The whole Boy Scout program has been outlawed. Tim and several loyal members still meet in secret, hoping to eventually change this. However, Bill and Graeme upend everything when they use scout disguises to go on a crime spree.
Tim and several former scouts still meet in secret in a hut at night even though they are too old to be allowed to participate in normal troops anymore. Graeme and Bill join with them, but only to use their new scout uniforms as part of their disguises - which fool even Tim - while they go on an unstoppable crime spree. It becomes so bad the government makes being a scout illegal. Tim's troop is arrested with the rest, and when he has served his sentence he decides to revenge himself upon the mysterious "Masked Scouts" using all the help he can muster.—E. E. Buchanan