"Get back and keep quiet until I've had time to look into this thing!" blazed the policeman ominously. "Minion of the hireling law," began the elder Hepburn, running his fingers through his hair and striking an attitude. "Hepburn, in the name of the Commonwealth, I demand your assistance in taking care of the prisoners," retorted the policeman grimly. "Disobey at your peril. Here, take charge of this prisoner," indicating Bunny. "If you let him escape you'll go to jail for it!" Thus summoned in the name of the Commonwealth the elder Hepburn, though he loathed his task, had to play the part of a police officer or take the consequences. Hepburn, like his son, was noisy but not brave; he had no desire to serve his state in jail, so he served it on the street. However, the arresting party and prisoners had gone only as far as the next corner when they encountered Chief of Police Blake, an official who was not afraid of any one or anything. "What's this?" asked the chief. Hal and Noll were asked to explain the affair, while the two Hepburns and Bunny's companions were forced, much against their will, to keep still. "We don't care about pressing any charge, chief," Hal added. "This crowd got punished enough as it was." "One of them certainly did," grinned Chief Blake, taking in the extent of damage done to Bunny's countenance. "Chief, I insist that you arrest these two soldier-loafers!" cried Bunny hoarsely. "And I back up that demand!" added the elder Hepburn, with what he considered impressive dignity. "Bosh!" retorted Chief Blake. "I'd take the word of these two Army officers against a whole slumful of rowdies like these young fellows. And so would any judge in his right mind. I refuse to arrest either of these young Army officers, for I'm convinced that they acted only in their own defense." "Officer," broke in the elder Hepburn dramatically, "you have no right to take the word of hireling soldiers against honest young working----" "Go on! Chase yourselves! A quick vanish or a long night behind the hard iron bars!" cried Chief Blake, dropping into the language that Bunny and his companions could best understand. "Another piece of jaw, and to the green-lighted doorway you all go!" Then, nodding to Hal and Noll to stroll along with him, Chief Blake left the discomfited trouble-makers. "Another proof that the law exists only for the benefit of the favored few!" hissed Bunny's father. "But this latest outrage shall not go unnoticed. There are ways of getting justice, even under such a miserable government as ours, and we shall have recourse to those ways. Come with me, gentlemen, and I shall show you what can be done!" There are always ways of making trouble when one is bound to do it. Moreover, Mr. Hepburn was an expert at trouble-making, and on this night he worked overtime. There was trouble ahead, as the two Army boys discovered on awakening in the morning. CHAPTER IV A COURT OF INQUIRY ORDERED