"Why not hide the gobblers in one of the empty rooms in Squire Hardgrit’s building? You know, the squire’s been trying to get these Bronze Gobblers from Mrs. Grumpy for ever so long, and she won’t let him have them; and if they’re found on his premises, she’ll be sure to think that he had something to do with hooking them." It was just like Harold to propose something so original and daring in its conception as to fairly take his companions’ breath away, and they now looked at him with feelings divided between admiration and amazement. The chairman was the first to speak. Bringing his hand down upon his knee with a crack that made the others jump, he cried,— "Magnificent! Boys, we’ll do it, or perish in the attempt." Whereat the others shouted in chorus,— "Hoorah! We’ll do it!" "Since we’re all agreed, then," said Charlie, "the next business before the meeting is to plan how to do it." As before, all sorts of wild suggestions were put forward, and again it was left for Harold Kent to advance the most practicable scheme. This was it: the shed in which Mrs. Grundy’s famous flock of turkeys was carefully secured at night stood at some distance to the back of her house, and as she slept in one of the front rooms, there was slight risk of her seeing or hearing anything. What Harold proposed was, that, slipping out of their rooms after everybody was asleep, they should meet behind the turkey-shed, bringing with them three gunny sacks and a dark lantern. Having got the gobblers safely into the sacks, they would then creep round the back way to the building in which the squire’s office was situated, climb in through a lower window, and so upstairs to the room in which the turkeys were to be left. "You’ve a great head, Hal," said Jack Wilding admiringly, when all this had been detailed, "and you can count on us every time—can’t he, boys?" "You bet he can," chorused the crowd. A satisfactory plan of campaign having thus been settled upon, the meeting was adjourned until Monday midnight, then to assemble behind Mrs. Grundy’s turkey-shed. The eventful night came; and as midnight drew near, one by one the boys gathered with throbbing hearts at the rendezvous. At length all but Tommy Short, whose courage had failed him, and Bob Henderson, whose father had nabbed him in the act of slipping out, and sent him back to bed with a spank, turned up. [Illustration: "THEY WERE TOO BEWILDERED BY THE BLAZE TO MAKE ANY NOISE. _Page_ 227"] It was an intensely dark night and blowing half a gale. all of which was in favour of the enterprise. The shed door was found to be simply secured with a wooden latch, and lifting this the conspirators tip-toed inside; and then Charlie Thompson, who carried the dark lantern, suddenly turned its glare full upon the startled gobblers as they nodded solemnly side by side upon their roost.