fellows piling up against the shop here,” said Franklin.  “So of course we pitched in.  We couldn’t let anything like that happen.”

“There’ll be a lot of it at first, I’m afraid, sir,” said the sergeant.  “Still, it won’t last.  If all we hear is true, they’ll be taking a lot of those young fellows away and giving them some real fighting to do to keep them quiet.”

“Well, we’ll help whenever we can, sergeant,” said Franklin.  “If the inspector thinks it would be a good thing to have the shops that are kept by Germans watched, I’m quite sure it can be arranged.  If there’s war I suppose a lot of you policemen will go?”

“We’ll supply our share, sir,” said the sergeant.  “I’m expecting orders any minute —­ I’m a reservist myself.  Coldstream Guards, sir.”

“Congratulations!” said Franklin.  He spoke a little wistfully.  “I wonder if they’ll let me go?  I think I’m old enough!  Well, can we help any more here tonight?”

“No, thank you, sir.  You’ve done very well as 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 move 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.”