'm mighty sorry to see them go out,
because I know that they're treated as well here as they would be
anywhere in the state, and a lot better than at most places. It's men
like Big Ed Willis, who never wants to work at all, who make the
trouble."

"Just listen here, young feller," said a big man, who appeared suddenly
from behind them, "keep a quiet tongue in yer head about me. I'm Big
Ed, I am, and I'll smash your ugly face in for ye, if ye don't look
out! There's a strike on for higher wages and shorter hours here, see,
and we don't want no scabs, man or boy, goin' into that factory."

"We're not in the union, Ed Willis," said Jack, unafraid. "We make our
own rules about working or not working, and don't you forget it! You
can beat me up easily enough, if you want to, but you won't be much of
a man if you try it."

"For two cents I'd smash you in the jaw, so I would!" said Willis,
blustering, like the true bully he was.

"Let the kid alone, Ed," cried another man, coming across the street.
"He ain't in the union. I think we're fools to strike ourselves.
Don't go to making no more trouble without you need to."

"I'll let you off this time," said Big Ed, a little abashed. "But see
to it that you keep away from the factory over there."

"You mind your business and we'll mind ours!" said Jack. "That'll keep
you plenty busy enough, Ed Willis!"

"Gee, I thought he was going to hit you that time, Jack," said Pete
Stubbs. "I'm pretty small, and if I hit him he'd never know it unless
someone told him, but I was going to smash him behind the ear with a
stone if he tried that."

"He's all bluff and talk," said Jack, disgustedly. "If he does any
fighting, it'll be by letting someone else strike the blows while he
looks on from a place where he knows he won't be hit. There's lots of
fighters like that."

They hurried on home then, and changed from the clothes they wore every
day to work in to their Boy Scout uniforms. Each of them took, too,
his axe and Scout knife, in case of emergencies, though it was hard to
imagine any use they were likely to have for them.

"Look here, Pete," said Jack, when they had changed their clothes and
were ready to start back to the factory, "if we go in the way we came
out they'll see us, and they're likely to watch for us to come out
again. That wouldn't be much use, so I think we'd better try to get
back without being seen."

"How can we do that, Jack?"

"I know a good