he 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."

"What craft is that?" inquired Dick, looking toward a sailboat that was
moving lazily along about a half-mile to the eastward.

"I don't know," Tom answered, after a look. "Never saw the boat before.
Regular cabin cruiser, isn't she, about forty feet long?"

"About that," nodded Dick. "What interested me in her was the fact that a
fellow on board has been watching us with a marine