THE 
 
 GANG OF Six 
 
 DU
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Mrs. Ben B. Linclsey
 
 Gang of Six 
 
 nf % Hog Ht 
 
 By HORACE ZM. DU BOSE 
 
 Editor of tfie Epwortfi Era 
 
 rn^n ar? 
 
 Publishing House of the cM. E. Church, South 
 
 Smith & Lamar, Agents 
 
 Nashville, Tennessee, and Dallas, Texas 
 
 1906
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 1906. 
 SMITH & LAMAR, AGENTS.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 I. 
 A MAN SENT 9 
 
 II. 
 THE GANG 22 
 
 III. 
 THE MEETING PLACE 37 
 
 IV. 
 THE SQUIRE'S DEGREE 49 
 
 V. 
 LITTLE KINKY 59 
 
 VI. 
 A YEAR AND A DAY 74 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE KNIGHT'S DEGREE 91 
 
 VIII. 
 THE PERFECT NUMBER 102 
 
 IX. 
 THE DISCIPLE'S DEGREE 116 
 
 X. 
 
 THE NEW SONG 132 
 
 1106239
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 THE "Gang of Six" is a story founded in experience. 
 It is a composite narrative of actual demonstrations in 
 social pedagogy and the work of reforming boy life. 
 The motif of the writing is to present in available 
 illustrations the most thoroughly attested conclusions 
 and discoveries of specialists and teachers. It is 
 hoped that the story may become an inspiration to 
 many to take up the study of this problem; that it 
 may even lead many to dedicate themselves to some of 
 the lines of simple and unselfish effort suggested in it. 
 
 The philosophical conclusion, honored by univer- 
 sal acquiescence, that "the proper study of mankind 
 is man," needs such an extension of its final term as 
 will lay the stress of study upon the beginning stages 
 of man's life. The proper study of statesman, teach- 
 er, divine, and economist is the boy. The literature 
 on this subject is meager, for the reason that the in- 
 quiry has but fairly begun. Certain well-ascertained 
 facts have, however, been set in order, and the science 
 of social pedagogy may be said to be fairly estab- 
 lished on its foundations. The main points in pai- 
 dology, or this special branch of social reformation, 
 may profitably be recounted here as an introduction to 
 the story developed under the title above announced. 
 
 There are three periods in the life of "man in the 
 making" that is, the life of man that comes before 
 majority. The first period is infancy. Many efforts 
 have been made to fix the limits of this period in years. 
 It varies according to birth conditions, training, and
 
 6 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 native endowments. It ranges from birth to from six 
 to nine years. The second period is boyhood (child- 
 hood). It includes the years from infancy to from thir- 
 teen to sixteen years. The third period is adolescence 
 (youthhood), which includes the years from boyhood 
 to maturity. During infancy the natural instincts are 
 emerging and the faculties are forming; conscience 
 also appears. The "play instinct" is preeminent in 
 infancy, but the infant plays alone. A little later 
 there is a disposition to join with other chidren, but 
 the separate plaj-er is still for himself. The boy pe- 
 riod can be said to have come only when the team or 
 gang spirit is clearly manifested. Instinct then 
 turns to habit; the communal spirit obtains, and con- 
 science often sinks to a low ebb. "The corporation 
 which has no conscience" is a survival in manhood 
 years of what was a mimic play against ethics in the 
 boy "gang" of the street or the barn loft 
 
 The boy period is the one fraught with peril and 
 hope. \Vhoever gets truly hold of the "man child" 
 during this stage can shape him as he will, provided 
 his wisdom and spirit be matched to his will. There 
 is much in heredity, but far less than is generally 
 claimed. There is much in the bent given the "suck- 
 ling;" but wise and patient training begun with the 
 earlier stages of boyhood will not only suffice to cor- 
 rect the misdirections and perversions of infancy, but 
 will also neutralize, in the main, the currents of hered- 
 ity. Such training becomes the channel of a redeem- 
 ing and saving grace. Indeed, it is the ordained 
 means of making the gospel of the restoration effective 
 in childhood.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 Experience suggests that in the effort to reach and 
 save the boy respect must be had to that which is 
 natural and universal in him. The "Gang of Six" 
 seeks to traverse the fields of these inherent and char- 
 acter-marking instincts. The settlement idea has be- 
 come a fixed and prominent one in modern evangelism. 
 In a modified form it becomes indispensable in organ- 
 ized work with boys. You must go to the boy; you 
 must get down on his level; you must enter into sym- 
 pathy with his tikes, his necessities. The hero of the 
 "Gang of Six" saw this, and dedicated himself as a 
 man sent. He found the boys he would help, he in- 
 sinuated himself into their secrets, he joined their 
 "gang," he made secrets for them, he slept and ate 
 and talked with them, he won them; and so was able 
 to lead them as he would. 
 
 The boy is an ejcclusivist on the line of sex. Be- 
 tween childhood and adolescence he practically re- 
 jects the companionship of any female except his 
 mother, sisters, and other near female relatives. There 
 is no more important fact in boy character than this, 
 and it is one that must be respected by the teacher, 
 leader, and reformer. Organization for his training 
 must, as far as possible, proceed on the basis of an 
 exclusive fellowship of boys. A mere suggestion in 
 this direction is sufficient, for the wisdom of the ac- 
 commodation is apparent. 
 
 The boy is by nature a mystic; he loves and affects 
 mystical and secretive habits. The "gang" is founded 
 half on this and half on the gregarious instinct. The 
 infant, including the prenatal stage, repeats the phys- 
 ical evolution of the race ; but the boy repeats the so-
 
 8 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 cial stages and instincts of man in the earliest ages 
 of his ethnic history. What is called the troglodyte, 
 or savage, instinct in the boy is not evil, but of nature ; 
 it is the flowing in upon him of that past life of his 
 race to which his own corresponds. He feels it, he 
 knows not how or why; but it runs riot in his imag- 
 inations, puts a militant edge upon his every impulse, 
 and turns the world into a fairyland full of the pos- 
 sibilities of quests and adventures. Now the grega- 
 rious feeling is strong; he quits his narrow-self life 
 and seeks the larger life of the street and the "gang." 
 "This instinct is legitimate and masterful and full of 
 possibilities of danger or help," says Forbush. Left 
 to itself, this "gang" instinct tends to hardness, cruel- 
 ty, animalism. Laid hold upon and trained, it becomes 
 courage, affection, loyalty, and the fruit of every hu- 
 man grace. Brotherly love, which is the test of per- 
 fectness, takes ready root in its soil. It is humanity, 
 simply, and needs only the sanctifying touch to make 
 its "members servants to righteousness." 
 
 The purpose of this story is to show the wisdom of 
 intensive work, and that on small initial circles. The 
 model is found in the fellowship of the twelve who 
 gathered about the feet of the Son of Man. These 
 the Master filled with himself and made them in turn 
 vessels for the filling of others. There is here both 
 precedent and encouragement. All great things be- 
 gin in little. The law of the kingdom is multiplication, 
 but the unit of quantity in its life is the mustard seed. 
 "Fear not, little -flock; for it is your Father's good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdom."
 
 I. 
 
 A MAN SENT. 
 
 HARRY WILMOT was a man called and sent. At 
 first he felt this as an indefinite impression; then he 
 believed it mightily. At last the facts proved it. 
 
 It was a Sabbath afternoon in summer. The scene 
 was a sumptuous home in the suburbs of a middle- 
 sized modern city. At the end of one of the long 
 verandas of the house, and deep in the shadows of 
 elms that darkled over the roof, swung a hammock 
 in which reclined a young man, a son of the home, 
 not the eldest nor yet the youngest, but who had prob- 
 ably begun to be about seven and twenty years of age. 
 His face was smooth and almost femininely tender, 
 though a broad pigmentlike ground passing from ei- 
 ther cheek under his chin showed where a manly 
 beard was kept in constant repression by the edge of 
 the razor. It was a pleasant face. With his left 
 hand under his head, the owner of the face rested 
 backward. His right hand held a small volume, into 
 the pages of which was thrust the index finger, evi- 
 dently to hold the paragraph upon which the reader 
 had paused to meditate. The half-closed eyes indi- 
 cated deep but not nervous or agitated thought. The 
 face indeed expressed a perfect repose. 
 
 This was Harry Wilmot. In frame and spirit he 
 was the offspring of his mother. The father had 
 trained his eldest son to financial pursuits, and had 
 destined the youngest to a special calling, to which
 
 io THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 end his education was being carefully directed; but 
 he had laid no special store of expectation by the sec- 
 ond. Harry Wilmot, from being tied to his mother's 
 apron strings in childhood, and from growing up un- 
 der her shadow in that chivalrous loyalty which is the 
 crown of boyish character, came to be hailed by his 
 companions as the "girl-boy," and was accounted by 
 all except his mother as a delicate child. Even the 
 father referred to him as "my pretty lad," but his 
 mother would have it that he was entitled to wear 
 only the names of a real manliness. Harry accepted 
 his mother's estimate of his parts, and secretly resent- 
 ed the commiserations heaped upon him by others. 
 Smarting under these depreciations, he entered the 
 boys' training school, and in the athletic lists out- 
 matched at once every man of his year, and took 
 prize after prize from the seasoned seniors. Folds of 
 muscle accumulated upon his slender arms, and his 
 chest expanded and grew broader and broader. In 
 the class room also he pressed his competitors. Thus 
 it was that he passed on to the college, finished his 
 course, and returned to his home a specimen of rare 
 physical development and a student of definite attain- 
 ments. But the touches of his mother's grace had de- 
 termined his character. Through the ordeals and ex- 
 citements of his college years he had obeyed the influ- 
 ence of his mother's companionship; the light of faith 
 had not failed from out his heart, nor had the words 
 of reverence perished from his lips. 
 
 Entering upon life, Harry Wilmot chose the pro- 
 fession of law, in the practice of which he had the 
 ordinary experience of those who go into the market
 
 A MAN SENT. H 
 
 with their naked wits for assets. Success came slow- 
 ly; but being reverent, generous, and of a sociable 
 turn, he did not lack for friends, or even admirers. 
 Of course he was the bright particular light of his 
 mother's life, and even his father and elder brother 
 came to regard him with that peculiar reverence which 
 is always shown to a good man, whether young or old. 
 This was Harry Wilmot at the moment in which 
 he reclined in the hammock on the veranda of his 
 father's home on that summer Sabbath afternoon. 
 For a long time his eyes remained half closed in 
 meditation; then, opening the volume, he read again 
 and again the words he had marked: 
 
 He that can read aright the heart of a boy may read the 
 Galilean mystery, and he that can lead the thought and love 
 of a boy can shape the destiny of the years. 
 
 A sudden flush came over the placid young face 
 and, springing up, Wilmot swung himself from the 
 hammock to the floor. He hastily tightened the belt 
 about his negligee, drew on his coat, and, picking 
 up his hat and cane, strode down the steps of the 
 veranda and passed into the wide avenue that led to 
 the heart of the town. His step was quicker than 
 usual, and his searching gaze took in both sides of 
 the long thoroughfare. His countenance expressed 
 the deep earnestness of his purpose. He had long 
 yearned for something definite to do in the way of 
 human help. He had asked for a foundation of his 
 own upon which to build. That foundation had been 
 shown him, and he already saw in vision something of 
 the building to be reared thereupon.
 
 12 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 Halfway up the street Wilmot heard a shout and a 
 clamor of youthful voices. He immediately bent his 
 course toward the sounds, and discovered that they 
 were made by a group of half a dozen boys engaged 
 in tossing ball and matching marbles. It was not 
 the first time that Wilmot had seen this group, and he 
 rightly calculated that he should find it at that mo- 
 ment in that particular place. He had long been a 
 student of the habits and manners of boys. He had 
 early noted the disposition of boys and youth of a 
 certain age to fall into gangs or clans and to hold to- 
 gether, with little change, for an indefinite time. He 
 had made a mental chart of his own town with refer- 
 ence to these boy groups and their places of meet- 
 ing; he had also gone deeply into books seeking aid 
 in his study, which at first was prompted only by a 
 generous interest in sociological progress. But now 
 a new light had fallen upon the path of his searchings. 
 He saw the boy no more as an abstract sociological 
 subject; but as the one present, solvent, overmastering 
 truth of the world. He that would do the highest, 
 best, and most enduring service to his generation 
 must offer it to the boy that is nearest him, and must 
 offer it with a might of earnestness and a passion of 
 perseverance. These were Wilmot's reflections as he 
 approached the noisy group. He was barely in ear- 
 shot when he heard the largest boy, and by that token 
 the leader, whistle shrilly, and say : "Hi, boys ! here 
 comes a guy that looks like one o' them Sunday school 
 chaps up to the mission. I'll bet my jackknife against 
 a copper that he's come to give us a spiel about play- 
 ing ball and marbles on Sunday. Let's vamoose."
 
 A MAN SENT. 13 
 
 * 
 
 And Wilmot saw the ranks about to break before his 
 eyes, but he succeeded in arresting the retreat by say- 
 ing: "Hold on there a minute, boys; I'm shoving a 
 sure-enough good thing this afternoon, and I want to 
 give you a show at it." 
 
 "What's it?" sharply demanded the leader as he 
 commanded his followers to stand. 
 
 "Why, I want to invite you boys to take a trolley 
 ride with me away out into the country," answered the 
 young man, jingling a handful of small coins in his 
 trousers pocket as he spoke. 
 
 "You don't mean to take the hull six on us, does 
 you, partner?" demanded the spokesman. 
 
 "Yes, I do; every kid of you," pleasantly returned 
 Wilmot. 
 
 "Why, partner, that'll cost you more'n a dollar, 
 nearly two on 'em fur the round trip," objected the 
 other. 
 
 "That's all right," said Wilmot in a way that com- 
 pletely convinced every member of the group of his 
 seriousness; "I want your company, and am willing 
 to pay well to have it. It's my treat, and no limit;" 
 and with that he began in a most friendly way to 
 shake the hand of each boy, beginning with the leader. 
 
 "I say, boys!" cried that dignitary before Wilmot 
 had finished the hand-shaking "I say, we won't do 
 a thing but go wid him, will we ?" 
 
 A shout of approval broke as one voice from the 
 mouths of the other five, several of whom attested 
 their satisfaction with the arrangement by leaping, 
 dervishlike, into the air and performing sundry wheel- 
 ing gyrations on their feet and hands. These were
 
 I 4 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 boys who had lived so much in the streets that no 
 sense of restraint ever embarrassed them in the pres- 
 ence of strangers. 
 
 Within five minutes after the beginning of the in- 
 terview the whole company was scrambling, with the 
 aid of Wilmot, into a "Highland" electric car bound 
 for the terminal near a range of densely wooded hills 
 six miles from the center of the town. 
 
 On the way out Wilmot made an effort to become 
 personally acquainted with, and learn the name of, 
 each of his guests. In this he succeeded only in learn- 
 ing that the name of the leader was Parry Granger. 
 Instantly thereafter he discovered that his energy 
 would be taxed to the utmost to keep his company 
 aboard or to prevent its ejection for misdemeanor. 
 The sudden and simultaneous pressure of six electric 
 buttons brought the motor to a stand with no passen- 
 gers to alight ; then the danger gong set up a banging, 
 the windows rattled furiously, the passengers tittered 
 and smiled, and the conductor raged. 
 
 "You are taking these young rogues to the House 
 of Correction, I suppose?" the latter said sarcastically, 
 addressing Wilmot. 
 
 "No, indeed," returned Wilmot; "there's nothing 
 serious the matter with these boys; they are just 
 boys, that's all." 
 
 "Well, thank heaven ! here's the terminus," said the 
 collector of fares ; and with that he gave the bell cord 
 a vigorous jerk. 
 
 Before Wilmot could rise from his seat, he saw the 
 six boys roll in a confused mass from the rear plat- 
 form amongst the grasses and flowering weeds grow-
 
 A MAN SENT. 15 
 
 ing beside the railway track. He followed as quickly 
 as he could; and before the car had ceased moving, 
 getting his followers together in something like order, 
 he led the way to a strip of virgin forest which he 
 knew as "Applegate Wood." This woodland climbed 
 up the sides of romantic hills that broke into craggy 
 points and ferny cliffs. It was a boys' paradise, and 
 one in which Wilmot had spent many a holiday in his 
 own boyhood. Stopping in a once well-known and 
 favorite spot, he seated himself at the root of a great 
 tree, saying: "This will do, boys. We'll sit here 
 awhile, and get better acquainted." 
 
 The six boys dropped at once in a circle about his 
 feet. The posture assumed by each was characteristic. 
 Some settled on their "hunkers," one or two sat Turk 
 fashion on the grass, while several clutched their great 
 toes as they lay half reclining on their elbows. All 
 of them, including Granger, the leader, looked in- 
 quisitively into Wilmot's face. 
 
 "Now, Granger," said Wilmot after all was quiet, 
 "I want you to introduce each of your friends to me. 
 We're going to be boys together this afternoon, and 
 we want to know one another's names, you know. 
 My name is Mr. Wilmot, Harry Wilmot; but you 
 may call me 'Partner/ or anything you wish, until we 
 get well acquainted." 
 
 "I ain't much of an introducer, Mr. Wilmot," said 
 Granger; "but I'll jest call off each feller's name 
 as they sits, an' I reckon that'll do, won't it?" 
 
 "O yes," assented Wilmot; "but the boys wouldn't 
 mind your telling me as you go along how old each 
 one is and something about his parents, would they?"
 
 1 6 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 "You bet we wouldn't," quickly and confidently 
 returned Granger; "we fellers ain't ashamed o' noth- 
 ing about us, 'ceptin it might be little Kinky over 
 there [pointing toward a small curly-haired elf], who's 
 runned away from somewhere. Some on us, too, 
 is maybe runned away from home sence dinner, so's 
 to meet the gang, an' maybe there's a lickin' waitin' for 
 some on us, but that ain't nothin'; every kid on us 
 has had that, an' more'n once, too." 
 
 "Well, I'm glad it's no worse than that," said Wil- 
 mot. "It will be better, much better, after a while; 
 so let's get introduced right off." 
 
 "Sure," spoke up Granger, and began circumstan- 
 tially as follows: "That kid over there on your left 
 han' is Jimmy Glenn ; he's nine years old" 
 
 "Pshaw!" broke in Jimmy. "I'm a-goin on ten," 
 and his tone showed that he was indignant at his 
 leader's failure to do him full justice before a stranger. 
 
 "You needn't mind Jimmy, partner; he ain't but 
 nine years an' a month old. Jimmy runs fur a grocer 
 in Fifth Street. He wants to be tough, but he ain't 
 learned how yit; but he ain't bin in town but a year. 
 His mother's the Widder Glenn an' lives on Fountain 
 Road." 
 
 Jimmy looked as if he would like to dispute other 
 items in Granger's inventory (he was sure that he 
 was beginning to be tough), but he only smiled an 
 embarrassed kind of smile and tugged desperately at 
 his great toe. Notwithstanding his own and Granger's 
 doubtful estimate, Jimmy was an honest-looking lad 
 with a suit of thin sandy hair, a long, rather pointed 
 nose, and a wart under his chin.
 
 A MAN SENT. 17 
 
 "The feller next to Jimmy," continued Granger 
 "that's Mack Pooley. His folks, an' him too, works up 
 to the Cotton Mill that is, him an' his mother an' 
 two sisters does but his daddy mostly don't work 
 none, but sets up to the grocery store, chaws terbacker, 
 whittles on a stick, and talks about what a hard time 
 he has s'portin' his family. But my ! he's a yarn spin- 
 ner from away back ; an' he puts plenty o' cuss words 
 in 'em, too; an' that's what the fellers all likes up 
 there." 
 
 "But what about Mack?" quietly interrupted Wil- 
 mot, seeing that Granger was both wandering and 
 distressing Mack by a too free account of the weak- 
 nesses of his paternal ancestor. 
 
 "Mack? Why, he's all right," exclaimed Granger. 
 "Mack's ten years old, but he earns two dollars and 
 a half a week workin' at the mill." 
 
 Mack, who was a dwarfish-looking child, but not 
 ill-featured, seemed, at first, to desire to make some 
 sort of rejoinder to Granger's portrayal of his fa- 
 ther's indolent habits, but the reference to his own 
 industry apparently appeased him, and he offered no 
 protest, except to say: "My pa had the measles onct." 
 
 "Yes, an' mine had the smallpox down to New Or- 
 leans last year," derisively piped out another little fel- 
 low who had not yet been introduced. 
 
 ''That ain't nothin'," chimed in Kinky; "I had the 
 mtimpst all by myself one time." 
 
 "He had to have 'em by hisself," broke in another 
 boy, " 'cause he didn't have no daddy to have 'em 
 fer him." 
 
 All the boys laughed at this sally except K. ; nky
 
 1 8 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 himself, who turned his big brown eyes up into Wil- 
 mot's face and regarded him with a pathos and won- 
 der that went to the young man's heart. Poor little 
 waif! there was a mystery about his life that Wilmot 
 could only guess; but that one confiding look of the 
 homeless, parentless child was itself a justification of 
 the large plan upon which he was entering. 
 
 By this time the ceremony of introduction had been 
 so thoroughly sidetracked that Wilmot had to cite the 
 master to his unfinished office. 
 
 "That third chap," Granger resumed nonchalantly 
 enough, "is Tommy Biles that ain't much fer a name, 
 partner, but Tommy's the real thing. His father and 
 mother keeps the bakery with the red sign near to 
 the car shed. Tommy's nearly 'leven years old, an' 
 goes to school week days, 'ceptin' when he's a-playin' 
 hooky." 
 
 "You're another," growled Tommy, indignant at 
 what was meant to be a sly jest, but which stood some 
 remote chance of being a slander. But Granger not 
 appearing to hear the disclaimer, and Tommy being 
 good-natured, through being well-fed from the bakery 
 bins, subsided and permitted the introductions to pro- 
 ceed. 
 
 "That little feller there by you is Kinky, as I said 
 before," observed Granger, going on with the pre- 
 sentation. "He ain't got no name but 'Kinky,' so fur 
 as I know, an' so fur as he knows, too. He jest hap- 
 pened along here from some place, he don't know 
 where. He don't know how ol' he is, an' nobody else 
 don't know. Kinky sells papers an' lives most any- 
 wheres ; right now he stays o' nights at the Newsboys'
 
 A MAN SENT. 19 
 
 Barracks. That's all anybody knows about Kinky, 
 an' that's all Kinky knows hisself." 
 
 Wilmot looked tenderly and yearningly again at the 
 ill-clad, barefoot, curly-pated little nondescript, and 
 could not refrain from taking a second time the hand 
 of the nameless child. Not only did he take it, but 
 he drew its owner close under his arm, and said : "Sit 
 down beside me, 'Kinky.' We're going to be partners 
 all the time." And with that he seated the frowzy 
 newsboy on the tree root beside himself. The other 
 boys did not see that at the same time he thrust a 
 big bright silver coin into the pocket of Kinky's ragged 
 jacket. While doing this he was saying: "There's one 
 other boy, Granger ; tell me about him." 
 
 "That's the feller here by me," responded Granger. 
 "He's the big bug of us all. You see he's got on good 
 clothes an' polished shoes. He's next to me, the old- 
 est boy in the crowd; he's twelve, an' I'm thirteen. 
 His name is Sim Phillips, an' his father keeps a gro- 
 cery store down by the Viaduct. Sim's sometimes got 
 money enough to set 'em all up to us, an' he's the 
 stuff to do it. Me and Sim sorter leads the boys. 
 My father runs a dye shop, an' I'm tryin' to learn to 
 be a printer ; but they says up to the office that I needs 
 grammar, an' I reckon that's so, for I ain't got to be 
 nothin' but a devil yet; but I'm afeard that grammar 
 book is a little more'n I wanter tackle." 
 
 "Couldn't you try it at night school?" suggested 
 Wilmot. 
 
 "Well, I sorter thought o' that, partner, but I never 
 has the sponds; an' ef I did, I'm too sleepy-headed to 
 read by a light."
 
 20 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 "Suppose somebody gave you your tuition. Would 
 you try it then?" asked Wilmot. 
 
 "Well, I mought, an' then ag'in I moughtn't," was 
 the doubtful reply. Granger was not dull by nature; 
 on the contrary, he was shrewd almost to cunning and 
 had the latent element of the initiative, but his train- 
 ing had been so woefully neglected that scarcely a 
 spark of intelligent ambition had ever been kindled 
 in him. 
 
 Wilmot made a mental note concerning Granger 
 and the possibilities of his case, and was about to 
 arise from his seat when Sim Phillips, the only boy 
 who had taken no part in the conversation, shook off 
 what seemed to be a restraint and said : "Now, Mister, 
 since the introducin' is over, what's to be the racket? 
 for the boys are lookin' for a good time." 
 
 Wilmot was taken a little aback by the abrupt turn 
 given the interview by the grocer's son ; but contin- 
 uing to arise, he said: "The racket is, boys, that you 
 are to have the freedom of this wood for an hour. 
 Do what you like: play hare and hound; climb trees; 
 wade in the brook in a word, take everything in 
 sight." 
 
 "An' you don't call that Sunday-breakin', do you, 
 Mister?" asked Sim, involuntarily superseding Gran- 
 ger as spokesman. 
 
 "That's all right," answered Wilmot without ac- 
 cepting the issue. "Take your fill of fun; and after 
 the hour is out, we'll come back for a little chat. I 
 will then tell you of a fine scheme I have for us to 
 work out together." 
 
 "An' you pay the freight?" asked Sim.
 
 A MAN SENT. 21 
 
 "That's what I mean," quietly replied Wilmot. 
 
 "Three cheers and a tiger for Mr. Wil Wil what 
 is it?" stammered Sim. 
 
 "Wilmot !" shouted half the other boys. 
 
 "For Mr. Wilmot," concluded Sim. 
 
 The cheers were given, disorderly enough, but with 
 no lack of enthusiasm, and the boys broke in a tumult 
 of sport through the trees, over the brook, and up 
 the ferny slopes of the hills. It was the uncorking of 
 pent-up hilarity, good humor, and boyish zest.
 
 II. 
 
 THE GANG. 
 
 EXCITED from their romp and with lungs filled with 
 healthful and exhilarating air, the six boys at the end 
 of an hour flung themselves down in a circle at Wil- 
 mot's feet, where he had seated himself in much the 
 same position as before. A change had come over the 
 spirit of each boy. From being diffident and betraying 
 more or less doubt as to the purpose of their new- 
 made acquaintance, each showed in his glowing face 
 and in the little comments and ejaculations which he 
 indulged that confidence and trustfulness which all 
 boys manifest toward an elder brother. Wilmot saw 
 at once how wisely he had adopted at the very begin- 
 ning the means by which he hoped to reach his end. 
 He greeted each boy with a pleasant smile or a brief 
 speech in praise of his swift-footedness, his good wind, 
 his jumping or climbing, or the distance to which he 
 could throw a stone, or the number of steps he could 
 make walking on his hands. 
 
 At last, when everything was again quiet, Granger, 
 looking around the circle as though to make sure that 
 everything was right, said: "Well, partner, we are 
 all ready now ; it's your spiel." 
 
 "If I should offer to tell you a story, what would 
 you boys rather it should be about?" asked Wilmot, 
 looking thoughtfully up to the dark tree branches 
 above, through which the afternoon sun was falling 
 like a fine mist of gold. 
 
 "I want to hear 'bout bears an' things," piped up
 
 THE GANG. 23 
 
 
 
 Kinky, seated, as before, close up to Wilmot and on 
 the right side. And the eyes of the little Arab spar- 
 kled as they surveyed the reasurring face of Wilmot. 
 
 "No, we'd ruther hear about Indians and cowboys," 
 almost shouted Sim Phillips, and several other boys 
 joined in the request; but Granger, in a rather judi- 
 cial tone, entered a demurrer to both, saying: "These 
 kids is green, partner, an' don't know nuthin' 'bout 
 the r'al thing when it comes to a story. I think we'd 
 oughter hear about detectives an' burglars, er about 
 them fellers what you call piroots, er about 'Curly 
 Bill/ the stage robber, er some other crook what gits 
 a pile o' swag. We don't wanter hear none o' them 
 mission Sunday school stories about bears eatin' up 
 kids that don't say their prayers. No, sir, what we 
 wants is the r'al thing." 
 
 This brief interview revealed to Wilmot, as nothing 
 before had ever done, the law of cohesion in boys' 
 compacts. The gregarious habit is of instinct. Lamb- 
 kins, calves, and chicks in the barnyards answer the 
 same instinct. But the boy answers a higher, if often 
 a hurtful, influence. The bare fact of flocking is one 
 thing; the character of association is another. Usual- 
 ly one boy, older than the others, draws around him 
 a group and holds it together for a longer or shorter 
 time. He is the strongest character, but is seldom 
 either the most intelligent or the most moral of the 
 group. His quality and appeal of leadership come 
 from the opposite traits. This is the heart of the boy 
 problem. It is deplorable, but it is of nature, or at 
 least of heredity, which is probably only another way 
 of saying the same thing. Boys at this age (say from
 
 24 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 eight to thirteen) begin to develop the savage impulse. 
 All the predatory, venatorial, and troglodyte instincts 
 of the race recur in the boy at this period. The bar- 
 barian rises up in him, varying in intensity according 
 to conditions. He seeks a leader, a/id a savage one at 
 that. The leader must be bold of speech, and must be 
 able to make a manifest of both muscle and courage 
 in a word, he must be a Sea King, a Khan, or at least 
 a Robin Hood. This ideal of leadership is not neces- 
 sarily a fruit of depravity. It is rather a matter of 
 atavism, the recurrence for a little while in the boy of 
 the spirit of the far-off race father. Turned in the 
 right direction, this spirit is a man maker, for it is 
 easily humanized. 
 
 Wilmot saw, in the brief moments in which he in- 
 dulged his reflections, such a leader in Granger, who 
 had organized this group and made it, though prob- 
 ably without the least foresight, into a complete in- 
 dividuality. He was taller by two inches than the 
 tallest (a king-making accident) ; he had the speech 
 and the leader spirit. The other boys answered their 
 nature bent and followed. 
 
 These reflections occupied Wilmot for but a mo- 
 ment, and he was almost instantly ready with an an- 
 swer to the varying requests concerning the kind of 
 a story to be told. So he said : "Kinky is the young- 
 est, and was the first to speak. I think we will tell a 
 bear story. There will be something in it about In- 
 dians, too; and I am sure it will please Granger." A 
 clap of hands all around indicated that the decision 
 gave complete satisfaction. Thereupon Wilmot began 
 and told the story of
 
 THE GANG. 25 
 
 THE GREAT BLACK BEAR. 
 
 Far away in the land of the North there is a range 
 of tall, dim mountains in whose passes it is always 
 winter, and where the snow lies in drifts and heaps 
 through all the year. These mountains' stretch from 
 one sea to the other, but there is a trail or path which 
 winds across them from valley to valley. Those who 
 would journey from one valley to another must needs 
 take this path, though it is beset with the greatest 
 danger, both from the fierce cold of the endless winter 
 and from the huge beasts the black bears and the 
 gray wolves that infest the mountains about. 
 
 There was once known to live in a dark cave near 
 the path where it crossed the very summit of these 
 mountains a great black bear which was the terror of 
 travelers who went that way. When the great black 
 bear, who looked himself like a dark hill rising above 
 the snow, saw that a traveler was in the path, he came 
 out of his cave and growled so fiercely that all the 
 rocks shook; or if he walked between the sun and 
 the path, he made such a shadow on the snow that 
 the wayfarer thought a cloud had come over the sky. 
 Thus he terrified travelers; and when they were still 
 in their fright, he seized such as he would and dragged 
 them off to his cave, where he devoured them and left 
 their bones scattered about the floor of his house. 
 This went on a great many years, and everybody in 
 the land heard of the great black bear and of his hor- 
 rid cave in the winter mountains. Sometimes the men 
 who had to journey over these mountains went in 
 companies, and some of them carried arms so as to 
 protect the rest; but the black bear was sure to catch
 
 26 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 one of the company apart from the others, and giving 
 a sudden growl he so terrified him that he could not 
 think what to do. Before he could recover from his 
 fright, the black bear had him, weapon and all, and 
 was on the way to his cave. 
 
 The Indians that dwelt in the valleys on each side 
 of these mountains had long known of this bear, and 
 did not less fear him than did the white men. They 
 often shot their arrows at him, and had thrown their 
 spears against his shaggy sides, but they could make 
 no wound through his thick coat. They came at last 
 to believe that he was something more than a wild 
 beast, and so they called him the Evil Spirit. They 
 said also that when he growled his voice was like that 
 of a man, only so much louder as the thunder is louder 
 than the wind. From their chief down to their young 
 men, they all said that if the great black bear was 
 ever slain it would be by the hand of a white man. 
 
 In the course of time it happened that the valleys 
 on both sides of the mountains were settled by white 
 men. Before these valleys had belonged only to the 
 Indians; and when they saw white men coming into 
 their lands, they became very angry, and often slew 
 the people and burned their houses with fire. But 
 the white men came on in greater numbers, and there 
 were pretty farmhouses and also villages that spread 
 from the base of the mountains out into the valleys, 
 for the climate in the valleys was mild and the soil 
 was rich and easily tilled. In the northern valley 
 there was a village that spread under the shelter of a 
 tall rock that stood at the very place where the path 
 started up the mountain leading to the valley on the
 
 THE GANG. 27 
 
 south. One winter evening when the villagers, who 
 were no more than a dozen men, their wives and chil- 
 dren, and a few aged people, the grandsires and grand- 
 mothers of the village, were taking their evening meal 
 they heard a cry of savage Indians coming up from 
 the valley. There was a great company of them, and 
 they soon surrounded the place. The men of the vil- 
 lage then took their wives and little ones and the very 
 aged men and women and, with their rifles in hand, 
 gathered in the largest and strongest house in the vil- 
 lage and prepared to keep the savages at bay until they 
 should secure help from other villages. 
 
 There was not a man who could be spared from 
 the defense, because the savages were so many. But 
 they must have a messenger. There was nobody to 
 go except a little lad of twelve years, Albert Knudson. 
 Albert was brave, and had been taught that it was no- 
 ble to face dangers and even die for others. He 
 knew all the valleys about and every path in the moun- 
 tain. So he agreed to go for help. It was impossible 
 to go down to the valley, for the savages had cut the 
 village off from the valley on every side. The only 
 way open was the one across the mountains to some 
 village in the valley beyond. The men thought it best 
 to send Albert over this path, and he readily agreed 
 to go. He was too small to carry a rifle, if one could 
 have been spared from the defense against the savages ; 
 so he took only a hunting knife in a belt which he 
 buckled over his hunting shirt. He wore thick leather 
 breeches and high boots. With a pouch of food, Al- 
 bert started on his long and dangerous journey. He 
 knew about the wolves, and especially about the great
 
 28 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 black bear, and was on the lookout for him. He knew 
 also about the bear's terrible voice, and was deter- 
 mined not to be terrified by it. But he listened, lis- 
 tened for growlings and voices louder than the winds. 
 
 It was at the deep middle of the night, and a fierce 
 north wind was blowing on his back when he came 
 near to the highest summit of the mountain. He 
 could see the way before him, for a few cold stars 
 were shining through rifts in the clouds, and the snow- 
 covered mountains were white with ghostly light. 
 Suddenly, about this time, the lad heard a loud, long 
 growl, after which the rocks seemed to shake, and he 
 knew it was the voice of the great black bear. He 
 refused to be terrified, and said: "I am going to save 
 people alive; I do not think the bear will be able to 
 devour me ; I will run very fast and will not be afraid." 
 But in the next instant the shadow of the bear shut 
 out the stars, and Albert found himself in the crea- 
 ture's jaws and being borne swiftly away, as he knew, 
 to the horrid black cave. Now he thought: "My 
 courage was vain, and I thought to do good to 
 others in vain ; but I can die and not be afraid." 
 The bear, he knew, would soon devour him. But he 
 noticed now that the creature's teeth did not seem to 
 pierce his leather jacket. From this he took a little 
 hope, and, feeling for his hunting knife, he drew it 
 forth from its belt and held it in his hand. 
 
 When the bear had gone up and down many steep 
 places and dragged his victim through many deep 
 snowdrifts, he came to the mouth of his cave. There 
 he stopped and, smelling the boy over from head to 
 foot, carried him in and laid him down upon the floor
 
 THE GANG. 29 
 
 very much as a cat does a mouse. Albert lay very 
 still for a moment. There was a horrid smell in the 
 cave, and the darkness was seven times blacker than 
 night. A shudder swept over his frame, but he sat 
 up a little ; then he stood on his feet and, grasping the 
 hilt of his knife very tightly, set his back against the 
 wall of the cave. He could not see the bear, but he 
 could hear him sniffling about and coming always 
 nearer. The boy held his knife ready to strike. Pres- 
 ently he felt the frosty tip ol the bear's nose touch 
 his outstretched left hand; then with all his might he 
 fell upon the haft of his knife and, striking out into 
 the darkness, drove it through the bear's neck into his 
 heart. With a growl that shook the whole cave the 
 monster fell over and died. Albert then felt of him- 
 self from head to foot, but found neither wound nor 
 scratch upon his body. At this he rejoiced, and at 
 once fell to work with his knife to take the skin off 
 the bear he had slain. It did not take long to do this ; 
 for, though he was so young a lad, he had skinned 
 many an ox and not a few bears before. Having tak- 
 en the skin off, he dragged it after him, following as 
 best he could the tracks made by the bear. It was a 
 great task, and by the time he had reached the high 
 path again there was a gray light of dawn on the 
 mountains. When he realized perfectly his own de- 
 liverance, he began to grieve for his friends in the 
 village, for he felt that by this time they must either 
 have been slain or carried away as captives. He was 
 in the midst of these sad thoughts when he heard sav- 
 age shouts coming up the mountain path. When the 
 shouters came nearer to him, he saw that they were
 
 30 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 Indians upon ponies; that some of them carried rifles 
 and that they had prisoners bound on ponies which 
 they drove before them. He understood that they 
 had captured the villagers and were carrying them 
 across the mountains to the home of their tribe in 
 another valley. 
 
 It did not take Albert long to resolve what to do. 
 Throwing the bearskin over his body, he began to 
 growl as loudly as he could. He knew some Indian 
 words, and these he repeated in a terrible roll and roar 
 of voice. The Indians were sure they had met the 
 Evil Spirit, so they shot no arrow nor threw any spear ; 
 but the foremost fled in terror, leaving their captives 
 still tied to the ponies. When Albert could get near 
 enough to the first captive, he cut the thongs with 
 which he was bound, then another. These two seized 
 the rifles which the fleeing Indians had abandoned and 
 began to rain bullets amongst the other savages. Soon 
 the captive men, women, and children were all re- 
 leased, and with such ponies as they could gather to- 
 gether they made their way safely back to the village. 
 Albert carried back with him the skin of the great 
 black bear, which he nailed to the wall of the strong 
 house; and for many days thereafter he showed it to 
 strangers, telling them of his night adventure in the 
 winter mountains. Also the governor of the province 
 sent him a purse full of gold coins and gave him the 
 title of "The Little Scout." 
 
 During the recital of this story the boys, from 
 Granger to Kinky, were all attention, their enthusiasm 
 growing at each stage. An indefinable quietness 
 reigned for half a minute after the story was ended.
 
 THE GANG. 31 
 
 Wilmot perceived thereby that the veiled moral had 
 not been lost. 
 
 Granger was the first to break the silence. "Part- 
 ner," he exclaimed, "that there wa'n't no yaller kid, that 
 bear killer, wus he?" 
 
 "No, I think he was not," replied Wilmot; "he was 
 a real hero. But maybe it was because Albert was 
 risking his life to help others that he had such good 
 luck and did what others could not do killed the great 
 black bear." 
 
 "I'll bet a plunker that's jest why it wus," declared 
 Granger, with enthusiasm. 
 
 "I am sure it was in fact, I know it was," replied 
 Wilmot. 
 
 "But I'd like to know what become of that little 
 feller after he was growed up," put in Tommy Biles. 
 
 "I'll bet you anything he fought Indians all the 
 time," suggested Sim Phillips, his thoughts centering 
 in the title which the little hero had won. 
 
 "Maybe he growed up an' wrote stories for little 
 boys," ventured Kinky, his familiarity with the out- 
 side of newspapers suggesting a great possibility. 
 
 "Suppose he became governor of the province?" 
 said Wilmot, by way of testing the sentiment of his 
 hearers. "Suppose he became governor and lived in 
 peace in a great white house wouldn't that be bet- 
 ter?" 
 
 All the boys except Sim accepted this view and ap- 
 proved of Wilmot's idea in general. 
 
 "Don't you agree with the other boys, Sim?" he 
 asked of the dissident. 
 
 "Well, I reckon so," he answered slowly. "Bein'
 
 32 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 governor is pretty good, but fightin' Indians is just 
 bully." 
 
 Perceiving that he now had the unreserved con- 
 fidence of all the boys, Wilmot resolved to venture a 
 step farther. Addressing Granger, he asked: "Why 
 do you six boys always go together? I have seen 
 you often on the street, and there are always just six 
 of you. Why is this?" 
 
 "Why, hit's our gang, partner," answered Granger 
 without reserve. "We six belongs to the gang. The 
 gang wus started first by me an' Sim, an' we've added 
 one after another until we tuck in little Kinky, an' he 
 makes six." 
 
 "What does your gang do?" cautiously inquired 
 Wilmot. 
 
 "Well," answered the leader, showing himself a 
 slight caution, "we plays together on Sundays an' hol- 
 idays, an' don't let no other boys know what we knows ; 
 an' we fights for one another if other boys imposes 
 on us." 
 
 "Do you have a meeting place ?" diplomatically con- 
 tinued Wilmot. 
 
 "No, not edzactly," replied Granger; "we've been 
 thinkin' about gittin' one like some o' the other gangs 
 has, but we ain't got none yit." 
 
 "What sort of places have the other gangs?" asked 
 Wilmot, showing his lawyer instinct. 
 
 "O, one on 'em meets under the stone arch of the 
 viaduct, an' one meets in the loft of the ol' Giles ter- 
 backer house, an' that's where most on 'em learned 
 to smoke, there bein' lots of terbacker leaves wasted on 
 the floor. I belonged that gang before me an' Sim
 
 THE GANG. 33 
 
 made up this un. Most all the gangs is got a hole 
 some'eres;" and Granger ended his disclosure with a 
 sort of squint of his left eye. 
 
 "I've just been thinking about getting your gang a 
 regular meeting place," said Wilmot. "You boys 
 find one to suit you, and I'll get it for you, if I have 
 to buy it." 
 
 "But I say, partner," exclaimed Granger, "that talk 
 o' yourn is stunnin';" and he surveyed the other boys, 
 who plainly shared his surprise. 
 
 "I mean it, though," added Wilmot, thinking it 
 worth while to be insistent. 
 
 "I reckon we'll jest take yer offer, partner," said 
 Granger. 
 
 "Only we'll have to look about a bit for a place," 
 sagely interposed Granger's lieutenant, Sim Phillips. 
 
 "That \vill be all right," returned Wilmot ; "but I 
 want to offer you this grove for next Sunday after- 
 noon and the next and the next until you find a place. 
 It's yours as long as you want it." 
 
 "But, partner, we kids can't, walk out here fer our 
 meetin's. Hit's six miles, an' we ain't got the spends 
 to pay the puncher," objected Granger. 
 
 "Don't let that trouble you," said Wilmot; "I'll pay 
 the freight." 
 
 "You will?" cried Granger, and the other boys 
 joined in the shout. 
 
 "I will on one condition," explained Wilmot, "and 
 that is that I may come with you." 
 
 The gang went wild at this announcement, and, 
 marching around after Granger, each shook the hand 
 of Wilmot as a sign of agreement, 
 3
 
 34 
 
 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 "I am going to ask something else," added Wilmot 
 when the circle had been remade. "I want to join 
 your gang and be a member with you." 
 
 The boys looked at Granger and then at one an- 
 other. That was an unexpected request; it had to be 
 considered, so the gang withdrew a short distance and 
 held a conversation in Ipw tones. Presently they re- 
 turned, and Granger informed the applicant that they 
 must vote on his request. 
 
 "Very well," he said. "I want to come in just as 
 the other boys did." 
 
 Thereupon the gang withdrew again, and Granger, 
 solemnly laying down his hat, ordered each boy to 
 deposit in it a glass or a stone marble according to his 
 vote, glass being for, stone against. After a due and 
 legal count, Granger reported that six glass marbles 
 had gone into the hat and that, therefore, the new 
 applicant had been elected a member of the gang. 
 There was another round of handshaking and the 
 boys resumed their places for the continuance of the 
 powwow. 
 
 "Next Sunday afternoon at four o'clock," said Wil- 
 mot, "we will meet at Fountain Square, take the High- 
 land car again, and come to this same spot. After 
 we have held our meeting, we will select a place where 
 the gang can meet in secret. We must also have a 
 watchword and some way by which we may know 
 one another and to keep other boys from getting into 
 our meetings." 
 
 "O, we fellers has got 'em," cried Granger. 
 
 "But you didn't give them to me," returned Wilmot, 
 feigning to be surprised,
 
 THE GANG. 35 
 
 "But they're jest boys' doin's," deprecatingly ex- 
 plained the leader. 
 
 "But I am a boy with you," insisted Wilmot "a 
 member of the gang, and I am entitled to know every 
 secret of the gang." 
 
 "That's so, partner," declared Granger as he looked 
 again around the circle as though asking approval of 
 what he was about to do. The approval of silence 
 reassured him. "But you'll have to hoi' up yer han' 
 an' say it like the rest on us," he continued. 
 
 Wilmot answered by promptly putting up his right 
 hand, now assured that he was about to be put in 
 possession of the most awful secret of the gang. 
 Granger then rattled off the "oath," which Wilmot re- 
 peated after him as follows : 
 
 By the horns and the beard of the Billy Goat : 
 I'll lay a knife against my throat; 
 Seven times I'll hang; seven times I'll drown, 
 And rot to dust with old John Brown, 
 Before I'll tell or break my oath. > 
 
 Wilmot could not repress an inward smile during this 
 "ordeal," but the five boys looking on preserved a 
 demeanor of solemn and respectful silence. 
 
 "That's a great 'oath,' Granger," said Wilmot. 
 "Where did you get it?" 
 
 "Me an' a feller up to the printin' office got it out 
 of a book. There was more'n that to it ; but I couldn't 
 pack hit 'round in my noggin," frankly confessed the 
 mogul of the gang. 
 
 "You haven't yet given me the signs," said Wilmot 
 after having got his fellow-gangsmen completely off 
 their guard.
 
 36 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 "There ain't but two on 'em," explained Granger; 
 "an' the first one is this : You lays yer finger over yer 
 mouth, like this, an' that means : 'Don't talk about the 
 gang.' The other one is this : Yer locks yer han's be- 
 hind yer head, like this, an' that means: 'The fellers 
 what's aroun' is all frien's.' An' now that's all." 
 
 "And so I am now a member of the gang and you 
 boys will tell me everything and let me attend all 
 your meetings, will you?" asked Wilmot. 
 
 "That's the size on it, partner; yer have done rode 
 the goat," declared Granger. 
 
 The afternoon sun was now sunken low behind the 
 groves and hills of Applegate Wood, so the meeting 
 was dissolved; and the gang, under the direction and 
 patronage of its newest member, was again loaded on 
 the trolley and was in due time delivered back at its 
 starting point in Fountain Square.
 
 III. 
 
 THE MEETING PLACE. 
 
 THERE was an unrecorded history-making in the 
 lives of six boys during the week which succeeded the 
 visit of Wilmot and his confederates to the Applegate 
 Wood. Each boy was thinking a good deal quietly 
 within himself, and the action of each was being in- 
 fluenced by that thinking. Wilmot had not only pen- 
 etrated the mystery of a typical boys' gang, but he had 
 succeeded in overlaying that mystery with a greater. 
 First of all, his motive was mysterious, for no boy 
 understands exactly why a young man of Wilmot's 
 good manners and appearance wants to spend four 
 or five shillings every Sunday on a group of street 
 gamins. Besides, Wilmot had hinted at various pleas- 
 ant and occult things, and these hints had set all the 
 boys guessing and wondering. Granger and Sim had 
 repeatedly seen each boy to be sure of his state of 
 mind, and also to ascertain if the way was certainly 
 open to each to be at Fountain Square at the hour 
 fixed the next Sabbath afternoon. Also Granger, by 
 request of Wilmot, had called at the latter's office once 
 or twice to report. 
 
 "You are sure that all the boys will be there, are 
 you, Granger?" Wilmot asked at the conclusion of the 
 second interview on Saturday afternoon. 
 
 "You bet your boots they'll be there, partner; I've 
 done been around and read each feller's mark. They'll 
 be there," was Granger's reply.
 
 38 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 "What do you mean by each one's mark?" asked 
 Wilmot a little mystified. 
 
 "Why, each one of the gang's got a mark what he 
 makes for the other fellers when he can't see 'em," 
 explained the boy. 
 
 "But you didn't tell me about that when I joined," 
 said Wilmot. 
 
 "Well, now, fer a fact; that's so," answered Gran- 
 ger, a little confused. "But I'll do it right now;" 
 and with that he drew two bits of chalk from his 
 pocket one white, the other red. "You see, partner," 
 he began to explain, "the gang has got certain places 
 (we'll show 'em to you after a while) where we makes 
 marks when we can't go to the meetin' places er when 
 anything happens. If you can't come to the place 
 what's fixed fer the gang, why, you takes that white 
 chalk and makes a cross on the gatepost or the wall 
 close to where you stays. That means 'King's ex 
 I can't come ;' then with the red chalk you writes your 
 letter (that's the first letter of your name) under it. 
 If you can sure come, you makes a bull's eye with the 
 white chalk and then puts your letter under it in red. 
 All the boys knows what that means. If you'll jest 
 look on the gatepost of the baseball park as you comes 
 down the avenoo Sunday afternoon, you kin tell ed- 
 zactly how many of the boys will be waitin' fer you 
 at the Fountain." 
 
 "That chalk business isn't a bad idea, Granger," 
 said Wilmot. "I'll use the chalk myself." 
 
 "You musn't let no feller belongin' to another gang 
 see you doin' it; we don't want 'em to git onto us," 
 cautioned Granger.
 
 THE MEETING PLACE. 39 
 
 Wilmot promised to observe due caution, and so 
 the last detail for the meeting was settled. 
 
 The eventful Sunday afternoon had come, and Wil- 
 mot was again sauntering up the long avenue. Oppo- 
 site the baseball park he halted a moment, selected a 
 time when no passers-by were in sight, then walked 
 across the way, and stood before the undressed, un- 
 painted posts of the park gate. There, sure enough, 
 were six tiny white chalk circles with a dot in the cen- 
 ter of each, and underneath each a red chalk letter. 
 
 Every boy had registered his sign manual and had 
 gone to the tryst. Quickly making a circle for him- 
 self and writing under it the letter "W," Wilmot 
 pushed on to the Square, when a pleasing sight met 
 his view. There were his fellow-gangsmen all of 
 them seated together on the steps of the Fountain, 
 and each one a picture of gentility. There was not a 
 bat, a ball, nor a marble in sight. Every face had 
 been washed and every head carefully combed. There 
 was a transformation also in the dress of the party. 
 There was not a bare foot in the group even Kinky's 
 feet were shod in a pair of shoes which, though old, 
 had been carefully polished. Each boy was dressed in 
 a clean shirt; and, although some of the coats were 
 worn and faded, they had been brushed clean of every 
 vestige of dust. 
 
 With a shout the group greeted Wilmot and, rising 
 as with one impulse, gathered about him for the hand- 
 shake of fellowship. 
 
 The trolley ride outward was in striking contrast 
 with the one of the Sabbath before. Some of the boys 
 were nervous, but for the most part they sat quietly
 
 40 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 while Wilmot pointed out the places of interest in the 
 countryside as their car spun musically on toward the 
 hills. 
 
 Applegate Wood was aglow with a glory of summer 
 when the seven entered into its quietness. 
 
 "Will you boys now do as you did last Sunday 
 take an hour to romp and play ?" asked Wilmot. 
 
 "No," said Sim, speaking for the others. "We 
 want you to go with us for a long walk. It seems 
 that you can see the leaves better, and the woods look 
 prettier when you walk." 
 
 This seemed to meet the unanimous wish of the 
 party. So Wilmot, with Kinky at his side, put himself 
 at the head of the party and led off into a path that 
 wound in and out of the leafy wonderland. Many a 
 time Wilmot had when a boy strolled and loitered in 
 this same wood. He knew every rod of it, and did 
 not lead aimlessly. Up and up the wooded slopes he 
 climbed, sometimes lifting Kinky off his feet to make 
 the ascent easier for him, the other boys trudging and 
 laughing behind. At last, under the brow of a tall 
 cliff that shook its ferns and reeds above, as a giant 
 might his shock of shaggy hair, they halted before the 
 mouth of a cave, a wide chamber under a ledge of 
 slaty rock. The floor of it was dry and smooth, only 
 there were scattered about a few broken bowlders that 
 made fair seats for the party when they had entered 
 in. The light came in in sufficient fullness to make 
 it seem much like a home chamber. The interior was 
 cool and refreshing, and an air of mystery and sug- 
 gestion clung about it from roof to floor. 
 
 "We will first explore the cave," said Wilmot, "and
 
 THE ^MEETING PLACE. 41 
 
 then we'll sit down and have a good chat together." 
 The suggestion set the boys wild. The cavern was 
 not large, but had several dark nooks and chambers 
 which by means of a bit of candle which Wilmot had 
 thoughtfully provided were fully illuminated and stud- 
 ied. In one they found a few charred sticks where 
 there had once been kindled a fire. 
 
 "I'll bet robbers did it," cried Granger. 
 
 "I'll bet," chimed in several others. 
 
 "Like as not," assented Wilmot, which made half 
 a dozen eyes start out in the semidarkness like stars 
 from the twilight. The situation was tense with in- 
 terest. The place suited the troglodyte instinct of the 
 gangsmen. 
 
 "O, Mr. Wilmot," cried Sim, "this is the place for 
 our gang to meet." Like fire in stubble the suggestion 
 caught into a conflagration, and the shouts from the 
 other boys made the stony roof ring. 
 
 "That's just what it is to be," said Wilmot. "I have 
 secured it for our use as long as we want it. We 
 will have it fixed up to suit our taste. It is our very 
 own our castle to be kept against all comers." 
 
 Again and louder than before the hurrahs broke 
 forth. 
 
 It was some time before the enthusiasm of the com- 
 pany had sufficiently subsided to permit of a quiet 
 sitting. When all were seated, Wilmot said: "I sup- 
 pose the next thing is a good story, is it?" 
 
 "That's what we fellers is expectin'," replied Gran- 
 ger for the gang. 
 
 "All right," returned Wilmot. "What shall it be 
 about?"
 
 42 THE GANG OP SIX. 
 
 "About soldiers," confidently ordered Sim; and to 
 this there was no dissent. 
 
 "Very well," said Wilmot ; "our story shall be about 
 soldiers good soldiers who long ago served a good 
 King. The King's name was Arthur, and the sol- 
 diers were called knights. These knights were brave 
 men who had sworn to fight for the King in all his 
 wars, to be obedient to the King's command, to be 
 pure in life and thought, to reverence the Holy Christ, 
 and to give their swords to right the wrongs of the 
 world. When each took his oath, he kneeled before 
 the King, who, taking his sword, a thing of wondrous 
 beauty with jewels in its hilt, smote with the flat of 
 it him that would be a knight and said: 'Arise, Sir 
 Knight!' And after that he was a knight and ate at 
 the King's table and fought in the King's wars. Once 
 upon a time," continued Wilmot, "there came to the 
 King a shepherd boy who desired to be made a knight, 
 that he might serve the King in arms. Said the King 
 to him: 'Do you know what it is to be made a knight?' 
 'I do, my lord King,' answered the shepherd lad ; 'for 
 she who told me I must be a knight and must come 
 and kneel before the King taught me concerning all 
 the noble things which the King's knights are doing 
 and must do?' 'And who was it,' asked the King, 
 'who taught you so?' 'It was one whom I did not 
 see,' frankly confessed the boy, 'and whether she were 
 fairy or spirit I cannot say; but that she is fair I do 
 not doubt, and her voice was like music while she 
 talked to me. She said, moreover, that she was the 
 daughter of a great lord, that her sisters were called 
 Purity and Faith; but her own name she could not
 
 THE ^MEETING PLACE. 43 
 
 then tell, but that I might learn it later.' 'How hap- 
 pened it that you should hear so much and yet not see 
 her who had spoken to you?' asked the King. 'It was 
 when I had led the sheep to a pleasant walk and was 
 resting under a hawthorn white with the bloom, and 
 the voice seemed to come from the midst of the 
 branches that exhaled a most pleasant breath. There- 
 upon, my lord King, I arose and came, and will no 
 more return to keep sheep; but would fain ride with 
 the knights, for the sister of Purity and Faith hath 
 assured me that I shall prosper doing the King's pleas- 
 ure.' But the King said: 'Thou art well-favored and 
 willing, but too young and tender by far to wear 
 armor or endure the fatigues and onset of battle; but 
 since thy heart is filled with cravings thou shalt vow 
 a vow and ride as a squire with a noble knight. A 
 year and a day thou shalt ride, and then if thou art 
 proven in obedience thou mayest be made a knight.' 
 Right glad was the shepherd lad for so much favor 
 from the King, and he vowed a vow to obey in all 
 things, and so rode a year and a day to be squire to 
 a noble knight who went in bright armor and carried 
 a sword and lance. And the name of the knight was 
 Sir Christopher, which is Christ helper; and to his 
 squire he gave the name of Hermas, which is 'Swift 
 to do,' though his name before had been but Yarkin. 
 Now, while Sir Christopher and his squire waited at 
 the King's gate, the latter fresh from his vow-taking, 
 there came a cry that three caitiff knights had set upon 
 the castle of one of the King's high lords, and had 
 shut the master, his yeomen, and his two fair daugh- 
 ters up in the castle and were besieging it. It was
 
 44 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 then that Sir Christopher obtained leave of the King 
 and rode away to the relief of his fellow-knight, and 
 his new-made squire rode with him. As they passed 
 down the King's highway and fell into a strange and 
 little-frequented path, the knight began to say to his 
 squire that they were drawing near to the castle be- 
 sieged, and must look well for the caitiff knights, who, 
 though they were but three, were yet counted bold 
 and watchful as they were strong and cruel. He also 
 taught the squire that because his new name meant 
 'Swift to do' he must on no account fail to execute 
 every charge given him, to the uttermost of every 
 command. This the squire promised to do, and there- 
 upon they were passing abreast of the forge of a 
 smith. 'We dismount here/ said the knight, 'for the 
 approach to the castle is steep and stony, and our 
 horses will have much to do to keep their feet. This 
 smith shall make their shoes secure upon their hoofs.' 
 While the smith was making the shoes fast upon the 
 feet of the two palfreys, the knight asked concerning 
 the castle and the caitiff knights; but the smith, a 
 surly man with beard as black and taggy as the soot 
 on the smithy rafter, said: 
 
 'I know nor friends nor foes, 
 Nor yet beyond this forge my asking goes.' 
 
 The knight made no reply to these surly words, but 
 the squire said within himself: 'Here also is a caitiff; 
 and when I am a knight, he shall answer to me for 
 this insolent speech.' The squire noticed with secret 
 delight that on the walls of the smithy were hung 
 various pieces of armor, and some weapons also. He
 
 THE MEETING PLACE. 45 
 
 thought how easily, if necessity pressed, a squire 
 might be made into a knight in that same smithy ; and 
 while he pondered the thought his master mounted 
 his steed, and, he following, the two rode silently 
 away. After traversing a path that wound up steep 
 and rugged hills, the two came in sight of the be- 
 sieged castle. Three huge tents were spread before 
 the castle gate. Two of the caitiff knights slept each 
 in his tent, and the third, a very giant, was on watch. 
 When Sir Christopher and his squire came near to 
 the castle wall, the knight blew a long blast on his 
 horn and shouted aloud. Instantly the single watch- 
 man on the wall answered, and thereupon the lord of 
 the castle and his besieged yeomen rushed down to 
 the gate and, opening it, issued forth, so that the 
 caitiff knight who was on guard while his brothers 
 slept was caught before and behind and was slain by 
 Sir Christopher at the first onset. The caitiffs, awak- 
 ing suddenly out of sleep and seeing their brother 
 dead, fled without their armor or weapons. So there 
 was joy in the castle, and the lord of the castle and 
 his two fair daughters that were shut up with him 
 came down to greet Sir Christopher and his squire; 
 and then it was that the squire learned that the two 
 daughters were named Purity and Faith. Thereupon 
 he said: 'There is yet a third sister, daughter of my 
 lord of this castle.' And they answered: 'There is, 
 and she is the youngest, but is away.' But they told 
 not her name, and the squire, perceiving that her name 
 must not be told, asked no more, but kept his thoughts 
 in his own bosom. After this Sir Christopher and the 
 lord of the castle rode swiftly on to overtake the two
 
 46 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 caitiff knights who had escaped, and left Hermas, the 
 squire, with the yeomen to guard the castle; but the 
 armor of the three caitiff knights they cast into the 
 moat, for these three brothers were so huge in size 
 that no knight in Arthur's court might make shift to 
 fight in it withal. The two knights were scarcely 
 more than gone when the squire, sighing within him- 
 self, said: 'Why was I so dull as not to see before 
 what I now see so plainly? The caitiff knights have 
 gone to the smithy, and there await the making of new 
 armor. My lord of the castle and Sir Christopher 
 pursue toward the sunrise while these are gone toward 
 the sunset. O that I were not bound by a vow to obey 
 the letter of my master's words, I should take a yeo- 
 man with me and have these caitiffs in chains before 
 my master's return !' So for his vow's sake he re- 
 strained his desire. At sunsetting the knights returned 
 empty-handed. Then it was that Hermas begged the 
 leave of his master to have his sword and ride with a 
 retainer to the house of the smith. 'For,' said he, 'I 
 remembered me something to-day of what I noticed 
 in the forge, and a question concerning it may be of 
 service to me many days hence.' And because he was 
 importunate the knight consented, and the lord of the 
 castle dispatched a yeoman to bear him company. Very 
 soon thereafter, but after the darkness was deep fallen, 
 the squire and the yeoman arrived at the forge, where- 
 on roared the bellows, and the smith made great haste 
 of the work he was about. Peering through the open 
 door, the squire made out to see that the two caitiff 
 knights were cowering in a corner of the smithy and 
 that the smith was making great lengths of armor
 
 THE MEETING PLACE. 47 
 
 for their limbs. At a word the yeoman followed the 
 squire into the smithy, and with drawn swords they 
 set upon the caitiffs, took them, and compelled the 
 smith to forge chains for their limbs. This being 
 done, the squire paid the smith's charges, saying: 
 'Since friend and foe are alike to thee, this will cause 
 you no grief.' The smith smiled grimly, but took the 
 coin, and was turning about to go. 'Hold !' cried the 
 squire; 'you shall take a new order for the armor 
 which to fit upon these caitiffs you have been at so 
 great pains. You shall fit to my own limbs, allow- 
 ing the growth of a year, and at that time, less one 
 day, I will come to pay the costs and take mine own.' 
 At this the smith smiled grimly again, and the squire 
 and yeoman rode away with their prisoners. At the 
 castle there was great wonder, as great joy also, when 
 the youthful squire and the yeoman returned. The 
 two fair sisters of the castle came and made a cheerful 
 evening for their deliverers; the lord of the castle 
 blessed both the knight and his squire and gave them 
 appropriate gifts. Sir Christopher left the caitiffs with 
 his brother knight to be punished as he deemed right, 
 and on the morrow he and his squire rode on to join 
 the King and his other knights in war. So it was 
 that Hermas the Shepherd rode a year and a day as 
 the squire of Sir Christopher, and learned obedience. 
 At the end of that war, when the King returned from 
 victory, he made the squire a knight, and on the self- 
 same day the new-made knight rode to the forge of 
 the smith and clothed himself with the armor which 
 had been designed for the greater of the giants. It 
 also happened that he found the smith a changed man,
 
 48 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 for he had heard the story of the shepherd squire, 
 and had gone about himself to learn obedience and to 
 be loyal to the King and his blameless knights. Be- 
 ing now a knight in armor, and hailed as Sir Hermas, 
 he that had been Yarkin the Shepherd rode again to 
 the castle where dwelt the fair sisters, if haply the 
 youngest of the house might be returned ; for he knew 
 the same must be fairer than all women besides, and 
 he had long had a purpose to woo her. But when he 
 was come and made inquiry like a noble knight, a no- 
 ble and truthful answer was given him, and the elder 
 sister, speaking, said: 'Sir Knight, there are indeed 
 but two daughters of our house, and this third of 
 which you heard was only such as seemed a sister to 
 us and whom we cherished as such, for how should 
 Purity and Faith be without Obedience!" This, then, 
 was the secret of the third sister. The shepherd lad 
 had heard the voice of obedience calling him, and it 
 was this obedience whom the squire had worthily loved 
 and whom the knight had sought to woo. He could 
 not be sad, therefore, because he had lost an unseen 
 bride, but rejoiced because he had gained forever the 
 favor of one whom he knew."
 
 IV. 
 
 THE SQUIRE'S DEGREE. 
 
 WHEN the story of the shepherd squire had been 
 told, the boys indulged in no noisy demonstrations, 
 but sat thoughtfully looking at Wilmot. The moral 
 of the story had appealed to them, and that without 
 the usual exhortation. Something had opened their 
 ears to hear. It was evident, too, that each boy had 
 interpreted the story in a way peculiar to his own 
 moral and intellectual sense. Divining this, Wilmot 
 quickly utilized the moment's opportunity by saying: 
 "Each boy in the gang will now tell me what he thinks 
 of the shepherd squire." 
 
 "I wonder if that little shepherd feller didn't have 
 no ma nor pa to work for," suggested Mack Pooley, 
 the boy who seldom had a word to say, but who by 
 this speech betrayed the best that was in him. 
 
 "Don't you think, though," replied Wilmot, "that 
 his father and mother would have been pleased to give 
 him to the King to become a noble knight, even if they 
 had to work the harder for his going?" 
 
 "I s'pose they would," was as emphatic a reply as 
 Mack could make, his horizon being bounded as it 
 was by the selfishness of a father who indulged him- 
 self in indolence while for a wage he sold his chil- 
 dren to the slavery of the cotton mills. 
 
 A gleam of dreamy light kindled in the eye of 
 Kinky as he said : "I just wished, Mr. Wilmot, that I 
 could be a shepherd boy and hear a voice too." 
 4
 
 50 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 Wilmot could make no reply at the moment to this 
 not surprising sentiment of his little favorite. He 
 only laid his hand on the curly head and waited to 
 hear from the other boys. 
 
 Sim Phillips and Tommy Biles had almost identical 
 notions about the young squire, and centered their 
 enthusiasm on his courage and his bold capture of the 
 caitiff knights. Jimmy Glenn, the widow's son, was 
 desirous to know how big the squire "was after he 
 had growed a year an' a day." But Granger, the last 
 to speak, had his own view of the case, and bluntly 
 expressed his contempt for "them two easy marks, the 
 giant fellers that let a sheep-smellin' kid an' a nigger 
 sop 'em up like that." 
 
 Wilmot could not repress a smile at the quaint crit- 
 icism of the gang's leader, but he said : "Well, Granger, 
 there is something in what you say. The caitiff 
 knights, though huge in body, were really cowards, 
 and never fought except when they could set upon 
 weaker knights or could find a castle undefended. In 
 that they were like the evil thoughts and bad habits 
 that often come to boys and to weak men. They can- 
 not fight with the strong, but they seek out young 
 and weak people that they may destroy them. Sim 
 and Tommy are right in admiring the courage of the 
 squire; for if he had not been brave and quick to act, 
 the giants would have got them new armor and 
 swords. They could then have set upon the castle, 
 killed the guards, and murdered those within the castle 
 while they slept. You remember that the squire loved 
 the unseen sister of Faith and Purity, whose name he 
 afterwards knew was Obedience. You remember, too,
 
 THE SQUIRE'S DEGREE. 51 
 
 that Sir Christopher, 'the Christ helper/ had called 
 his squire 'Swift to do/ so he could not fail to obey 
 every command given him, nor wait to act when he 
 knew where his duty was. I am glad that Jimmy 
 thought to ask how much the squire had grown during 
 his year and a day ; for when we go about to do great 
 things, we should all the time grow stronger and come 
 quickly to manhood in the doing of them. Kinky is 
 right, too," continued Wilmot after a pause, "in desir- 
 ing to hear a voice like the one which spoke to the 
 little shepherd; but one does not need to become a 
 shepherd to hear that voice. You may hear Obe- 
 dience speaking anywhere in town or in country. We 
 can all hear it at this very moment and in this cave. 
 Many, very many people have heard it." 
 
 "What does it sound like, Mr. Wilmot?" asked 
 Tommy Biles, very plainly showing doubt in both 
 face and voice. 
 
 "O, it sounds very differently to different people; 
 but when you hear it you nearly always know what 
 it is," replied Wilmot. 
 
 A silence followed this, and a look of soulful inter- 
 est settled upon six boyish faces. In the silence Wil- 
 mot drew from his pocket a small leather-bound, well- 
 thumbed volume, with every page of which he was 
 familiar, and said: "If you will move over into the 
 light nearer the mouth of the cave, I will read you the 
 story of a boy who once heard this voice." 
 
 Quickly but quietly the company moved to new 
 seats; and when all were again settled down, Wilmot, 
 without saying what book he read from, turned the 
 pages and, turning to a place previously marked, read
 
 52 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 these words: "And the child Samuel ministered unto 
 the Lord before Eli. . . . And it came to pass at 
 that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and 
 his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see ; and 
 ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the 
 Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid 
 down to sleep ; that the Lord called Samuel : and 
 he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, 
 and said, Here am I ; for thou calledst me. And he 
 said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and 
 lay down. And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. 
 And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here 
 am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I 
 called not, my son; lie down again. Now Samuel did 
 not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the 
 Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called 
 Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went 
 to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. 
 And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. 
 Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and 
 it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, 
 Lord; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and 
 lay down in his place. And the Lord came, and stood, 
 and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then 
 Samuel answered, Speak ; for thy servant heareth." 
 
 Each of the boys had, in one way or another, heard 
 inattentively the stories of the Bible ; but no shorn and 
 fasting catechumen ever listened more attentively to 
 instructions, read or oral, than did that once motley 
 gang of street gamins to the reading of their self- 
 appointed teacher. 
 
 When the reading was over, Wilmot closed the
 
 THE SQUIRE'S DEGREE. 53 
 
 Book, and said : "Shall we not now listen together and 
 see if we may not hear the voice ?" 
 
 "Sure," returned Granger, without the slightest 
 show of hesitation; and the other boys consented, for 
 the whole company was under the spell of the reading. 
 By the space of at least two minutes there was silence. 
 No sound could be heard except the dripping of water 
 drops from the brow of the cliff down past the mouth 
 of the cave. Now and then the cry of a locust came 
 from the grove without ; otherwise the silence was com- 
 plete. Seriousness deepened upon the face of each boy. 
 Kinky, nestling close up under Wilmot's arm, said: 
 "I heard it, Mr. Wilmot." "So did I," added two or 
 three others. "I ain't dead sure, but I think I must 
 'a' heard it, too," came in Granger. "I heard some- 
 thin', I don't know what," said Tommy, being the last 
 and true to the character of that disciple for whom 
 he was named. 
 
 "What did the voice sound like, Kinky?" asked 
 Wilmot. 
 
 "O, it didn't sound like nothin', sir ; it was inside o' 
 me, an' I couldn't hear what it was like," said Kinky. 
 
 Some of the boys were doubtful as to where the 
 voice was, but were sure that it was inside the cave, 
 and that it was so "weensy you couldn't hardly hear 
 it" 
 
 "How did it sound to you, Granger?" asked Wil- 
 mot of the leader. 
 
 "It was like when I sleeps by myself in the big room 
 on the third floor of the printin' office and wakes up 
 at night and hears the clock a-strikin' midnight," said 
 Granger.
 
 54 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 It was unbelievable to Wilmot himself that he should 
 have attained in so short a time such mastery over 
 unpromising disciples. He had meant to reach their 
 confidence by a circuitous route, but the one on which 
 he had fallen had proved a direct one. He had hoped 
 to secure response by adopting methods suited to each 
 boy, but had invested the camp at one stride. Such 
 is the boy nature that it must be taken unawares. 
 The frontal attack is at once suspected, and is gen- 
 erally resisted. It is the flanking movement that suc- 
 ceeds, though it were led by a piper or a harlequin. 
 Once within the works, you may, with only a show 
 of caution, lead in what terms you will. Perceiving 
 that his plans were unexpectedly advanced, Wilmot 
 said, addressing the boys: "I have now a great secret 
 to tell you ; I was sent to you with it. Would you like 
 to hear it?" 
 
 The response left no doubt as to what the gang 
 wished, nor any doubt as to the ripeness of the time 
 for telling it. 
 
 "The secret is this," continued Wilmot; "there is a 
 great King who wants noble knights to serve him; 
 knights who reverence the holy Christ, who have clean 
 hands, and who think pure thoughts, speaking only 
 pure words. These knights the King wants to help 
 him right the wrongs of the world. But every one 
 who would become such a knight must first become a 
 squire like Hermas, and thus learn obedience. How 
 many of you would like to become such a squire?" 
 
 There was instantly a show of six hands in the light 
 that sifted through the ferns and beech branches shad- 
 owing the high cliff side in the Applegate Wood. Wil-
 
 THE SQUIRE'S DEGREE. 55 
 
 mot then took from his pocket a pencil and wrote upon 
 a note leaf in his Bible these words : "This is my vow : 
 I will live a faithful squire to every true knight and 
 helper of my Lord and King the Christ. I will be 
 obedient to the word of the King, and serve in little 
 things until he shall call me to serve in greater 
 things." 
 
 When Wilmot had finished the writing, he took six 
 shilling pieces from his purse and said: "Long ago, 
 when a knight would make a squire, he put a piece of 
 money into his hand as a pledge ; the squire then took 
 his vow and the two rode away together." Wilmot 
 thereupon laid a shilling into each boy's hand, saying: 
 "It is a pledge to obedience, and it is to be kept by 
 each boy until he becomes a knight, when he may 
 give it into the hand of his own squire." After this, 
 beginning at Granger, each boy took the vow which 
 Wilmot had written. 
 
 When they were again seated in a circle as before, 
 Wilmot said: "Every squire who rides with a knight 
 wears a sash to show that he is not a clown. When 
 we return next Sabbath, I will have for each boy a 
 sash of blue silk, with the outline of a book worked 
 in white upon it. This book will stand for the com- 
 mandment which we have all promised as squires to 
 obey." 
 
 When the boys heard of this sash, they were more 
 than ever pleased, and asked many questions as to 
 what it was and what it meant. What Wilmot told 
 them only increased their desire to see the next Sab- 
 bath afternoon. 
 
 "But ain't we going to have some swords and a
 
 56 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 flag?" asked Sim, who had a more correct idea of 
 knight-errantry than any of the others. 
 
 "We shall when we get to be knights," answered 
 Wilmot. 
 
 "An' when'll that be, partner ?" queried Granger. 
 
 ''I trust very soon," returned the other; "maybe in 
 a month; and that leads me," he continued, "to say 
 that since we are to make a castle of our cave we 
 should give it a name. What shall we call it ?" 
 
 "You name it," shouted the boys almost in chorus. 
 
 "We'll call it the Castle of Arms," said Wilmot ; "for 
 when we are made knights together, we shall make 
 it a place to keep our swords, our banner, and all 
 the other things that may belong to us." And so 
 it was then, and ever thereafter, the "Castle of 
 Arms." 
 
 "Now also," continued Wilmot, "we must have a 
 warder of the castle." 
 
 "What's a warder?" asked several at once. 
 
 "A warder of the castle," explained Wilmot, "is 
 the one who keeps the gate to prevent anybody, knight 
 or squire, from coming in without the password. He 
 also takes care of the banner, the swords, and other 
 things. Who shall be our warder?" 
 
 "Let's vote," called out Sim; and, that being agree- 
 able, they were about to proceed to a ballot, when it 
 was discovered that there was not a marble in the com- 
 pany. The formal course of voting being off, the boys 
 began to shout, "Granger, Granger!" and on a show 
 of hands it was discovered that there were five votes 
 for the gang's leader. This being settled, Wilmot 
 said: "The watchword of the castle will be 'Obedi-
 
 THE SQUIRE'S DEGREE. 57 
 
 ence.' Nobody must pass in or out without giving 
 this word to the warder." 
 
 After this the boys went out, and, with Wilmot 
 acting as warder, each boy took his turn at entering, 
 to see if he knew the password and how to use it. By 
 the time the last one had returned the sun was sink- 
 ing low, and Wilmot said: "We must soon be going 
 homeward, but before we leave our castle we should 
 decide what we are to call ourselves. The noble 
 knights that used to fight for their king, when they 
 banded together, called themselves a league. Shall we 
 not call ourselves by the same name?" 
 
 "Partner," called out Granger, "this here used to be 
 a gang; but we're a-gwine to call her jest what you 
 want it called. Me an' Sim has been the bosses, an' 
 hit's all right with the other boys. If you says she's 
 a league, that's the way she goes she's a league." 
 
 And it was that way, and the gang of street Arabs 
 was transformed into the "Squires' League," every 
 member of which meant some day to become a knight. 
 Twilight was falling in the cave long before its time, 
 for through the parted tree branches and far down the 
 ferny hillsides one might see broad spaces of fading 
 sunshine and on the distant fields a suggestion of after- 
 glow. Standing up a moment in this temple light of 
 the cave, Wilmot said : "Now we are going down from 
 our meeting place with our own secret in our hearts. 
 We are to live true squires of obedience all this week. 
 The true squire speaks gently, like the knight he would 
 be. He speaks only pure words, and always only the 
 truth. He is not quick to be angry. He is honest. 
 He is courteous to the old and to the weak. He stud-
 
 58 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 ies every day to know the command of the King, that 
 he may keep it. He is cheerful and happy because 
 of his secret, and his secret no man knows. Shall we 
 not before we leave our castle ask the King who sees 
 us all the time to help us keep our vows to be squires 
 of obedience?" 
 
 A silence which meant the full consent of six young 
 hearts followed Wilmot's suggestion. A Presence un- 
 seen but felt filled the cave, and the leader was as- 
 sured that it was the King himself. 
 
 Down in the shadowy place knelt the seven. It was 
 almost the first time that Wilmot had ever heard his 
 own voice in prayer. It was an effort to do this; but 
 his ideal had led and driven him on. The sense of a 
 new dedication came upon him as he continued in 
 petition. He arose transfigured, and he and the six 
 who had been his companions descended from their 
 cave as those who had been apart in the hearing of 
 things unlawful to be uttered.
 
 V. 
 
 LITTLE KINKY. 
 
 THE ride of the gang from Applegate Wood to 
 Fountain Square was marked by conduct the most 
 decorous and genteel. The boys sat two in a seat, and 
 watched the changing scenery as the flying trolley 
 sped past the pleasant woodsides and the pretty cot- 
 tages in the country. 
 
 "It's the first time I ever seen the worl' look like 
 Sunday," remarked Granger to Sim as they surveyed 
 together the open fields and the grassy meadows above 
 which could be seen, a mile or so distant, the spires 
 of half a dozen churches. 
 
 "It makes a fellow feel like lookin' and lookin' and 
 sayin' nothin'," was Sim's significant response. 
 
 The two boys then lapsed into silence. The in- 
 finite, the immeasurable had swallowed them up. The 
 troglodyte in them was giving place to the children 
 of that sentiment from without and above which hu- 
 manizes and redeems from sense. The fern cave with 
 its doubtful inner voice was being superseded by the 
 sky vault with its light and its silences of sunset more 
 voiceful of the spirit of life than any sound or echo 
 that had ever visited their ears. 
 
 Glancing backward at his confederates, Wilmot de- 
 tected Kinky with his chin in his hands and his elbows 
 resting on the base of the car windows gazing raptur- 
 ously toward the sunset that glowed like the flame of 
 a consuming city. As he regarded the profile of the
 
 60 THE GANG OP SIX. 
 
 infantlike face the story of Raphael's cherubs came to 
 his mind. When the great master was painting his 
 picture of the Christ-child, he left the unfinished can- 
 vas upon the easel and went out for a stroll in the 
 park. Returning, he found that two Florentine street 
 urchins had climbed to the wide window of his studio 
 and, with chins in their hands and elbows rested upon 
 the window sill, were gazing upon the picture of the 
 Christ-child. Instantly seizing his pencil, the painter 
 set the faces of the gamins as cherubs among the 
 clouds that made a glory about the Christ-child. And 
 this is the token of Raphael's pencil even the faces 
 of the immortal cherubs. As the story related itself to 
 the scene before him, Wilmot exclaimed : "Would that 
 I had skill, then would I put on canvas the glory of 
 God in the sunset, and in that glory I would set the 
 worshipful face of this child of the street and the 
 garret !" 
 
 In spiritual things Wilmot was himself little more 
 than a child. Half an hour before this moment he 
 had uttered his first audible prayer. In the illumina- 
 tion coming with that petition he had seen for the 
 first time the possibilities of maturity in experience 
 and service. His bodily being had trembled in answer 
 to his own spirit, as a well-strung viol answers to the 
 master of its melodies. So is it ordained that the 
 clamor of one's own voice should arouse one's soul. Wil- 
 mot was sitting amid mysteries which his own voice 
 had awakened. Before this his religion had been little 
 more than a reverence for divine things. This rev- 
 erence took at last the more definite shape of a desire 
 to serve. But now a something indefinable, unutter-
 
 LITTLE KINKY. 61 
 
 able rose up within him. Beatitude was nigh. As 
 he gazed steadily at the parentless, homeless child with 
 face upturned toward the dying light, a hot, glad tear 
 distilled in each of his eyes, and then it was shown him 
 what the deep and sudden rising in him was in that 
 moment he loved the little waif with a 'love which he 
 felt must be akin to that which brought the Christ- 
 child to earth. The beatitude was come. 
 
 In the homeward-speeding car, the interior of which 
 grew every moment more shadowy with twilight, there 
 were fulfilling visions of which the crowd of boisterous 
 Sabbath revelers seated there could know nothing. 
 From his soulful abstractions Wilmot was awakened 
 by the click of an electric button which turned upon 
 the passengers a sudden blaze of light from the cluster 
 of incandescents above. He had scarcely recovered 
 his normal thought when the guard called: "All out 
 for Fountain Square!" And immediately forty or 
 fifty passengers struggled and crowded out through 
 the narrow trolley door into the brighter light shed 
 from a great arc lamp above the Fountain. 
 
 Once more before separating Wilmot got the mem- 
 bers of the newly formed League of Squires together. 
 A quiet nook at the base of the Fountain afforded the 
 necessary secrecy. There the leader put into the hand 
 of each boy a small white card on which was printed 
 in neat types the line "My Secret." Below this were 
 two Scripture texts, as follows: 
 
 Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. 
 Thy word have I hid in my heart. 
 
 On the reverse side of each card Wilmot had traced 
 with hjs fountain pen a small circle with the sig-
 
 6a THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 nificant black dot in the center. Below the circle ap- 
 peared in red the initial "W." These cards Wilmot 
 had prepared during the previous week to serve an 
 end which he had not dared to hope might be so soon 
 realized. What wonder, then, that he counted himself 
 as one who had walked by inspiration ! He offered no 
 explanation of the card, but left each boy to interpret 
 its message for himself. He relied, however, upon 
 the mystic circle and red monogram to do their work. 
 
 When the boys had separated, going singly and in 
 different directions, Wilmot followed Kinky, overtak- 
 ing him in the shadow of a tall building very near the 
 Fountain. "Kinky," he said, "I want you to dine with 
 me to-night." The little Arab looked up at his friend, 
 then at his little faded jacket, the sleeves of which 
 had shrunken until too short for even his undeveloped 
 arms. He was in a strait between desire and a sense 
 of unfitness. In his confusion his childish lips were 
 dumb. 
 
 "That's all right, Kinky," said the young man; 
 "we'll go to the Little Pearl Cafe and order a booth 
 all to ourselves. I want to have a nice long chat with 
 you; and friends, you know, can always get closer 
 together when their legs are under the same table 
 Come, Kinky; we'll have some roast turkey, some 
 salad, a plum pudding, and some chocolate ice and 
 cake." 
 
 Kinky's face lighted perceptibly at the suggestion 
 of the cafe and its menu, especially the plum pudding ; 
 and, giving his hand to Wilmot, he permitted himself 
 to be led away toward the Little Pearl. Many and 
 many a time in his eventful little life Kinky had
 
 LITTLE KINKY. 63 
 
 looked longingly through the high plate-glass windows 
 of the Little Pearl at the tempting stores of dressed 
 fowl, fish, fruits, and other delicacies to be served upon 
 its tables. At such a time he had wondered how great 
 a fortune it would require to buy a single dinner there. 
 He had never dared to venture inside that dazzling 
 place, but had often stood near the door selling news- 
 papers to the merchants and other business men who 
 went in and out in the evenings. Sometimes he had 
 got a whiff of the savory dishes, and had involuntarily 
 thrust his hands into his pockets, intending to take 
 every copper in them and offer the whole to the 
 cashier, whose register was near the door, for one slice 
 of roast fowl and a dish of plum pudding. But his 
 courage was not equal to such an adventure, and he 
 went away to order a sausage, an onion, and a slice 
 of bread from the counter of Dago Toney around the 
 corner. Now he was to go into the Little Pearl like 
 a banker or a railroad president and have his dinner 
 brought to him by a waiter who should bow and say: 
 "Your order, sir." He could not, however, help 
 thrusting his hand into his pocket to count w r hat he 
 had. It was his habit in going to the lunch counter. 
 There was the shilling which Wilmot had given him 
 in the cave, but that was a keepsake. There also were 
 two silver dimes left from the half dollar which Wil- 
 mot had slipped into his jacket pocket the Sunday be- 
 fore. He rubbed them between his fingers and thought 
 how but for that big, bright piece of silver he would 
 have been several times during the past week without 
 even his sausage and onion for lunch. 
 
 But now they were in the Little Pearl, and the heacj
 
 64 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 waiter was bowing and showing them a booth all 
 bright with mirrors and hung with the daintiest bits of 
 lace curtains. An electric lamp glowed under a pink 
 shade at the center of the table. Pretty salt and pep- 
 per stands, shell-like china, and dainty pearl-handled 
 knives, and silver on snowy white cloths made the 
 table look as if it had been dressed by the genii. There 
 were two chairs at the table. One of these the waiter 
 drew out for Mr. Wilmot, and then seated Kinky in 
 the other. When he had spread a white napkin over 
 the whole front of the faded jacket, the little heart 
 under the jacket beat more quietly. By the time din- 
 ner came on Kinky was feeling much at home, and 
 answered freely all the questions asked by his good, 
 new friend. The dinner only helped this freedom. 
 After soup came wide slices of turkey laid between 
 toasts of bread, with tarts of cranberries, buttered pars- 
 nips, and peas. Plum pudding followed, great sugar- 
 loaf heaps of it with sauce to be approved by the heart 
 of any boy that ever lived in hovel or palace. The 
 feast was leisurely finished with the promised choc- 
 olate ice and cake. After the waiter had shown Kinky 
 how to dip his fingers in the water bowl and had 
 brushed the crumbs from his lap, Wilmot looked at 
 his watch. It was nine o'clock ! Where had the time 
 gone? As he meditatively closed his watch he said: 
 "Kinky, I want to go home with you." 
 
 Kinky was now so much at ease that he could an- 
 swer without hesitation. His speech in answer to 
 the proposal of Wilmot was like that of a true gen- 
 tleman. "O, Mr. Wilmot," he said, "I ain't got no 
 home, sir, but a little cubby in the ole Blue Front
 
 LITTLE KINKY. 65 
 
 House. I uster stay up at the Newsboys' Barracks, 
 but they put a whole dozen of us boys in one big 
 hall; an' as I allus likes a place to myself, I went 
 up to the Blue Front; but 'tain't no place fer a gen- 
 tleman like you, Mr. Wilmot." 
 
 "Well," objected Wilmot, "we belong to the same 
 gang, you know; and as we are boys together, you 
 don't mind, do you?" 
 
 "No, sir," frankly answered the waif ; and thereupon 
 the two passed out of the Little Pearl into the open 
 street. 
 
 The old Blue Front was an ancient landmark of the 
 town. In the "forties" it had been a famous hostelry. 
 Local tradition told that under its roof had lodged 
 Andrew Jackson and at least one other President of 
 the L T nited States. But that was when the town was 
 little more than a village. Now the Blue Front was 
 a rookery a nest of squalor, poverty, and crooked 
 ways. It was pervaded from roof to cellar by mingled 
 smells of mold, gasoline, and cheap tobacco smoke. 
 Up, up a rickety stair to the third story of the Blue 
 Front Wilmot followed Kinky. Truly the chamber 
 they entered was no fit place for any human being. 
 A mere closet it was. dark, and ventilated by but one 
 small window, and that too high . up to be reached 
 except by an adult. The floor was bare and smeared 
 with grease and dirt. A low, hard couch, with scant 
 and soiled covering, served the child lodger for a bed. 
 There were on a rough, pine shelf, low enough for 
 Kinky's use, a small tin water pitcher and a tin hand 
 basin of the size of a cake pan. There were one rickety 
 chair and a ; small empty box, also meant for a seat, 
 
 5
 
 66 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 and besides these the room was bare. A few tattered 
 pieces of childish apparel depended from rusty nails 
 over the couch. 
 
 As the two entered the room Kinky struck a match 
 and lit a piece of candle in a battered tin stick and set 
 it upon the pine shelf by the tin basin. He then set 
 the chair out for Wilmot, and himself sat upon the 
 .empty box. 
 
 "Why did you leave the Barracks?" asked Wilmot 
 when they were seated. There was something in the 
 young man's voice which the newsboy interpreted to 
 mean that the reason given was not wholly satisfactory. 
 
 "Cause cause," said the boy, "there was too many 
 on us, sir, and the other boys teased me cause I was 
 little, an' I jest had ter leave er fight, sir." 
 
 "You don't like to fight, then ?" asked W T ilmot. 
 
 "No, sir, I don't," was the quick, frank answer ; "but 
 I don't let a bigger feller'n me impose on me cause 
 I'm little. So I thought I'd jest better get away, an' 
 that's the reason I come down here, sir." 
 
 "But it costs you more here," suggested Wilmot. 
 
 "Jest a little more, sir," returned the boy. "I had 
 to pay twenty-five cents (an' that's what you calls 
 a shillin') every week up to the Barracks, an' down here 
 I pays thirty cents fer this cubby. But th' ain't nobody 
 down here to fight, an' sometimes too I brings my sup- 
 per here an' eats it in peace." 
 
 "I see," said Wilmot, looking tenderly and longingly 
 at the child. "How much money do you make each 
 week?" he then asked. 
 
 "O, sometimes I makes a dollar and sometimes two. 
 Onst when the Fair was here I made five dollars, and
 
 .LITTLE KINKY. 67 
 
 put three dollars in the Savin's Bank, an' it's there 
 now;" and he proudly exhibited his book, soiled and 
 worn, and showing its single entry. 
 
 "Have you never been out of money since then?" 
 asked Wilmot, deeply interested in the embryo finan- 
 cier. 
 
 "Yes, sir," answered the boy ; "but then I don't take 
 no sandwich, 'cause I can't spend my money in the 
 bank; that's my capital, an' it's drawin' more money 
 all the time. Some day maybe it'll be enough to start 
 a news stand with." 
 
 Wilmot now looked with a still newer interest at the 
 child that had from the first drawn out his sympathy 
 and tender commiseration. What manner of life was 
 this that confronted him? Whence was this child 
 sprung? Of what blood was he? What future was 
 he to fulfill? 
 
 "Do you say your prayers every night, Kinky?" 
 Wilmot finally asked. 
 
 "Does you mean the same you was sayin' in the 
 cave this afternoon?" queried Kinky. 
 
 "Yes, that's what I mean, my little boy," said the 
 other tenderly. 
 
 "I never has done so," returned Kinky; "but I 
 thought prayers when I was lookin' out of the win- 
 dow on the car as we was comin' from the cave, an' 
 I was 'lowin I would try my han' to-night ; but I don't 
 know how to say it out, Mr. Wilmot." 
 
 "Do you know about Jesus?" asked Wilmot, con- 
 centrating the whole light of his soul on his unques- 
 tioning little host. 
 
 "Onst," returned the child, "I heard a lady up to
 
 68 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 the Mission Sunday School tellin' the kids about him; 
 an' then I heard a fellow on the street a-preachin' 
 about him a-dyin' for a lot o' folks. But ole Simon, 
 the peddler, says there ain't no Jesus nor no Christ 
 nor nothin', but jest one God a-livin' by hisself, an' 
 that he's so fer off an' so busy that he don't take no 
 trouble 'bout folks down here. But, Mr. Wilmot, 
 when I heard you a-talkin' this afternoon in the cave 
 about Jesus the King, an' when you made all us kids 
 squires for him, I believed it all in spite of ole Simon ; 
 an' I'm jest as sure as I'm settin' on this box here that 
 I heard the King say to me in the cave, 'That's right, 
 Kinky;' but it was inside o' me, an' I couldn't tell 
 nobody about it. But I meant to tell the King to- 
 night afore I went to sleep ; for I'm sure he can under- 
 stand me, even if I don't have no good words to say." 
 
 At this confession Wilmot was beyond the power of 
 utterance in his own words, but he said in the words 
 of the Book: "Surely 'the wind bloweth where it 
 listeth ;' 'Except ye be converted and become as a little 
 child.' " At length, feeling that he might venture on 
 his own words, Wilmot asked: "Kinky, what were 
 you going to say to the King? What would you like 
 to say to him ?" 
 
 "I don't know, sir; but I s'posed I might do as I 
 did at the car window in the sunset jest think it out 
 to myself. I couldn't think o' no other way. But, 
 Mr. Wilmot, there's one thing I must tell the King 
 about, an' I must say that out in words, cause I want 
 him to know it true." 
 
 "And what is that. Kinky ?" asked Wilmot, whelmed 
 in a deeper wonder than before.
 
 LITTLE KINKY. 69 
 
 "Onst I told a lie, Mr. Wilmot, an' more'n onst, 
 an' done a lot o' things," confessed Kinky in unaffect- 
 ed sincerity; "an' that's what I want to tell the King 
 about, an' I want to promise never, never to tell an- 
 other lie an' never to do no bad things, cause a squire 
 oughtn't to, ought he, Mr. Wilmot ?" 
 
 "O, Kinky, my little partner!" cried Wilmot as he 
 drew the frowzy head against his breast, "the King 
 has heard you already, thou greatest in the kingdom 
 of God!" 
 
 For an hour and more afterwards, and until Kinky's 
 candle burned into the socket of the battered tin candle- 
 stick, two heads remained close together in its light; 
 and Wilmot, from the small black-bound volume which 
 he had used in the cave, read and reread in the story of 
 the Christ-child and the King until at the end Kinky 
 said: "I think now, Mr. Wilmot, I can talk to the 
 King." 
 
 Down on their knees by the low, soiled couch the 
 two kneeled ; and after Wilmot had led the way, Kinky 
 said: "O Jesus, I won't believe ole Simon any more; 
 but I believe like Mr. Wilmot I believe in the King. 
 
 Jesus, don't let me tell a lie again, nor fight, nor 
 do nothin' wrong. I'm sorry I did so onst. But now 
 
 1 want to be a true squire and obey, an' so's I can be 
 like the King. An' it's little Kinky, Lord, for Jesus's 
 sake. Amen." 
 
 The candle was now burned to the last fiber of its 
 wick, and was about to expire when Kinky said : 
 "When I opens the window, the big 'lectric light at 
 the corner makes it nearly's bright as day in here." 
 
 "I'll open it for you," said Wilmot, rising; and sure
 
 70 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 enough through the small square space the big arc 
 blaze looked in with a cheerful brightness. A long 
 time the two sat in the white glare that turned the 
 dingy floor and the smeared walls into dancing dia- 
 mond dust: 
 
 Wilmot looked at his watch. It was far past mid- 
 night! The strong young man of the law had been 
 lost in an ecstasy of self-effacement. He had con- 
 descended to the lowly; and he was now suddenly 
 settled in a purpose to complete that condescension. 
 His heart encompassed the child which he had fol- 
 lowed into this nest of squalor and sin. What mar- 
 vel that Kinky was not a little mass of moral putridity ! 
 He was not wholly uncontaminated, but there were 
 left moral health and hope and beauty strange, fasci- 
 nating beauty. Wilmot vowed in his heart that the 
 child should never pass another night alone in that 
 Blue Front Sodom. Turning about, he said: "Kinky, 
 I'm going to spend the night with you, if you'll in- 
 vite me." 
 
 Kinky stammered again, hesitated, and, looking 
 toward the dirty couch, said: "It ain't no nice bed 
 much, Mr. Wilmot ; but you sleep in it, an' I'll put my 
 jacket under my head an' sleep on the floor." 
 
 "O no," objected Wilmot ; "your bed will do for us 
 both, Kinky. We're boys together, you know. I'm 
 going to spend the night with you to-night, and you'll 
 spend to-morrow night with me. You see we fellows 
 must mix up if we are going to ride together for the 
 King." 
 
 Smilingly Kinky submitted to Wilmot's plan, and, 
 laying off his jacket and slipping out of his shoes, he
 
 -LITTLE KINKY. 71 
 
 rolled over to the back of his hard and comfortless 
 bed. Little did he dream that he should never again 
 after this night feel its hardness or dream again in the 
 ill-smelling little chamber. Wilmot, moving more 
 leisurely, wound his watch, laid off his coat, and, re- 
 moving his shoes, laid himself down beside his little 
 host. In the briefest time Kinky was asleep. A Sab- 
 bath night's stillness was on the city. Wilmot heard 
 the low throbbing of the electric power house engine 
 a block away and occasionally the "hitch," "hitch" 
 of the carbon points in the arc lamp at the corner. 
 There was peace in his heart, and soon, with his 
 cheek resting upon his palm and thinking of Him who, 
 though he was rich in kingly glory, yet for love of us 
 pillowed his head in poverty, the dark-haired, hand- 
 some young man slept the sleep of boyhood. 
 
 When the shadows of the next night fell, Wilmot 
 and Kinky sat together again in the glow of the same 
 light, but their surroundings were far different. The 
 scene was Wilmot' s large and comfortably furnished 
 apartment on the second floor of his father's spacious 
 suburban home. Kinky wore a neat blue sailor suit. 
 The rolling collar of his sailor shirt was secured at 
 the throat by a soft blue necktie, with a white silk 
 anchor worked at each end. His dark curls were 
 brushed back from his forehead, and Kinky looked 
 happy. He was turning the pages of a big picture 
 book for boys and reading as best he could the stories 
 therein. Sometimes he turned to ask a question of 
 Wilmot, who was otherwise deeply absorbed in the 
 contents of a book whose leaves appeared to be but 
 freshly cut.
 
 72 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 In an alcove of the large chamber was Wilmot's 
 bed and dressing room, beyond which was his bath. 
 In another corner, cut off by pretty Japanese screens, 
 was a low white couch, soft and inviting, which had 
 been only that day put in. It was to be Kinky's very 
 own, and for all time, for the big Wilmot mansion 
 was now become Kinky's home instead of the ill- 
 smelling little chamber in the old Blue Front rookery. 
 
 While the two sat reading by the bright table lamp 
 Harry Wilmot's mother came in and kissed him ten- 
 derly to say good night. Stooping low, she kissed 
 Kinky also, saying: "I must kiss my boy's partner; 
 some day I hope to be proud of him. Bless the dear 
 curly head !" And this was how Kinky found a home. 
 
 The next day when Wilmot's office on the third 
 floor of the tall Applegate Building was opened Kinky 
 was installed in the front chamber as the silent junior 
 partner. His present duty _ was to keep the office right, 
 announce callers, and go on errands. And who could 
 better do this last than Kinky, the ex-newsboy, who 
 knew the town as he knew the inside of his own hat? 
 When not on one of these duties, Kinky sat on a high 
 chair before a high desk and studied a lesson which 
 Mr. Wilmot had given him. In this manner he spent 
 his first week as a squire. 
 
 It was one evening of this week and late as late as 
 ten o'clock that Wilmot sat at a small table in front 
 of old Simon, the peddler, in his little tunnel-like shop 
 under the viaduct, and where were piled up heaps of 
 shoddy clothing, crates of cheap hats, haberdashery, 
 and notions, and from which place the peddler radi- 
 ated over the city. The conversation, which had been
 
 m LITTLE KINKY. 73 
 
 a searching one on Wilmot's part, lulled a little. A 
 determined look was on the young man's face, seeing 
 which old Simon said: "I dond't thingk thadt you 
 haf right to make Gristian of thadt boy, Meester 
 Weelmot; hees fadder vass a Chew." 
 
 "But tell me who his father was," insisted Wilmot. 
 
 "Veil, I dond't thingk thadt I tell. He vass a Chew 
 all righdt," defiantly persisted Simon. 
 
 "And was his mother a Jewess ?" asked the other. 
 
 "No, I thingk thadt I tell you she vass not Jewess. 
 She vass Gristian. Vat you callt dem Dago beeples ?" 
 queried Simon. 
 
 "Italians," suggested Wilmot. 
 
 "Ya, Eetallyans thadt vass de vort; but she vass 
 not some of dem Dago beeples. Her fadder vass baint- 
 er; he baints dem golors on vat you call de ganvas. 
 An arteest, you know." 
 
 "So," said Wilmot meditatively, a vision of sunset 
 and of canvases with the Christ-child and cherubs upon 
 them coming to him. "What was his mother's name ?" 
 insisted Wilmot after another pause. 
 
 "Veil," returned Simon with a shrug characteristic 
 of the manner of his race, "I dond't know I dond't 
 thingk I tell. Her fadder vass great bainter, but he 
 vass diedt early of hees daughter's life I dond't 
 know." 
 
 Seeing that it was vain to pursue the matter farther, 
 Wilmot arose, saying: "Well, at least the child's 
 mother was a Christian, and so is Kinky, and shall re- 
 main so;" and with that he left old Simon to his re- 
 flections.
 
 VI. 
 A YEAR AND A DAY. 
 
 SUNDAY afternoon had come again, and in its mild 
 glow the League of Squires, with its leader, entered 
 the inviting shadows of Applegate Wood. Wilmot, 
 with Kinky by his side, as usual, led the way in the 
 upward path toward the Castle of Arms. Kinky's 
 new sailor suit and cap, with his new tan shoes, 
 brought him up to a favorable comparison with Sim 
 Phillips, the chevalier of the former gang. There 
 was no remark made by any of the boys on Kinky's 
 changed fortune, except of congratulation to him and 
 of admiration for Wilmot. As for Kinky, he was the 
 same trustful but shrinking child. His life hitherto 
 had grown too thoroughly in the shadows of adversity 
 to know anything of human vanity and pride. 
 
 When the Squires arrived in sight of their Castle 
 of Arms, they perceived that notable changes had 
 taken place there during the previous week. Four 
 stout cedar posts carried a strong wire fence to the 
 entire height of the cave's mouth, while in the center 
 of the fence was set an iron gate secured by a steel lock 
 which gave a most mysterious look to the place. A 
 short stair of oaken boards led up to the gate. The 
 boys paused a moment, mystified and dumb, as they 
 read the sign above the gate: "Castle of Arms Pri- 
 vate." 
 
 "It's our very own," said Wilmot ; "it's our castle to 
 defend against all comers. Nobody except a member
 
 A YEAR AND A DAY. 75 
 
 of the League can ever see inside it without our in- 
 vitation." 
 
 The old gang shout broke from the lips of the six 
 boys as they realized what their leader had done to 
 fulfill his pledge to provide them a meeting place. 
 
 "Partner, you're a good un," declared Granger in 
 tones unusually enthusiastic; and again the boys re- 
 newed their demonstration. 
 
 Taking from his pocket the large brass key to the 
 Castle, Wilmot said: 'The other Squires will remain 
 here until Granger and I go into the Castle and make 
 ready to receive you. When you hear Granger give 
 a blast upon the warder's bugle, you shall come up, 
 one behind the other, Sim leading the way. At the 
 gate you must each give the Squire's password." 
 
 With that the five boys designated dropped into 
 their favorite positions on the hillside, and Wilmot 
 and Granger proceeded up the way into the mighty 
 hold of the Castle of Arms. Putting the key into the 
 lock, Wilmot showed Granger how to turn it and push 
 back the steel bolt. The gate was then opened and 
 the two entered. On the inside, Wilmot handed the 
 key to Granger, saying: "Worthy Squire and brave 
 warder of the Castle of Arms, I commit to you the 
 key to this our strong Castle, whose gate is never to 
 open except to worthy Squires of the League and such 
 noble Knights as they may hereafter become or such 
 as they may invite to come within." After saying this, 
 he stepped into the cave; and bringing out a small 
 silver bugle, or hunter's horn, he handed it also to 
 Granger, saying : "This, brave warder, is the tongue of 
 our Castle. It will call the Squires to duty and to
 
 76 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 fellowship. Every Squire shall be instructed to re- 
 pair without delay to the Castle gate at the call of this 
 trumpet. Who will not answer this tongue of the 
 Castle shall not ride with us on the King's business. 
 Summon the Squires, brave warder of the Castle." 
 
 Granger smiled triumphantly as he put the bugle 
 to his mouth and blew a few discordant but echo- 
 making notes. The silvery discords rang through the 
 trees and down the slopes. The answer was the meas- 
 ured tramp of five pairs of feet up the narrow oaken 
 stair. One by one, beginning with Sim, the boys en- 
 tered, each one whispering the password to the warder. 
 After that the gate was locked, the bugle slung by its 
 long red cord over Granger's shoulder, and the key 
 left to dangle at his girdle. As the Squires entered 
 the cave, led by Wilmot, a sight as pleasing and more 
 mysterious, if possible, met their eyes. The interior 
 had been transformed in a simple but effective way. 
 A long and somewhat narrow table of well-planed 
 boards had been set up in the very midst of the cave, 
 and about it had been set a number of movable seats 
 made of the branches of willows and young oaks. On 
 the table, in brass sticks high and mysterious-looking, 
 burned three or four candles to help the uncertain 
 light of the cave. Against the wall near by was a 
 wide, rough board closet, itself provided with a lock, 
 and all over it written mystery and surprise. It was 
 not easy for the boys to curb their enthusiasm amid 
 these surroundings; but after carefully surveying the 
 whole and asking many questions, they became quiet 
 enough to be directed by Wilmot to stand in line and 
 await the first ceremonial of the Squires' meeting.
 
 A YEAR AND A DAY. 77 
 
 This done, Wilmot took a small key from his pocket 
 and unlocked the mysterious closet. What a stirring 
 sight the boys saw inside that closet! Against the 
 back wall of it on two iron hooks rested a real sword 
 in a brass-tipped scabbard. Across the sword passed 
 the staff of a pretty blue banner on which was wrought 
 a white Maltese cross. At each side were hung blue 
 silk sashes on each of which was wrought in white 
 silk the outlines of an open book. Taking down six 
 of these sashes, Wilmot hung one athwart the shoulder 
 of each boy, saying as he did so: "This is the badge 
 of a Squire of the League. The open book upon 
 the badge is the Bible, the Word of the King which 
 every Squire has taken a vow to obey. This badge 
 you will wear when in our Castle of Arms; but out- 
 side in the world, as everywhere else, you must wear 
 the unseen badge of a Squire in your heart." 
 
 Wilmot then took down the sword and the banner. 
 The sword he laid upon the table where the candles 
 were burning, but the banner he gave to Sim Phillips 
 and showed him how to set its staff up by the table 
 so that it might droop above the heads of the Squires 
 when they sat down. This having been done, Wilmot 
 caused the Squires to sit on one side and at each end 
 of the table, Granger at the right end and Sim at 
 the left, but himself sat at the opposite side, so as to 
 face the company. When they were all seated, he 
 said: "We shall always sit this way when the League 
 meets to talk, to read, and to hear stories of knights 
 and noble deeds. This is our 'Round Table,' just as 
 the great King Arthur and his knights had theirs in 
 the palace of the King at Camelot. Some day too we
 
 78 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 shall talk about the tab!e of our Great King and of 
 those who sit with him about it ; but now we go about 
 to learn obedience." 
 
 As Wilmot finished this speech he cast his eyes along 
 the rank of his youthful Squires. The sight was thrill- 
 ing to his quiet, eager soul. The pretty blue sashes, 
 the bright young faces, the drooping banner above, 
 and the boyish earnestness with which all was accepted 
 seemed a voice speaking approval of his zealous wish. 
 He could not realize that this was the lawless gang 
 of gamins that he had encountered on the public street 
 only three Sabbaths before. But such is the open and 
 easy way into the heart of boyhood that its affection 
 and loyalty may be won by the wise and gentle teach- 
 er in a day. If one should write the most impossible 
 "Pilgrim's Progress" and compass the journey to the 
 Delectable Mountains in a single day, it would at once 
 become believable if only the pilgrim of the way were 
 found to be a child. Does there not appear in this the 
 meaning of that too little believed injunction of lips 
 divine : "Except ye be converted and become as a little 
 child?" But access to the fujl blessedness and per- 
 fection of the kingdom is not of art even with the 
 young and the innocent. "A year and a day" a life- 
 time, indeed must faith ride toward the goal of a 
 perfect obedience. For the youthful Squires who sat 
 about the rustic table in the Castle of Arms the way 
 of obedience was to be opened stage by stage, and 
 that in a fellowship which appealed to every better 
 impulse and which entered through every avenue of 
 the boyish heart. 
 
 "At the Round Table," began Wilmot after they
 
 A YEAR AND A DAY. 79 
 
 had had some moments of silence, "each one may speak 
 or ask a question of the others, but only one may speak 
 at a time. First, however, we should either read or 
 have told a short story, about which we may then talk 
 or ask questions. Shall we read or have a story ?" 
 
 ''Read !" cried several of the boys in concert, remem- 
 bering the story of the boy Samuel which they had 
 had on the previous Sabbath. 
 
 "Since we are to read," said Wilmot, "I will select 
 an old true story showing how happiness and honor 
 come through obedience and how dishonor and death 
 come through disobedience." 
 
 He then took the Book from his pocket and read 
 as follows : " 'Now there was a man of Benjamin, 
 whose name was Kish. . . . And he had a son, 
 whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a 
 goodly: and there was not among the children of 
 Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders 
 and upward he was higher than any of the people. 
 And the asses of Kish Saul's father were lost. And 
 Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the serv- 
 ants with thee, and arise, go seek the asses. And he 
 passed through Mount Ephraim, and passed through 
 the land of Shalisha, but they found them not. ' . . . 
 And when they were come to the land of Zuph, Saul 
 said to his servant that was with him, Come, and 
 let us return; lest my father leave caring for the 
 asses, and take thought for us. And he said unto 
 him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of 
 God, and he is an honorable man; all that he saith 
 cometh surely to pass: now let us go thither; perad- 
 venture he can show us our way that we should go.
 
 So THE GANG OF. SIX. 
 
 . . . Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear 
 a day before Saul came, saying, To-morrow about 
 this time I will send thee a man out of the land of 
 Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain 
 over my people Israel. . . . Then Samuel took 
 a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed 
 him, and said, Is it not because the Lord hath 
 anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? 
 . . . And it was so, that when he had turned his 
 back to go from Samuel, God gave him another 
 heart. . . . And Saul also went home to Gib- 
 eah ; and there went with him a band of men, whose 
 hearts God had touched. . . . And . . . Saul 
 put the people in three companies ; and they came into 
 the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew 
 the Ammonites until the heat of the day : and it came 
 to pass, that they which remained were scattered, so 
 that two of them were not left together. . . . 
 And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they 
 made Saul king; . . . and there Saul and all the 
 men of Israel rejoiced greatly.' " 
 
 "This," said Wilmot slowly when he had finished 
 the reading, "is the good story of Saul when he obeyed 
 the commandment of God his King; but there is a 
 sad and evil story of him when he was disobedient. 
 This story you will now hear: 'And when Saul saw 
 the hosts of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his 
 heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of 
 the Lord, the Lord answered him not. . . . Then 
 said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that 
 hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire 
 of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is
 
 A Y.EAR AND A DAY. Si 
 
 a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor. And 
 Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and 
 he went, and two men with him, and they came to the 
 woman by night; and he said, I pray thee, divine unto 
 me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom 
 I shall name unto thee. . . . Then said the wom- 
 an, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, 
 Bring me up Samuel. /And when the woman saw 
 Samuel, she cried with a loud voice. . . . And 
 the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out 
 of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is 
 he of ? And she said, An old man cometh up. . . . 
 And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped 
 with his face to the ground, and bowed himself. . . . 
 Then said amuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of 
 me, seeing the Lord hath departed from thee, and is 
 become thine enemy? . . . Because thou obeyedst 
 not the voice of the Lord, . . . the Lord will also 
 deliver Israel with thee into the hands of the Philis- 
 tines: and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with 
 me. . . . Now the Philistines fought against Is- 
 rael : and the men of Israel fled from before the Phil- 
 istines, and fell down slain in mount Gilboa. . . . 
 And the battle went sore against Saul, and the archers 
 hit him; and he was sore wounded of the archers. 
 . . . Therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon 
 it. ... So Saul died, and his three sons, and his 
 armor-bearer, and all his men, that same day togeth- 
 er.' " 
 
 When all the reading was over and there was an- 
 other short silence, Sim, rising at the left, said; "Mr, 
 6
 
 82 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 Wilmot, I've tried powerful to be a good Squire all 
 the week, but I've had poor luck doin' it." 
 
 "What has been the trouble, Sim?" asked Wilmot 
 kindly. 
 
 "Well, mostly, sir, it's been the temptation to say 
 bad and ugly words; an' one day a boy put a chip 
 on his shoulder an' dared me to knock it off, an' 'fore 
 I thought I was into him an' give him a lickin'. He'd 
 oughter been licked too, but I think a Squire hadn't 
 oughter fight only the King's enemies an' not other 
 boys, don't you, Mr. Wilmot?" 
 
 "I'm sure that's right, Sim," answered Wilmot; 
 "and if you will try again and ask the King to help 
 you, you will come out far better the next time." 
 
 "I mean to do it," returned Sim earnestly. 
 
 The next response came from an unexpected quar- 
 ter. It was Jimmy Glenn, the widow's son, who 
 spoke. "I think I could 'a' done pretty well bein' a 
 Squire, Mr. Wilmot, but I've been a-tellin' my mother 
 a long time what ain't true, sir, an' I couldn't quite 
 keep from doin' it again; but I told mother about my 
 bein' made a Squire an' about havin' a secret, an' now 
 mother an' me is askin' the King together to help me 
 to keep from tellin' lies, an' mother says he will do it." 
 
 There was a deepened sense of interest and serious- 
 ness in the faces of the boys as the sallow-faced lad 
 told his story. A choking came into Wilmot's throat, 
 but he said comfortingly: "You are a brave lad, Jim- 
 my. The boy that trusts his mother and prays with 
 her will not often go wrong. The King will help 
 you, I know." 
 
 "I wasn't awfully sure about the voice I heard last
 
 A YEAR AND A DAY. 83 
 
 Sunday in the cave, Mr. Wilmot," said Tommy Biles, 
 the next to speak; "but I've been a-hearin' it almost 
 ever since. It wouldn't let me have no rest for a 
 long time." 
 
 "What did the voice seem to say, Tommy?" asked 
 the leader with unconcealed interest. 
 
 "Why, it kept a-tellin' me, or seemed to be, that I 
 must quit suckin' cigarettes. An' I couldn't get no 
 rest till I promised to quit; an' then I didn't quit, an' 
 it kept on comin' back; then I quit sure enough. I 
 quit last Thursday, an' I don't never 'spect to suck 
 another, cause I think a Squire hadn't oughter." 
 
 "That is a noble resolve, Tommy," said Wilmot; 
 "for it not only means obedience to your vow as a 
 Squire, but it means salvation to your body. No boy 
 who smokes cigarettes can, if he continues, be either 
 a healthy, a wise, or a clean man. Cigarettes destroy 
 thousands and thousands of boys every year. I won- 
 der if any of the other Squires ever learned to smoke 
 cigarettes ?" 
 
 To Wilmot's no great astonishment every hand 
 about the table went up. Remembering that in his 
 boyhood he had had the same struggle described by 
 Tommy Biles, Wilmot raised his hand also, and said: 
 "A long while ago I was also led astray by cigarettes ; 
 but I quit, and will never go that evil way again." 
 
 "That's me," cried Granger. "I'm quittin' right 
 now, en' fer good ;" and the ex-gang leader stood up 
 in a determined way. 
 
 "So'm I," chirped out Mack Pooley earnestly, but 
 in his usually diffident tones. 
 
 "An' so'm I," "An' so'm I," spoke up Sim Phillips
 
 84 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 and Jimmy Glenn in quick succession; and so all the 
 boys except Kinky were committed. 
 
 With an inquisitive look, Wilmot fixed his eye on 
 the face of his favorite and said: "And what about 
 Kinky?" 
 
 "O," answered the child, "I told the King about it 
 the night we was in the oT Blue Front. I quit then." 
 
 Triumphant Kinky! His first vision of the King 
 made him a child of the kingdom. He had purified 
 both his lips and heart in believing. 
 
 "It is good to make a noble resolve," said Wilmot, 
 looking slowly around the circle at the table; "it is 
 more than noble to keep it. Our League, our vow, 
 our Castle, and our Round Table are meant to help 
 us to do noble things. We are to help one another. 
 It is good to take a pledge together. Let us keep our 
 pledge. But to do it we must watch. The tempter 
 will come every day. In Arthur's palace there were 
 statues that showed beasts overcoming men ; there 
 were also statues showing men overcoming beasts; 
 then there were statues showing men in armor with 
 swords in their hands; and, above all, there were 
 statues showing men with wings starting from their 
 shoulders and with flames of fire on their brows. 
 These were to show how men must fight to overcome 
 evil, and after overcoming how they must continue 
 to use the sword of truth to win the highest glory. 
 I shall read you now one more story, and it shall be 
 about a mighty man who did valiantly and overcame." 
 Saying which, Wilmot opened the Book and read : 
 " 'And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a 
 valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts,
 
 A YEAR AND A DAY. 85 
 
 he slew two lionlike men of Moab: he went down also 
 and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow/ 
 This is the story of the mighty man," continued Wilmot. 
 "The lionlike men and the lion are the evil thoughts, 
 the evil companionships, and the temptations that lead 
 us astray. If the Squires will all be valiant, they can 
 slay all the lions they meet in the way; they can even 
 go down into the pit and meet the lion there. The 
 true Squire can overcome in everything. The King 
 will help him." 
 
 The candles had burned within an inch of the sockets 
 of their high metal sticks and the shadows were falling 
 long and dim on the hillside without when the little 
 company about the table arose and, following Wilmot 
 sentence by sentence, said together "Our Father which 
 art in heaven" to the end. At the gate Granger blew 
 again the hunter's bugle, and the Squires, led by Wil- 
 mot, filed out. Granger then hung the bugle up in 
 its place, locked the closet containing the sword, ban- 
 ner, and sashes, and put the key in a secret place. 
 He then locked the Castle gate and dropped the big 
 brass key, with its brass chain, into his trousers pocket. 
 Thereupon the Squires and leader left their Castle of 
 Arms to the goodly silence of the hills. 
 
 There was no little quiet animation and confidential 
 talk amongst the "cavemen," as they now began to call 
 themselves, during the trolley ride back to Fountain 
 Square. Once alighted at the Square, Wilmot treated 
 the boys to another surprise. It was only three days 
 from that Sabbath afternoon until the "Fourth." This 
 holiday was the occasion for one of Wilmot's plans for 
 tying his Squires on more completely to his leadership.
 
 86 TH GANG OF SIX. 
 
 Into the hand of each boy, including Kinky, who knew 
 no more of the "plan" than the others, he thrust a 
 card on one side of which were beautifully printed with 
 a fountain pen the following words : 
 
 From five to nine P.M. 
 
 Wednesday, July 4, on 
 The Wilmot Lawn, 1400 Grand Avenue, 
 
 A SQUIRES' RECEPTION. 
 Open-air gymnasium, luncheon, 
 
 magic lantern, and fireworks. 
 You ARE CORDIALLY INVITED PRESENT THIS CARD. 
 
 On the reverse side of the card was the mystic "bull's 
 eye" traced in black, and underneath in red the cabal- 
 istic "W." Instead of the "tiger" with which the boys 
 a fortnight before would have hailed this invitation, 
 led by Sim, they plucked off their caps and shook Wil- 
 mot's hand most cordially in acceptance of his invita- 
 tion. There is a gentleman to be found in every boy, 
 if only he be taken before his finer substance is trans- 
 muted into the ignoble. 
 
 The Wilmot lawn, with its protecting wall, its thick, 
 dark elms and oaks, and its smooth, fragrant sod, 
 became by the space of four hours on that high holiday 
 a paradise to six boys, and not less so to one dark- 
 haired, handsome-faced young man. From the bal- 
 cony of the great house which overlooked it other 
 and older eyes watched the scene. A flying trapeze, 
 a punch bag, swings, and hurdle stakes completed the 
 outdoor gymnasium ; while a table of generous length 
 and width, over which hung numerous paper lanterns, 
 red, white, and blue, showed where the luncheon was 
 to appear later. In a dark corner at one end of the
 
 A YEAR AND A DAY. 87 
 
 long veranda the very corner in which Harry Wilmot 
 had heard his call was stretched a square of white 
 canvas, on which the magic lantern was to cast its 
 weird and amusing lights. For two hours the shouts 
 and calls of rollicking boyhood echoed under the trees 
 and about the wide grounds. When the shadows be- 
 gan to deepen, two white-aproned waiters came and 
 laid a cloth upon the table, lit the lanterns, and began 
 to spread the luncheon. Ruddy and hungry from their 
 vaulting, swinging, and bag-punching, the boys, each 
 with a napkin across his bosom, fell to the feast; and 
 what with salads and fruits and ices and sweets to 
 please a boy's palate, the assault was worthy the zest 
 of the League of Squires. When the repast was over, 
 a long time they sat, like true knights, at board while 
 they and their leader exchanged such speech as be- 
 came their order. 
 
 "That boy is a profound mystery to me," said Colo- 
 nel Wilmot as he and his wife surveyed from the 
 veranda the table scene beneath the softly glowing 
 lamps. "He is lost in unselfishness. He could go 
 to Congress if he would, but he chooses this instead. 
 There must be something, even much, in it; but I 
 don't understand it." 
 
 But the mother said: "Father, our boy but walks 
 in the way in which the Master walked. We shall 
 see one day how wise he is." 
 
 "I believe in our boy, mother," was the only reply 
 which the successful rich man of the world could 
 make; for he was beginning to see how much he had 
 lived for himself and how seldom he had thought of 
 others, especially of the little ones of the kingdom.
 
 88 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 That night his eyes saw a vision; that night also he 
 laid himself down to dream in a new purpose of life. 
 
 While the branches and crowns of the great trees 
 flashed to the explosion of rockets and mimic cannon, 
 Wilmot heard the louder roar and rabblement of the 
 street, and silently gave thanks that those whom he 
 had made his own were safe from the temptations that 
 beset the unbridled freedom without. In an im- 
 promptu chorus he and his Squires sang, "My country, 
 'tis of thee," and at nine o'clock five boys were seen 
 aboard the big avenue trolley car in front of the Wil- 
 mot mansion and started homeward, with Wilmot and 
 Kinky waving a good night. 
 
 Sabbath after Sabbath the afternoon bugle blew at 
 the gate of the Castle of Arms, and the Squires filed 
 in to sit at their Round Table and hear and talk with 
 their leader. Many a confession of fault and failure 
 and many a pledge and taste of higher things marked 
 their communion together as they sat under their Mal- 
 tese banner clothed with the insignia of Squires. Many, 
 too, were the holy and the brave words which were 
 read and spoken to them by their leader, and ever 
 more and more he drew their hearts toward him in 
 loyalty and love. 
 
 Autumn came and lifted its red banners a little while 
 over the hill slopes in Applegate Wood, and to the 
 dropping of nuts the Squires kept their fellowship 
 and had their converse; but when winter grew frosty 
 and made the winds too chill to be braved, they met 
 in a little chamber behind Wilmot's offices in the Apple- 
 gate Building, where there was the cheer of a red-hot
 
 4 YEAR AND A DAY. 89 
 
 stove and the glow of two big gas jets. Strange 
 things were happening in the lives of the other Squires 
 besides Kinky, who was now regularly at school. 
 Granger was industriously taking the course at the 
 night school, and was slowly conquering the intricacies 
 of English grammar. Jimmy Glenn's mother had 
 been visited by Wilmot, and Jimmy also had been pro- 
 vided for in the night school, his employer having been 
 persuaded to agree to his detention only up to the law- 
 ful hour of six o'clock in the evening. Perhaps Wil- 
 mot's greater service in the interest of his Squirehood 
 was to secure from the State Assembly a statute on 
 child labor, which benefited thousands of children in 
 the State, and which particularly put Mac Pooley, the 
 overworked child of the cotton mill, into the public 
 school and his father into the sizing room and finally 
 into a foremanship, where he easily earned a decent 
 support for his family. As for Sim Phillips and 
 Tommy Biles, the notable changes in their cases were 
 better work at school, growing gentlemanly habits, 
 and an improved life at home. This resulted in visits 
 from the parents of each to the 'young attorney at his 
 office to express gratitude for something a secret 
 undiscoverable in the lives of their sons which was 
 not only transforming them but was reacting upon 
 the homes of which they had before been the chief 
 concern. 
 
 Steadily and quietly Wilmot kept his course, work- 
 ing always toward his ideal which was most definitely 
 set before him. So the months passed, and it was 
 summer again. The fields under the nodding groves 
 of Applegate Wood were ripening, and the growing
 
 9<3 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 city was thrusting its ever-extending hands a little 
 nearer toward the ferny hill slopes. A year and a 
 day had passed, and the bugle was blowing at the 
 gate of the Castle of Arms, and the Squires were pass- 
 ing in to take their vows and be made Knights of the 
 King.
 
 VII. 
 THE KNIGHT'S DEGREE. 
 
 IT was an afternoon in June, not an afternoon of 
 the Sabbath, but of a day in midweek. The full leaf- 
 age of summer was swinging its shadows across the 
 gateway of the Castle of Arms in the most romantic 
 Applegate Wood. Five members of the League of 
 Squires were making a huge heap of dry tree branches 
 in an open space a rod away from the Castle gate. 
 They were also improvising several rustic seats about 
 in which they might sit and watch the bonfire when 
 the dry mass should be given to the flame. They were 
 already fancying to themselves what an illumination 
 they should see there amongst the trees and cliffs when 
 the darkness was deep and still. 
 
 "She'll be a glory when the flames shoot up," sug- 
 gested Sim Phillips as he sat fanning himself after 
 the exertion of helping to create the wooden pyramid. 
 
 "That's what," returned Tommy Biles, measuring 
 the heap with his eyes. 
 
 "It'll be like a house a-fire," ventured Jimmy Glenn, 
 his fancy becoming active with the rest. 
 
 "Let's put a dry chestnut log on top," eagerly pro- 
 posed Mac Pooley; "it'll pop like a thousand muskets 
 when the fire reaches it." 
 
 "Agreed!" cried the other four boys, including 
 Kinky; and together they set off to inspect the fallen 
 trees of the adjacent wood. They had not been out 
 long when they came upon the thing they sought, a
 
 92 THE GANG OP SIX. 
 
 chestnut butt, hard as flint and hoary from having 
 long suffered the rain and the sun. It proved a load 
 to move, but by dint of effort they at last had it at 
 the heap and then squarely upon the top. 
 
 "It'll take Mr. Wilmot and Granger by surprise 
 when it begins to bombard," said Sim in elation. 
 
 "Won't it, though?" answered Mac, pleased at the 
 thought of his own ingenuity in suggesting the plan. 
 
 The other boys chuckled with satisfaction at what 
 they fancied would take place when the bonfire was 
 on. They would have cheered a little, but they re- 
 membered that Wilmot and Granger were inside the 
 Castle making ready for a high ceremonial that was 
 soon to take place there. This ceremonial was only 
 half a secret to the boys without; but, although they 
 so nearly knew what was on hand, they yet looked 
 forward with keenest interest to the developments of 
 the evening. For six months they had not been once 
 inside the Castle. Its gate had been locked, and silence 
 had kept both it and the woods and cliffs about. But, 
 although they had been so long absent from it, it had 
 lost nothing of its meaning to the members of the 
 League of Squires. It was always to them the high 
 place of mystery and sanctity, and it was now to be- 
 come additionally mysterious and sacred. Lingering 
 about their wood and in their Castle until the twilight 
 deepened into night, the League of Squires, with a 
 ceremony befitting, were to become the League of 
 Knights. Departing their Castle thereafter, they were 
 to light their watch fire, and in the deep wood were 
 to hold their last council before going forth to fight in 
 the King's wars.
 
 THE KNIGHT'S DEGREE. 93 
 
 tt 
 
 The city quarters of the Squires had been made a 
 high place too. The two chambers behind Wilmot's 
 office had been fitted up with reference to their needs. 
 The rear room was devoted to their secret meetings. 
 There was a rug on the floor, some pictures on the 
 walls, the needed number of chairs, a long table 
 just as in the cave and also the closet against the wall. 
 To this closet had been transported, in a most secret 
 way, the contents of the closet in the cave; but to- 
 night, and in an equally mysterious way, these contents 
 were back in their old place in the Castle of Arms. 
 The front chamber boasted a rug also, pictures, a 
 settle, some easy-chairs, a fair-sized bookcase full of 
 books for boys (new books and the best to be had), 
 and a table loaded with pictures and boys' magazines 
 and papers. It was a boy's literary paradise, and yet 
 each time the Squires had met there they thought of 
 the wood and the cave. They sniffed in fancy the 
 woodland airs, and thought of how they had kept their 
 secrets in the place where the robbers used to hide. It 
 was a boy's fondness, and natural, this love of wild 
 places and the interior of caves and dark haunts. They 
 were again to see the inside of their mighty hold; 
 were again to sit about the "round table" where they 
 had been made Squires of the King and where awaited 
 them that else which they did not altogether compre- 
 hend. They did not have long to wait; for scarcely 
 had they dropped into the rustic seats, their faces 
 aglow from the effort of heaving up the chestnut butt, 
 than they heard the Castle's "tongue" calling them to 
 the gate. 
 
 Granger had become expert in blowing the ware}-
 
 94 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 er's horn. He had largely divided his time between 
 that instrument and the study of grammar, and had 
 made a nearly equal progress in both directions. In 
 fact, it began to be plain that Granger had parts, for 
 he found the flute as easy a conquest as the horn. By 
 reason of this last accomplishment he was becoming 
 the minstrel of the League, and many an evening of 
 the former "gang" was passed in listening to the soft 
 notes which he blew from the hollow of his flute. 
 Now he put the horn to his lips, and the leafy silence 
 of Applegate Wood and the cliffs about, dusky in 
 deepening twilight, answered in rhythmic, dulcet 
 echoes, "dying, dying, dying." 
 
 Up the rude stair with dignified and measured steps 
 went the five Squires who a few moments before had 
 been but rollicking boys. What they saw as they en- 
 tered the hall of their Castle did not astonish, but it 
 pleased them none the less. The cave had become a 
 banquet chamber, graced with such a feast as became 
 the time and place. The state table had been cov- 
 ered with a bright damask cloth, candles burned bright- 
 ly in high brass sticks, and in old pewter stands were 
 displayed the fruits of June. On a platter of the same 
 metal were plentiful slices of cold meats, while a wood- 
 en trencher was piled high with loaves of brown bread 
 thinly sliced to the clinging crust which held them in 
 apparent wholeness. A flavor of cut limes pervaded 
 the place, and a glance at the center of the table 
 showed a huge bowl filled with frappe on the surface 
 of which floated thin and tempting slices of the afore- 
 said limes. The banquet was no more in kind than a 
 cottager might spread upon his board; but under this
 
 THE KNIGHT'S DEGREE. 95 
 
 roof of nature, amid the glow of these mysterious 
 lights and with these feudal-day surroundings, it 
 seemed the spread of some grim baron to his retainers. 
 Whence had it come? Not even Granger had seen it 
 placed, for when he and Wilmot entered the board 
 was already spread and the candles burning. When 
 this became known to the other Squires, there was 
 wonder with many quiet conjectures. Wilmot had 
 gone out with the "gang." He could not therefore 
 have done it, reasoned the boys. Did the cave really 
 have its genii, and were they under the control of this 
 lover of boys? Did he have power to call back old 
 days and command feasts like this from unseen hands ? 
 Something like this perhaps something even more 
 vague the boys asked themselves, but waited for a 
 further answer. 
 
 When the Squires were all gathered about the table 
 in the manner before described that is, with Granger 
 at the end on the right, Sim at the opposite end, and 
 the other four at the side fronting him Wilmot, still 
 standing, said : "Worthy Squires, it is now a year and a 
 a day since we first sat together about this 'round 
 table/ It was then that you became Squires of the 
 King, vowing the vow of obedience. In seeking to 
 learn the King's will you have met many temptations, 
 and have not always overcome. But the King is kind, 
 and will make you strong if you earnestly try to keep 
 his words. To-night in our good Castle of Arms you 
 are to be made Knights of the King." With that he 
 turned, opened the closet door, and displayed to the 
 gaze of the Squires a sight that moved them to quiet 
 applause. There hung their six blue silk sashes with
 
 96 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 the open book in white silk wrought upon each, the 
 sign of a Squire; but above the book now appeared, 
 also in white silk, the outline of a sword, the sign of 
 a Knight. These sashes Wilmot took down in the 
 old order and, beginning with Granger and Sim, placed 
 one over the shoulder of each boy, saying: "To the 
 sign of a Squire you have added the sign of a Knight. 
 I greet you as a Knight of the King. And now let 
 us take meat, for we are to ride a long journey in the 
 service of the King." 
 
 The Squires being all seated, Wilmot rapped loudly 
 upon the table, when out of the darkness of the farther 
 cave came two dusky figures, white-aproned and armed 
 with platters. Their white serving suits gave them 
 for a moment a ghostly aspect; but they were quickly 
 recognized as domestics of the Wilmot home, and so 
 the mystery of the troglodyte feast was explained. 
 These domestics had been sent to the Castle by Wilmot 
 in the earlier hours of the afternoon. They carried 
 each a capacious hamper from the depths of which the 
 service and the viands had been produced. In per- 
 fect silence they served the new-made Knights, thus 
 deepening the mystery of the hour. Wilmot led and 
 directed the discourse, but it was confined to simple 
 narratives of hope and truth and duty. It especially 
 turned upon the promises made to those who from 
 orphanhood, poverty, or ignorance had climbed up- 
 ward to seats of service and nobleness. The Squires 
 listened long and gladly, the simple viands were par- 
 taken of heartily, the cup of blameless cheer was 
 pledged, and so the high feast was ended. Then si- 
 lently as before those dusky ministrants cleared the
 
 THE. KNIGHT'S DEGREE. 97 
 
 board, and, putting service and fragments of the feast 
 into the two hampers, they folded the cloths into the 
 same and, passing out through the gate, which Granger 
 opened, descended the oaken stairway and disappeared 
 in the darkness. 
 
 When order again obtained in the Castle and Gran- 
 ger had returned to his seat at the table, Wilmot 
 arose and, opening the other section of the closet 
 against the wall, the newly made Knights saw what 
 was more than ever pleasing to them. In the closet 
 they not only beheld their Maltese banner and the 
 heavy sword which they had been accustomed to see 
 on the table before them at their councils, but they saw 
 beside them six small swords light and slender ones, 
 but real blades of steel. The banner Wilmot gave to 
 Granger to fix as usual over the board, the great sword 
 he laid in its accustomed place on the table, but the 
 lighter swords he girded one upon each of the new- 
 made Knights, saying to each as he did so: "Sir 
 Knight, arise, and in the name of the King do val- 
 iantly." Then a long time he showed the young 
 Knights how to use their swords, how to fence and 
 parry the blows of their opponents, and how to be 
 merciful to an enemy when he was fallen. It was 
 a great time for the boys, and each one felt himself a 
 true Knight and set to be a "Christ helper" and a 
 righter of the wrongs of the world. The dusky cave 
 roof echoed to the clinking sounds of their slender 
 blades and to their footfalls as they marched round 
 and round in their Castle of Arms. 
 
 "Now," said Wilmot when their lights were again 
 burning low and they were seated at the "round table" 
 7
 
 98 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 for a last talk together, "we will now hear the high 
 words which tell us what Knights of the King should 
 be." Thus saying, he read slowly and impressively 
 these lines: 
 
 My Knights are sworn to vows 
 Of utter hardihood, utter gentleness, 
 And loving, utter faithfulness in love, 
 And uttermost obedience to the King. 
 
 "So were pledged the Knights who served and fought 
 for an earthly king," said Wilmot, "and this is read 
 from a book which is but an earthly song. But for 
 the true word to guide us in the service of the great 
 King Christ we must search the King's own Book." 
 
 There was reverent attention as Wilmot turned the 
 pages of his Bible and, finding the place he had pre- 
 viously marked, read as follows : " 'The night is far 
 spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off 
 the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of 
 light ;' 'For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, 
 but mighty through God to the putting down of 
 strongholds ;' 'Wherefore take unto you the whole ar- 
 mor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the 
 evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand there- 
 fore, having your loins girt about with truth, and hav- 
 ing on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet 
 shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 
 above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye 
 shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 
 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the 
 Spirit, which is the word of God ;' 'Watch ye, stand 
 fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.' " 
 
 Having finished the reading, Wilmot placed the
 
 THE KNIGHT'S DEGREE. 99 
 
 Book open upon the table and, laying the sword across 
 the Book, said: "Here are now two swords one the 
 sword of man, the other the sword of God's Spirit. 
 These two you have wrought on your sashes. The 
 sword of steel is given you to remind you of the spir- 
 itual sword. When you were Squires only, you had 
 no sword of steel, you were then learning to obey the 
 King; now that you have learned what it is to obey, 
 you have the sword to show you that you must fight 
 against evil. When you have temptations, you must 
 use your sword on the tempter. If you are tempted 
 to evil thoughts, remember what the King's word is: 
 'Let the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy 
 sight.' If the temptation is to indulge evil and sinful 
 words, give the tempter this edge of the Sword: 'Let 
 no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. 
 . . . Neither filthiness nor foolish talking.' And 
 how many edges has that sword and how always ready 
 it is to our use!" concluded Wilmot as he earnestly 
 regarded the young Knights before him. After a 
 little space of silence, he said: "It is now only for us 
 to say a last word. Are all the Knights ready to take 
 the Knight's vow?" At that all the boys arose and 
 lifted their hands in token, whereupon Wilmot said, 
 and they repeated after him, these words: "I vow to 
 be a true Knight and soldier of my Lord and King the 
 Christ. I will be obedient, by his help, to keep his 
 word, will serve and help in his cause, and will seek 
 always to think only his thoughts and speak as will 
 please him. I ask for a pure heart and for clean 
 hands and lips." 
 
 For no little while the whole company stood silently
 
 ioo THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 and thought on their vow, then at a word they were 
 all seated and Wilmot said : "We have now come to the 
 place where we must begin to help others. A year 
 and more we have lived together as Squires and broth- 
 ers ; now we are Knights and must be 'Christ helpers.' 
 Each Knight of you must now choose from amongst 
 his friends a boy to become his Squire that is, a 
 Squire in his place for every Knight must have a 
 Squire whom he can teach and train in noble thoughts 
 and words that he also may become a Knight. There 
 will then be twelve of you six Knights and six 
 Squires and that is the perfect number. There were 
 twelve disciples of the Christ who is our King, and 
 King Arthur had twelve great Knights and fought 
 twelve great battles. Does it please our Knights to 
 choose them each a Squire to take part with us in 
 the League?" 
 
 The response to this proposition was most enthu- 
 siastic, a hearty roll of "aye, ayes" echoing through the 
 cave. 
 
 "We will make new Squires at our Sunday after- 
 noon meeting in our Chapter room in the city," said 
 Wilmot, amid ' the exuberant demonstration of his 
 Knights. 
 
 "And I know already who'll be my Squire," spoke 
 up Granger in earnest tones. 
 
 "And I," "And I," said another and another; and 
 so they all said and rejoiced with inward satisfaction at 
 the prospect of bringing others into their fellowship. 
 In the spirit of this joy they took leave of their Castle 
 of Arms and descended to the fragrant groves below, 
 where, kindling their camp fire, they saw the giant
 
 THE KNIGHT'S DEGREE. 101 
 
 trees and the towering cliffs stand out in the resplen- 
 dence of its glow. While Granger blew the flute to 
 familiar airs they sang, following the lead of Wilmot, 
 the songs which they had learned in the year and a 
 day of their close and faithful association. The forest 
 reaches and the hollow cliffs answered the notes, and 
 the stars far off in the blue seemed to twinkle in a 
 concert of praise. With a roar of flame and emitting 
 huge columns of upward-flying sparks, the wooden 
 pyramid sank in its own ashes, carrying downward the 
 cap log of chestnut. As the fresh flames took hold 
 upon it the expected bombardment began, and to the 
 salvos of the exploding trunk the Knights and their 
 leader wended their way downward through the wood- 
 land, whose shadows still answered to the risings and 
 fallings of the expiring watch fire.
 
 VIII. 
 THE PERFECT NUMBER. 
 
 THE day following the Knight-making and the bon- 
 fire-kindling at the Castle of Arms brought to Wilmot 
 two interesting communications, one of them bristling 
 with mystery. The first came to hand at the break- 
 fast table, at which, being late, he found under his 
 plate a check for two hundred dollars signed by his 
 father and accompanied by a brief note which read: 
 "This is for your boys. God bless you." That was 
 Colonel Wilmot's way. He was not easily moved; 
 but when moved, he evidenced it in no doubtful man- 
 ner. This was not the first check Harry had had from 
 his father during his "year and a day" of "making 
 men," but it was the largest, many times over. In 
 some way the elder Wilmot had got into the secret 
 of the previous night's doings and of the proposal to 
 double the number of the former clan. He had also 
 occasionally peeped into the Chapter rooms of the 
 League of Squires behind his son's offices in the tall 
 Applegate Building. Like the human thermometer 
 he was, his interest had risen, degree after degree, as 
 he in proportion became inclosed by the argument of 
 what he saw and felt. He was a watchful, business- 
 like old gentleman, one who carefully studied things 
 and then determined their value. He had followed 
 Harry's work with "his boys," but had felt at the 
 beginning that it was wholly chimerical such, in fact, 
 as only a dreamer like Harry Wilmot would under-
 
 THE PERFECT NUMBER. 103 
 
 take. When Kinky had been brought into the home, 
 he only half consented, and that through the influence 
 of Harry's mother ; but by the end of a week he had 
 been taken by Kinky, to whom at last his heart turned 
 in a constant stream of doting and affection. When 
 he came to know about the transitions equally marked 
 in the lives of the other boys, he gave his first financial 
 token of committal to the idea. In time this token 
 was repeated advertently but quietly. Even now he 
 allowed his real interest in the matter to be fully pen- 
 erated by nobody, not even his wife. But could one 
 have read his thoughts in connection therewith, the 
 revelation had been one to please and instruct exceed- 
 ingly. They went this way as he walked briskly that 
 morning from the breakfast table toward his office, 
 "I might easily now set aside a hundred thousand with- 
 out injury to my business yes, even a hundred and 
 fifty thousand! That would start the scheme well; it 
 would buy the farm and the wood, and erect such a 
 building for school purposes as would be at first need- 
 ed. Then in my final will I could provide for the 
 remainder. I can at best count on no more than ten 
 years remaining to me of my life. Such a boys' school 
 as I have a vision of has not been heard of before. It 
 would make men true men, honorable and successful 
 out of what is now the merest waste and leakage of 
 society, the boys that grow up only to make drones 
 and criminals. I'll do it! but I must wait to see a 
 little further into what Harry is doing. I believe in 
 Harry. Blessed boy! you don't know what you have 
 done to save your old father's heart from utter selfish- 
 ness;" and, wiping a glad tear or two from his eyes,
 
 104 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 the gray-haired capitalist walked on down the wide 
 avenue toward the city. 
 
 Colonel Wilmot was a great walker. He boasted 
 that he had kept himself young and healthy through 
 this form of exercise. He scouted cabs and trolley 
 cars, except in weather too foul for walking. Once or 
 twice in his walk cityward this morning he paused and 
 looked far away, regarding the prospect of the hills. 
 He was thinking of Applegate Wood and of wide fields 
 and rolling grass meadows in the foreground; and as 
 he thought fancy was building tall, gray stone dormi- 
 tories and a high and castellated hall between in the 
 lap of the wood where the sod was green under the 
 shadows of great oaks and elms. Prophecy and His- 
 tory were walking or standing arm in arm with the 
 man of doubloons, abetting in that bright June morn- 
 ing his dream of nobleness and urging him to a de- 
 cision. 
 
 Meantime Harry Wilmot, having hastily finished 
 his breakfast and finding himself late beyond his wont, 
 boarded a trolley which chanced to be passing just as 
 he emerged from the lawn gate. Two-thirds of the 
 way to the city the trolley passed the elder Wilmot pur- 
 suing his thoughtful journey. The son waved a to- 
 ken and kissed his hand to the sire, who returned the 
 greeting affectionately and smiled with satisfaction. 
 
 Ten minutes later Harry Wilmot sat at his office 
 table reading the morning mail. Coming across a 
 foreign-looking envelope addressed in a pronouncedly 
 foreign hand, he held it up, exclaiming, "Umph ! 
 What can this mean? It's a woman's hand too, as 
 I believe. It's from a distance off also Tittsburg
 
 THE PERFECT NUMBER. 105 
 
 Pittsburg,' " he read, closely scrutinizing the post- 
 mark. " Tittsburg !' I've no client there, I'm sure." 
 Tearing open the seal, he read : 
 
 Mr. Attorney Wilmot: I learn that you have adopted an 
 orphan boy who was recently at large upon the streets of your 
 city and who was known by the name of "Kinky." I take it 
 that you would like to know something of the parentage of 
 this child, and that you would especially like to learn of a 
 valuable secret in connection with his orphanhood. I as- 
 sume that the word "valuable" can have but one meaning to 
 both you and me. If you are willing to engage and bind your- 
 self legally to pay liberally for information leading to the dis- 
 covery of this secret, you may address me at the above-named 
 city through the general delivery. 
 
 Respectfully, HILDA JABLONSKI. 
 
 P. S. Correspondence is useless except on the basis of a 
 contract. H. J. 
 
 "So!" exclaimed Wilmot to himself as he laid the 
 letter down upon the table. "Here's another evidence 
 that there is a deep mystery connected with Kinky. I 
 have long suspected that; so have others hereabouts; 
 but this letter is some sort of a fraud ; it would not sur- 
 prise me to discover that it was written in this very 
 building. There is a fine Levitic hand in the cham- 
 bers immediately below these that might well have 
 done it. There are two indications that a woman 
 might have done it the writing is in a femininelike 
 hand, and it carries a postscript. But there is one con- 
 vincing evidence that a woman did not write it, and 
 that is that it was written by a man. It is a clever piece 
 of blackmail ; but I shall have a use for it later. I shall 
 have another interview with old Simon one of these 
 days ;" and with that he laid the letter away in a secret 
 place.
 
 io6 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 The Sunday afternoon meeting of the League of 
 Knights was a great occasion. In the front, or read- 
 ing, room of their Chapter Wilmot greeted twelve 
 boys his six Knights and the six others whom they 
 had selected to be their respective Squires. Wilmot 
 was not wholly unacquainted with these proposed new 
 members of the League; but a regular introduction 
 was planned, and an inquiry was instituted into the 
 case of each boy as a preliminary of his reception into 
 membership. When they were all seated, Wilmot 
 said : "When I first became acquainted with the mem- 
 bers of this League, it was in the street, and you 
 were all introduced by Granger; now we have these 
 beautiful chambers to which to welcome new mem- 
 bers, and besides we have our strong Castle of Arms, 
 of which they may learn later. Instead of having 
 Granger introduce those who are now to become mem- 
 bers with us, I shall ask each Knight to present his 
 own Squire, and let us begin with Granger and go 
 down according to the age of each Knight !" 
 
 If one doubts the probability of the advance and 
 improvement credited to the members of this former 
 "gang" as the result of "a year and a day" of training 
 and leadership by a consecrated man, let him try kind- 
 ness, industry, and the Galilean spirit on a company 
 of susceptible boys, and his skepticism will completely 
 disappear. In all this company none had better illus- 
 trated Wilmot's ideas of the possible than Granger, 
 the awkward, ignorant, half-ruffian leader of "The 
 Gang of Six." The evangel of gentleness and per- 
 suasion had come to him at the opportune moment; 
 a year even a six month later had likely been too
 
 THE PERFECT NUMBER. 107 
 
 late. Mercy is a great keeper of time. When Wil- 
 mot had called for the introduction of candidates, 
 Granger arose at one side of the room and stood for a 
 moment. He had grown full two inches in stature dur- 
 ing the year, and was now considerably past fourteen. 
 The latent gentleman in him had come out marvelous- 
 ly. His speech had changed from the vernacular of 
 the street to that of the thoughtful, studious youthhood 
 of the better classes. The night school and the Castle 
 of Arms had wrought magically. He was neatly, if 
 plainly, dressed, and stood erect like a soldier. Tak- 
 ing by the arm a pleasant- faced, blue-eyed lad of twelve 
 years, one evidently, like himself, from the lower walks, 
 he approached to where his benefactor sat, and said: 
 "Mr. Wilmot, this is my friend, Willie Wages, who 
 works with me at the printing office. His father is a 
 foreman in the bindery. Willie wants to be a Squire. 
 He knows about the King, and says his prayers every 
 night. He will promise to obey in all things, and will 
 keep the King's commandment." 
 
 Wilmot arose and took the lad by the hand. It is 
 written in the Book .concerning the King that when he 
 was in the world he saw a young man and loved him ; 
 but that one loved not the King's Word as he should. 
 When Wilmot had looked into the open face and clear 
 eyes of the child presented to him, a strong impulse 
 moved him to lay his hand on the bright young head 
 with words of a special benediction. "Here," he 
 thought, "is a choice one indeed; here is one sent us 
 specially of the King." But who can forecast the years 
 and make hope and prayer a defense against chance 
 of evil and of fate? The gem of rarest promise turns
 
 io8 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 to dust or breaks into fragments on the wheel of the 
 lapidary; the seed sown in the most propitious moon 
 and watched with most constant care often suffers 
 blight and mildew and comes to naught before the eyes 
 of the husbandmen. It is not given to mortals to 
 know. 
 
 Holding still the hand of the first boy presented, 
 Wilmot received the others in a group, each Knight 
 presenting the Squire for whom he was sponsor. 
 
 "This is my cousin, Freddie Holmes," said Sim 
 Phillips as he presented a boy near his own age and 
 much of his favor. "He wants to be a Squire, and 
 will obey the King," added Sim. 
 
 "And this is my neighbor, Robert Mooney ; he wants 
 to be a Squire," said Tommy Biles as he introduced 
 a boy of nine, whose ruddy face and broad tones told 
 that he was of Irish parentage. "His folks goes to 
 the Catholic Church," explained Tommy; "but they 
 don't object to him being a member of our League, and 
 Robert he wants the worst sort to be a Squire." 
 
 "We welcome you, Robert," said Wilmot in greet- 
 ing, and then stood the abashed and trembling lad in 
 the circle of the other applicants. 
 
 In his usually timid way Jimmy Glenn, the widow's 
 son, brought forward the boy for whom he was to be 
 sponsor, a thin-faced child, with light, scant hair, like 
 himself. "His name's Pete," said Jimmy in introduc- 
 tion "Pete Singler; he's just come from the country, 
 where I used to live. I want him to be a Squire so 
 he won't be tempted to do wrong as I was when I first 
 come to the city." 
 
 Wilmot cast a most approving look on the most
 
 THE PERFECT NUMBER. 109 
 
 timid of his Knights in recognition of this speech, and 
 received cordially the Squire to be. And now came 
 Mack Pooley, the boy to whom, next to Kinky, the 
 League had perhaps been the greatest blessing, having 
 saved him from the slavery and martyrdom of the cot- 
 ton mill and put him in the way of education and train- 
 ing for life. 
 
 "This is Joseph Pontos, who used to work with me 
 in the mill," said Mack as he presented a distinct type 
 of Greek boy and one very near his own age. "Joe's 
 folks used to go to the Greek Church in New York, 
 so he says ; but they don't have any Church here, and 
 Joe wants to be my Squire, so they let him come." 
 
 " 'Every kindred and tongue and people,' " repeated 
 Wilmot as he received the Greek boy into the circle of 
 the others. "May this prove to be another Timothy !" 
 he added as he laid his hand on the child's head. 
 
 The last of the Knights to appear was Kinky. His 
 choice of Squires had certainly been no secret to Wil- 
 mot. Together they had talked it over, and for many 
 reasons the choice was approved by Wilmot. That 
 choice was none other than the nine-year-old son of 
 old Simon, the peddler. In his newsboy days Kinky 
 and little Moses Simon had been playmates as, with 
 unsold papers or shoe brush lacking a customer, the or- 
 phan loitered before old Simon's door. There was a 
 whisper too about the streets that Kinky, when little 
 more than an infant, had been thrust, like a callow 
 bird, out of old Simon's nest behind his shop and left 
 to shift for himself. This whisper had led Wilmot to 
 seek the interview with old Simon which was recorded 
 in a. former chapter, Kinky himself felt some unde-
 
 no THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 fined affinity for the Simon nest; and this, with his 
 fondness for little Moses, determined him in the selec- 
 tion of a Squire. 
 
 Arrayed in their blue sashes and with their swords 
 girded, Knight fashion, upon them, the six Knights 
 received their Squires in the secret Chapter room ; and 
 there the Squires took the vow of obedience, receiv- 
 ing each also the blue sash with the token of a Squire 
 wrought upon it. Sitting down then with the twelve 
 about the "round table," Wilmot told again the story 
 of the "Shepherd Squire" and read from the King's 
 Book as before. A golden sunset was sifting through 
 the windows when the circle about the table had fin- 
 ished its talk and council together. "We are now the 
 perfect number of twelve," said Wilmot when they 
 arose; "we must strive not only to be Knights and 
 Squires, but in all things we must aim also to be disci- 
 ples of the King. That is the best degree and the 
 highest." Saying which, he took from the table twelve 
 prettily bound New Testaments and gave one to each 
 boy. "This," he continued, "is the King's Word ; look 
 into it every day, and you will know the King's will. 
 The King will help you." 
 
 During the week that followed the making of new 
 Squires a new room was added to the two which the 
 League occupied back of Wilmot's offices. This was 
 to be the gymnasium and the fencing room of the 
 Knights. When it was filled up with trapezes, lifts, 
 swings, clubs, a bowling alley, and a bath like a small 
 swimming pool, it became a joy indeed. Every after- 
 noon when they had a leisure hour the boys, Squires 
 and Knights, came up to try their muscles or take a dip.
 
 THE PERFECT NUMBER. in 
 
 As time went by Wilmot permitted them to issue in- 
 vitations to their friends to use their gymnasium. 
 Also they had once each week a chapel service in their 
 reading room to which they invited as many boys as 
 they had room to seat. Thus it was that the League 
 became widely known amongst the younger boys of 
 the city, and scores of them, enticed by the beautiful 
 library, the gymnasium, and the bath, came to visit 
 them and attended the service which Wilmot, assisted 
 by the Knights, held once in the week. This consisted 
 of songs, accompanied by Granger on the flute, a 
 prayer, and a reading from the "Word of the King," 
 and often a short talk or story; but generally it was 
 only a reading by each of the Knights in turn out of 
 his New Testament. When there was a secret meet- 
 ing of the League, the Knights and the Squires met 
 first together. After that meeting was over, the 
 Squires retired and Wilmot and the six Knights had a 
 "round table" together, and then they separated. 
 
 After almost another year had passed, Wilmot said 
 to the Knights as they sat together in secret council: 
 "We now have with us a good many boys who would 
 like to join our League. These we can make Squires 
 prospective that is, those who are waiting to be made 
 Squires and when our six Squires are made Knights, 
 then we shall let these that are waiting take the vow. 
 We will then be twenty-four in all. You can read in 
 the New Testament how there were 'four and twenty 
 elders.' " 
 
 This plan pleased the Knights, and so twelve boys 
 were found who desired to join the League as Squires 
 prospective. The blue sash was given to each of
 
 H2 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 these, and they attended with the other Squires, only 
 they could not be present, as the other Squires could 
 not, at the ''round table." 
 
 Thus the days and the weeks went by. The hands 
 and heart of Harry Wilmot were filled with the details 
 of his self-selected work, and he was fulfilling his 
 course with joy. As yet his work was a secret ex- 
 cept in his own home and in the homes from which had 
 come his strangely assorted company of "men in the 
 making." He was too modest to speak of it himself, 
 and so the story had gotten but little abroad. Colonel 
 Wilmot, alone of those outside, had realized the value 
 and potency of it, and he was a man whose reticence 
 had become a proverb. The pastor of the great Gothic 
 Church, with its thousand members, at which the Wil- 
 mots were attendants, had heard of it incidentally ; 
 but he treated it as of small moment, as only one of 
 many fads, which fanciful and empirical religious 
 workers are given to following. Harry Wilmot had 
 entered the Church of his parents early in life, and was 
 known to his pastor as a religious young man, but one 
 not demonstrative or desirous of special responsibility. 
 He had never asked to be given any Church work to 
 do. The pastor had often noted the serious, respon- 
 sive face of the young attorney as he sat beside his 
 mother in the pew ; but he attributed the manifestation 
 to the studentlike qualities of his hearer. Thus mat- 
 ters stood as the second year of Wilmot's unique enter- 
 prise drew toward its close. But a great change was 
 near at hand both for himself and "the children God 
 had given him." 
 
 In the meantime the homes of the new Squires had
 
 TH PERFECT NUMBER. 113 
 
 been visited by Wilmot. These visitations had re- 
 sulted in interesting and, in some cases, most unex- 
 pected revelations. One had been sad and had brought 
 concern to Wilmot's mind. Visiting the father of Wil- 
 lie Wages, the bright and promising above all the 
 Knights and Squires of the League, he found a cynical, 
 unbelieving man, a patron of the cheap books at the 
 race course, and an evening frequenter of near-by 
 beer shops. He showed little interest in the hopeful 
 departure of his son, remarking as the sum of his views 
 and feelings: "Every tub must stand on its own bot- 
 tom. I have no religion myself; I take a drink when 
 I like; I do about as I please in other matters. My 
 son may follow my example or not, as he may wish." 
 
 "It's a hard road for my Squire," sighed Wilmot as 
 he walked away; and his reflections were the sadder 
 as he had already reason to fear that young Wages's 
 habits were not wholly up to his pledge. In this he 
 was in the confidence of Granger. 
 
 At the home of Robert Mooney, the Irish Squire, 
 Wilmot found both the father and mother present 
 when he called after hours. "Coom in, Meester Wil- 
 mut," said the elder Mooney when he knew who his 
 caller was "coom in; me woif and me has been a- 
 talkin' mooch of yoursilf from heerin' it of the lad. 
 It's a foin business, that o' yourn, sir a foin business ; 
 yez 'ave got the lads, hearrut an' sowl. It's a foin 
 business." And John Mooney rubbed his hands to- 
 gether in token of his pleasure. He was a machinist 
 by trade, and his home gave some certain token of 
 being above the dead level of so large a portion of the 
 laborers of his race. Presently Mrs. Mooney appeared
 
 H4 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 and joined in an interview highly satisfactory to the 
 visitor and the visited. "It's Catholics we be, sir," 
 she said as Wilmot was departing ; "but we're not say- 
 in' there mayn't be good in others. We want the best 
 to coom to our Robert ; an', seein' he wants to be goin' 
 to the Protestant Church, it's nayther his father nor 
 me nor the priest as will be preventin' him." 
 
 At the home of the Greek boy, Joseph Pontos, Wil- 
 mot met nearly the same answer. "Sure all right 
 good," said the father of Joseph. "Dere iss no Grik 
 Church in dese ceety he shall go to Protestant Church 
 you take him all right good." And the elder 
 Pontos turned to wait on a customer, for he was the 
 proprietor of a small confectionery store on a prin- 
 cipal street, and his living apartments were somewhere 
 amongst the labyrinths of walls and corridors that lay 
 behind his shop. 
 
 In turn and in like manner Wilmot visited the homes 
 of each of the other new boys that is, all except that 
 of old Simon, the peddler. Simon forestalled that 
 visit by making one to Wilmot in his office. "What 
 is it, Simon?" asked Wilmot when his visitor was 
 seated. 
 
 "You an' dat Kinkee 'ave stole de heart of my leetle 
 Moses thadt boy he want to go to de Gristian Church. 
 I have swear he shall not go; but hees mamma, she 
 say he shall go, an' so eet ees;" and Simon shrugged 
 his shoulders significantly. 
 
 "Well, how is it to be?" asked Wilmot, a little puz- 
 zled by both Simon's air and answer. 
 
 "How ees eet?" asked Simon half in exclamation. 
 "Eet ees thadt way. I am Alsace Chew, an' my wife,
 
 THE- PERFECT NUMBER. 115 
 
 she is American Chewess so you see. Moses will go 
 to Gristian Church. Thadt ees all." 
 
 "Maybe you will come yourself some day, Simon," 
 suggested Wilmot. 
 
 "No, I thingk thadt I will not no, sure I will not. 
 Thadt Moses, he is proud of hees secret of de Squires; 
 he will not tell anythingk what he know. I like thadt 
 Squire beesness but I thingk I will not go to Gristian 
 Church no, sure," and with that Simon bowed him- 
 self out. 
 
 "Patience," murmured Wilmot to himself when he 
 was alone. "I see the end; there is a mystery in 
 Kinky's life it is a good mystery too and I shall 
 know it by and by." 
 
 The next Sunday morning Wilmot accompanied by 
 twelve boys, all plainly but neatly dressed, entered the 
 big Gothic church and sat in a pew together. This 
 went on from Sabbath to Sabbath. The eyes of the 
 pastor, Dr. Chadborne, began to open. He soon had 
 a proposition to make the young attorney.
 
 IX. 
 THE DISCIPLE'S DEGREE. 
 
 ANOTHER year had passed, and the Castle of Arms 
 had again welcomed the high fellowship of its Knight- 
 ly lords. The State table had been spread, the candles 
 had glowed in the semidarkness until the twilight faded 
 into night. The six Squires had been made Knights 
 with their fellows, and so about the board sat the per- 
 fect number of twelve with their leader. Outside also 
 over the char of the former bonfire had been raised 
 another heap of logs and fagots ready to blaze forth 
 in the watch fire of the League of Twelve. 
 
 As Wilmot contemplated the completed circle of his 
 Knights, besashed and besworded, under the blue ban- 
 ner of their order, he experienced a feeling of deepest 
 satisfaction. What wonders had been wrought in two 
 years! Several of the boys were growing tall and 
 were beginning to take on something in face and fea- 
 ture which prophesied an early-maturing manhood. 
 Especially was this true of Granger, Sim Phillips, and 
 Willie Wages, Granger's friend. Several of the oth- 
 ers were developing a vigorous youthhood. Abstinence 
 from narcotics, which Wilmot had been able to secure 
 especially in the case of the members of the first 
 "gang," healthy athletics, and chaste thinking, which 
 had come of their select association, had told on their 
 frames and spirits. Not a day had he allowed the 
 boys to go without attention. A committee, of which 
 he was always the head, and made up otherwise of two
 
 THE DISCIPLE'S DEGREE. 117 
 
 of the boys in successive pairs, instituted daily inquiry 
 after the others. "I am my brother's keeper" was a 
 text in gold letters which appeared in both the reading 
 room and the Chapter chamber of the boys' meeting 
 place in the city. Kinky in two years had grown 
 marvelously. Wholesome food, tender care, and the 
 atmosphere of a home pervaded by quietness and love 
 had turned back the child's captivity, and it appeared 
 that he had not only waxed in frame and spirit accord- 
 ing to his nature, but had also recovered what had been 
 lost to him during the pitiless years of his friendless 
 orphanhood. 
 
 Wilmot looked long .upon his Knights as they con- 
 versed and partook of their phantom-spread repast. 
 Granger gave him perhaps the greatest pride Gran- 
 ger his lieutenant, the Bedivere of all his Knights ! 
 And not without cause was this pride; for the tall, 
 fair-looking youth had developed into a manly fel- 
 low, brave and honorable in motive and of a devout 
 spirit. He led the prayers at their devotional meet- 
 ings, read and expounded in unpretentious terms their 
 brief Scripture portions, and was in all things accepted 
 by the boys as their leader, next to Wilmot. One had 
 not thought it possible that this was the gang leader 
 of two years before. It was this reflection that gave 
 Wilmot satisfaction, and so his eyes ran over the ranks 
 of the first and the last of his clansmen. Of Sim he 
 was also proud ; of Jimmy Glenn, the widow's son, he 
 had a healthy hope; Tommy Biles was a frank and 
 honest fellow always asking "the reason why," but 
 forging safely on ; Mack Pooley struggled against en- 
 vironment. Wilmot felt that he feared for Mack in
 
 n8 THE GANG OP SIX. 
 
 the end, but the boy was confiding and faithful in word 
 and act. But if the leader was proud and hopeful of 
 others, what shall be said of his feelings when his eyes 
 rested on Kinky? Kinky had become his life a 
 brother's love and more enshrined the child in his 
 heart. Apt in everything, bright beyond his years, 
 dreamy but obedient and affectionate, Kinky had been 
 a revelation in the life of the young man who had loved 
 him with that strange love. In this way the eyes of 
 the leader passed also over the six newer Knights. 
 There was not one of all the twelve that appeared so 
 truly Knightly in face and form as Willie Wages, and 
 in manner and spirit he excelled no less. Wilmot 
 could never look on the lad without a feeling of most 
 genuine admiration, yet a vague sense of concern ob- 
 truded upon his thought at every sight of the fine 
 young face. The boy's future was, he saw, beset with 
 perils; but secretly he prayed and waited with desire. 
 This special concern extended to at least another of the 
 boys of the newer group. He had never quite got the 
 hold upon these that he had upon the first; but time 
 might help him, he trusted, and so he passed his eyes 
 down the list. The very last of all was little Moses, 
 the son of old Simon the peddler. The future of 
 Moses depended much on what might be done for old 
 Simon and the mother. A strange thing had hap- 
 pened in the case of the mother. Regularly, month 
 after month, she had been at the morning service of 
 the Church where Moses attended with the others. 
 Wilmot was impressed that happy and surprising 
 things were about to come to pass. He was as one 
 walking on holy ground.
 
 THE DISCIPLE'S DEGREE. 119 
 
 As the Knights were about to quit their Castle of 
 Arms, their leader said: "We have now outgrown 
 our Castle in the cave, which has been to us so secure 
 and dear a place. Next Sabbath afternoon at our 
 Chapter room in the city we shall choose twelve new 
 Squires. We shall then be four and twenty, too many 
 twice over to meet in our Castle of Arms ; but we shall 
 at least once each year come and hold a council in our 
 mystic and sacred groves. We can never forget Ap- 
 plegate Wood." 
 
 The boys appropriately attested their indorsement of 
 this sentiment of their leader, and then followed him 
 down the oaken stair into the grove, where by the 
 glow of a roaring watch fire they renewed their pledge 
 and sang marching songs, led by Granger on the flute. 
 When the glow of the watch fire fell into the pallor of 
 its own ashes, the company departed cityward through 
 the starlit night. 
 
 The next day Wilmot had a call from Dr. Chad- 
 borne in his office in the Applegate Building. "I have 
 been hearing much of your Boys' League of late, Mr. 
 Wilmot," said the pastor. "I became interested when 
 I saw half a dozen or so boys with you in the pew 
 each Sabbath; but now my interest has become so in- 
 tensified that I am moved to ask the privilege of at- 
 tending your gospel meeting next Sunday afternoon." 
 
 "I shall be doubly happy to have you do so, Doctor," 
 replied the young man, "and shall be especially pleased 
 to have you say a few words to our boys." 
 
 "That you may count on certainly," replied the 
 minister ; and after proper ceremony, he was about de- 
 parting, when Wilmot said : "Our quarters are on this
 
 120 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 floor, immediately behind my office. I shall be happy 
 to have you inspect them, Doctor." 
 
 Slowly and wonderingly the pastor permitted him- 
 self to be led through the reading room, the gymna- 
 sium, and the private Chapter room of the League of 
 Knights and Squires. "Admirable! admirable!" ex- 
 claimed the learned divine time and again as he sur- 
 veyed the well-loaded reading tables, the neat, well- 
 stocked bookcases, and the pictures on the walls. "A 
 love trap for boys," he added as they entered the gym- 
 nasium. "An inspiration !" was his comment in that 
 place of wise device "an inspiration ! nothing less." 
 But when Wilmot clandestinely slipped him into the 
 Chapter room and showed him the sashes, swords, ban- 
 ner, and else of the Knights and Squires and minutely 
 explained how everything had grown from the begin- 
 ning, modestly adding the story of the Castle of Arms, 
 which recital was helped by photographs, the sedate 
 divine stood dumb with delight and surprise. Find- 
 ing at last his words, he said : "Harry Wilmot, you are 
 a man sent of God." Wilmot had once thought of 
 that very phrase himself. "This is a work for the 
 Church to take up; the Church must take it up at 
 once. Ask what you will, it shall be done. These 
 young Knights belong to the Kingdom. I will be up 
 here Sunday afternoon ; next week we will talk. God 
 bless you !" and with that the pastor of the big Gothic 
 Church departed. 
 
 That which should have come to pass came quickly. 
 When Dr. Chadborne saw the two score and more of 
 boys which crowded into the library of the Boys' 
 League and heard how the young Knights prayed and
 
 THE DISCIPLE'S DEGREE. lii 
 
 spoke, he arose on the spot and said: "Mr. Wilmot 
 and young gentlemen, this is the first and greatest 
 work to be done in the world. There is no limit to it 
 if it be gone about in the right way; for is not this 
 city full are not all cities full of boys, bright, hope- 
 ful, promising boys, that might make pure, noble, use- 
 ful, successful men if only they had help, if only some- 
 body were willing to help? I want to help. I will 
 help by encouraging you who have begun so well. 
 Your library is too small for your meetings that is, 
 your boys' gospel meetings. I invite you to hold your 
 next Sunday's gospel meeli, g in the chapel of our 
 church. I don't want to interfere with you; I don't 
 mean to run your meetings myself ; I will not attend 
 them except by your invitation; but I want you to 
 come and be our guests." 
 
 After Dr. Chadborne had departed and the gospel 
 meeting was over, the twelve retired to their council 
 and, with Wilmot, accepted the invitation to hold a 
 boys' gospel meeting at the big church. Another mat- 
 ter, not on the programme, came up also. Granger, 
 arising, said: "Mr. Wilmot, we boys have something 
 to ask you ; we want your advice and consent in some- 
 thing we are about to propose." 
 
 "I shall be glad to hear you," answered Wilmot. 
 "What is it, Granger?" 
 
 "A long while ago you told us," continued Granger, 
 "that there was a better degree than that of a Knight 
 the Disciple's degree." 
 
 "So I did," answered Wilmot; "and I have been 
 praying that all my Knights might some day take 
 that degree."
 
 122 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 "We want to take it now," declared Granger. 
 "We've all talked about it, all twelve of us, and we 
 have agreed to ask you to give it to us." 
 
 "O my brave Knights," answered Wilmot, with 
 tears in his eyes, "that is something I cannot give ; only 
 the King himself can do that. Each one of you must 
 ask the King to make you a disciple." 
 
 "Tell us how, Mr. Wilmot," insisted several of the 
 boys together. 
 
 "I will let the King's own word tell you," said Wil- 
 mot ; and opening his Bible, he read : " 'Except a man 
 be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of 
 God. . . . That which is born of the flesh is 
 flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit/ 
 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only- 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life/ 'We love him 
 because he first loved us/ 'Ye have not chosen me, 
 but I have chosen you/ 'If ye abide in me, and my 
 words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it 
 shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, 
 that ye bear much fruit ; so shall ye be my disciples. 3 }1 
 
 Closing the Book, Wilmot said : "You see now, my 
 dear Knights, that the King first gives a new heart, a 
 new life to his disciples. After that the disciple must 
 bear much fruit in the King's name. Do my Knights 
 all believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ?" 
 
 Every hand was lifted in ready affirmation, even that 
 of little Moses, the son of the Jewish peddler. "My 
 fadther," explained Moses, "he does not believe in Je- 
 sus ; but my modther, she believes a little ; but I believe 
 all."
 
 THE DISCIPLE'S DEGREE. 123 
 
 "A little child shall lead them," murmured Wilmot, 
 tenderly regarding the child. "The King is pleased 
 with your confession, dear little Moses. He will make 
 you his disciple indeed." 
 
 "If we believe that Jesus is God's Son, are we disci- 
 ples ?" asked Granger with a clear directness of inquiry. 
 
 "Yes, if you believe it with all your heart," replied 
 Wilmot. "That is, Granger, if your believing it has 
 made your heart new, then you are a disciple of the 
 King." 
 
 "O, I know that my heart is new, Mr. Wilmot," 
 returned the frank, brave lad. 
 
 "When did it become new?" asked Wilmot, with a 
 full emotion expressed in his voice. 
 
 "That Sunday afternoon in the cave when we lis- 
 tened to hear the King speak. I have been another 
 boy since then, sir." 
 
 "How do you know that, Granger?" asked Wilmot, 
 with a choking gladness. 
 
 "Because I have never wanted to do wrong nor 
 speak wrong since, but have wanted to do right and 
 learn the truth and be a help to others. I have heard 
 the King's voice every day since then, Mr. Wilmot." 
 
 "Surely," returned Wilmot, "the first of my Knights 
 has long been a disciple. How many of the others 
 can say with Granger that the King has given them 
 new hearts ?" 
 
 Sim and Jimmy Glenn and Kinky and several of the 
 new Knights responded readily and confidently, but 
 the others were reticent. When, however, Wilmot 
 asked if all would not ask the King for a new heart, 
 they responded with the most genuine interest. Kneel-
 
 124 r # GANG OP SIX. 
 
 ing amongst the Knights, Wilmot then prayed tender- 
 ly and earnestly that the witness might come to each, 
 and in the double glow of the sunset and that light of 
 the Spirit invisible they separated, going softly out of 
 their place of communion. 
 
 It was now Wilmot's turn to call on Dr. Chadborne. 
 That call resulted in the bringing of a new influence 
 into his life, and one that fitted well into the harmonies 
 that already filled it. Entering Dr. Chadborne's study, 
 he said: "I have come, Doctor, to accept on the part 
 of the League your kind offer of the chapel for our 
 gospel meeting for boys next Sabbath afternoon. We 
 will advertise it well, and I trust it may be the begin- 
 ning of a new epoch in our work." 
 
 "I trust that may be so, Mr. Wilmot, and I am 
 giving myself most cordially and unreservedly to help 
 you," said the pastoV. 
 
 "Hitherto," explained Wilmot, "we have depended 
 upon our boys for music. One of them, as you saw, 
 plays the flute well, and we have had no other accom- 
 panist; but in the larger meetings now planned we 
 shall need a pianist. Can we draw upon your musical 
 corps for that service, Doctor ?" 
 
 "Well, that might be done temporarily; but our 
 musicians are hired, you know, and they are not easily 
 commanded outside of their contract. But stay; let 
 me reflect a moment. There ! Mr. Wilmot, I have a 
 plan it is an inspiration, as I trust to draw a very 
 gifted and choice young woman into religious work. 
 I have been looking for an opportunity; this one is of 
 providential ordering, as I believe. The case is this," 
 continued Dr. Chadborne : "Colonel Burton, whom you
 
 THE- DISCIPLE'S DEGREE. 125 
 
 doubtless remember as a prominent citizen and leading 
 member of our Church, at his death, ten or a dozen 
 years ago, left a widow and two young daughters" 
 
 "That I remember very well," interjected Wilmot. 
 
 "Well, having a comfortable substance left her and 
 desiring to give her daughters the best advantages in 
 the way of education and travel, Mrs. Burton leased 
 her home here and went abroad. The daughters have 
 been finely educated and are most gifted women. The 
 younger married soon after her school days; but the 
 elder, Ophelia, if you remember her, developed a re- 
 markable talent for music, and has devoted herself to 
 that art. The mother, as was the father, is deeply reli- 
 gious. The daughter is not, though she was baptized 
 in infancy and carefully reared. It is a case of being 
 allured by pride of talent and the love of this present 
 world. Ophelia indulges all sorts of impossible dreams. 
 If her womanly heart could only be touched for Christ, 
 she would become a shining witness. The faith has 
 dwelt in her family for generations. Ophelia is full 
 of generous impulses. She will be easily persuaded 
 to help us. Shall we not at once go and make the re- 
 quest of her?" 
 
 "By all means," returned Wilmot, who had learned 
 to husband his moments, and who fell in with Dr. 
 Chadborne's view of helping the worldly-minded young 
 woman into a service that might bless her life. 
 
 At the home of Ophelia's mother the pastor and the 
 young attorney were not kept waiting. In a plain 
 home gown Ophelia responded to the summons. Wil- 
 mot had not seen her for ten years or more. He only 
 imperfectly recalled her as a high school girl at the
 
 126 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 time of his return from college. The schoolgirl in 
 short skirts did not suggest to him the woman of five 
 and twenty that he now saw before him. High- 
 browed, fine-featured, intellectual, handsome beauti- 
 ful had been a term too conventional in manner and 
 movement, the woman of perfect genuineness, Ophelia 
 Burton surprised Harry Wilmot out of his self-mas- 
 tery. For a moment he was speechless. 
 
 After greeting the pastor, Ophelia turned and, wait- 
 ing for no formal word, said: "This is Mr. Wilmot; 
 I am glad to see you again." 
 
 "So you remember me?" returned Wilmot, recover- 
 ing himself and showing more animation than was his 
 habit. 
 
 "Perfectly," answered Ophelia. "It has been fully 
 a dozen years ago since I saw you last; but I was 
 not so young then as to make it difficult for me to 
 remember," she concluded with a show of good sense 
 that impressed Wilmot unusually. 
 
 When the object of the visit was opened to her, 
 she declined at first ; but, being urged by both the pas- 
 tor and Wilmot, she at last consented to serve until 
 a substitute could be found. 
 
 "That committal means a great deal," said Dr. 
 Chadborne as together he and Wilmot walked away. 
 "We must contrive to so interest her as to make it 
 permanent, or at least a stepping-stone to another serv- 
 ice. I have been for some time impressed that the 
 Lord has fitted Ophelia for something unusual." 
 
 "In my heart I believe it," responded Wilmot. Wil- 
 mot had a heart most genuinely human, as well as 
 most genuinely unselfish and religious.
 
 THE DISCIPLE'S DEGREE. 127 
 
 The Sunday afternoon gospel meeting for boys held 
 in the chapel of Dr. Chadborne's church was attended 
 by a great company of boys and youths. It had been 
 advertised in the usual way from the pulpit, and special 
 invitations had been distributed in large numbers by 
 the twelve Knights of the League. The music was a 
 feature. Ophelia Burton's voice, sweet and birdlike, 
 had been cultivated to answer every demand of har- 
 mony. She had, by arrangement, come in her mother's 
 carriage an hour before the opening of the meeting 
 to train Granger and the other Knights as an impro- 
 vised choir. Granger's flute made a helpful accom- 
 paniment to the piano, and, following the winsome 
 voice of Ophelia Burton, the nearly two hundred boys 
 in the company made a soulful chorus. The meeting 
 was conducted in the simplest way conceivable. Wil- 
 mot read appropriate selections from the New Testa- 
 ment and commented briefly ; then there were a prayer 
 and several songs. After this, Granger and the other 
 older Knights read brief Scripture passages, adding a 
 few boyish words of comment. Nearly all the boys 
 of the League spoke some words or quoted a Scripture 
 motto. At last all the boys of the company were asked 
 to stand up for the King, and very many did so. Wil- 
 mot gave all an invitation to visit the reading rooms 
 and gymnasium, and also asked to have each boy's 
 name, with his address, written upon a card. After 
 this, other songs were sung and a final prayer was said. 
 As the close of all, Ophelia sang a solo : "I Know that 
 My Redeemer Lives." It was a song that took the 
 boys, and they listened in perfect silence. Very many 
 of the boys were from the street, and some of them
 
 128 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 had heard no such song in all their lives before. As 
 Wilmot listened he wondered how Ophelia could put 
 so much soul and pathos into a gospel song, and espe- 
 cially into that song, and yet be worldly-minded 
 without Christ. It could not be; it must not be, so 
 he felt within his heart. As the boys passed out he 
 shook hands with each, and stopped to talk with any 
 who would tarry to hear a word about the King's 
 business. It was the greatest day in the history of the 
 League ; it was a great day in his own history. As he 
 handed Ophelia into her carriage and thanked her she 
 said with the same genuineness which he had noted 
 before : "I am rather indebted to you, Mr. Wilmot, for 
 permitting me to see what I have seen to-day. I do 
 not wonder that you have given yourself so fully to 
 this work." From that hour unusually serious thoughts 
 began to fill the mind of Ophelia, and simultaneously 
 upon the path of Wilmot was falling a new light 
 a holy, interpenetrating light of human tenderness. 
 
 The Sunday afternoon gospel meetings for boys be- 
 came a fixture in the chapel of Dr. Chadborne's 
 church. Ophelia Burton was always at her place be- 
 fore the piano; her heart was being drawn out in the 
 work. She studied and planned all the week in select- 
 ing and adapting songs to the needs and tastes of the 
 boys. An hour before the meeting each Sabbath after- 
 noon she had her boys' choir under drill. The prog- 
 ress which the singers made was wonderful. The 
 music was one of the truly gospel features of each 
 service. The attendance of boys increased until the 
 chapel was filled and the tide rose into the gallery. 
 But in the midst of all this committal and activity
 
 THE DISCIPLE'S DEGREE. 
 
 the heart of Ophelia began to be filled with intensest 
 hunger. She saw about her the joy of those who 
 knew the King. The new and soulful songs extolling 
 the beauty and love of the King which she was con- 
 stantly coming upon took away zest for the voices and 
 pride of earthly things, but they at the same time 
 admonished her of her blindness and lack. Often in 
 her distress she sighed and said: "O that I had not 
 consented to do this thing!" But the thought of lay- 
 ing it down she would not entertain. It was the cry 
 and hesitation of a heart "not far from the kingdom," 
 though she understood not. But more prayers than she 
 knew went up for her that she might "see the King 
 in his beauty." 
 
 Meantime a month had passed, and on a summer 
 Sabbath morning, memorable for the glory light which 
 streamed through the high windows of Dr. Chad- 
 borne's church, Harry Wilmot led the six first-made 
 of his Knights to the chancel and heard them take 
 there the vow of discipleship in the Church of their 
 King. That was a day of joy to Wilmot, for he saw 
 the fruit of all his prayers and plannings. The great 
 church was filled to its capacity ; and as Dr. Chadborne 
 told the story of the "Gang of Six" and how its mem- 
 bers had come at last to the degree of disciples, there 
 was deep emotion in the bosoms of hundreds. From 
 her mother's pew Ophelia Burton saw the bright faces 
 of the newly pledged disciples and the peaceful and 
 satisfied face of the man who stood, like an elder 
 brother, beside them. The dryness of dust was on her 
 lips and the hunger of the homeless was in her soul. 
 The choir sang, the final blessing was said, and the 
 hungry-hearted one passed out with the throng. 
 9
 
 1 3 o THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 That afternoon Ophelia was not at the boys' meet- 
 ing. A note was sent to Dr. Chadborne explaining 
 her absence and summoning him to an interview. 
 When Dr. Chadborne arrived, Ophelia, like the frank 
 woman she was, said: "Dr. Chadborne, I thank you 
 and Mr. Wilmot for asking me, unworthy as I was, 
 to lead in song those bright and wonderful boys. I 
 went reluctantly; soon my heart took hold of it, and 
 then I feared you might take from me the joy of so 
 great a service. But. now I see how far I am from 
 knowing the King. I am unfit to lead and help; I 
 must first be helped. I am unhappy ; my heart is like 
 a stone ; and until the King comes and gives me a new 
 heart and takes away the sin of my pride and folly, 
 I cannot, I will not sing the songs of his praise. I 
 will never face those happy boys again until I can 
 say with them : 'I know the King.' " 
 
 "Daughter," said Dr. Chadborne with an unwonted 
 tenderness in his voice for such scenes as this were 
 not frequent in his ministry "daughter, this is as I 
 prayed and trusted. I hoped that this little service 
 done the King might show you his face. He is always 
 willing, always ready; only commit your heart wholly 
 to him. He will do the rest." Then, opening the lit- 
 tle Testament which he carried, he read : " 'If we con- 
 fess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
 sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Here 
 is the King's promise: 'If you confess, he forgives.' 
 Settle your faith there, my child, and have peace." 
 There was then a silence, and in the silence the ven- 
 erable pastor said : "Shall we not ask the King to help 
 vou?"
 
 THE DISCIPLE'S DEGREE. 131 
 
 "O if he only would !" sobbed the girl as they both 
 knelt. 
 
 Few and simple were the words of the pastor's 
 prayer, but they were the needed words. Still kneel- 
 ing, he said: "Daughter, you ask the King to help 
 you." Strange sound to her ears was her own voice ; 
 but she heard it, and the All-Merciful heard also. 
 The tremulous words of distress broke suddenly into 
 those of joy the Light, the King was come! Dr. 
 Chadborne went out of that home as Moses descended 
 from the mountain where he had been with God. He 
 was a new man as he went ; the reserve of twenty years 
 broke from about his experience. Henceforth he was 
 to preach a new gospel, or rather the old gospel with 
 a new power.
 
 X. 
 
 THE NEW SONG. 
 
 ON the Sunday afternoon following Dr. Chadborne's 
 happy visit to the Burton home Ophelia was at her 
 place before the piano, ready for the gospel meeting 
 for boys. There was radiance on her face and peace 
 in her heart. She could now say with confidence: "I 
 have heard the King's voice." By request she sang, 
 as she had often done before, "I know that my Re- 
 deemer lives." If the song had seemed a soulful one 
 to Wilmot before, he now thought it like the rapture 
 of an angelic harmony. St. John in the Apocalypse 
 said: "They sang, as it were, a new song." It was 
 not a new song, but an old one the song of deliver- 
 ance and triumph sung to a new and heavenly tune. 
 Before singing, Ophelia told simply and frankly her 
 story to the boys how that their glad, simple testimo- 
 nies concerning the King had touched her heart and 
 driven her to hunger and crying for the same witness 
 of joy. She then lifted upon her rich and tremulous 
 voice the words which have moved to gladness so 
 many multitudes. In the great company that filled 
 the chapel were many youths, and not a few who be- 
 longed to the class of those who had reached the stage 
 of maturing manhood, for the fame of these meetings 
 had gone out and the limit of the invitation had been 
 strained. 
 
 Dr. Chadborne, who was present, filled to overflow- 
 ing with the new purpose which had come to him and
 
 THE NEW SONG. 133 
 
 joyful in a new baptism, saw how the whole company 
 had been swept fty the voice of that newborn singer. 
 When, therefore, the meeting had closed in the ordi- 
 nary way, which way was always extraordinary, the 
 venerable pastor arose and said: "The meeting in this 
 church to-night will be a gospel meeting for everybody, 
 but especially for young people of both sexes and all 
 ages, and such a meeting will be held every night this 
 week. The League of Knights and Squires has agreed 
 to act as a committee of invitation. There is a great 
 searching of hearts in Israel to-day. Let the King 
 come to his own !" 
 
 The old church, with its many pews and high gal- 
 leries, was filled that night to its utmost inch, and 
 scores had to be turned from its doors. The routine 
 sermon was put aside; and after the choir's introduc- 
 tory, Ophelia Burton sang as only she had learned to 
 sing in these last days. Then the pastor read brief 
 scriptures with pungent, penetrating comments. After 
 that, Wilmot told the simple story of his Knights and 
 gave the genesis of the boys' gospel meetings, and how 
 more than two hundred boys and youths had been 
 brought to Christ in these simple meetings. After 
 this, many of these boys, grouped by arrangement in 
 a place near the chancel, sang their "songs of the 
 King," led, of course, by Ophelia to the low peals 
 of the great organ. And thus, night after night, the 
 readings, exhortations, and songs went on. Also the 
 searchings of hearts went on, and the fire burned open- 
 ly, "and there was great joy in that city." 
 
 All the Knights and most of the new-made Squires 
 were gathered into the Church as the days went by,
 
 134 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 with scores of other boys and youth besides. Robert 
 Mooney, the son of the Irish Catholic home, and Jo- 
 seph Pontos, the Greek lad, were amongst the earliest 
 to come. The last to come was little Moses Simon; 
 and with him, kneeling at the same altar, was his 
 mother, Rachel, who, through the leading of her child, 
 had been brought to see in her great Countryman not 
 a prophet only, but the Messiah, the Son of God. 
 
 The result of that meeting was a great extension of 
 the Boys' League throughout the city. In many 
 places Leagues similar to the first were formed, all 
 supervised by a central committee of which Harry 
 Wilmot was the head. The boys' gospel meetings 
 were also extended to the chapels of many churches, 
 and so concern in this work became general with the 
 evangelical pastors. 
 
 A committee searched the streets and tenements for 
 homeless boys. Many were found lodging, as Kinky 
 had before, in dark, unseemly places, and drinking 
 daily and nightly a poisonous and death-dealing at- 
 mosphere. A nest of these waifs was located under 
 an old tobacco barn.* Clean and healthful lodgings 
 were provided for these, and good homes for not a few. 
 The night school was extended so as to take these boys 
 in; and for the very young boys of the poorer homes 
 a system of kindergartens was begun. With joyful 
 willingness Ophelia Burton took the oversight of these, 
 and in many a round of the city in her mother's car- 
 
 *The Rev. W. M. Crutchfield, assistant pastor of Shearn 
 Church, in Houston, reports having found many such boys 
 living under an old tin shop in that city.
 
 THE NEW SONG. 135 
 
 riage carried joy to the homes of the needy. She 
 sang and read and talked in these homes, and learned 
 to darn the torn socks and trousers of these often 
 friendless wee boys with a thousand times more satis- 
 faction than she used to find in her "impossible 
 dreams." Wilmot organized and opened a workshop 
 for boys in which he installed two or three of the older 
 Knights and Squires who knew something of mechan- 
 ics; he also helped Granger to start a job printing 
 office in which a number of the younger boys learned 
 to be printers, and that under the best and safest in- 
 fluences. A committee also found employment for 
 boys, and in places where they could have friends and 
 helpers in the higher and happier hope that had been 
 brought them through the League. Thus it was that 
 every boy who passed through the gospel meetings 
 was helped in the way he most needed it. If he was 
 poor, he was helped to school and employment; if he 
 was rich or well to do, he found happy and religious 
 young companions and was put in the way of helping 
 others. Many a brave and youthful "Christ helper" 
 was thus developed. 
 
 When the meeting in Dr. Chadborne's church had 
 closed, having extended over two weeks instead of 
 one, and the last note in which had been the voice of 
 Ophelia Burton singing "I my cross have taken," 
 Harry Wilmot walked softly homeward and sat long 
 and thoughtfully in the elm shadows floating across the 
 wide veranda of his father's home. The stars were 
 shining serenely in a cloudless summer sky, but stars 
 of peace and glory were shining in the sky of his soul. 
 There lived that night no man who might not have
 
 136 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 envied the joy and great-heartedness of that man of 
 thirty. He could not sleep ; in his heart there was too 
 much of gladness and hope. The future of his years 
 seemed flooded with one perfect song, and the voice 
 which carried that to the sunset of his days was the 
 one which an hour before he had heard swelling, un- 
 utterably sweet, through the arches of the great 
 church. There is a fitness in what the Spirit does 
 where human hearts are willing to be led. 
 
 The next day bourgeoned and blossomed for Wil- 
 mot in glad and surprising things things the seed of 
 which had been sown long before. It was an early 
 hour of the morning, even before he had fairly finished 
 the reading of his mail, that he had a call from old 
 Simon, the peddler. Coming in with evident signs of 
 excitement, he asked in an undertone : "Are you alone, 
 Meester Veelmot?" 
 
 "I am," replied the attorney; "but we can be even 
 more private if you wish." 
 
 "Yes, Meester Veelmot, thadt ees goodt; ve veel be 
 most brivate, blees." 
 
 With that Wilmot led the way into his inner office, 
 and, bolting the door behind him and his visitor, he 
 said : "Now we are beyond the ear of any living mor- 
 tal, Simon." 
 
 "Thadt ees goodt, Meester Veelmot," said Simon, 
 seating himself and continuing: "Meester Veelmot, you 
 haf make my leetle Moses a Gristian, and den he haf 
 make hees modther Gristian." 
 
 "And I trust, Simon," returned the young man kind- 
 ly, "that Moses and his mother may be able to lead 
 you also to see in your greatest Countryman your own
 
 THE NEW SONG. 137 
 
 and the world's Saviour. I am praying that it may 
 be so, Simon." 
 
 "No; eet vass no use, Meester Veelmot. I cannot 
 be Gristian, but I veel no more say thadt Messiah haf 
 not come. I am Aknostic; I don't know; dere ees 
 nobody can know, Meester Veelmot. I vas veeling 
 thadt my vife andt Moses be Gristians ; I cannot." 
 
 "But I am happy to see that you are nearer than you 
 were when we last talked," said Wilmot interestedly. 
 
 "Thadt may be, Meester Veelmot; budt no matter. 
 I haf come to talk segreet weedth you." 
 
 "Very well," returned Wilmot; "I have no doubt 
 that I shall be interested in all you say. To whom 
 does the secret relate?" 
 
 "To thadt boy Keenky, of course, Meester Veelmot ; 
 you vass agsk me longk time ago of thadt boy." 
 
 "So I did, Simon. Have you something to tell me 
 more ?" asked Wilmot diplomatically. 
 
 "I haf on gondition, Meester Veelmot, on gondi- 
 tion solemn gondition." 
 
 "And what is that condition, Simon?" queried the 
 other, endeavoring to control the almost sensational 
 interest which he felt. 
 
 "The gondition ees thees: thadt you veell swear to 
 segrecy, andt gif me bond to do whadt vas just width 
 thadt boy." 
 
 "I will pledge myself to secrecy, provided the secret 
 should not be dishonoring to me or to others; and 
 as for a bond to do justice to Kinky, I will readily give 
 that in any case where his interests are involved," re- 
 turned Wilmot. 
 
 "Very veil, then I trust you, Meester Veelmot. My
 
 138 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 vife, now thadt she ees Gristian, veell not let me rest 
 until I do thees pisness up. You veel be surprised, 
 Meester Veelmot, to hear thadt I am reech man very 
 reech man." 
 
 "I supposed you were a fairly well-to-do tradesman, 
 Simon, having seen your shop and stock; but I had 
 not thought you very rich," answered Wilmot. 
 
 "Yess, I am reech, and I stay peddler to make eet 
 seem thadt I am not reech. I haf hundred tousand 
 dollar more, hundred feefty tousand dollar. Budt, 
 Meester Veelmot, feefty tousand dollar of whadt I haf 
 call mine ees belongk to Keenky. My vife, she veell 
 no more rest and, peleef me, Meester Vilmot, / veell 
 no more rest myself until thadt money ees in your 
 hand. You vill promise me, Meester Veelmot?" 
 
 "I think I can, Simon," replied Wilmot as confident- 
 ly as was possible in his then state of surprise. 
 
 Well, to make Simon's story short, this is what Wil- 
 mot learned from all his circumlocutions and detailed 
 accounts, which seemed to be honest in every syllable, 
 though often difficult to translate into a comprehensible 
 setting: Kinky's father was a young Jew, a kinsman 
 of Simon, with whom he had been in business at the 
 time of the former's death. His name was Isaac Mey- 
 ers, and, like Simon, he was a native of Europe. Being 
 the son of a liberal-minded father and being well edu- 
 cated, he had moved much in Christian society ; and in 
 New York City, where all nationalities meet arid min- 
 gle, he had met the daughter of an Italian painter of 
 some local celebrity, but of no means except what the 
 doubtful sale of his colors could be trusted to bring. 
 Beatrice Pizetti had easily been induced to accept the
 
 THE NEW SONG. 139 
 
 suit of a handsom,e young lover from a land so near her 
 own native soil and one reputed to be the heir of a 
 rich father. But Beatrice's father was not pleased 
 with the match. For a time there was hesitancy on 
 the part of the girl. This hesitancy, however, soon 
 gave way to purpose, and a secret marriage was cel- 
 ebrated by a civil magistrate. The match promised 
 happiness, but death that passed by the cradle of one 
 day with its wonder of a dark-eyed, dark-haired babe 
 took the mother. Two days later the father, unable 
 to bear the grief which came of the death of his idol- 
 ized young wife, ended his own life with a revolver. 
 There were no papers; both Meyers' s father and the 
 father of his wife had disowned them because of their 
 unapproved marriage ; the existence of a babe was al- 
 most unknown indeed, the painter had died soon 
 after his daughter's elopement. Simon determined on 
 his course without delay. Turning into money the 
 business which belonged equally to himself and his 
 partner, he took the whole, with the orphan babe, his 
 wife, and little Moses, but a few weeks older than the 
 other, and, covering his tracks, came South. The re- 
 mainder of the story tells itself : So soon as Kinky was 
 able to run about and earn a few pennies, so as to 
 support himself, he was rooted out of Simon's nest, 
 nameless and without hope or claim for his legitimate 
 inheritance. But there was one, even the King, who 
 took him up, and now that Name above all names was 
 powerful to disclose the secrets of the oppressor of the 
 orphan. 
 
 "Well," explained Wilmot after he had heard the 
 whole story, "I see no reason, Simon, why I should
 
 i4d THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 not give you my pledge nor why I should not give 
 bond and take over Kinky's inheritance. There is no 
 evidence in the case except your own testimony, nor 
 would there be recourse in law were. I or any other 
 disposed to distress you, which I am not. But is there 
 no possibility that Kinky might have an entailed in- 
 terest in other family inheritances his grandfather's 
 estate, for instance?" 
 
 "No, Meester Veelmot, belief me, there ees not; 
 and, pesides, thadt wouldt be gontrary to your pledge 
 of segrecy." 
 
 "Very good ; I will not distress you, seeing you have 
 done what seems honest and fair, though you were 
 long in doing so, and were false very false to the 
 child in his time of greatest need." 
 
 "Even so. Eet vass not rigdt ; eet vass gruel. But 
 I haf suffered, Meester Veelmot; and eef there be 
 Messiah, I hope he veell forgif the sin." 
 
 "He will, Simon (for that is his promise), if you 
 ask him. Could you not ask him now ?" 
 
 "No, Meester Veelmot, I thingk I veell not no. You 
 veell make me thadt bond, and then I gif you check for 
 money. To-morrow? Very veil. Good morning, 
 Meester Veelmot," and with that the Alsatian Israelite 
 took his departure. 
 
 At his father's home that evening Wilmot met with 
 his second happy surprise. After tea, the father said : 
 "Harry, I want to see you for half an hour or such a 
 matter in the library." That was not an unusual call, 
 for Colonel Wilmot's habit was to relax in the evening, 
 and it was his delight to have the members of his fam- 
 ily about him. But the son very soon made out that
 
 THE NEW SONG. 141 
 
 the interview was to be strictly between him and his 
 father. When they were seated in chairs which Colo- 
 nel Wilmot had drawn up to the library table, the latter 
 spread certain papers before them and said: "Harry, 
 I have this afternoon bought Applegate Wood and two 
 hundred acres of the meadows and cultivated land 
 adjoining." 
 
 "What do you propose, father? an addition to the 
 city?" 
 
 "Not exactly; and yet it will be an immensely val- 
 uable addition, as I believe. I propose to build and 
 equip at my own expense an industrial and training 
 school for boys. I see in this the greatest opportunity 
 of the age. Our streets are crowded with boys who 
 for lack of proper training and the impartation of 
 worthy ideals are wasting through the bottom of so- 
 ciety, as corn grains waste through the floor of a 
 barn. There is a way for me to help in rescuing 
 thousands and tens of thousands, it may be, in this 
 generation. It is but justice, my boy, to admit that 
 my inspiration, as well as my impulse to do this thing, 
 has come through your work. I want to embody the 
 ideals of your Boys' League in this new institution. 
 I shall ask you to take the administration of the trust, 
 and find, at whatever cost necessary, the teachers and 
 superintendents of departments who will carry out 
 your ideas. I have long deliberated this scheme, and 
 have never been surer in all my life of a special guid- 
 ance in reaching my conclusions." 
 
 So it was that Colonel Wilmot had worked out every 
 detail of his generous benefaction. A long time the 
 son followed the father as he went through his care-
 
 142 THE GANG Ol ; SIX. 
 
 fully written specifications and blue prints for build- 
 ings, the plotting of lands, the apportionment of stu- 
 dios, libraries, workshops, laboratory, greenhouses, 
 schools, exercise grounds, and even to the appointments 
 of a natatorium. "With all these," remarked Colonel 
 Wilmot, pushing back his chair, "the religious spirit 
 and ideals are to be paramount. These others are but 
 adjuncts to that ultimate purpose. In a word, this 
 school is to be the complete making of men, so far as 
 human help and agency can go. The intellect and 
 emotions will be touched with equal force, while the 
 skill and gifts of each lad will be brought out. It is 
 the first work of civilization ; it is to be accepted as the 
 ultimate high task of the Church in the saving of the 
 race. Deeds, not theories ; a direct, personal, and per- 
 sistent ministry on the part of every one who can 
 the largest for those who have ability; the least for 
 those who can offer no more. This that I offer is little, 
 but it is dedicated in hope." 
 
 Harry Wilmot slept but little that night; the events 
 of the day were overwhelming to his senses. His 
 thoughts in half dreams wandered through heights and 
 depths of purpose, present and prophetic, and mingling 
 with them went high hopes born of a perfect and pas- 
 sionate human love. 
 
 But why should I linger in the years of my story? 
 Its lessons, though imperfectly expounded, have all 
 been set down in their order. The story as I have 
 found it is one of life, of possible, practical, logical ap- 
 plication, in living, of the Galilean principle. The Mas- 
 ter's secret is the one that forever holds, his plan the
 
 THE NEW SONG. 143 
 
 one that always tells namely, that each one who has 
 found the kingdom of God should become to as many 
 as he may the door to that kingdom ; and these, if nev- 
 er so few, will multiply themselves into doors for oth- 
 ers. The Master chose twelve to be with him, and 
 these he filled with himself; in their turn they filled 
 others, and the filling shall go on until the world is 
 leavened into perfectness. Those who undertake to 
 do all things will do nothing; but those who do hum- 
 ble things well will, in the end, be doers of great and 
 immortal deeds. Duty is measured by ability, and 
 opportunity is at last subject to a sane and prayer- 
 helped judgment. We can do what we can do, no 
 more. Love has ordained that we do so much, and 
 woe to those who hold back from the doing! "Follow 
 me !" is the King's command. That means movement, 
 service definite, intelligent, and in the end fruitful 
 service. Harry Wilmot is our sober, everyday, heart- 
 true ideal of a disciple. If his example helps any to 
 profit withal, we shall feel repaid for our humble effort 
 to coax him out of his quiet ways of serving and lov- 
 ing. 
 
 But I am mindful before closing these pages that 
 certain questions are being asked by my readers, and 
 these it will be my pleasure to answer. 
 
 Did Kinky recover his inheritance from the self- 
 confessed Simon, the peddler? He did; it was paid 
 into the hands of Wilmot, who gave the necessary 
 bond as Kinky's guardian. The whole sum was fifty 
 thousand dollars, with interest for ten years. After 
 this payment, it appeared that Simon was still rich 
 "very rich," as he averred. Immediately after this
 
 144 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 transaction he built a beautiful home on the Avenue,, 
 invested in a representative business in the city, and be- 
 came a useful citizen. He was often thereafter seen 
 in Dr. Chadborne's church with his wife and son. It 
 is hard for the leopard to change his spots. Simon 
 has never confessed the King ; but often he has stopped, 
 silk hat in hand, at the door of the great church after 
 service to greet Dr. Chadborne and invariably to say : 
 "Pastor, I like your doctorments." There are many 
 prayers going up for old Simon, and none of these is 
 more earnest than those offered up by Kinky and 
 Harry Wilmot. 
 
 I now hear the question asked : "Did all the Knights 
 of the League hold out? Did they all keep the word 
 of the King?" They did not all hold out. The Mas- 
 ter chose twelve disciples, and of these there was found 
 one to betray him and another to deny. It has ever 
 been so. But I shall not disclose here the names of 
 the two of those who took high vows in the Castle of 
 Arms and then went astray in the enchanted paths of 
 manhood. Shall he that follows his Lord build more 
 securely than He? 
 
 It was twelve years after that first Sabbath after- 
 noon visit of Wilmot and his street "gang" to Apple- 
 gate Wood that I came into a full knowledge of the 
 things of which I have written in this narrative. It was 
 then that I learned that Mr. Parry Granger, a young 
 man of four or five and twenty, the head of the largest 
 printing establishment in the city, the chairman of 
 nearly all its charity and benevolent movements, and a 
 connoisseur in music, was none other than the head 
 of the former "Gang of Six." The cheerful, wooded
 
 THE NEW SONG. 145 
 
 slope before the Cliff of Arms in the Applegate Wood 
 had been transforme'd. A wall with a high-arched gate 
 inclosed the wood, and through the open spaces made 
 therein looked the fine stone fronts of the ample 
 buildings of "The Wilmot Technical and Industrial 
 School for Boys." Before that splendid monument 
 of his unselfishness had been completed Colonel Wil- 
 mot slept, as he had said, his last sleep; but a lifelike 
 bronze statue of him looks from the front of the house 
 of his building, and no boy ever passes under it with- 
 out a sense of thankfulness and reverence. From his 
 offices in the Applegate Building Harry Wilmot ad- 
 ministers the munificent trust of his father, and attends, 
 as he can, to the welfare of his Knights, represented 
 in many Chapters modeled after that first fellowship 
 in the Castle of Arms. Sim Phillips I should say 
 Dr. 'Phillips, for he took his doctorate in a fine old 
 school beyond the waters is the chief genius in the 
 faculty of the Wilmot School. Robert Mooney, the 
 Irish Knight, is the head of the finely appointed ma- 
 chine shop of the "Wilmot," where hundreds of boys 
 taken from the street are every year trained to the 
 highest degree of skill. The experimental and prac- 
 tical farm of the School, which is every year made like 
 a tract in "fertile Phthia," is under the direction of 
 three former Knights who were sent away to be fitted 
 in chemistry, geology, and agriculture for this espe- 
 cial use. You would know the chief of this staff as 
 Jimmy Glenn, the widow's son. Mack Pooley is di- 
 rector in the textile school, and Joseph Pontos, the 
 Greek boy, who was sent back to his native Greece to 
 study, teaches the classic course, and is master of the 
 athletic field.
 
 146 THE GANG OF SIX. 
 
 There are nearly four hundred boys gathered into 
 the halls and dormitories of this model school last 
 year. A fine chapel building stands over the very 
 spot where the Knights used to light their camp 
 fires, and from its rear a stone stair goes up to the 
 Castle of Arms, about which has been built a castel- 
 lated parapet of fine white stone. Every Sabbath aft- 
 ernoon these hundreds of boys gather in their chapel 
 to partake of much the same simple but high and soul- 
 ful fellowship enjoyed by the one-time "Gang of 
 Six." Once each year Wilmot gathers together as 
 many of his first Knights as have remained faithful to 
 him and they are a goodly company and with them 
 he repairs to the Castle of Arms, when the feast is 
 spread, the candles are lit, and they live over in their 
 stronghold, which is all unchanged within, the days 
 that sealed their hearts unto a unity of purpose. 
 
 At this time Kinky, the youngest of the Knights, is 
 finishing his education in an Eastern college. He has 
 visited the native land of his mother to study art in 
 rare old Florence. He is to give yet other years to 
 art in the home of Raphael and Lorenzo, for a double 
 portion of the spirit of his grandsire has come upon 
 him. He is no longer Kinky, but Mr. Wilmot Pizetti 
 Meyers, having assumed the name of his first benefac- 
 tor along with those of his ancestors. Kinky for so 
 we must call him at last is devoutly and evangelically 
 religious. He still hears the voice of the King and 
 still haunts with his eyes the glory of sunsets and sun- 
 rises. He has one supreme ambition, and that is to 
 translate the mediaeval art of his motherland into the 
 saner light and color of the disenthralled faith of the
 
 THE NEW SONG. 147 
 
 Christ of to-day. There is a studio awaiting his return 
 under the shadow" of the ferns of the Cliff of Arms. 
 It will be a high day on Applegate campus when he 
 returns. 
 
 A fine boulevard leads from the city limits to 
 Applegate arch. It is now near the sunset. A glory 
 is spread over half the sky ; like a mist of gold it falls 
 on the roofs and groves below the Cliff of Arms. A 
 carriage is moving along the boulevard; it is passing 
 through the Applegate arch. In it are a handsome 
 man, whom you would take to be forty years of age, 
 arid a lady of striking features beautiful, you would 
 say, if that did not seem an insufficient term. Queenly 
 is the word you feel impelled to use. A shout bursts 
 from the throats of scores of boys on the campus, and 
 caps are lifted in salutation by the way. I think we 
 should know this handsome pair. They are Mr. and 
 Mrs. Harry Wilmot. Of course you remember that 
 Mrs. Wilmot was Ophelia Burton. She is a woman 
 whose devout spirit and high gifts fit well into the life 
 and ideals of her husband. God has made her new 
 song a blessing to thousands.
 
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