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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Radio Boys Cronies, by Wayne Whipple and S.
+F. Aaron
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Radio Boys Cronies
+
+Author: Wayne Whipple and S. F. Aaron
+
+Release Date: March 31, 2004  [eBook #11861]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RADIO BOYS CRONIES***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Dorota Sidor, and Project Gutenberg
+Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+RADIO BOYS CRONIES
+
+or
+
+Bill Brown's Radio
+
+by
+
+Wayne Whipple
+
+Author of "Radio Boys Loyalty"
+
+and
+
+S. F. Aaron
+
+Co-author of "Radio Boys Loyalty"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MADE IN U.S.A.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+THE CRONIES
+
+
+"Come along, Bill; we'll have to get there, or we won't hear the first
+of it. Mr. Gray said it would begin promptly at three."
+
+"I'm doing my best, Gus. This crutch----"
+
+"I know. Climb aboard, old scout, and we'll go along faster." The first
+speaker, a lad of fifteen, large for his age, fair-haired, though as
+brown as a berry and athletic in all his easy, deliberate yet energetic
+movements, turned to the one he had called Bill, a boy of about his own
+age, or a little older, but altogether opposite in appearance, for he
+was undersized, dark-haired, black-eyed, and though a life-long cripple
+with a twisted knee, as quick and nervous in action as the limitations
+of his physical strength and his ever-present crutch permitted.
+
+In another moment, despite the protests of generous consideration for
+his chum's strenuous offer, William Brown was heaved up on the broad
+back of Augustus Grier and the two cronies thus progressed quite rapidly
+for a full quarter of a mile through the residential section of
+Fairview. Not until the pair arrived at the entrance of one of the
+outlying cottages did husky Gus cease to be the beast of burden, though
+he was greatly tempted to turn into a charging war horse when one of a
+group of urchins on a street corner shouted:
+
+"Look at the monkey on a mule!"
+
+Gus cared nothing for taunts and slurs against himself, but he deeply
+resented any suggestion of insult aimed at his crippled friend. However,
+although Bill could not defend his reputation with his fists, a method
+which most appealed to Gus, the lame boy had often proved that he had a
+native wit and a tongue that could give as good as was ever given him.
+
+"Here we are, Gus, and how can I ever get square with you?" Bill said,
+his crutch and loot thumping the steps as the boys gained the doorway.
+
+In answer to the bell, a sweet-faced lady opened the door, greeted the
+boys by name and ushered them into a book-lined study where already
+several other boys and girls of about the same age were gathered about
+their school teacher.
+
+Professor James B. Gray, although this was vacation time, was the sort
+of man who got real and continued pleasure out of instruction,
+especially concerning his hobbies. Thus his advanced classes, here
+represented, had come into much additional knowledge regarding the
+microscope and the stereopticon and had also greatly enjoyed the
+Professor's moving-picture apparatus devoted to serious subjects. The
+latest wonder, and one worthy of intense interest, was a newly installed
+radio receiver.
+
+"Come in, come in, David and Jonathan,--I mean William and Augustus!"
+greeted Professor Gray. "Find chairs, boys. I'm glad you've come. Now,
+then, exactly in nine minutes the lecture starts and it will interest
+you. The announcement, as sent out yesterday, makes the subject the life
+and labors of the great scientist and inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, and
+it begins with his boyhood. Don't you think that a fitting subject upon
+an occasion where electricity is the chief factor? But before the time
+is up, let me say a few words concerning our little boxed instrument
+here, out of which will come the words we hope to hear. Some of you, I
+think, have become pretty familiar with this subject, but for those who
+have not given much attention to radio, I will briefly outline the
+principles upon which these sounds we shall hear are made possible.
+
+"It would seem that our earth and atmosphere," continued the Professor,
+"and all of the universe, probably, is surcharged with electrical energy
+that may be readily set in motion through the mechanical vibrations of a
+sensitive diaphragm much as when one speaks into a telephone. This
+motion is transmitted in waves of varying intensity and frequency which
+are sent into space by the mechanism of the broadcasting station, which
+consists of a sound conducting apparatus induced by strong electrical
+currents from generators or batteries and extensive a๋rial or antennas
+wires high in the air. Thus sound is converted into waves, and the
+receiving station, as you see here, with its a๋rial on the roof, its
+detector, its 'phone and its tuner, gets these waves and turns them
+again into sound. That is the outline of the thing, which you will
+understand better 'after' than 'before using.'
+
+"The technical construction of the radio receiving set is neither
+difficult nor expensive; it is described fully in several books on the
+subject and I shall be glad to give any of you hints on the making and
+the operation of a receiving set. The 'phone receivers and the crystal
+detector will have to be purchased as well as some of the accessories,
+such as the copper wire, pulleys, battery, switches, binding posts, the
+buzzer tester and so forth. With proper tools and much ingenuity some of
+these appliances may be home-made.
+
+"The making of the tuner, the wiring, the a๋rial and the assembling are
+all technicalities that may be mastered by a careful study of the
+subject and the result will be a simple and inexpensive set having a
+limited range. With more highly perfected appliances, as a vacuum, or
+audion tube, and an a๋rial elevated from sixty to over a hundred feet,
+you may receive radio energy thousands of miles away.
+
+"Now, this talk we are about to hear comes to us from the broadcasting
+station WUK at Wilmerding, a distance of three hundred miles, and this
+outfit of mine is such as to get the words loudly and clearly enough to
+be audible through a horn. The talks are in series; there have been
+three on modern poets, two on the history of great railroad systems and
+now this will be the first of several on great inventors, beginning with
+Edison, in four parts. The next will be on Friday and I want you all to
+be here. Time is up; there will be a preliminary-ah, there it is: a
+cornet solo by Drake."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+AN UNUSUAL LAD
+
+
+Professor Gray turned to the box and began moving the metal switch arms
+back and forth, thus tuning in more perfectly as indicated by the
+increased and clearer sound and the absence of interference from other
+broadcasting stations, noticed at first by a low buzzing. In a moment
+the music came clear and sweet, the stirring tune of "America." When the
+sound of the cornet ceased, there followed this announcement:
+
+"My subject is the early life of Thomas Alva Edison."
+
+Everyone settled down most contentedly and Gus saw Bill hug himself in
+anticipatory pleasure; the lame boy had always been a staunch admirer of
+the great inventor. There was no need of calling anyone's attention to
+the necessity for keeping quiet. Out of the big horn, as out of a
+phonograph, came the deliberate and carefully enunciated words:
+
+"It has been said that 'the boy is father to the man.' That may be
+worthy of general belief; at least evidences of it are to be found in
+the boyhood of him we delight to speak of as one of the first citizens
+of our country and probably the greatest scientific discoverer of all
+time. The boyhood of this remarkable man was almost as remarkable as his
+manhood; it was full of incidents showing the tendencies that afterward
+contributed to true greatness in the chosen field of endeavor of a mind
+bent upon experiment, discovery and invention.
+
+"Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, in the year 1847. The
+precise date, even to Mr. Edison, seems somewhat doubtful.
+
+"He was a frail little chap, with an older brother and sister. But he
+was active enough to have several narrow escapes from death. He wouldn't
+have been a real boy if he hadn't fallen into the canal and barely
+escaped drowning at least once.
+
+"Then while he was a little bit of a fellow, climbing and prowling
+around a grain elevator beside the canal, he fell into the wheat bin and
+was nearly smothered to death.
+
+"Once he held a skate strap for another boy to cut off with a big ax and
+the lad sliced off the end of the fingers holding it!
+
+"Another time the small Edison boy was investigating a bumblebee's nest
+in a field close to the fence. He was so interested in watching the bees
+that he didn't notice a cross old ram till it had butted in and sent him
+sprawling. Although he was then 'between two fires,' the little lad was
+quick-witted enough to jump up and climb the fence just in time to
+escape a second attack from the ugly old beast. From a safe place he
+watched the bees and the ram with keen concern. But Edison says his
+mother used up a lot of arnica on his small frame after this double
+encounter. The little lad early learned to observe that 'It's a great
+life if you don't weaken!'
+
+"Mr. Edison tells this story about himself:
+
+"'Even as a small boy, before we moved away from Milan, I used to try to
+make experiments. Once I built a fire in a barn. I remember how startled
+I was to see how fast a fire spreads in such a place. Almost before I
+knew it the barn was in flames and I barely escaped with my life.
+
+"The neighbors thought I ought to be disciplined and made an example of.
+My mortified parents consented and I was publicly whipped in the village
+square. I suppose it was a good lesson to me and made the neighbors feel
+easier. But I think seeing that barn burning down made me feel worse
+than the whipping,--though I felt I deserved that, too.'
+
+"The Edisons moved to Port Huron, Michigan, and lived a little way out
+of the town on the St. Clair river, where it flows out of Lake Huron.
+The house was in an orchard, but within easy walking distance of the
+town. There was no compulsory school law in those days and young Edison
+did not attend school, but his mother taught him all she could. She was
+a good teacher--she had taught school before she was married--but even
+she could not be answering questions all the time. There was a public
+library in town, so the boy spent a good deal of his time there. He
+would have liked to read all the books in the library--but he started in
+on a cyclopedia. He thought because there was 'something about
+everything' in that, he'd know all there was to know if he read it
+through. But he soon found question after question to ask that the
+cyclopedia did not answer. Some of the books he took home to read.
+
+"Mr. Edison, the boy's father, had built a wooden tower that permitted a
+beautiful view of the town, River St. Clair and Lake Huron; one could
+see miles around in Michigan and over into Canada. Mr. Edison charged
+ten cents a head to go up and get the view on top of this tower. Very
+few people came, so the tower was not a great success. But the boy went
+up there to read, not caring so much for the view as to be alone.
+
+"Young Edison read all he could find about electricity. That always
+fascinated him. But the father seemed to have a hard time making a
+living and Al, as they called the boy, went to work. He began selling
+newspapers in Port Huron, but there was not much in that, so he got a
+chance to sell on the seven o'clock train for Detroit. He applied at the
+Grand Trunk offices for the job and made his arrangements before he told
+any one. He had to be at the station at 6:30 A.M. and have his stock all
+ready before the train started, which compelled him to leave home at
+six. The train was a local with only three cars--baggage, smoking and
+passenger. The baggage car was partitioned off into three compartments.
+One of these was never used, so Al was allowed to take that for his
+papers to which he added fruits, candies and other wares.
+
+"The run down to Detroit took over three hours. His train did not start
+back till 4:30 in the afternoon, so the lad had about six hours in the
+big city. He took all the time he needed to buy stock to sell on the
+train and to eat his lunch. This left him several hours for reading in
+the Detroit public library, where he found more books on the subjects he
+liked, more answers to appease his never abating curiosity."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+GETTING THE MONEY-MAKING HABIT
+
+
+"Those were the anxious days of the Civil War," the lecturer continued,
+"and every-one was worked up to a high pitch of excitement most of the
+time. When it was rumored that a battle had been fought the newspapers
+sold 'like hot cakes.' Any other boy would have been satisfied if he
+could supply as many papers as people wanted and let it go at that. But
+that was not the way with young Edison. He was not content with hoping
+for an opportunity. He made his opportunity.
+
+"In spite of his getting into trouble so often, Al was a most likable
+lad, and a real boy,--earnest, honest and industrious. He had a big
+stock of horse sense and a great fund of humor. Though his life seemed
+to be 'all work and no play,' he took great pleasure in his work. In the
+course of his daily routine at Detroit, he could hardly help making
+friends on the _Free Press_, the greatest newspaper there. In this he
+resembled that other great inventor, also a great worker as a
+boy--Benjamin Franklin.
+
+"Young Edison had a friend up in the printing office who let him see
+proofs from the edition being set up, so that he kept posted as to what
+was to be in the paper before it came off the press. After the _Free
+Press_ came out, he had to get an armful and hustle for his train. In
+this shrewd way the train-boy was better off than 'he who runs may
+read,' for he _had_ read, and could _shout_ while running: 'All about
+the big battle!' So he sold his papers in short order. He had learned to
+estimate ahead how many papers the news of a battle ought to sell, and
+so he stocked up well beforehand. One day he saw in the advance proofs a
+harrowing account of the great two-days' battle of Shiloh. He grasped
+not only the news value but also the strategic importance of that
+victory.
+
+"Running down to the telegraph office at the Grand Trunk Station in
+Detroit, he told the operator all about it. Edison has told us himself
+about the offer he made that telegrapher:
+
+"'If you will wire to every station on my run and get the station master
+to chalk up on the blackboard out on the station platform that there has
+been a big battle, with thousands killed and wounded, I'll give you
+_Harper's Weekly_ free for six months!'
+
+"The operator agreed and that Edison boy tore back to the _Free Press_
+office.
+
+"'I want a thousand papers!' he gasped. 'Pay you to-morrow!' This was
+more than three times as many as he had taken out before, so the clerk
+refused to trust him.
+
+"'Where's Mr. Storey?' demanded the lad. The clerk snickered as he
+jerked his head toward where the managing editor was talking with a
+'big' man from out of town. Young Edison was forced to break in, but the
+editor noticed how anxious and business-like he was. When the boy had
+told him what he wanted, the great newspaper man scribbled a few words
+on a scrap of paper and handed it down to him, saying:
+
+"'Here, take this. Wish you good luck!'
+
+"Al handed the clerk the order and got his thousand papers at once. He
+hired another 'newsie' to help him down to the station with them. Long
+after this, he told the rest of the story:
+
+"'At Utica, the first station, twelve miles out of Detroit, I usually
+sold two papers at five cents each. As we came up I put my head out and
+thought I saw an excursion party. The people caught sight of me and
+commenced to shout. Then it began to occur to me that they wanted
+papers. I rushed back into the car, grabbed an armful, and sold forty
+there.
+
+"'Mt. Clemens was the next stop. When that station came in sight, I
+thought there was a riot. The platform was crowded with a howling mob,
+and I realized that they were after news of Shiloh, so I raised the
+price to ten cents, and sold a hundred and fifty where I never had got
+rid of more than a dozen.
+
+"'At other stations these scenes were repeated, but the climax came when
+we got to Port Huron. I had to jump off the train about a quarter of a
+mile from the station which was situated out of town. I had paid a big
+Dutch boy to haul several loads of sand to that point, and the engineers
+knew I was going to jump so they slowed down a bit. Still, I was quite
+an expert on the jump. I heaved off my bundle of papers and landed all
+right. As usual, the Dutch boy met me and we carried the rest of the
+papers toward the town.
+
+"'We had hardly got half way when we met a crowd hurrying toward the
+station. I thought I knew what they were after, so I stopped in front of
+a church where a prayer-meeting was just closing. I raised the price to
+twenty-five cents and began taking in a young fortune.
+
+"'Almost at the same moment the meeting closed and the people came
+rushing out. The way the coin materialized made me think the deacons had
+forgotten to pass the plate in that meeting!'
+
+"In those days they commonly called trainboys 'Candy Butchers'; the
+terms 'Newsies' and 'Peanuts' may have been used then also but were not
+so common. They are not so common on trains nowadays, except in the West
+and South, but formerly they were even more of an institution than the
+water cooler or the old-fashioned winter stove. The station-shouting
+brakemen were no more familiar or comforting to weary passengers than
+the 'candy butchers' and their welcome stock."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+_Paul Pry_ ON WHEELS
+
+
+"With all he had to do, young Edison found that he had time on his hands
+which he might yet put to good use. One would think being 'candy
+butcher' and newsboy from 6 A.M. to 9 P.M., and making from $10.00 to
+$12.00 a day might satisfy the boy's cravings. But contentment wasn't
+one of Al Edison's numerous virtues.
+
+"He did not know it, but he was following the footsteps of that other
+great American inventor, Benjamin Franklin, as a printer, editor,
+proprietor and publisher. In one of the stores where he stocked up with
+books, magazines and stationery for his train, there was an old printing
+press which the dealer, Mr. Roys, had taken for a debt. Mr. Roys once
+told the little story of that press:
+
+"'Young Edison, who was a good boy and a favorite of mine, bought goods
+of me and had the run of the store. He saw the press, and I suppose he
+thought at once that he would publish a paper himself, for he could
+catch onto a new idea like lightning. He got me to show him how it
+worked, and finally bought it for a small sum.'
+
+"From his printer friends on the _Free Press_ he bought some old type.
+Watching the compositors at work, he learned to set type and make up the
+forms, so within two weeks after purchasing the press he brought out the
+first number of _The Weekly Herald_--the first paper ever written, set
+up, proof-read, printed, published and sold (besides all his other work)
+on a local train--and this by a boy of fourteen!
+
+"Of course, it had to be a sort of local paper, giving train and station
+gossip with sage remarks and 'preachments' from the boy's standpoint. It
+sold for three cents a copy, or eight cents a month to regular
+customers. Its biggest 'sworn circulation' was 700 copies, of which
+about 500 were _bona fide_ subscriptions, and the rest 'news-stand
+sales.'
+
+"The great English engineer, Robert Stephenson, grandson of the inventor
+and improver of the locomotive, is said to have ordered a thousand
+copies to be distributed on railways all over the world to show what an
+American newsboy could do.
+
+"Even the _London Times_, known for generations as '_The Thunderer_,'
+and long considered the greatest newspaper in both hemispheres, quoted
+from _The Weekly Herald_, as the only paper of its kind in the world.
+Young Edison's news venture was a financial success, for it added $45.00
+a month to his already large income.
+
+"But _Paul Pry_ came to grief because he tried to be funny in disclosing
+the secret motives of certain persons. People differ widely in their
+notions about fun. In a local paper, too, some one's feelin's are likely
+to get 'lacerated!' This was the case with a six-foot subscriber to the
+paper which was published then under Al Edison's pen name of 'Paul Pry.'
+One day the juvenile editor happened to meet his huge and wrathy reader
+too near the St. Clair river. Whereupon the subscriber took the editor
+by his collar and waistband and heaved him, neck and crop, into the
+river. Edison swam to shore, wet, but otherwise undisturbed,
+discontinued the publication of _Paul Pry_, and bade good-by to
+journalism forever!
+
+"While young Edison was wading through such mammoth works as Sears's
+_History of the World_, Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, and the
+_Dictionary of Sciences_ (and had begun to wrestle desperately with
+Newton's _Principia_!) he was showing a rare passion for chemistry. He
+'annexed' the cellar for a laboratory. His mother said she counted, at
+one time, no less than two hundred bottles of chemicals, all shrewdly
+marked POISON, so that no one but himself would dare to touch them.
+Before long the lad took up so much room in his mother's cellar with his
+'mess,' as she called it, that she told him to take it out, 'bag and
+baggage.'
+
+"He once stated that his great desire to make money was largely because
+he needed the cash to buy materials for experiments. Therefore, in this
+emergency, he took keen pleasure in buying all the chemicals, appliances
+and apparatus he wished, and installing them in his real 'bag and
+baggage' car. As the railroad authorities had allowed him to set up a
+printing press, in addition to his miscellaneous stock in trade, why
+should he not have his laboratory there also? So his stock of batteries,
+chemicals and other 'calamity' grew apace.
+
+"One day, after several weeks of happiness in his moving laboratory, he
+was 'dead to the world' in an experiment. Suddenly the car gave a lurch
+and jolted the bottle of phosphorus off its shelf. It broke, flamed up,
+set fire to the floor and endangered the whole train. While the boy was
+frantically fighting the fire, the Scotch conductor, red-headed and
+wrathy, rushed in and helped him to put it out.
+
+"By this time they were stopping at Mt. Clemens, where the indignant
+Scotchman boxed the boy's ears and put him out also. Then the man threw
+the lad's bottles, apparatus and batteries after him, as if they were
+unloading a carload of freight there.
+
+"These blows on his ears were the cause of the inventor's life-long
+deafness. But there never was a gamer sport than Thomas A. Edison. Once,
+long after this, he saw the labor of years and the outlay of at least
+two million dollars at the seashore washed away in a single night by a
+sudden storm. He only laughed and said that was 'spilt milk, not worth
+crying over.' Disappointments of that sort were 'the fortunes of war' or
+'all for the best' to him. The injury so unjustly inflicted on him by
+that irate conductor was not a defect to him. Many years afterwards he
+said:
+
+"'This deafness has been of great advantage to me in various ways. When
+in a telegraph office I could hear only the instrument directly on the
+table at which I sat, and, unlike the other operators, I was not
+bothered by the other instruments.
+
+"'Again, in experimenting on the telephone, I had to improve the
+transmitter so that I could hear it. This made the telephone commercial,
+as the magneto telephone receiver of Bell was too weak to be used as a
+transmitter commercially.'
+
+"It was the same with the phonograph. The great defect of that
+instrument was the rendering of the overtones in music and the hissing
+consonants in speech. Edison worked over one year, twenty hours a day,
+Sundays and all, to get the word 'specie' perfectly recorded and
+reproduced on the phonograph. When this was done, he knew that
+everything else could be done,--which was a fact.
+
+"'Again,' Edison resumed, 'my nerves have been preserved intact.
+Broadway is as quiet to me as a country village is to a person with
+normal hearing.'"
+
+The talk suddenly ceased. Then another voice announced from out of the
+horn: "The second installment of the lectures on Edison will be given at
+3 P.M. next Friday. We will now hear a concert by Wayple's band."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+OPINIONS
+
+
+The boys and girls filed out, after most of them had expressed
+appreciation of Professor Gray's interest in their enjoyment, and on the
+street a lively discussion started. Terry Watkins was laughing
+derisively at some remark of Cora Siebold, who, arm in arm with her chum
+"Dot" Myers, had paused long enough to fire a broadside at him.
+
+"Why don't some of you smarties who talk so much about the wonderful
+things you can do make yourselves receiving sets! Too lazy? Baseball and
+swimming and loafing around are all you think about. But leave it to the
+girls; Dot and I are going to tackle one."
+
+"What? You two? Won't it be a mess? Bet you can't hear yourselves think
+on it. Girls building a radio! Ho, ho, ho!"
+
+"Bet there'll be a looking-glass in it somewhere," laughed Ted Bissell.
+
+"Well, we aren't planning to ask advice from either of you," Cora said.
+
+"No, and it would be worth very little if you got any," Bill Brown
+offered, as he and Gus, who had been detained a moment by Professor
+Gray, joined the loitering group.
+
+"Thanks, Mr. Brown," said Dot, half shyly.
+
+"Who asked you for your two cents' worth?" Terry demanded.
+
+"I'm donating it, to your service. Go and do something yourself before
+you make fun of others," Bill said.
+
+"That's right, too, Billy. Terry can't drive a carpet tack, nor draw a
+straight line with a ruler." Ted was always in a bantering mood and
+eager for a laugh at anybody. "I'll bet Cora's radio will radiate
+royally and right. You going to make one--you and Gus?"
+
+"I guess we can't afford it," Bill replied quickly. "We're both going to
+work in the mill next Monday. Long hours and steady, and not too much
+pay, either. But we need the money; eh, Gus?"
+
+"We do," agreed Gus, smiling.
+
+Bill's countenance was altogether rueful. Life had not been very kind to
+him and he very naturally longed for some opportunity to dodge continued
+hardship. He wished that he might, like the boy Edison, make
+opportunity, but that sounded more plausible in lectures than in real
+life. He was moodily silent now, while the others engaged in a spirited
+discussion started by Dot's saying kindly:
+
+"Well, lots of boys and girls have to work and they often are the better
+for it. Edison did--and was."
+
+"Oh, I guess he could have been just as great, or greater if he hadn't
+worked," remarked Terry sententiously. "It isn't only poor boys that
+amount to----"
+
+"Mostly," said Bill.
+
+"Oh, of course, _you'd_ say that. We'll charge your attitude up to
+envy."
+
+"When I size up some of the rich men's sons I know, I'm rather glad I'm
+poor," said Bill, "and I would rather make a thousand dollars all by my
+own efforts than inherit ten thousand."
+
+"I guess you'd take what you could get," Terry offered, and Bill was
+quick to reply:
+
+"We know there'll be a lot coming to you and it will be interesting to
+know what you'll do with it and how long you'll have it."
+
+"He will never add anything to it," said Ted, who also was the son of
+wealth, but not in the least snobbish. The others all laughed at this
+and Terry turned away angrily.
+
+Bill, further inspired by what he deemed an unfair reference to Edison,
+began to wax eloquent to the others concerning his hero.
+
+"I don't believe Edison would have amounted to half as much as he has if
+he hadn't had the hard knocks that a poor fellow always gets. Terry
+makes me tired with his high and mighty----"
+
+"Oh, don't you mind him!" said Cora.
+
+"You've read a lot about Edison, haven't you, Bill?" asked Dot, knowing
+that the lame boy possessed a hero worshiper's admiration for the wizard
+of electricity and an overmastering desire to emulate the great
+inventor. The girl sat down on the grassy bank, pulled Cora down beside
+her and in her gentle, kindly way, continued to draw Bill out. "When
+only quite a little fellow he had become a great reader, the lecturer
+said."
+
+"I should say he was a reader!" Bill declared. "Why, when he was eleven
+years old he had read Hume's History of England all through and--"
+
+"Understood about a quarter of it, I reckon," laughed Ted.
+
+"Understood more than you think," Bill retorted. "He did more in that
+library than just read an old encyclopedia; he got every book off the
+shelves, one after the other, and dipped into them all, but of course,
+some didn't interest him. He read a lot on 'most every subject; mostly
+about science and chemistry and engineering and mechanics, but a lot
+also on law and even moral philosophy and what you call it?
+oh--ethics--and all that sort of thing. He had to read to find out
+things; there seemed to be no one who could tell him the half that he
+wanted to know, and I guess a lot of people got pretty tired of having
+him ask so many questions they couldn't answer. And when they would say,
+'I don't know,' he'd get mad and yell: '_Why_ don't you know?'"
+
+"Hume's history,--why, we have that at home, in ten volumes. If he got
+outside of all of that he was going some!" declared Ted.
+
+"Well, he did, and all of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
+too."
+
+"Holy cats! What stopped him?" Ted queried.
+
+"He didn't stop--never stopped. But he had to earn his living--didn't
+he? He couldn't read all the books and find out about everything right
+off. But you bet he found out a lot, and he believes that after a fellow
+gets some rudiments of education he can learn more by studying in his
+own way and experimenting than by just learning by rote and rule. Maybe
+he's not altogether right about that, for education is mighty fine and
+I'd like to go to a technical school; Gus and I both are aiming for
+that, but we're going to read and study a lot our own way, too, and
+experiment; aren't we, Gus? Nobody can throw Edison's ideas down when
+they stop to think how much he knows and what he's done."
+
+"He certainly has accomplished a great deal," the usually reticent Gus
+offered.
+
+"And yet he seems to be very modest about it," was Cora's contribution.
+
+"Of course, he is; every man who does really big things is never
+conceited," declared Bill.
+
+"Oh, I don't know. How about Napoleon?" queried Dot.
+
+"Napoleon? All he ever did was to get up a big army and kill people and
+grab a government. He had brains, of course, but he didn't put them to
+much real use, except for his own glory. You can't put Napoleon in the
+same class with Edison."
+
+"Oh, Billy, you can't say that, can you?"
+
+"I have said it and I'll back it up. Look how Edison has given billions
+of people pleasure and comfort and helped trade and commerce. Nobody
+could do more than that. War and fighting and being a king,--that's
+nothing but selfishness! Some day people will build the largest
+monuments to folks who have done big things for humanity,--not to
+generals and kings. Just knowing how to scrap isn't much good. I've got
+more respect for Professor Gray than I have for the champion prize
+fighter. You can't-----"
+
+"Maybe if you knew how to use your fists, you wouldn't talk that way;
+eh, Gus?" queried Ted.
+
+"Well, I don't know but I think Bill is right. It's nice to know how to
+scrap if scrapping has to be done, but it shouldn't ever have to be
+done,--between nations, anyway." This was a long speech for Gus, but
+evidently he meant it.
+
+Bill continued:
+
+"Talking about Edison when he was a boy: he wasn't afraid of work,
+either. He got up at about five, got back to supper at nine, or later,
+and maybe that wasn't some day! But he made from $12 to $20 a day
+profits, for it was Civil War times and everything was high."
+
+"I think I'd work pretty hard for that much," said Gus.
+
+"I reckon," remarked Ted, "that he had a pretty good reason to say that
+successful genius is one per cent. inspiration and ninety-nine per cent.
+perspiration."
+
+"But I guess that's only partly right and partly modesty," declared
+Bill. "There must have been a whole lot more than fifty per cent,
+inspiration at work to do what he has done. But he is too busy to go
+around blowing his own horn, even from a talking-machine record."
+
+"He doesn't need to do any blowing when you're around," Ted offered.
+
+Bill laughed outright at that and there seemed nothing further to be
+said. The girls decided to go on, Ted walked up the street with them,
+and Gus and his lame companion turned in the opposite direction toward
+the less opulent section of the town. There were chores to do at home
+and Gus often lent a hand to help his father who was the town carpenter.
+Bill, the only son of a widow whose small means were hardly adequate for
+the needs of herself and boy, did all he could to lessen the daily
+pinch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+THE BOYHOOD OF A GENIUS
+
+
+The class had assembled again in Professor Gray's study and all were
+eager to hear the second talk on Edison. There was a delay of many
+minutes past the hour stated, but the anticipation was such that the
+time was hardly noticed. During the interim, Professor Gray came to
+where Bill and Gus sat.
+
+"I hear that you boys intend to go to work in the mills next week," he
+said. "Well, now, I have some news and a proposition, so do not be
+disappointed if the beginning sounds discouraging. In the first place I
+saw Mr. Deering, superintendent of the mills, again and he told me that
+while he would make good his promise to take you on, there would hardly
+be more than a few weeks' work. Orders are scarce and they expect to lay
+off men in August, though there is likely to be a resumption of business
+in the early fall when you are getting back into school work. So
+wouldn't it be better to forego the mill work,--there goes the
+announcement! I'll talk with you before you leave."
+
+"But we need the money; don't we, Gus?"
+
+"We do," said Gus.
+
+"I wonder if the Professor thinks we're millionaires." Bill was plainly
+disappointed.
+
+"Oh, well, he didn't finish what he was saying to us. Let's listen to
+the weather report," demanded Gus, ever optimistic and joyful.
+
+The words came clearer than ever out of that wonderful horn. There was
+to be rain that afternoon--local thunderstorms, followed by clearing and
+cooler. On the morrow it would be cloudy and unsettled.
+
+Bill felt as though that prediction suited his mental state! Gus was
+never the kind to worry; he sat smiling at the horn and he received with
+added pleasure the music of a band which followed. And then came the
+second talk on the boyhood of the master of invention.
+
+"It has been said," spouted the horn, "that high mental characteristics
+are accompanied by heroic traits. Whether true or not generally, it was
+demonstrated in young Edison and it governed his learning telegraphy and
+the manner thereof. The story is told by the telegraph operator at Mt.
+Clemens, where the red-headed conductor threw the train boy and his
+laboratory off the train.
+
+"'Young Edison,' says the station agent, 'had endeared himself to the
+station agents, operators and their families all along the line. As the
+mixed train did the way-freight work and the switching at Mt. Clemens,
+it usually consumed not less than thirty minutes, during which time Al
+would play with my little two-and-a-half-year old son, Jimmy.
+
+"'It was at 9:30 on a lovely summer morning. The train had arrived,
+leaving its passenger coach and baggage car standing on the main track
+at the north end of the station platform, the pin between the baggage
+and the first box car having been pulled out. There were about a dozen
+freight cars, which had pulled ahead and backed in upon the
+freight-house siding. The train men had taken out a box car and pushed
+it with force enough to reach the baggage car without a brakeman
+controlling it.
+
+"'At this moment Al turned and saw little Jimmy on the main track,
+throwing pebbles over his head in the sunshine, all unconscious of
+danger. Dashing his papers and cap on the platform he plunged to the
+rescue.
+
+"'The train baggage man was the only eyewitness. He told me that when he
+saw Al jump toward Jimmy he thought sure both boys would be crushed.
+Seizing Jimmy in his arms just as the box car was about to strike them,
+young Edison threw himself off the track. There wasn't a tenth of a
+second to lose. By this instinctive act he saved his own life, for if he
+had thrown the little chap first and then himself, he would have been
+crushed under the wheels.
+
+"'As it was, the front wheel struck the heel of the newsboy's boot and
+he and Jimmy fell, face downward on the sharp, fresh-gravel ballast so
+hard that they were both bleeding and the baggage man thought sure the
+wheel had gone over them. To his surprise their injuries proved to be
+only skin deep.
+
+"'I was in the ticket office when I heard the shriek and ran out in time
+to see the train hands carrying the two boys to the platform. My first
+thought was: 'How can I, a poor man, reward the dear lad for risking his
+life to save my child's?' Then it came to me, 'I can teach him
+telegraphy.' When I offered to do this, he smiled and said, 'I'd like to
+learn,' and learn he did. I never saw any one pick it up so fast. It was
+a sort of second nature with him. After the conductor treated him so
+badly, throwing off his apparatus, boxing his ears and making him hard
+of hearing, Al seemed to lose his interest in his business as train boy.
+
+"'Some days Al would stop at my station at half past nine in the morning
+and stay all day while the train went on to Detroit and returned to Mt.
+Clemens in the evening. The train baggage man who saw Al rescue Jimmy
+would get the papers in Detroit and bring them up to Mt. Clemens for
+him. During these long hours the Edison boy made rapid progress in
+learning. And every day he made the most of the half hour or more of
+practice he had while the train stopped at Mt. Clemens each way.
+
+"'At the end of a couple of weeks I missed him for several days. Next
+time he dropped off he showed me a set of telegraph instruments he had
+made in a gunshop in Detroit, where the stationer who had sold him goods
+had told the owner of the machine shop the story of the printing press.'
+
+"The first place young Edison worked after he was graduated from the Mt.
+Clemens private school of telegraphy was in Port Huron, his home town.
+Here he had too many boy friends to let him keep on the job as a
+youthful telegrapher should. Besides, he had a laboratory in his home
+and found it too fascinating to take enough sleep. Between too much side
+work and mischief, young Edison sometimes found himself in trouble. Some
+of his escapades he has described to his friend and assistant, William
+H. Meadowcroft.
+
+"'About every night we could hear the soldiers stationed at Fort
+Gratiot. One would call out: "Corporal of Guard Number One!" This was
+repeated from one sentry to another till it reached the barracks and
+"No. 1" came out to see what was wanted. The Dutch boy (who used to help
+me with the papers) and I thought we would try our hand in military
+matters.
+
+"'So one dark night I called, "Corporal of the Guard Number One!" The
+second sentry, thinking it had come from the man stationed at the end,
+repeated this, and the words went down the line as usual. This reached
+Corporal Number One, and brought him back to our end only to find out
+that he had been tricked by someone.
+
+"'We did this three times, but on the third night they were watching.
+They caught the Dutch boy and locked him up in the fort. Several
+soldiers chased me home. I ran down cellar where there were two barrels
+of potatoes and a third which was almost empty. I dumped the contents of
+three barrels into two, sat down, pulled the empty barrel over my head,
+bottom upwards. The soldiers woke my father, and they all came hunting
+for me with lanterns and candles.
+
+"'The corporal was perfectly sure I had come down cellar. He couldn't
+see how I had got away, and asked father if there wasn't a secret place
+for me to hide in the cellar. When father said "No," he exclaimed,
+"Well, that's very strange!"
+
+"'You can understand how glad I was when they left, for I was in a
+cramped position, and as there had been rotten potatoes in that barrel,
+I was beginning to feel sick.
+
+"'The next morning father found me in bed and gave me a good switching
+on my legs--the only whipping I ever received from him, though mother
+kept behind the old clock a switch which had the bark well worn off! My
+mother's ideas differed somewhat from mine, most of all when I mussed up
+the house with my experiments.
+
+"'The Dutch boy was released the next morning.'
+
+"Another escapade described by Edison was pulled off on the Canada side
+of the St. Clair, in Port Sarnia, opposite Port Huron.
+
+"'In 1860 the Prince of Wales (afterward King Edward) visited Canada.
+Nearly every lad in Port Huron, including myself, went over to Sarnia to
+see the celebration. The town was profusely draped in flags--there were
+arches over some streets--and carpets were laid on the crossings for the
+prince to walk on.
+
+"'A stand was built where the prince was to be received by the mayor.
+Seeing all these arrangements raised my idea of the prince very high.
+But when he finally came I mistook the Duke of Newcastle for Albert
+Edward. The duke was a very fine-looking man. When I discovered my
+mistake--the Prince of Wales being a mere stripling--I was so
+disappointed that I couldn't help mentioning the fact. Then several of
+us American boys expressed our belief that a prince wasn't much after
+all! One boy got well whipped for this and there was a free-for-all
+fight. The Canucks attacked the Yankee boys and, as they greatly
+outnumbered us, we were all badly licked and I got a black eye. This
+always prejudiced me against that kind of ceremonial and folly.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE MAKING OF AN INVENTOR
+
+
+"It was during the time young Edison was employed at Port Huron," the
+radio continued, "that the cable under River St. Clair between that city
+and Port Sarnia was severed by an ice jam. The river at that point is
+three quarters of a mile wide. Navigation was suspended and the ice had
+broken up so that the stream could not be crossed on foot nor could the
+broken cable lying in the bed of the river be mended.
+
+"The ingenious young telegrapher suggested signaling Sarnia by giving,
+with the whistle of a locomotive, the dot-and-dash letters of the Morse
+telegraph code. Or course, this strange whistling caused considerable
+wonderment on the Canada side until a shrewd operator recognized the
+long-and-short telegraph letters, and communication was at once
+established--important messages being transmitted by steam whistles--a
+gigantic system of broadcasting. This was a simple way out of a sublime
+difficulty involving the affairs of two great peoples.
+
+"But the too-enterprising operator had started so much trouble for
+himself that he decided to find employment where his mind would not be
+distracted from his job or tempted away from working out his chemical
+and electrical experiments. Because of these he preferred the position
+of night operator. His telegraph work was really a side line.
+
+"On these accounts he found a job as night operator at Stratford
+Junction, Canada West, as Ontario was then called. He was only sixteen
+but his salary of twenty-five dollars a month seemed very small after
+making ten or twelve dollars a day as 'candy butcher.' But on account of
+the chances it gave him for experimenting, he resigned himself to the
+smallness of his pay. The treatment he had received at the hands of that
+train conductor had convinced him that he could not follow his bent
+while working all day on the railroad.
+
+"Mr. Edison likes to tell of the prevailing ignorance of the science of
+telegraphy. He once told a friend:
+
+"'The telegraph men themselves seemed unable to explain how the thing
+worked, though I was always trying to find out. The best explanation I
+got was from an old Scotch line repairer employed by the Montreal
+Telegraph Company, then operating the railway wires. Here is the way he
+described it: "If you had a dachshund long enough to reach from
+Edinburgh to London, and pulled his tail in Edinburgh he would bark in
+London!"
+
+"'I could understand that, but I never could get it through me what went
+through the dog or over the wire.'
+
+"It was at Stratford Junction that the Edison boy began his career of
+invention. From the first his chief aim was the saving of labor. In
+order to be sure that the operators all along the line were not asleep
+at their posts, they were required to send to the train dispatcher's
+office a certain dot-and-dash signal every hour in the night. Young
+Edison was like young Napoleon in grudging himself the necessary hours
+of sleep. While the ingenious lad was fond of machinery--to make a
+machine of himself was utterly distasteful to him. It was against his
+principles and instincts to do anything a mere machine could do instead.
+So he made a little wheel with a few notches in the rim, with which he
+connected the clock and the transmitter, so that at the required instant
+every hour in the night the wheel revolved and sent the proper signal to
+headquarters. Meanwhile that wily young operator slept the sleep of the
+genius, if not of the just. Of one experience at this little place
+Edison relates:
+
+"'This night job just suited me, as I could have the whole day to
+myself. I had the faculty of sleeping in a chair any time for a few
+minutes at a time. I taught the night yardman my call, so I could get
+half an hour's sleep now and then between trains, and in case the
+station was called the watchman was to wake me. One night I got an order
+to hold a freight train, and I replied that I would do so. I ran out to
+find the signal man, but before I could locate him and get the signal
+set--_the train ran past!_ I rushed back to the telegraph office and
+reported that I could not hold it.
+
+"'But on receiving my first message that I would hold the freight, the
+dispatcher let another train leave the next station going the opposite
+way. There was a station near the Junction where the day operator slept.
+I started to run in that direction, but it was pitch dark. I fell down a
+culvert and was knocked senseless.'
+
+"The two engineers, with a feeling that all was not as it should be,
+kept a sharp lookout and saw each other just in time to avert a fatal
+accident. But young Edison was cited to trial, for gross neglect of
+duty, by the general manager. During an informal hearing two Englishmen
+called on the manager. While he was talking with them the young night
+operator disappeared. Boarding a freight train bound for Port Sarnia, he
+made his escape from the five-years' term in prison threatened by the
+irate manager. Edison afterward confessed that his heart did not leave
+his throat until he had crossed the ferry to Port Huron and 'one wide
+river' lay between him and the Canadian authorities.
+
+"Following his escape from Canada young Edison knocked about the home
+country, North and South. As it was during the Civil War he had some
+peculiar adventures. After making a long circuit, broken in many places
+by 'short circuits,' the journeyman telegrapher landed in Port Huron,
+and wrote his friend Adams, then in Boston to find him a job.
+
+"His friend relates that he asked the Boston manager of the Western
+Union Telegraph office if he wanted a first-class operator from the
+West.
+
+"'What kind of copy does he make?'" was the manager's first query.
+"Adams continues:
+
+"'I passed Edison's letter through the window for his inspection. He was
+surprised, for it was almost as plain as print, and asked:
+
+"'Can he take it off the wire like that?'
+
+"'I said he certainly could, and that there was nobody who could stick
+him. He told me to send for my man and I did. When Edison came he landed
+the job without delay.'"
+
+"The inventor himself has told the story of his reporting for duty in
+Boston:
+
+"'The manager asked me when I was ready to go to work.
+
+"'_Now_!' said I, and was instructed to return at 5:30 P.M., which I
+did, to the minute. I came into the operators' room and was ushered into
+the night manager's presence.
+
+"'The weather was cold and I was poorly dressed; so my appearance, as I
+was told afterward, occasioned considerable merriment, and the night
+operators conspired to "put up a job on the jay from the wild and woolly
+West." I was given a pen and told to take the New York No. 1 wire. After
+an hour's wait I was asked to take my place at a certain table and
+receive a special report for the Boston _Herald_, the conspirators
+having arranged to have one of the fastest operators in New York send
+the despatch and "salt" the new man.
+
+"'Without suspecting what was up I sat down, and the New York man
+started in very slowly. Soon he increased his speed and I easily adapted
+my pace to his. This put the man on his mettle and he "laid in his best
+licks," but soon reached his limit.
+
+"'At this point I happened to look up and saw the operators all looking
+over my shoulder with faces that seemed to expect something funny. Then
+I knew they were playing a trick on me, but I didn't let on.
+
+"'Before long the New York man began slurring his words, running them
+together and sticking the signals; but I had been used to all that sort
+of thing in taking reports, so I wasn't put out in the least. At last,
+when I thought the joke had gone far enough, and as the special was
+nearly finished, I calmly opened the key and remarked over the wire to
+my New York rival:
+
+"'Say, young man, change off and send with the other foot!'
+
+"'This broke the fellow up so that he turned the job over to another
+operator to finish, to the real discomfiture of the fellows around me.'
+
+"Friend Adams goes on to tell of other happennings at the Hub:
+
+"'One day Edison was more than delighted to pick up a complete set of
+Faraday's works, bringing them home at 4 A.M. and reading steadily until
+breakfast time, when he said, with great enthusiasm:
+
+"'Adams, I have got so much to do and life is so short, _I am going to
+hustle_!'"
+
+"'Then he started off to breakfast on a dead run.'
+
+"He soon opened a workshop in Boston and began making experiments. It
+was here that he made a working model of his vote recorder, the first
+invention he ever patented.
+
+"Edison has told us of this trip to Washington and how he showed that
+his invention could register the House vote, pro and con, almost
+instantaneously. The chairman of the committee saw how quickly and
+perfectly it worked and said to him:
+
+"'Young man, if there is any invention on earth that we _don't_ want
+down here, it is this. Filibustering on votes is one of the greatest
+weapons in the hands of a minority to prevent bad legislation, and this
+instrument would stop that.'
+
+"The youth felt the force of this so much that he decided from that time
+forth not to try to invent anything unless it would meet a genuine
+demand,--not from a few, but many people.
+
+"It was while in Boston that Edison grew weary of the monotonous life of
+a telegraph operator and began to work up an independent business along
+inventive lines, so that he really began his career as an inventor at
+the Hub.
+
+"After the vote recorder, he invented a stock ticker, and started a
+ticker service in Boston which had thirty or forty subscribers, and
+operated from a room over the Gold Exchange.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The third talk on Mr. Edison and his inventions will be given from this
+broadcasting station WUK next Monday at the same hour."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
+
+
+As the young people rose to depart, Professor Gray beckoned Bill and Gus
+to remain. He turned to a large table desk, took from it a roll of
+papers, untied and laid before the boys a number of neatly executed
+plans and sections--all drawn to scale. In an upper corner was
+pen-printed the words:
+
+Water Power Electric Plant to be erected for and on the estate of Mr.
+James Hooper, Fairview. Engineer and Contractor, J. R. Gray.
+
+"Boys, you see here," began the Professor, "the layout of a job to be
+done on the Hooper property. You know I do this sort of thing in a small
+way between school terms and I am told to go ahead with this at once.
+The amount I am to receive, on my own estimate, is ample, but naturally
+not very great; it covers all material, labor and a fair profit.
+
+"But now," he went on, "comes the hitch. I am compelled, by another
+matter which is far more important,--having been appointed one of the
+consulting engineers on the Great Laurel Valley Power Plant,--to desert
+this job almost entirely, and yet, I am bound, on the strength of my
+word, to see that it is completed. If I hand it over to another
+engineer, or a construction firm, it will cost me more than I get out of
+it. And naturally, while I don't expect to gain a thing, I would prefer
+also not to lose anything. Now, what would you fellows advise in this
+matter?"
+
+Bill looked at Gus and Gus looked at Bill; there was a world of meaning,
+of hope and hesitation, in both glances. The Professor saw this, and he
+spoke again:
+
+"Out with it, boys! I asked you to stay, in order to hear what you might
+say about it. There seems to be only one logical solution. I cannot
+afford to spend a lot of my own money and yet I will gladly give all of
+my own profits, for I must complete Mr. Hooper's job and look after my
+bigger task at once."
+
+"I don't suppose," said Gus, with the natural diffidence he often
+experienced in expressing his mind, "that we could help you."
+
+"Why, of course we can, and we will, too," said Bill, the idea breaking
+on him suddenly. "We can carry on the work perfectly under your
+occasional direction. Is that what you wanted us to say, Professor?"
+
+"I did. I hoped you would see it that way and I wanted you to
+acknowledge the incentive to yourselves. I am sure you can carry on the
+work, as you say. We have had enough of practical experimentation
+together, and then, what made me think of you, was that fish dam you put
+in for old Mr. McIlvain last summer."
+
+The boys glanced at each other again, but this time with mutual feelings
+of pride. Bill had interested a well-to-do farmer in making a pool below
+a fine spring and with his consent and some materials he had furnished.
+The boys had stonewalled a regular gulch, afterwards stocking the
+crystal clear pool they had made with landlocked salmon obtained from
+the state hatchery. The fish were now averaging a foot in length and
+many a fine meal the boys and the farmer had out of that pond.
+
+"Now, fellows, I'll divide between you the entire profits," Professor
+Gray began, but Bill and Gus both stopped him.
+
+"No, sir! You pay us no more than we could have got in the mill, and the
+rest is yours. Look at the fun we'll have, that's worth a lot." Bill
+always tried to be logical and he never failed to have a reason for his
+conclusions. "And then," he added, "this will be for you and we couldn't
+do enough--"
+
+"I'll see that you are paid and thank you, also," laughed the Professor.
+"And tomorrow morning, if it suits you, we shall start with the work,
+which means making a survey of the ground and listing materials. There
+will be a segment dam, with flood gates; about an eighth of a mile of
+piping; a Pelton wheel, boxed in; a generator speeded down; a
+two-horse-power storage battery; wiring and connections made with
+present lighting system in house; lodge; stables and garage;--and the
+thing is done if it works smoothly. The closest attention to every
+detail, taking the utmost pains, will be necessary and I know you
+will--"
+
+"Just like Edison!" Bill fairly shouted, making Professor Gray and Gus
+laugh heartily. The Professor said:
+
+"Eight! And we shall hope to follow his illustrious example. Tomorrow it
+is, then."
+
+When the two chums, elated over their sudden advancement to be
+professional engineers, came out on the street, they were not a little
+surprised to see all the girls and boys of the class waiting, and
+evidently for them, as they could but judge on hearing the words:
+
+"Here they come! We'll get him started. Bill knows."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+GUS HOLDS FORTH AGAIN
+
+
+"Say, old scout," cautioned Gus, in a low voice, "better not tell about
+our job. Let it dawn on them later."
+
+"Righto, Gus. It's nobody's business but ours. But what do the bunch
+want?"
+
+Bill soon found out, however, when Cora and Ted came to meet him.
+
+"We've had an argument, Terry and I, about Edison," said the girl, "and
+I know you can settle it. I said that--"
+
+"Hold on! Don't tell me who said anything; then it'll be fair," Bill
+demanded.
+
+"'O wise, wise judge!'" gibed Ted. "Ought to have a suit of ermine.
+Proper stunt, too. Let me put it, Cora; I'll be the court crier. Come on
+and let's squat on the bank like the rest. Judge, you ought to be the
+most elevated. Now, then, here's the dope: Did Edison really ever do
+anything much to help with the war?"
+
+"He did more than any other man," Bill declared promptly. "Positively!
+Everybody ought to know that. He invented a device so that they could
+smell a German submarine half a mile away, and they could tell when a
+torpedo was fired. Another invention turned a ship about with her prow
+facing the torpedo, so that it would be most likely to go plowing and
+not hit her, as it would with broadside on. I guess that saved many a
+ship and it helped to destroy lots of submarines with depth bombs. It
+got the Germans leery when their old submersibles failed to get in any
+licks and went out never to come back; it was as big a reason as any why
+they were so ready to quit. Well, who was right?"
+
+"I was!" announced Cora, gleefully. "Terry just can't see any good in
+Edison at all. He says he hires people who really make his inventions
+and he gets the credit for them. He says--"
+
+"I don't suppose it makes much difference what he says; he simply
+doesn't know what he's talk--"
+
+"You think you know, but do you? You've read a lot of gush that--" Terry
+began, but Gus interrupted him, almost a new thing for the quiet chap.
+
+"Listen, Terry: get right on this. Don't let a lot of foolish people
+influence you; people who can't ever see any real good in success and
+who blame everything on luck and crookedness. And Bill does know."
+
+"Anybody who tries to make Edison out a small potato," declared Bill,
+addressing the others, rather than the supercilious youth who had
+maligned his hero, "is simply ignorant of the facts. My father knew a
+man well who worked for Edison in his laboratory for years. He said that
+the stories about Edison making use of the inventions of others is all
+nonsense; it is Edison who has the ideas and who starts his assistants
+to experimenting, some at one thing, some at another, so as to find out
+whether the ideas are good.
+
+"He said that the yarns they tell about Edison's working straight ahead
+for hours and hours without food and sleep, then throwing himself on a
+couch for a short nap and getting up to go at it again are all exactly
+true, over and over again. He said that one of the boys in the shop
+tried to play a trick on the old man, as they call him, while he was
+napping on the couch. They rigged up a talking-machine on a stand and
+dressed it in some of Edison's old clothes, put a lullaby record on it,
+lugged it in, set it up in front of the couch and set it going, to
+express the idea that he was singing himself to sleep. But while they
+were at this Mr. Edison, getting on to the joke, for he generally naps
+with one eye open, got up and put a lot of stuffing under the couch
+spread, stuck his old hat on it so as to make it look as though his face
+was covered; then peered through the crack of a door. When the music
+commenced he opened the door and said:
+
+"'Boys, it won't work; music can't affect dead matter.' Then they pulled
+off the couch cover and all had a good laugh.
+
+"Now. you can see," Bill went on, with ever increasing enthusiasm, "just
+how that shows where Mr. Edison stands. Nobody can get ahead of him, and
+there isn't anyone with brains who knows him who doesn't admit he has
+more brains and is wider awake than anybody else. There's nothing that
+he does that doesn't show it. You have all seen his questionnaires for
+the men who are employed in his laboratories and you can bet they're no
+joke. And his inventions--they're not just the trifling things like
+egg-beaters, rat-traps, coat-hangers, bread-mixers, fly-swatters and
+lipsticks."
+
+"But some of these things are mighty cute and they coin the dough," said
+Ted.
+
+"Oh, they're ingenious and money-makers some of them, I'll admit, but we
+could get along very well without them and most of us do. But think of
+the real things Edison has done. The first phonograph; improving the
+telegraph so that six messages can be sent over the same wire at the
+same time; improving the telephone so that everybody can use it;
+collecting fine iron ore from sand and dirt by magnets; increasing the
+power and the lightness of the storage battery. And there are the
+trolleys and electric railways that have been made possible. And the
+incandescent electric lamp--how about that? Edison has turned his
+wonderful genius only to those things that benefit millions of--"
+
+"And he deserved to make millions out of it," said Ted.
+
+"I guess he has, too," offered one of the girls.
+
+"You bet, and that's what he works for: not just to benefit people,"
+asserted Terry.
+
+"I suppose your dad and most other guys got their dough all by accident
+while they were trying to help other folks; eh?" Bill fired at Terry.
+
+But the rich boy walked away, his usual method to keep from getting the
+worst of an argument.
+
+"Oh, I wish Grace Hooper were here," Cora said. "She's no snob like
+Terry and wouldn't she enjoy this?"
+
+"And her dad, too. Isn't he a nice old fellow, even though he's awfully
+rich?" laughed Dot.
+
+"He'd have his say about this argument, grammar or no grammar. He thinks
+a lot of this chap he calls Eddy's son," Mary Dean declared.
+
+"Great snakes! Does he really think the wizard is the child of some guy
+named Eddy?" Ted queried.
+
+"Sounds so," Cora said. "But you can't laugh at him, he's so kind and
+good and it would hurt Grace. He would be interested in radio, too."
+
+"Wonder he hasn't got a peach of a receiver set up in his house," Lucy
+Shore ventured.
+
+"Is he keen for all new-fangled things?" asked Ted.
+
+"You bet he is, though somebody would have to tell him and show him
+first. Well, people, I'm going home; who's along?"
+
+With one accord the others got to their feet and started up or down the
+street. Gus and Bill went together, as always; they had much to talk
+about.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+BRASS TACKS
+
+
+On the day following the radio lecture, true to his promise, Professor
+Gray led Bill and Gus to the broad acres of the Hooper estate and there,
+with the plans before them, they went over the ground chosen for the
+water-power site, comprehending every detail of the engineering task.
+Professor Gray was more pleased than surprised by the ready manner in
+which both lads took hold of the problem and even suggested certain
+really desirable changes.
+
+Bill indicated a better position fifty yards upstream for the dam and he
+sketched his idea of making a water-tight flood gate which was so
+ingenious that the Professor became enthusiastic and adopted it at once.
+
+After nearly a whole day spent thus along the rocky defiles of the
+little stream, eating their lunch beside a cold spring at the head of a
+miniature gulch, the trio of engineers were about to leave the spot when
+a gruff voice hailed them from the hilltop. Looking up they saw another
+group of three: an oldish man, a slim young fellow who was almost a
+grown man and a girl in her middle teens. The young people seemed to be
+quarreling, to judge from the black looks they gave each other, but the
+man paid them no attention. He beckoned Professor Gray to approach and
+came slowly down the hill to meet him, walking rather stiffly with a
+cane.
+
+"Well, Professor, you're beginnin' to git at it, eh? Struck any snags
+yit? Some job! I reckon you're not a goin' to make a heap outside the
+price you give me. When you goin' to git at it reg'lar?"
+
+"Right away, Mr. Hooper. To-morrow. We have been making our plans to-day
+and these young assistants of mine, who will principally conduct the
+work, are ready to start in at once. They--"
+
+"Them boys? No, sir! I want this here work done an' done right; no
+bunglin'. What's kids know about puttin' in water wheels an' 'letric
+lights? You said you was--"
+
+"These boys are no longer just kids, Mr. Hooper, and they know more than
+you think; all that is needed to make this job complete. Moreover, I am
+going to consult with them frequently by letter and I shall be entirely
+responsible. It is up to me, you know."
+
+Mr. Hooper evidently saw the sense in this last remark; he stood
+blinking his eyes at Bill and Gus and pondering. The slim youth plucked
+at his sleeve and said something in a low voice.
+
+Gus suddenly remembered the fellow. The youth had come into the town a
+week or two before. He had, without cause, deliberately kicked old Mrs.
+Sowerby's maltese cat, asleep on the pavement, out of his way, and Gus,
+a witness from across the street, had departed from his usually reticent
+mood to call the human beast down for it. But though Gus hoped the
+fellow would show resentment he did not, but walked on quickly instead.
+
+Mr. Hooper listened; then voiced a further and evidently suggested
+opposition:
+
+"Them lads is from the town here; ain't they? Nothin' but a lot o'
+hoodlums down yan. You can't expec'--"
+
+"You couldn't be more mistaken, Mr. Hooper. I'll admit there are a lot
+of young scamps in Fairview, but these boys, William Brown and Augustus
+Grier, belong to a more self-respecting bunch. I'll answer for them in
+every way."
+
+"Of course, Dad, Professor Gray knows about them. Billy and Gus are in
+our class at school." This from the girl who had joyfully greeted the
+Professor and the boys, yodeling a school yell from the hillside. Then
+she shot an aside at the slim youth: "You're a regular, downright
+simpleton, Thad, and forever looking for trouble. Don't listen to him,
+Dad."
+
+This appeared to settle the matter. Mr. Hooper squared his shoulders and
+grinned broadly, adding: "Well, I ain't just satisfied 'bout them
+knowin' how, but go to it your own way, Professor. I'm a goin' to watch
+it, you know; not to interfere with your plans an' ways, but it's got to
+be done right. If it goes along free an' fine, I ain't goin' to kick."
+
+The Professor explained that they had further work to do on the plans
+and must be going back. He took leave of Mr. Hooper and the daughter,
+and retreated with the boys as hurriedly as Bill could manage his handy
+crutch. They all proceeded silently in crossing the broad field, but
+when in the road Bill had to voice his thoughts:
+
+"I expect that old fellow'll make it too hot for us."
+
+"Not for a minute; you need not consider that at all. Of course it would
+be more satisfactory if Mr. Hooper could be assured at once of your real
+ability, but it will have to grow on him. Just let him see what you can
+do; that's all."
+
+"I rather expect we can frame up something that will satisfy him and
+Bill can spring it," said Gus.
+
+"In just what way, can you imagine?" queried the Professor.
+
+"Some geometrical stunt, maybe; triangulation, or--"
+
+"Why, sure! That's just it!" exploded Bill. "I know how we can get him:
+Parallax! Shucks, it'll be easy! Just leave it to me."
+
+"Looks as though some kind of Napoleonic strategy were going to be
+pulled off," asserted Professor Gray, laughing. "But, boys, keep in mind
+that Mr. Hooper, while a rough-and-ready old chap, with a big fortune
+made in cattle dealing, is really an uncut diamond; a fine old fellow at
+heart, as you will see."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+ENGINEERING
+
+
+Two busy days followed during which Bill and Gus went to the city with
+Professor Gray to purchase materials in full for the power plant. They
+also had cement, reinforcing iron, lumber for forms and a small tool
+house hauled out to the power site and they drove the first stakes to
+show the position of wheel and pipe line. Mr. Hooper did not put in an
+appearance.
+
+On the third morning the Professor bade the boys good-by, exacting the
+promise that they would write frequently of their progress. They had
+privately formed an engineering company with Professor Gray as
+president, Gus as vice-president, which was largely honorary, and Bill
+as general manager and secretary. Advance payments necessary for extra
+labor and their own liberal wages were deposited at the Fairview Bank by
+Professor Gray and the boys were given a drawing account thereon, with a
+simple expense book to keep.
+
+That afternoon, dressed in new overalls and blouses, with a big,
+good-natured colored man to help with the laboring work, the boys were
+early on the job, at first making a cement mixing box; then Bill drove
+the center stake thirty feet below where the dam was to be placed and
+from which, using a long cord, the curve of the structure twenty-nine
+feet wide, was laid out upstream.
+
+At the spot chosen the rock-bound hillsides rose almost perpendicularly
+from the narrow level ground that was little above the bed of the
+stream; it was the narrowest spot between the banks. George, the colored
+fellow, was set to work digging into one bank for an end foundation; the
+other bank held a giant boulder.
+
+The boys were giving such close attention to their labors that they did
+not see observers on the hilltop. Presently the gruff voice that they
+had heard before hailed them from close by and they looked up to see Mr.
+Hooper and the slim youth approaching. The boys had heard that this
+Thaddeus was the old man's nephew and that he called the Hooper mansion
+his home.
+
+"What you drivin' that there stake down there for? Up here's where the
+Perfesser said the dam was to set," Mr. Hooper demanded.
+
+"Yes, right here," Bill replied. "But it is to be curved upstream and
+that stake is our center."
+
+"What's the idea of curvin' it?"
+
+"So that it will be stronger and withstand the pressure. You can't break
+an arch, you know, and to push this out the hills would have to spread
+apart."
+
+"I kind o' see." The old man was thoughtful and looked on silently while
+the dam breast stakes were being driven every three feet at the end of a
+stretched cord, the other end pivoting on the center stake below, this
+giving the required curve.
+
+"How deep you goin' into that hill? Seems like the water can't git round
+it now." Mr. Hooper, at a word from Thad, seemed inclined to criticize.
+
+"We must get a firm end, preferably against rock," Bill explained.
+
+"Shucks! Reckon the clay ain't goin' to give none. How much fall you
+goin' to git on that Pullet wheel?"
+
+"Pelton wheel. About eighty feet, Professor Gray figured it roughly.
+We'll take it later exactly."
+
+"Kin you improve on the Perfesser?"
+
+"No, but he made only a rough calculation. We'll take it both by levels
+and by triangulation, using an old sextant of the Professor's. It isn't
+a diff----"
+
+"What's try-angleation?" Mr. Hooper was becoming interested.
+
+"The method of reading angles of different degrees and in that way
+getting heights and distances. That's the way they measure mountains
+that can't be climbed and tell the distance of stars."
+
+"Shucks, young feller! I don't reckon anybody kin tell the distance o'
+the stars; they only put up a bluff on that. They ain't no ackshall way
+o' gittin' distance onless you lay a tape measure, er somethin' like it
+on the ground. These here surveyors all does it; I had 'em go round my
+place."
+
+Bill smiled and shook his head. "I guess you just haven't given it any
+consideration. There are lots of easier and better ways. Triangulation.
+Now, for instance, suppose an army comes to a wide river and wants to
+get across. They can't send anybody over to stretch a line; there may be
+enemy sharp-shooters that would get them and it is too wide, anyway. But
+they must know how many pontoon boats and how much flooring plank they
+must have to bridge it and so they sight a tree or a rock on the other
+shore and take the distance across by triangulation. Or suppose--"
+
+"Never heard of it. Why wouldn't surveyors git from here to yan that
+a-way, 'stead o' usin' chains? Could you----?"
+
+"Chaining it is a little more accurate, where they have a lot of curves
+and angles and the view is cut off by woods and hills. Yes, we can work
+triangulation; we could tell the distance from the hilltop to your house
+if we could see it and we had the time."
+
+"Bunk! Don't let 'em bluff you that a-way, Uncle. Make 'em prove it."
+Thad showed his open hostility thus.
+
+Gus dropped his shovel and came from the creekside where he had begun to
+dig alongside of the stakes for the foundation. He was visibly and, for
+him, strangely excited as he walked up to Thad.
+
+"See here, fellow, Bill can do it and if there is anything in it we will
+do it, too! You are pretty blamed ignorant!"
+
+Mr. Hooper threw back his head and let out a roar of mirth. "Well, I
+reckon that hits me, too. An' I reckon it might be true in a lot o'
+things. But Thad an' me, we kind o' doubt this."
+
+"We sure do. I'd bet five dollars you couldn't tell it within half a
+mile an' it ain't much more than that."
+
+"I'll take your bet and dare you to hold to it," said Gus.
+
+"Bet 'em, Thad; bet 'em! I'll stake you."
+
+"Oh, we don't want your money; betting doesn't get anywhere and it isn't
+just square, anyway." Bill was smilingly endeavoring to restore good
+feeling. "Now, Mr. Hooper, we're not fixed to make a triangulation
+measurement to-day, but----"
+
+"Not fixed? Of course not. Begins with excuses," sneered Thad.
+
+"But to-morrow we'll bring out Professor Gray's transit and show you the
+way it's done."
+
+"Oh, yes, Uncle; they'll show us--to-morrow, or next day, or next week.
+Bunk!" Thad was plainly trying to be offensive.
+
+"You'll grin on the other side of your hatchet face, fellow, when we do
+show you," said Gus.
+
+"Now, Gus, cut out the scrapping. You can't blame him, nor Mr. Hooper,
+for doubting it if they've never looked into the matter. We can bring
+the transit out this afternoon for taking the levels. Be here after
+dinner, Mr. Hooper, if you can."
+
+"I'll be here, lads," said the ex-cattle-dealer. "An' I reckon my
+nephew'll come along, too."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+DISTANCE LENDS ENCHANTMENT
+
+
+Mr. Hooper, his nephew, his daughter and another girl, fat and dumpy,
+were at the power site before two o'clock, and without more ado Bill
+asked Gus to bring the transit to the comparatively level field on top
+of the hill.
+
+"Now, Mr. Hooper, please don't think we're doing this in a spirit of
+idle controversy; we only want to show you something interesting."
+
+"That's all right, lad; an' I ain't above learnin', old as I am. But
+Thad here, he's different." Mr. Hooper gave Bill and Gus a long wink.
+"Thad, he don't reckon he can be learned a thing, an' he's so blame
+sure--say, Thad, how 'bout that bet?"
+
+"We don't want to bet anything; that only--" began Bill, but Gus was
+less pacific.
+
+"Put up, or shut up," he said, drawing a borrowed five dollar note out
+of his pocket and glaring at Thad. The slim youth did not respond.
+
+"He's afraid to bet," jeered the daughter. "Hasn't got the nerve, or the
+money."
+
+"I ain't afraid to bet." Thad brought forth a like amount in bills.
+"Uncle'll hold the stakes. You got to tell how far it is from here to
+the house without ever stepping the distance."
+
+"We'll make a more simple demonstration than that," Bill declared.
+"It'll be the same thing and take less time and effort. Mr. Hooper, take
+some object out there in the field; something that we can see;
+anything."
+
+"Here, Gracie, you take a stake there an' go out yan an' stick it up.
+Keep a-goin' till I holler."
+
+Both girls carried out these directions, the fat one falling down a
+couple of times, tripped by the long grass and getting up shaking with
+laughter. The boys were to learn that she was a chum of Grace Hooper,
+that her name was Sophronia Doyle, though commonly nicknamed "Skeets."
+
+The stake was placed. Bill drove another at his feet, set the transit
+over it, peeped through it both ways and at his direction, after
+stretching the steel tape, Gus drove a third stake exactly sixty feet
+from the transit at an angle of ninety degrees from a line to the field
+stake.
+
+"Now, folks," explained Bill, "the stake out yonder is A, this one is B
+and the one at the other end of the sixty-foot base line is C. Please
+remember that."
+
+The transit was then placed exactly over the stake C and, peeping again,
+Bill found the angle from the base line to the stake B and the line to
+stake A to be 78 degrees. Thereupon Gus produced a long board, held up
+one end and rested the other on a stake, while Bill went to work with a
+six-foot rule, a straight edge and a draughtsman's degree scale. Bill
+elucidated:
+
+"Now, then, to get out of figuring, which is always hard to understand,
+we'll just lay the triangulation out by scale, which is easily
+understood. One-eighth of an inch equals one foot. This point is stake B
+and the base line to C is this line at right angles, or square across
+the board. C stake is 7-1/2 inches from B which is equal to sixty feet
+on the scale, that is sixty one-eighth inches. Now, this line, parallel
+to the edge of the board, is the exact direction of your stake A. Do you
+all follow that?
+
+"The direction to your stake was 78 degrees from the base line at C.
+This degree scale will give us that." Bill carefully centered the latter
+instrument, sharpened his pencil and marked the angle; then placing the
+straight edge on the point C and the degree mark he extended the line
+until it crossed the other outward line. At this crossing he marked a
+letter A and turned to his auditors.
+
+"This is your stake out yonder. The rule shows it to be a little over
+34-5/8 inches from the base line at B. That is, by the scale, a few
+inches over 277 feet and that is the distance from here to where Grace
+stuck it into the ground. Our hundred-foot steel tape line is at your
+service, Mr. Hooper."
+
+Mr. Hooper merely glanced at Bill. He took up the tape line and spoke to
+his nephew. "Git a holt o' this thing, Thad, an' let's see if--"
+
+Grace interrupted him. "No, Dad; never let Thad do it! He'd make some
+mistake accidentally on purpose. I'll help you."
+
+There was utter silence from all while Grace carried out the end of the
+tape and placed her sticks, Mr. Hooper following after. Skeets borrowed
+a pencil and a bit of paper from Gus and went along with Grace to keep
+tally, but she dropped the pencil in the grass, stepped on and broke it,
+was suffused with embarrassment and before she could really become
+useful, the father and daughter had made the count mentally and they
+came back to the base line, still without saying a word, a glad smile on
+the girl's face and something between wonder and surprise on the old
+man's features.
+
+Still without a word Mr. Hooper came straight to Bill, thrust out his
+big hand to grasp that of the smiling boy and in the other hand was held
+the bills of the wager, which he extended toward Gus.
+
+"Yours, lad," he said. "We made the distance two hundred and
+seventy-eight foot. I reckon you git the money."
+
+Thad stood for a moment, nonplussed, a scowl on his face. Suddenly he
+recovered.
+
+"Hold on! That's more than they said it was. The money's mine."
+
+"Shucks, you dumb fool! Maybe a couple o' inches. I reckon we made the
+mistake, fer we wasn't careful. It gits me they was that near it. The
+cash is his'n."
+
+Gus took the bills, thrust his own into his pocket again and handed the
+two dollar note and the three ones to Skeets.
+
+"Please give them to him for me," indicating Thad, "I don't want his
+money."
+
+"Not I," said the fat girl; "it isn't my funeral. Let him do the weeping
+and you take and give them to the poor."
+
+Gus offered them to Grace, who also refused, shaking her head. Bill took
+the bills, and, limping over to Thad, handed him his wager. "You mustn't
+feel sore at us," counseled the youthful engineer. "This was only along
+the lines of experiment and--and fun."
+
+But though Bill meant this in the kindliest spirit of comradeship, the
+boy sensed a feeling of extreme animosity that he was at a loss to
+account for. Bill backed off, further speech toward conciliation
+becoming as lame as his leg. The others witnessed this and Grace said,
+quite heatedly:
+
+"Oh, you can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear. Thad's an incurable
+grouch," at which Skeets laughed till she shook, and Mr. Hooper nodded
+his head.
+
+"Lad," he said, "you're a wonder an' I ain't got no more to say ag'in'
+your doin' this work here. Go ahead with it your own way. But this I am
+abossin': to-morrow's half day, I reckon, so both o' you come over to
+the house nigh 'long about noon an' set at dinner with us. You're more'n
+welcome."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+COUNTER INFLUENCES
+
+
+Thereafter, having been fully convinced by the demonstration and fully
+assured of the precise accuracy in the work on the power plant, Mr.
+Hooper treated the boys with the utmost consideration and confidence.
+The owner of the great estate came down to see them every day and
+chatted as familiarly as though he had been a lifelong crony of their
+own age. From time to time the boys were taken to dinner at the big
+house; they were given access to the library, and they found some time
+for social and sportive pastimes with the young folks whom Grace invited
+to her home.
+
+Throughout all this Bill shone as an entertainer, a mental uplift that
+was really welcome, so spontaneous and keen were his talks and comments
+on people and things. Gus, though having little practice, held his own
+at tennis and golf; in swimming races and other impromptu sports he
+greatly excelled; and when a young fellow who bore the reputation of an
+all-round athlete came for the week-end from the city, Gus put on the
+gloves with him and punched the newcomer all over an imaginary ring on
+the lawn to the delight of Mr. Hooper, Grace and Skeets, as well as the
+admiring Bill.
+
+Throughout all this, also, there was an element of ill feeling, an often
+open expression of antagonism toward the boys, which probably the other
+guests all tensed unpleasantly, but which the contented, jovial host and
+his impetuous and volatile daughter hardly recognized or thought of.
+Thaddeus, the thin-faced, pale, stoop-shouldered, indolent,
+cigarette-smoking nephew, though often treated with slight courtesy,
+continually pushed himself to the front, compelling consideration
+apparently for the sole purpose of exerting a counter-influence upon the
+popularity of Bill and Gus, especially the latter. The youth even went
+so far at times as to attempt an interference in the power-plant work,
+declaring that it did not proceed rapidly enough and that certain
+methods were at fault, to all of which Mr. Hooper turned a deaf ear.
+
+There was nothing else but open warfare between Grace and Thad, Skeets
+also echoing the daughter's hostility, while the nephew easily pretended
+to ignore it, or to regard the sharp words aimed at him as jokes. He
+treated Skeets with as much contempt as her jovial manner permitted, but
+now and then it could be seen that his pale eyes glared at Grace's back
+in a way that seemed almost murderous.
+
+One day Gus and George, the colored man, were working at the far end of
+the curved dam breast, the stone work having risen to four feet in
+height. Bill was stooping to inspect the cement on the near end and the
+view of the hill was cut off. Presently voices came to him, mostly a
+sort of good-natured protest in monosyllables; then Thad's tones, low
+enough to keep Gus from hearing.
+
+"I tell you, Uncle, they're putting it over on you. It ain't any of my
+business, but I hate to see you having your leg pulled."
+
+"'Taint!" was the brief answer.
+
+"Well, if you don't want to think so; but I know it. Look at this dam:
+not over two feet thick and expected to hold tons of water. Wait till a
+flood hits it. Will it go out like a stack of cards, or won't it? And
+they're not using enough cement; one-fourth only with the sand."
+
+"Grouting, broken stones," growled Mr. Hooper.
+
+"Not sufficient, as you'll see. And does anybody want to say that a
+two-inch pipe is going to run a water wheel with force enough to turn a
+generator that will drive thirty or forty lights? Bosh!"
+
+"They ought to know."
+
+"You think they do, but have you any proof of it? What they don't know
+would fill a libra--"
+
+"How 'bout that there triang--what you call it? They knew that."
+
+"Oh, just a draughtsman's smart trick; used to catch people. I'm talking
+about things that are practical. You'll see. I'll bet you these blamed
+fools are going to strike a snag one of these days, or they'll leave
+things so that there'll be a fall-down. But what need they care after
+they get their money?"
+
+Bill heard footsteps retreating and dying away; Mr. Hooper went over to
+Gus and, with evident hesitation, asked:
+
+"Do you reckon you're makin' the stone work thick enough? It does look
+most terrible weak."
+
+"Sure, Mr. Hooper. Bill'll explain that to you. Professor Gray and he
+worked out the exact resistance and the pressure."
+
+And then Bill limped over; he had left his crutch on the hillside, and
+he said, half laughing:
+
+"This wall, Mr. Hooper, can't give way, even if it had the ocean behind
+it, unless the stone and cement were mashed and crumbled by pressure.
+The only thing that could break it would be about two days' hammering
+with a sledge, or a big charge of blasting powder, and even that
+couldn't do a great deal of damage."
+
+"All right, me lad; you ought to know an' I believe you."
+
+Mr. Hooper's genial good humor returned to him immediately; it was
+evident that he was from time to time unpleasantly influenced by the
+soft and ready tongue of his nephew. The old gentleman turned toward
+home and disappeared; a short time afterward Thad came and stood near
+where Gus was working, but he said nothing, nor did Gus address him.
+Then the slim youth also departed and hardly half an hour elapsed before
+down the hill came Grace and Skeets, the latter stumbling several times,
+nearly pitching headlong and yet most mirthful over her own near
+misfortune; but little Miss Hooper seemed unusually serious-minded. A
+lively exchange of jests and jolly banter commenced between Skeets and
+Gus, who could use his tongue if forced to; but presently Grace left her
+laughing chum and came over to where Bill had resumed his inspection.
+
+"They can't hear us, can they?" she queried, glancing back at the
+others.
+
+"Why, I expect not," Bill replied, surprised and mystified.
+
+"If I say something to you, real confidentially, you won't give me away,
+will you? Honest, for sure?"
+
+"Honest, I won't; cross my heart; wish I may die; snake's tongue;
+butcher knife bloody!"
+
+"That ought to do, and anybody with any sense would believe you, anyway.
+But, then, it will be a big temptation for you--"
+
+"Resistance is my nickname; you may trust me."
+
+"Well, then, in some way," said the girl, dropping her voice still
+lower, "you are going to find that this work here won't be--it won't
+go--not just as you expect it to; it--it won't be just plain sailing as
+it ought to be and would be if you were let alone. There are things,"
+she put a forceful accent on the last word, "that will interfere--oh,
+sometimes dreadfully, maybe, and I felt that I must tell you, but--"
+
+Bill, wondering, glanced up at her; she stood with her pretty face
+turned away, a troubled look in her bright eyes, the usually smiling
+lips compressed with determination. The boy's quick wits began to fathom
+the drift of her intention and the cause thereof; he must know more to
+determine her precise attitude.
+
+"I must believe that you mean this in real kindness and friendliness
+toward Gus and me."
+
+"Of course I do; else I would not have told you a thing," Grace said,
+blushing a little.
+
+"I think it must be something real and that you know. This thing, then,
+as you call it, is more likely a person--some person who is working
+against us. You mean that; don't you?"
+
+"Please don't ask me too much. I think you're very quick and intelligent
+and that you'll find out and be on your guard."
+
+"I think I understand. Naturally you must feel a certain loyalty toward
+a relation, or at least if not just that, toward one who has your
+father's good will. Gus and I surely appreciate your warning; you'll
+want me to tell him, of course."
+
+"I don't know. Gus is not so cool-headed as you are; I was afraid he
+might--"
+
+"Trust Gus. He and I work together in everything. And I do thank you,
+Grace, more than I can express. Well keep our eyes open."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+FURTHER OPPOSITION
+
+
+The dam was built, the flood gate in place, the pipe valve set for
+further extension of the line down the little valley; and as the pipe
+had all come cut and threaded, Bill and George were working with
+wrenches and white lead to get the sections tightly jointed against the
+pressure that would result. Gus, the carpenter, was laying out the
+framing of heavy timbers reinforced with long bolts and set in cement on
+which the Pelton wheel was to be mounted.
+
+Several days were thus spent; the water was pouring over the spillway of
+the dam and it was with satisfaction that the boys found, after an
+inspection one quitting hour, that the wall, five feet high, was not
+leaking a drop.
+
+That night Gus came over to Bill's home and the two went over the plans
+until late; then Gus chatted awhile on the steps, Bill standing in the
+doorway. Suddenly, from over toward the northeast, in the direction of
+the upper tract of the Hooper estate, there was a flash in the sky and a
+dull reverberation like a very distant or muffled blast. Bill was
+talking and hardly noticed it, but Gus had been looking in that
+direction and, calling Bill's attention, wondered as to the cause of the
+odd occurrence.
+
+In the morning, as the boys descended the hill, George, who was always
+on hand half an hour ahead of time, came up to meet them and was plainly
+excited.
+
+"Mist' Bill an' Gus, de dam's done busted a'ready an' de water's jes'
+a-pourin' through t' beat ol' Noah's flood! Whut you 'low was de because
+o' dis givin' way?"
+
+"By cracky, Bill!" was Gus' comment as they stood looking at the break
+which seemed to involve a yard square of the base and cracks, as though
+from a shock. "You know and I know that the water didn't push this out.
+How about that flash and bang we heard last night?"
+
+"I can't see how the water could have done it," said Bill, who evidently
+had more talent for construction than for determining destruction.
+
+"There's something behind this that I don't like and I'm going to find
+out about it," said Gus, his usually quiet demeanor entirely gone. "You
+ought to be able," he continued, "to put two and four together. How
+about that warning Grace gave you? And how did she know anything out of
+which to give it? And why wouldn't she give any names?"
+
+"Well, I have wondered; I thought I saw why," Bill said.
+
+"Of course you see why, old scout. And if you'll leave it to me, you'll
+know why and all the how and the what of it, too." Gus was never
+boastful; now he was merely determined.
+
+The boys opened the flood gate and after the water no longer flowed
+through the break, they began a closer examination that surprised them.
+Mr. Hooper, Thad, Grace and Skeets descended the hill.
+
+Bill, after greetings, merely pointed to the break. Mr. Hooper started
+to say something about the structure's being too weak; Thad laughed, and
+Grace, looking daggers at him, turned away and pulled Skeets with her.
+Gus, gazing at Thad, addressed Mr. Hooper.
+
+"Yes, too weak to stand the force of an explosion. It wasn't the water
+pressure. Mr. Hooper; you'll notice that the stones there are forced in
+against the water; not out with it. And the cracks--they're further
+evidence. We heard the explosion about eleven o'clock; saw the light of
+the flash, too."
+
+"Shucks! You reckon that's so? Got any notion who it was that done it?"
+
+"Yes, sir; got a big notion who it was; but we won't say till we get it
+on him for sure. And then's it's going to be a sorry day for him."
+
+Gus was still gazing straight at Thad and that youth, first attempting
+to ignore this scrutiny and then trying to match it, at last grew
+restless and turned away. Mr. Hooper also had his eyes on Thad; the old
+gentleman looked much troubled. He raised his voice loud enough for Thad
+to hear as he walked off:
+
+"We'll git a watchman an' put him on the job,--that's what we'll do!
+They ain't goin' to be any more o' this sort o' thing."
+
+And Bill chimed in: "Good idea. There's George, Mr. Hooper; we're nearly
+through with him and we've been wondering what to put him at, for we'd
+be sorry to lose him."
+
+So it was arranged then and there, much to the satisfaction of everyone,
+especially the old darkey, and Mr. Hooper, saying nothing more but
+looking as though there were a death in his family, started away toward
+home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+MR. EDDY'S SON'S SONS
+
+
+It took but a short time to repair the break; before many other days had
+passed the Pelton wheel, a direct action turbine, was going at a
+tremendous rate, driven by a nozzled stream from the pipe. It was
+necessary to belt it down from a small to a larger pulley to run the
+generator at a slower speed, which was 1200 a minute. Then came the
+boxing in, the wiring to the house, and the making of connections with
+the wiring to the house after the town company's service was dispensed
+with, and it was a proud moment when Gus turned on the first bulb and
+got a full and brilliant glare.
+
+Mr. Hooper clasped the hands of both boys, compelled them to spend the
+evening, ordered special refreshments for the occasion, told Grace to
+invite a lot of the young folks and when, at dusk all the lights of the
+house went on with an illumination that fairly startled the guests, the
+host proposed a cheer for the boys which found an eager and unanimous
+response. Mr. Hooper attempted to make a speech, with his matronly and
+contented wife laughing and making sly digs at his effort, and his
+daughter encouraging him.
+
+"Now, young fellers," he began, "these boys--uh, Mister Bill Brown an'
+Mister 'Gustus Grier,--I says to them,--in the first place, I says:
+'Perfesser, these here kids don't know enough to build a chicken coop,'
+I says, an' Perfesser Gray he says to me, he says, he would back them
+fellers to build a battleship or tunnel through to Chiny, he says. So I
+says: 'You kids kin go ahead,' I says, an' these blame boys they went
+ahead an' shucks! you all see what they, Bill an' Gus, has done. You
+fellers has got to have a lot o' credit an' you are goin' to git it!
+
+"Now, my wife she don't think I'm any good at makin' a speech an 'I
+ain't, but I'm a-makin' it jes' the same fer these boys, Bill an' Gus,
+b'jinks! They got to git credit fer what they done, jes' two kids doin'
+a reg'lar man's job. An' I reckon that not even that feller Eddy's son,
+that there chap they call the 'Wizard of Menlo Park,' I reckon he
+couldn't 'lectrocute nothin' no better'n these here boys, Bill an' Gus,
+has lighted this here domycile. An'--oh, you kin laugh, Ma Hooper,
+b'jinks, but I reckon you're as proud o' these here young Eddy's son's
+sons as I be. Now, Mister Bill an' Mister Gus, you kin bet all these
+folks'd like to have a few words. Now, as they say in prayer meetin',
+'Mister Bill Brown'll lead us in a speech.' Hooray!"
+
+Bill seized his crutch, got it carefully under his arm and arose. He was
+not just a rattle-box, a mere word slinger, for he always had something
+to say worth listening to; talking to a crowd was no great task for him
+and he had a genius for verbal expression.
+
+"I hope my partner in mechanical effort and now in misery will let me
+speak for him, too, for he couldn't get up here and say a word if you'd
+promise him the moon for a watch charm. Our host, Mr. Hooper, would have
+given us enough credit if he had just stated that we were two
+persevering ginks, bent on making the best of a good chance and using,
+perhaps with some judgment, the directions of our superior, Professor
+Gray, along with some of our own ideas that fitted, in. But to compare
+us and our small job here, which was pretty well all mapped out for us,
+to the wonderful endeavors of Thomas Alva Edison is more than even our
+combined conceit can stand for. If we deserved such praise, even in the
+smallest way, you'd see us with our chests swelled out so far that we'd
+look like a couple of garden toads.
+
+"Edison! Mr. Hooper, did you, even in your intended kindness in
+flattering Gus and myself, really stop to think what it could mean to
+compare us with that wonderful man? I know you could not mean to
+belittle him, but you certainly gave us an honor far beyond what any
+other man in the world, regarding electrical and mechanical things,
+could deserve. If we could hope to do a hundredth part of the great
+things Edison has done, it would, as Professor Gray says, indeed make
+life worth living.
+
+"But we thank you, Mr. Hooper, for your kind words and for inviting all
+these good friends and our classmates, and we thank you and good Mrs.
+Hooper for this bully spread and everything!"
+
+Bill started to sit down amidst a hearty hand-clapping, but Cora Siebold
+waved her hand for silence and demanded:
+
+"Tell us more about Edison, Billy, as you did after the talk over the
+radio! You see, we missed the last of it and I'll bet we'd all like to
+hear more--"
+
+"Yes!" "Yes!" "Sure!" "Me, too!" "Go on, Billy!" came from Dot Myers,
+Skeets, Grace Hooper, Ted Bissell and Gus. In her enthusiastic efforts
+at showing an abundant appreciation, the fat girl wriggled too far out
+on the edge of her chair, which tilted and slid out from under her,
+causing sufficient hilarious diversion for Bill to take a sneak out of
+the room. When Cora and Grace captured and brought him back, the keen
+edge of the idea had worn off enough for him to dodge the issue.
+
+"I'll tell you what we're going to do," he said, and it will be better
+than anything we can think of just between us here. You all read, didn't
+you, that the lectures were to be repeated by request in two months
+after the last talk? We didn't hear it because Professor went away, and
+now three weeks of the time have gone by. But I'll tell you what Gus and
+I are going to do: we're going to build a radio receiver and get it done
+in time to get those talks on Edison all over again."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"Do you think you can do it?"
+
+"If Billy says he can, why, the--"
+
+"Oh, you Edison's son!" This from the irrepressible Ted.
+
+"Go to it, Bill!"
+
+"Can we all listen in?"
+
+"Why, of course," said Bill, replying to the last question.
+"Everybody'll be invited and there will be a horn. But don't forget
+this: We've only got a little over four weeks to do it and it's some
+job! So, if you're disappointed--"
+
+"We won't be."
+
+"No; Bill'll get there."
+
+"Hurrah for old Bill!"
+
+"Say, people, enough of this. I'm no candidate for President of the
+United States, and remember that Gus is in this, too, as much as I am."
+
+"Hurrah for Gus!" This was a general shout.
+
+Gus turned and ran.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE DOUBTERS
+
+
+The party was on the point of breaking up, with much laughter over the
+embarrassment of poor Gus, when Skeets unexpectedly furnished further
+entertainment. She had paused to lean comfortably against a center
+table, but its easy rolling casters objected to her weight, rolled away
+hastily and deposited her without warning on the floor. Ted, who
+gallantly helped her to her feet, remarked, with a grunt due to extreme
+effort, that she really might as well stand up or enlist the entire four
+legs of a chair to support her.
+
+Bill, about to take leave of the host and hostess, felt a slight jerk at
+his sleeve and looking round was surprised to find Thad at his elbow.
+The youth said in a low voice:
+
+"Want to see you out yonder among the trees. Give the rest the slip. Got
+a pipe of an idea."
+
+Bill nodded, wondering much. A moment later Mr. Hooper was repeating
+that he was proud of the work done by the boys and glad that he had
+trusted them. Then he added:
+
+"But say, young feller, much as I believe in you and Gus, seein' your
+smartness, I got to doubt all that there bunk you give them young people
+'bout that there what you call radier. I been borned a long time--goin'
+on to seventy year now,--an' I seen all sorts of contraptions like
+reapers an' binders, ridin' plows, typewritin'-machines, telephones,
+phonygraphs, flyin'-machines, submarines an' all such, but b'jinks, I
+ain't a-believin' that nobody kin hear jes' common talk through the air
+without no wires. An' hundreds o' miles! 'Tain't natch'all an' 'taint
+possible now, is it?"
+
+"Why, yes, Mr. Hooper; it's both poss--"
+
+"Come on, Billy! Good-night, Mr. Hooper and Mrs. Hooper. We all had a
+dandy time." And Bill was led away. But he was able, by hanging back a
+little, to whisper to Gus that he was on the track of something from
+Thad,--for Bill could only think that the young man would make a
+confession or commit himself in some way.
+
+"See you in the morning," he added and turned back.
+
+Thad was waiting and called to Bill from his seat on a bench beneath the
+shade of a big maple. The fellow plunged at once into his subject,
+evidently holding the notion that youth in general possesses a shady
+sense of honor.
+
+"See here, Brown. I think I get you and I believe you've got wit enough
+to get Uncle Hooper. Did he say anything to you as you came out about
+being shy on this radio business?"
+
+Bill nodded.
+
+"Say, he don't believe it's any more possible than a horse car can turn
+into a buzzard! Fact! He told me you fellows might fool him on a lot of
+things and that you were awful smart for kids, but he'd be hanged for a
+quarter of beef if you could make him swallow this bunk about talking
+through the air. You know the way he talks."
+
+"I think he can and will be convinced," said Bill, "and you can't blame
+him for his notion, for he has never chanced to inquire about radio and
+I expect he doesn't read that department in the paper. If he meets a
+plain statement about radio broadcasting or receiving, it either makes
+no impression on him, or he regards it as a sort of joke. But, anyway,
+what of it?"
+
+"Why, just this and you ought to catch on to it without being told:
+Unk's a stubborn old rat and he hasn't really a grain of sense, in spite
+of all the money he made. All you've got to do is to egg him on as if
+you thought it might be a little uncertain and then sort o' dare to make
+a big bet with him. I'll get busy and tell him that this radio business
+is the biggest kind of an expert job and that you fellows are blamed
+doubtful about it. Then, when you get your set working and let Unk
+listen in, he'll pay up and we'll divide the money. See? Easy as pie. Or
+we might work it another way: I'll make the bet with him and you fellows
+let on to fall down. Or we might--"
+
+"Well, I've listened to your schemes," said Bill, "and I'm going to say
+this about them: I think you are the dirtiest, meanest skunk I ever ran
+across. You--"
+
+"Say, now, what's the matter?"
+
+"You're a guest under your uncle's roof; eating his grub, accepting his
+hospitality, pretending to be his friend--"
+
+"Aw, cut that out, now! You needn't let on you're so awful fine."
+
+"And then deliberately trying to hatch a scheme to rob him! Of all the
+rotten, contemptible--" Unable to voice his righteous indignation, Bill
+clenched his fist and struck Thad square in the eye.
+
+Thad had risen and was standing in front of Bill, trembling with rage as
+impotent as though _he_ were little and lame, leaning, like Bill, on the
+crutch a less valiant cripple would have used instead of his bare fist.
+
+With a look of fiendish hatred, instead of returning blow for blow, Thad
+made a sudden grab and tore Bill's crutch out of the hand which had felt
+no impulse to use it in defense against his able-bodied antagonist.
+
+"Now, you blow to Uncle and I'll break this crutch!"
+
+Strange, isn't it, how we often are reminded of funny things even in the
+midst of danger? Bill, a cripple and unable to move about with the
+agility needed to fend off a cowardly attack by this miserable piker,
+showed the stuff he was made of when he burst out laughing, for he was
+reminded by this threat of that old yarn about a softy's threatening to
+break the umbrella of his rival found in the vestibule of his girl's
+house, then going out and praying for rain!
+
+Thad, astonished at Bill's sudden mirth, held the crutch mid-air, and
+demanded with a malignant leer:
+
+"Huh! Laugh, will you?"
+
+"Go ahead and break it, but it won't be a circumstance to what I'll do
+to you. I can imagine your uncle--"
+
+"So? Listen, you pusillanimous, knock-kneed shrimp? I'm going to mash
+your jaw so you'll never wag it again! And right now, too, you--"
+
+Possibly there was as much determination back of this as any evil
+intent, but it also was doomed to failure. There was a quick step from
+the deeper shadows and a figure loomed suddenly in front of Thad who,
+with uplifted crutch, was still glaring at Bill. Only two words were
+spoken, a "_You_, huh?" from the larger chap; then a quick tackle, a
+short straining scuffle, and Thad was thrown so violently sidewise and
+hurtled against the bench from which Bill had just risen, that it and
+Thad went over on the ground together. The bench and the lad seemed to
+lie there equally helpless. Gus picked up the crutch and handed it to
+his chum.
+
+"Let's go. He won't be able to get up till we've gone."
+
+But as they passed out from among the shadows there followed them a
+threat which seemed to be bursting with the hatred of a demon:
+
+"Oh, I'll get even with you two little devils. I'll blow you to--"
+
+The two boys looked at each other and only laughed.
+
+"Notice his right eye when you see him again," chuckled Bill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+THE UNEXPECTED
+
+
+"Where did you come from, Gus?" Bill asked, still inclined to laugh.
+
+"The road. Slipped away from the others for I was wondering whether you
+might not get into trouble. Couldn't imagine that chump would spring
+anything that wouldn't make you mad, and I knew you'd talk back. So I
+did the gumshoe."
+
+"Well, I suppose he would have made it quite interesting for me and I am
+eternally grateful to you. If it weren't for you, Gus, I guess, I'd have
+a hard time in--"
+
+"By cracky, if it weren't for you, old scout, where would I be? Nowhere,
+or anywhere, but never somewhere."
+
+"That sounds to me something like what Professor Gray calls a paradox,"
+laughed Bill.
+
+"I don't suppose you're going to peach on Thad," Gus offered.
+
+"No; but wouldn't I like to? It's a rotten shame to have that lowdown
+scamp under Mr. Hooper's roof. It's a wonder Grace doesn't give him
+away; she must know what a piker he is."
+
+"Bill, it's really none of our business," Gus said. "Well, see you in
+the morning early."
+
+The boys wished once more to go over carefully all the completed details
+of the water power plant; they had left the Pelton wheel flying around
+with that hissing blow of the water on the paddles and the splashing
+which made Bill think of a circular log saw in buckwheat-cake batter.
+The generator, when thrown in gear, had been running as smoothly as a
+spinning top; there were no leaks in the pipe or the dam. But now they
+found water trickling from a joint that showed the crushing marks of a
+sledge, the end of the nozzle smashed so that only enough of the stream
+struck the wheel to turn it, and there was evidence of sand in the
+generator bearings.
+
+Then appeared George, with an expression of mingled sorrow, shame,
+wonder and injured pride on his big ebony features, his eyes rolling
+about like those of a dying calf. At first he was mute.
+
+"Know anything about this business, George?" asked Bill.
+
+"Don't know a thing but what Ah does know an' dat's a plenty. What's
+happened here?"
+
+"The plant has been damaged; that's all."
+
+"Damage? When? Las' night, close on t' mawnin'? Well, suh, Ah 'low that
+there ghos' done it."
+
+"Ghost? What--where was any ghost?"
+
+"Right yer at de tool house. Come walkin' roun' de corner fo' Ah could
+grab up man stick an' Ah jes' lef' de place."
+
+"What? Ran away and from your duty? You were put here to guard the
+plant; not to let any old--"
+
+"Didn't 'low t' guard it 'gainst no ghos'es. Dey don' count in de
+contrac'. Folks is one thing an' ghos'es--"
+
+"Ghosts! Bosh! There's no such thing as a ghost! If you had swung your
+club at the silly thing you'd have knocked over some dub of a man that
+we could pretty well describe right now, and saved us a heap of trouble
+and expense--and you'd have kept your job!" Bill was disgusted and
+angry.
+
+"Lawsee! Ah ain't gwine lose mah job jes' fo' dodgin' a ghos', is I?"
+
+"What did this fellow look like?" asked Gus.
+
+"Ah nevah could tell 'bout it; didn't take no time for' t' look sharp.
+Ah wuz on'y jes' leavin'."
+
+"Now, see here, George," said Bill, his native gentleness dominating,
+"if you'll promise to say nothing about this, keep on the job and grab
+the next ghost, we'll let you stay on. And we'll make an awful good
+guess when we tell you that you'll find the ghost is Mr. Hooper's
+nephew. If you do grab him, George, and lock him in the tool house,
+we'll see that you're very nicely rewarded,--a matter of cold cash. Are
+you on?"
+
+"Ah shore is, an' Ah'll git him, fo' Ah reckon he's gwine come again.
+'Tain't no fun tacklin' whut looks lak a ghos', but Ah reckon Ah'll make
+that smahty think he's real flesh an' blood fo' Ah gits through with
+him!"
+
+The boys were two days making repairs, which time encroached upon their
+plan to get their promised radio receiver into action. Having no shop
+nor proper tools for finer work, they would be handicapped, for they had
+decided, because of the pleasure and satisfaction in so doing, to make
+many of the necessary parts that generally are purchased outright. Bill
+made the suggestion, on account of this delay, that they abandon their
+original plan, but Gus, ever hopeful, believed that something might turn
+up to carry out their first ideas.
+
+The afternoon that they had everything in normal condition again, Mr.
+Hooper came down to see them; he knew nothing of the tampering with the
+work, but it became evident at once that his nephew had slyly and
+forcibly put it into his head that amateur radio construction was
+largely newspaper bunk, without any real foundation of fact. Thad may
+have had some new scheme, but at any rate the unlettered old man would
+swallow pretty nearly everything Thad said, even though he often
+repudiated Thad's acts. Again Mr. Hooper, Bill and Gus got on the
+subject of radio and the old gentleman repeated his convictions:
+
+"I ain't sayin' you boys can't do wonders, an' I'm fer you all the time,
+but I'm not goin' t' b'lieve you kin do what's pretty nigh out o'
+reason. Listen to me, now, fer a minute: If you fellers kin rig up a
+machine to fetch old man Eddy's son's talk right here about two hundred
+an' fifty mile, I'll hand out to each o' you a good hundred dollars;
+yes, b'jinks. I'll make it a couple a hun--"
+
+"No, Mr. Hooper, we value your friendship altogether too much to take
+your money and that's too much like a wager, anyway." Bill was most
+earnest. "But you must take our word for it that it can be done."
+
+"Fetch old man Eddy's son's voice--!"
+
+"Just that exactly--similar things have been done a-plenty. People are
+talking into the radio broadcasters and their voices are heard
+distinctly thousands of miles. But, Mr. Hooper, you wouldn't know Mr.
+Edison's voice if you heard it, would you?"
+
+"N--no, can't say as how I would--but listen here. I do know a feller
+what works with him--they say he's close to the ol' man. Bill Medders.
+Knowed Bill when he was a little cack, knee-high to a grasshopper. They
+say he wrote a book about Eddy's son. I'd know Bill Medder's voice if I
+heard it in a b'iler factory."
+
+Bill Brown could hardly repress a smile. "I guess you must mean William
+H. Meadowcroft. His 'Boys' Life of Edison' sure is a dandy book. I liked
+it best of all. Sometimes no one can see Mr. Edison for weeks at a time,
+when he's buried in one of his 'world-beaters.' But I reckon we can let
+you hear Mr. Meadowcroft's voice. He wrote me a pippin of a letter once
+about the Chief."
+
+"All righty. I'll take Medders's. I know Bill, an' you can't fool me on
+that voice."
+
+"Mr. Hooper, I'll tell you what," said the all-practical Bill eagerly.
+"This demonstration will be almost as interesting to you as it is to us,
+and you can help us out. We can get what little power we need from any
+power plant. But we want a shop most of all--a loft or attic with room
+enough to work in. We're going to get all the tools we need--"
+
+"No. I'll get 'em fer you an' you kin have all that there room over the
+garage." (The old gentleman pronounced this word as though it rhymed
+with carriage.) "An' anything else you're a mind to have you kin have.
+Some old junk up there, I reckon," he went on. "You kin throw it out, er
+make use of it. An' now, let's see what you kin do!"
+
+The boys were eager to acknowledge this liberal offer, and they
+expressed themselves in no measured terms. They would do better than
+make one receiver; they would make two and one would be installed in Mr.
+Hooper's library,--but of this they said nothing at first. Get busy they
+did, with a zeal and energy that overmatched even that given the power
+plant. That afternoon they moved into the new shop and were delighted
+with its wide space and abundant light. The next day they went to the
+city for tools and materials. Two days later a lathe, a grinder and a
+boring machine, driven by a small electric motor wired from the Hooper
+generator were fully installed, together with a workbench, vises, a
+complete tool box and a drawing board, with its instruments. No young
+laborers in the vineyard of electrical fruitage could ask for more.
+
+"Isn't it dandy, Gus?" Bill exclaimed, surveying the place and the
+result of their labors in preparation. "If we can't do things here, it's
+only our fault. Now, then--"
+
+"It is fine," said Gus, "and we're in luck, but somehow, I think we must
+be on our guard. I can't get my mind off ghosts and the damage over
+yonder. I'm going to take a sneak around there to-night again, along
+around midnight and a little after. I did last night; didn't tell you,
+for you had your mind all on this. George was on duty, challenged me,
+but I've got a hunch that he knows something he doesn't want to worry us
+about and thinks he can cope with."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+A BIT TRAGIC
+
+
+"Hold up your hands, nigger!"
+
+The voice was low and sepulchral, but either the ghostly apparition that
+uttered the command had slipped up on its vernacular, or it was the
+spirit of a bandit. Some demand of the kind was, however, urgently
+necessary, for George did not, as formerly, show a desire to flee; his
+belligerent attitude suggested fight and he was a husky specimen with a
+handy club. Even though he might have suffered a qualm at again
+beholding the white apparition in the moonlight, his determination to
+dare the spectre was bolstered by the voice and the manner of the
+command.
+
+"Ah knows who yo' is an' Ah's gwine hol' yo' up! Yo' ain't no ghos'. Dis
+club'll knock de sure 'nough breff out'n yo'; then we'll see."
+
+To Gus, on the hillside above the power plant, it looked very much as
+though this threat were going to be carried out. He had been quietly
+observing, under the light of a half moon, the ghostly visitation and
+even the advent of this individual before the white raiment had been
+donned some distance behind the tool house and unknown to the watchful
+George. All this had not surprised Gus, but he had been puzzled by the
+appearance on the hillside of another figure that kept behind the scant
+bushes much as Gus was doing, except that it was screened against being
+seen from below and evidently did not know of Gus's presence. Now,
+however, all attention was given to the altercation before the tool
+house, around which the ghost had come, evidently to be disappointed at
+not seeing George take to his heels.
+
+Suddenly there was a shot. The reverberation among the hills seemed
+ominous, but not more so than the staggering back and sinking down of
+poor George. Gus saw the white figure stand for a moment, as though
+peering down at the victim of this murderous act; then it turned and
+fled straight up the hill and directly toward the one up there crouching
+and--waiting? Were they in collusion? Gus had but a moment to guess.
+Still crouching, unseen, though brave,--for Gus was courageous even
+sometimes to the point of being foolhardy in the rougher sports, or
+where danger threatened others,--he avoided now the almost certain fate
+of George, for the villain was still armed and desperate, no doubt. And
+Gus hoped that the arrest of the scamp would surely follow his meeting
+with the other observer.
+
+But this safe and sane attitude of the watching Gus suffered a sudden
+change when, as the ascending ruffian fairly stumbled upon the other
+figure crouching on the hillside, a scream, unmistakably that of a
+female in dire distress, came to the ears of the witness. He could dimly
+see the two struggling together, the dark figure with the white. The
+next instant, forgetting all danger to himself, Gus lessened the
+distance by leaps and scrambles along the declivity and flung himself
+upon the assailant.
+
+There was a short, sharp tussle; a second shot, but this time the weapon
+discharged its leaden pellet harmlessly. Then the ghost, taking
+advantage of the hillside, flung Gus aside and before the boy had time
+to leap upon his foeman again, the white figure, his habiliments torn
+off, had backed away and threatened Gus with the pistol. There was no
+mistaking the voice that uttered the threat:
+
+"Keep off, or you'll get punctured! You needn't think anybody's going to
+get me. I'm going to vanish. If you try to follow me now, I'll kill
+you!"
+
+This sounded desperate enough and Gus had reason to believe the fellow
+meant it. But in spite of that and driven by righteous anger, he would
+again have tackled the enemy had not the voice of Grace Hooper checked
+him:
+
+"Oh, let him go; let him go!" she begged. "He'll shoot, and you--you
+must not be killed! No; you shall not!"
+
+And then, as the rascal turned and fled over the brow of the hill, Gus
+turned to the girl, sitting on the ground.
+
+"How did you come here--what--?"
+
+"I knew something was going to happen, and I thought I might prevent it
+some way. Then he fired, and I saw how desperate he was,--and he shot--"
+
+"Yes--we must do all we can for poor George, if anything can be done.
+But are you hurt?"
+
+"Not very much; he meant to hurt me. I dodged when he struck and only my
+shoulder may be--bruised."
+
+"Then you should bathe it in hot water. Can I help you up? No, you must
+not go home alone--but I must see about poor George. I heard him groan."
+
+"I'd better go down with you."
+
+"It might be--too horrible--for a girl, you see. Better stay here."
+
+Gus had extended his hand to give her a lift; she took it and came
+slowly to her feet; then suddenly crumpled up and lay unconscious before
+him, her face white against the dark sod, her arms outflung. Gus stared
+at her a few long seconds, as foolishly helpless as any boy could be. He
+told Bill afterward that he never felt so flabbergasted in his life.
+What to do he knew not, but he must try something, and do it quickly.
+Perhaps Grace had only fainted; should he go to George first? He might
+be dying--or dead! Then the thought came to him: "Women and children
+first."
+
+Gus dashed down the hill, dipped his cap, cup fashion, into the water of
+the dam and fled up with it again, brimming full and spilling over. He
+was able to dash a considerable quantity of reviving water into the
+girl's face. With a gasp and a struggle she turned over, opened her
+eyes, sat up,--her physical powers returning in advance of her mental
+grasp.
+
+"Oh, am I,--no, not dead? Please help me--up and home."
+
+"Yes, I'll take you home in just a jiffy. Do you feel a little better?
+Can you sit still here, please, till I see about George? Just a moment?"
+
+Again the boy went down the hill, now toward the tool house; he was
+brave enough, but a sort of horror gripped him as he rounded the corner
+of the little shack. What, then, was his relief when he found the
+watchman on his feet, a bit uncertain about his balance and leaning
+against the door frame. It was evident from the way he held his club
+that he meant not to desert his post and that he believed his late
+assailant was returning. At sight of Gus, the colored man's relief
+showed in his drawn face.
+
+"Mist' Gus! It's you, honey! My Lawd! Ah done been shot! By the ghos',
+Mist' Gus, whut ain't nothin' no mo'n dat low-down, no 'count nephew o'
+ol' Mist' Hooper's. Ah reckon Ah's gwine die, but Ah ain't yit--not ef
+he's comin' back!"
+
+"Good boy, George! You're the stuff! But you're not going to die and
+he's not coming back. He lit out like a rabbit. Come now; we'll go to a
+doctor and then--"
+
+"Reckon Ah can't do it. Got hit in de hip some'ers; makes mah leg total
+wuthless. You-all go on an' Ah'll git me some res' yere till mawnin'."
+
+"And maybe bleed nearly to death! No, I'll be back for you in no
+time,--as soon as I get Miss Grace home. She's on the hill there. She
+came out to watch that cousin of hers. You hang on till I get back."
+
+Grace tried to show her usual energy, but seemed nearly overcome by
+fatigue. She made no complaint, but presently Gus saw that she was
+crying, and that scared him. In his inexperience he could not know that
+it was only overwrought nerves. He felt he must make speed in carrying
+out his intentions to get help to George and put the authorities on the
+track of Thad. Gus could see but one thing to do properly and his
+natural diffidence was cast aside by his generous and kindly nature.
+
+"Let me give you a lift, as I do Bill, sometimes," he said, and drew the
+girl's arm over his shoulder, supporting her with his other arm. In a
+second or two they were going on at a rather lively pace. In a few
+minutes they had reached the house. Grace entered and called loudly. Her
+father and mother appeared instantly in the hallway above. The girl,
+half way up the stairway, told of the incidents at the power plant and
+added:
+
+"Thad boasted to me that he was going to give the boys a lot more
+trouble, and I watched and saw him leave the house. So I followed,
+hoping to stop him, and after he shot George he ran into me and was so
+angry that he struck me. I wish _I_ had had a pistol! I would have--"
+
+"Gracie, dear little girl! You mustn't wish to kill or wound anyone! Oh,
+are you _hurt_? Come, dear--"
+
+"I'll be with you right off, me boy!" said Mr. Hooper to Gus, and
+presently they were in the library alone.
+
+"Listen to me, lad. This nevvy o' mine is me dead sister's child, an' I
+swore t' her I'd do all I could fer him. His brother Bob, he's in the
+Navy, a decent lad; won't have nothin' to do with Thad. An' you can't
+blame him, fer Thad's a rapscallion. Smart, too, an' friendly enough to
+his old uncle. But now, though, I'm done with him. I'm fer lettin' him
+slide, not wantin' to put the law on him. I'll take care o' George. He
+shall have the best doctor in the country, an' I'll keep him an' his
+wife in comfort, but I don't want Thaddeus to be arrested. Now I reckon
+he's gone an' so let luck take him--good, bad, er indifferent. Won't you
+let him hit his own trail, foot-loose?"
+
+"I'd like to see him arrested and jailed," said Gus, "but for you and
+because of what you'll do for George and your being so good to Bill and
+me, I'll keep mum on it."
+
+"Good, me lad. An' now you git back to George an' tell him to keep
+Thad's name out of it. I'll 'phone fer 'Doc' Little and 'Doc' Yardley,
+an' have an ambulance sent fer the poor feller. Then you can tell his
+wife. It means very little sleep fer you this night, but you can lay
+abed late."
+
+Gus went away upon these duties, but with a heavy heart; he felt that
+Mr. Hooper, because of the very gentleness of the man was defeating
+justice, and though he had been nearly forced to give his promise, he
+felt that he must keep it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+CONSTRUCTION AND DESTRUCTION
+
+
+Bill and Gus worked long hours and diligently. All that the power plant
+construction had earned for Bill, the boy had turned in to help his
+mother. But Mr. Grier, busy at house building and doing better than at
+most other times, was able to add something to _his_ boy's earnings, so
+that Gus could capitalize the undertaking, which he was eager to do.
+
+The layout of the radio receiver outfits to be built alike were put at
+first on paper, full size; plan, side and end elevations and tracings
+were made of the same transferred to heavy manila paper. These were to
+be placed on the varnished panels, so that holes could be bored through
+paper and panel, thus insuring perfect spacing and arrangement.
+Sketches, also, were made of all details.
+
+The audion tubes, storage batteries and telephone receivers had been
+purchased in the city. Almost all the other parts were made by the boys
+out of carefully selected materials. The amplifiers consisted of iron
+core transformers comprising several stages of radio frequency. The
+variometers were wound of 22-gauge wire. Loose couplers were used
+instead of the ordinary tuning coil. The switch arms, pivoting shafts
+and attachments for same, the contact points and binding posts were
+home-made. A potentiometer puzzled them most, both the making and the
+application, but they mastered this rather intricate mechanism, as they
+did the other parts.
+
+In this labor, with everything at hand and a definite object in view, no
+boys ever were happier, nor more profitably employed, considering the
+influence upon their characters and future accomplishments. How true it
+is that they who possess worthy hobbies, especially those governed by
+the desire for construction and the inventive tendency, are getting
+altogether the most out of life and are giving the best of themselves!
+
+The work progressed steadily--not too hastily, but most satisfactorily.
+Leaving at supper time, Bill's eyes would sparkle as he talked over
+their efforts for that day, and quiet Gus would listen with nods and
+make remarks of appreciation now and then.
+
+"The way we've made that panel, Gus, with those end cleats doweled on
+and the shellacking of both sides--it'll never warp. I'm proud of that
+and it was mostly your idea."
+
+"No, yours. I would have grooved the wood and used a tongue, but the
+dowels are firmer."
+
+"A tongue would have been all right."
+
+"But, dear boy, the dowels were easier to put in."
+
+"Oh, well, it's done now. To-morrow we'll begin the mounting and wiring.
+Then for the a๋rial!"
+
+But that very to-morrow brought with it the hardest blow the boys had
+yet had to face. Full of high spirits, they walked the half mile out to
+the Hooper place and found the garage a mass of blackened ruins. It had
+caught fire, quite mysteriously, toward morning, and the gardener and
+chauffeur, roused by the crackling flames, had worked like beavers but
+with only time to push out the two automobiles; they could save nothing
+else.
+
+The Hoopers had just risen from breakfast when the boys arrived; at once
+Grace came out, and her expressions of regret were such as to imply that
+the family had lost nothing, the boys being the only sufferers. And it
+_was_ a bit staggering--all their work and machinery and tools and plans
+utterly ruined--the lathe and drill a heap of twisted iron. It was with
+a rueful face that Bill surveyed the catastrophe.
+
+"Never mind, Billy," said Grace, detecting evidence of moisture in his
+eyes; but she went over to smiling Gus and gazed at him in wonder.
+"Don't you care?" she asked.
+
+"You bet I care; mostly on Bill's account, though. He had set his heart
+mighty strong on this. I'm sorry about your loss, too."
+
+"Oh, never mind that! Dad is 'phoning now for carpenters and his
+builder. He'll be out in a minute."
+
+Out he did come, with a shout of greeting; he, too, had sensed that the
+real regrets would be with them.
+
+"It'll be all right, me lads!" he shouted. "Herring'll be here on the
+next train, with a bunch o' men, an' I'll git your dad, Gus, too. Must
+have this building up just like it was in ten days. An' now count up
+just what you lads have lost; the hull sum total, b'jinks! I'm goin' to
+be the insurance comp'ny in this deal."
+
+"The insurance company!" Bill exclaimed and Gus stared.
+
+"Sure. Goin' to make up your loss an' then some. I'm a heap int'rested
+in this Eddy's son business, ain't I? Think I ain't wantin' to see that
+there contraption that hears a hunderd miles off? Get busy an' give me
+the expense. We've got to git a-goin'."
+
+"But, Mr. Hooper, our loss isn't yours and you have got enough to--"
+
+"Don't talk; figger! I'm runnin' this loss business. Don't want to make
+me mad; eh? Git at it an' hurry up!" He turned and walked away. Grace
+followed in a moment, but over her shoulder remarked to the wondering
+boys:
+
+"Do as Dad says if you want to keep our friendship. Dad isn't any sort
+of a piker,--you know that."
+
+The insistency was too direct; "the queen's wish was a command." The
+boys would have to comply and they could get square with their good
+friends in the end. So at it they went, Bill with pad and pencil, Gus
+calling out the items as his eye or his memory gleaned them from the
+hard-looking objects in the burned mass as he raked it over. Presently
+Grace came out again.
+
+"Dad wants the list and the amount," she said. "He's got to go to the
+city with Mr. Herring."
+
+Bill handed over his pad and she was gone, to return as quickly in a few
+minutes.
+
+"Here is an order on the bank; you can draw the cash as you need it. You
+can start working in the stable loft; then bring your stuff over. There
+will be a watchman on the grounds from to-night, so don't worry about
+any more fires. I must go help get Dad off."
+
+Once more she retreated; again she stopped to say something, as an
+afterthought, over her shoulder:
+
+"And, boys, won't you let Skeets and me help you some? Skeets will be
+here again next week and I love to tinker and contrive and make all
+sorts of things; it'll be fun to see the radio receiver grow."
+
+"Sure, you can," said Gus; and Bill nodded, adding: "We have only a
+limited time now, and any help will count a lot."
+
+Going down to the bank, Bill again outlined the work in detail,
+suggesting the purchases of even better machinery and tools, of only the
+best grades of materials. There must be another trip to the city, the
+most strenuous part of the work.
+
+"We'll get it through on time, I guess," said Bill.
+
+"I'm not thinking so much of that as about how that fire started," said
+Gus.
+
+"It couldn't have been any of our chemicals, could it?"
+
+"Chem--? My eye! Don't you know, old chap? I'll bet Mr. Hooper and Grace
+have the correct suspicion."
+
+"More crooked business? You don't mean--"
+
+"Sure, I do! Thad, of course. And, Bill, we're going to get him, sooner
+or later. Mr. Hooper won't want to stand this sort of thing forever.
+I've got a hunch that we're not through with that game yet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+"TO LABOR AND TO WAIT"
+
+
+It was truly astonishing what well organized labor could do under
+intelligent direction; the boys had a fine example of this before them
+and a fine lesson in the accomplishment. The new garage grew into a new
+and somewhat larger building, on the site of the old, almost over night.
+There were three eight-hour shifts of men and two foremen, with the
+supervising architect and Mr. Grier apparently always on the job. As
+soon as the second floor was laid, the roof on and the sheathing in
+place, Bill and Gus moved in. The men gave them every aid and Mr. Grier
+gave special attention to building their benches, trusses, a
+drawing-board stand, shelving and tool chests. Then, how those new radio
+receivers did come on!
+
+Grace and Skeets were given little odd jobs during the very few hours of
+their insistent helping. They varnished, polished, oiled, cleaned copper
+wire, unpacked material, even swept up the _d้bris_ left by the
+carpenters; at least, they did until Skeets managed to fall headlong
+down about one-half of the unfinished stairway and to sprain her ankle.
+Then Grace's loyalty compelled her attention to her friend.
+
+Mr. Hooper breezed in from time to time, but never to take a hand; to do
+so would have seemed quite out of place, though the old gentleman
+laughingly made an excuse for this:
+
+"Lads, I ain't no tinker man; never was. Drivin' a pesky nail's a
+huckleberry above my persimmon. Cattle is all I know, an' I kin still
+learn about them, I reckon. But I know what I kin see an' hear an',
+b'jinks, I'm still doubtin' I'm ever goin' to hear that there Eddy's son
+do this talkin'. But get busy, lads; get busy!"
+
+"Oh, fudge, Dad! Can't you see they're dreadfully busy? You can't hurry
+them one bit faster." Grace was ever just.
+
+"No," said Skeets, who had borrowed Bill's crutch to get into the shop
+for a little while. "No, Mr. Hooper; if they were to stay up all night,
+go without eats and work twenty-five hours a day they couldn't do any--"
+And just then the end of the too-much inclined crutch skated outward and
+the habitually unfortunate girl dropped kerplunk on the floor. Gus and
+Grace picked her up. She was not hurt by her fall. Her very plumpness
+had saved her.
+
+"For goodness' sake, Skeets, are you ever going to get the habit of
+keeping yourself upright?" asked Grace, who laughed harder than the
+others, except Skeets herself; the stout girl generally got the utmost
+enjoyment out of her own troubles.
+
+Quiet restored, Mr. Hooper returned to his subject.
+
+"I reckon you lads, when you git this thing made that's goin' to hoodoo
+the air, will be startin' in an' tryin' somethin' else; eh?" he
+ventured, grinning.
+
+"Later, perhaps, but not just yet," Bill replied. "Not until we can
+manage to learn a lot more, Gus and I. Mr. Grier says that the
+competition of brains nowadays is a lot sharper than it was in Edison's
+young days, and even he had to study and work a lot before he really did
+any big inventing. Professor Gray says that a technical education is
+best for anyone who is going to do things, though it is a long way from
+making a fellow perfect and must be followed up by hard practice."
+
+"And we can wait, I guess," put in Gus.
+
+"Until we can manage in some way to scrape together enough cash to buy
+books and get apparatus for experiments and go on with our schooling."
+
+"We want more physics and especially electricity," said Gus.
+
+"And other knowledge as well, along with that," Bill amended.
+
+"I reckon you fellers is right," said Mr. Hooper, "but I don't know
+anything about it. I quit school when I was eleven, but that ain't
+sayin' I don't miss it. If I had an eddication now, like you lads is
+goin' to git, er like the Perfesser has, I'd give more'n half what I
+own. Boys that think they're smart to quit school an' go to work is
+natchal fools. A feller may git along an' make money, but he'd make a
+heap more an' be a heap happier, 'long of everything else, if he'd got a
+schoolin'. An' any boy that's got real sand in his gizzard can buckle
+down to books an' get a schoolin', even if he don't like it. What I'm a
+learnin' nowadays makes me know that a feller can make any old study
+int'restin' if he jes' sets down an' looks at it the right way."
+
+"That's what Gus and I think. There are studies we don't like very much,
+but we can make ourselves like them for we've got to know a lot about
+them."
+
+"Grammar, for instance," said Gus.
+
+"Sure. It is tiresome stuff, learning a lot of rules that work only
+half. But if a fellow is going to be anybody and wants to stand in with
+people, he's got to know how to talk correctly and write, too." Bill's
+logic was sound.
+
+"Daddy should have had a drilling in grammar," commented Grace,
+laughing.
+
+"Oh, you!" blurted Skeets. "Mr. Hooper can talk so that people
+understand him--and when you _do_ talk," she turned to the old
+gentleman, "I notice folks are glad to listen, and so is Grace."
+
+"But, my dear," protested the subject of criticism, "they'd listen
+better an' grin less if I didn't sling words about like one o' these
+here Eye-talians shovelin' dirt."
+
+"You just keep a-shovelin', Mr. Hooper, your own way," said Bill, "and
+if we catch anybody even daring to grin at you, why, I'll have Gus land
+on them with his famous grapple!"
+
+Mr. Hooper threw back his coat, thrust his thumbs into the armholes of
+his big, white vest and swelled out his chest.
+
+"Now, listen to that! An' this from a lad who ain't got a thing to
+expect from me an' ain't had as much as he's a-givin' me, either--an'
+knows it. But that's nothin' else but Simon pure frien'ship, I take it.
+An' Gus, here, him an' Bill, they think about alike; eh, Gus?" Gus
+nodded and the old gentleman continued, addressing his remarks to his
+daughter and Skeets:
+
+"Now, if I know anything at all about anything at all I know what I'm
+goin' to do. I ain't got no eddication, but that ain't goin' to keep me
+from seein' some others git it. You Gracie, fer one, an' you, too,
+Skeeter, if your old daddy'll let you come an' go to school with Gracie.
+But that ain't all; if you lads kin git ol' Eddy's son out o' the air on
+this contraption you're makin' an' hear him talk fer sure, I'm goin' to
+see to it that you kin git all the tec--tec--what you call
+it?--eddication there is goin' an' I'm goin' to put Perfesser Gray wise
+on that, too, soon's he comes back. No--don't you say a word now. I
+know what I'm a-doin'." With that the old gentleman turned and marched
+out of the shop. But at the bottom of the garage steps he called back:
+
+"Say, boys, I gotta go away fer a couple o' weeks, or mebbe three. Push
+it right along an' mebbe you'll be hearin' from old man Eddy's son when
+I git back!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+EARLY STRUGGLES
+
+
+The receiving outfits were completed; the a๋rials had been put up, one
+installed at the garage, the other at the mansion. Grace naturally had
+all, the say about placing the one in her home. The a๋rial, of four
+wires, each thirty feet long and parallel, were attached equi-distant,
+and at each end to springy pieces of ash ten feet long, these being
+insulators in part and sustained by spiral spring cables, each divided
+by a glass insulator block, the extended cables being fastened to a
+maple tree and the house chimney. The ground wire went down the side of
+the house beside a drain pipe.
+
+The house receiver, in a cabinet that had cost the boys much painstaking
+labor, was set by a window and, after Grace and Skeets had been
+instructed how to tune the instrument to varying wave lengths, they and
+good Mrs. Hooper enjoyed many delightful periods of listening in, all
+zealously consulting the published programs from the great broadcasting
+stations.
+
+The other outfit made by the boys, which, except the elaborate box and
+stand, was an exact duplicate of the Hooper receiver, was taken to the
+Brown cottage. Gus insisted that Bill had the best right to it, and as
+the Griers and Mrs. Brown had long been the best of friends and lived
+almost next door to each other, all the members of the carpenter's
+family would be welcome to listen in whenever they wanted to. The little
+evening gatherings at certain times for this purpose were both mirthful
+and delightful.
+
+The boys' a๋rial was a three-wire affair, stretching forty feet, and
+erected in much the same way as that at the Hooper house, except that
+one mast had to be put up as high as the gable end of the cottage, which
+was the other support, thirty-five feet high.
+
+Then, when the announcement was made that the talks on Edison were to be
+repeated, Bill and Gus told the class and others of their friends, so
+the Hoopers came also, the merry crowd filling the Brown living-room.
+Mr. Hooper's absence was noted and regretted from the first, as his
+eagerness "to be shown" was well known to them all.
+
+The first lectures concerning Edison's boyhood were repeated. The second
+and third talks were each better attended than the preceding ones. Cora,
+Dot, Skeets and two other girls occupied the front row; Ted Bissell and
+Terry Watkins were present. Bill presided with much dignity, most
+carefully tuning in, making the announcements, then becoming the most
+interested listener, the theme being ever dear to him.
+
+On the occasion of the third lecture, Bill said:
+
+"Now, then, classmates and other folks, this is a new one to all of us.
+The last was where we left off in June on the Professor's receiver. You
+can just bet this is going to be a pippin. First off, though, is a
+violin solo by--by--oh, I forget his name,--and may it be short and
+sweet!"
+
+After the music, the now well-known voice came from the horn:
+
+"This is the third talk on the career and accomplishments of Thomas Alva
+Edison:
+
+"In a little while young Edison began to get tired of the humdrum life
+of a telegraph operator in Boston. As I have told you, after the
+vote-recorder, he had invented a stock ticker and started a quotation
+service in Boston. He opened operations from a room over the Gold
+Exchange with thirty to forty subscribers.
+
+"He also engaged in putting up private lines, upon which he used an
+alphabetical dial instrument for telegraphing between business
+establishments, a forerunner of modern telephony. This instrument was
+very simple and practical, and any one could work it after a few
+minutes' explanation.
+
+"The inventor has described an accident he suffered and its effect on
+him:
+
+"'In the laboratory,' he says, 'I had a large induction coil. One day I
+got hold of both electrodes of this coil, and it clinched my hands on
+them so that I could not let go!
+
+"'The battery was on a shelf. The only way I could get free was to back
+off and pull the coil, so that the battery wires would pull the cells
+off the shelf and thus break the circuit. I shut my eyes and pulled, but
+the nitric acid splashed all over my face and ran down my back.
+
+"'I rushed to a sink, which was only half big enough, and got in as well
+as I could, and wiggled around for several minutes to let the water
+dilute the acid and stop the pain. My face and back were streaked with
+yellow; the skin was thoroughly oxidized.
+
+"'I did not go on the street by daylight for two weeks, as the
+appearance of my face was dreadful. The skin, however, peeled off, and
+new skin replaced it without any damage.'
+
+"The young inventor went to New York City to seek better fortunes. First
+he tried to sell his stock printer and failed in the effort. Then he
+returned to Boston and got up a duplex telegraph--for sending two
+messages at once over one wire. He tried to demonstrate it between
+Rochester and New York City. After a week's trial, his test did not
+work, partly because of the inefficiency of his assistant.
+
+"He had run in debt eight hundred dollars to build this duplex
+apparatus. His other inventions had cost considerable money to make, and
+he had failed to sell them. So his books, apparatus and other belongings
+were left in Boston, and when he returned to New York he arrived there
+with but a few cents in his pocket. He was very hungry. He walked the
+streets in the early morning looking for breakfast but with so little
+money left that he did not wish to spend it.
+
+"Passing a wholesale tea house, he saw a man testing tea by tasting it.
+The young inventor asked the 'taster' for some of the tea. The man
+smiled and held out a cup of the fragrant drink. That tea was Thomas A.
+Edison's first breakfast in New York City.
+
+"He walked back and forth hunting for a telegraph operator he had known,
+but that young man was also out of work. When Edison finally found him,
+all his friend could do was to lend him a dollar!
+
+"By this time Edison was nearly starved. With such limited resources he
+gave solemn thought to what he should select that would be most
+satisfying. He decided to buy apple dumplings and coffee, and in telling
+afterward of his first real 'eats' in New York, Mr. Edison said he never
+had anything that tasted so good.
+
+"Just as young Ben Franklin, on arriving in New York City from Boston,
+looked for a job in a printing office, the youthful modern inventor
+applied for work in a telegraph office there. As there was no vacancy
+and he needed the rest of his borrowed dollar for meals, Edison found
+lodging in the battery room of the Gold Indicator Company.
+
+"It was four years after the Civil War and, besides there being much
+unemployment, the fluctuations in the value of gold, as compared with
+the paper currency of that day, made it necessary to have gold
+'indicators' something like the tickers from the Stock Exchange to-day.
+Dr. Laws, presiding officer of the Gold Exchange, had recently invented
+a system of gold indicators, which were placed in brokers' offices and
+operated from the Gold Exchange.
+
+"When Edison got permission to spend the night in the battery room of
+this company, there were about three hundred of these instruments
+operating in offices in all directions in lower New York City.
+
+"On the third day after his arrival, while sitting in this office, the
+complicated instrument sending quotations out on all the lines made a
+very loud noise, and came to a sudden stop with a crash. Within two
+minutes over three hundred boys---one from every broker's office in the
+street--rushed upstairs and crowded the long aisle and office where
+there was hardly room for one-third that number, each yelling that a
+certain broker's wire was out of order, and that it must be fixed at
+once.
+
+"It was pandemonium, and the manager got so wild that he lost all
+control of himself. Edison went to the indicator, and as he had already
+studied it thoroughly, he knew right where the trouble was. He went
+right out to see the man in charge, and found Dr. Laws there also--the
+most excited man of all!
+
+"The Doctor demanded to know what caused all the trouble, but his man
+stood there, staring and dumb. As soon as Edison could get Laws'
+attention he told him he knew what the matter was.
+
+"'Fix it! Fix it! and be quick about it!' Dr. Laws shouted.
+
+"Edison went right to work and in two hours had everything in running
+order. Dr. Laws came in to ask the inventor's name and what he was
+doing. When told, he asked the young man to call on him in his office
+the next day. Edison did so and Laws said he had decided to place Edison
+in charge of the entire plant at a salary of three hundred dollars a
+month!
+
+"This was such a big jump from any wages he had ever received that it
+quite paralyzed the youthful inventor. He felt that it was too much to
+last long, but he made up his mind he would do his best to earn that
+salary if he had to work twenty hours a day. He kept that job, making
+improvements and devising other stock tickers, until the Gold and Stock
+Telegraph Company consolidated with the Gold Indicator Company."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+FAME AND FORTUNE
+
+
+"At twenty-two," the lecturer continued, "while Edison was with the Gold
+and Stock Telegraph Company, he often heard Jay Gould and 'Jim' Fisk,
+the great Wall Street operators of that day, talk over the money market.
+At night he ate his lunches in the coffee-house in Printing House
+Square, where he used to meet Henry J. Raymond, founder of _The New York
+Times_, Horace Greeley of the _Tribune_ and James Gordon Bennett of the
+_Herald_, the greatest trio of journalists in the world. One of the most
+memorable remarks made by a frequenter of this night lunch, as recorded
+by Mr. Edison was:
+
+"'This is a great place; a plate of cakes, a cup of coffee, and a
+Russian bath, all for ten cents!'
+
+"The so-called bath was on account of the heat of the crowded room.
+
+"Mr. Edison tells this story of the terrible panic in Wall Street, in
+September, 1869, brought on chiefly by the attempt of Jay Gould and his
+associates to corner the gold market:
+
+"'On Black Friday we had a rather exciting time with our indicators. The
+Gould and Fisk crowd had cornered the gold and had run up the quotations
+faster than the indicator could record them. In the morning it was
+quoting 150 premium while Gould's agents were bidding 165 for five
+millions or less.
+
+"'There was intense excitement. Broad and other streets in the Wall
+Street district were crammed with crazy crowds. In the midst of the
+excitement, Speyer, another large operator, became so insane that it
+took five men to hold him. I sat on the roof of a Western Union booth
+and watched the surging multitudes.
+
+"'A Western Union man I knew came up and said to me: "Shake hands,
+Edison. We're all right. We haven't got a cent to lose."'
+
+"After the company with which our young inventor was connected had sold
+out its inventions and improvements to the Gold and Stock Telegraph
+Company, Mr. Edison produced a machine to print gold quotations instead
+of merely indicating them. The attention of the president of the Gold
+and Stock Company was attracted to the success of the wonderful young
+inventor.
+
+"Edison had produced quite a number of inventions. One of these was the
+special ticker which was used many years in other large cities, because
+it was so simple that it could be operated by men less expert than the
+operators in New York. It was used also on the London Stock Exchange.
+
+"After he had gotten up a good many inventions and taken out patents for
+them, the president of the big company came to see him and was shown a
+simple device to regulate tickers that had been printing figures wrong.
+This thing saved a good deal of labor to a large number of men, and
+prevented trouble for the broker himself. It impressed the president so
+much that he invited Edison into his private office and said, in a stage
+whisper:
+
+"'Young man, I would like to settle with you for your inventions here.
+How much do you want for them?"
+
+"Edison had thought it all over and had come to the conclusion that, on
+account of the hard night-and-day work he had been doing, he really
+ought to have five thousand dollars, but he would be glad to settle for
+three thousand, if they thought five thousand was too much. But when
+asked point-blank, he hadn't the courage to name either sum--thousands
+looked large to him then--so he hesitated a bit and said:
+
+"'Well, General, suppose _you_ make _me_ an offer.'
+
+"'All right,' said the president. 'How would forty thousand dollars
+strike you?'
+
+"Young Edison came as near fainting then as he ever did in his life. He
+was afraid the 'General' would hear his heart thump, but he said quietly
+that he thought that amount was just about right. A contract was drawn
+up which Edison signed without reading.
+
+"Forty thousand dollars was written in the first check Thomas A. Edison
+ever received. With throbbing heart and trembling fingers he took it to
+the bank and handed it in to the paying teller, who looked at it
+disapprovingly and passed it back, saying something the young inventor
+could not hear because of his deafness. Thinking he had been cheated,
+Edison went out of the bank, as he said, 'to let the cold sweat
+evaporate.'
+
+"Then he hurried back to the president and demanded to know what it all
+meant. The president and his secretary laughed at the green youth's
+needless fears and explained that the teller had probably told him to
+write his name on the back of the check. They not only showed him how to
+endorse it, but sent a clerk to the bank to identify him--because of the
+large amount of money to be paid over.
+
+"Just for a joke on the 'jay,' the teller gave him the whole forty
+thousand dollars in ten- and twenty-dollar bills. Edison gravely stowed
+away the money till he had filled all his pockets including those in his
+overcoat. He sat up all night in his room in Newark, in fear and
+trembling, lest he be robbed. The president laughed next day but said
+that joke had gone far enough; then he showed Thomas A. Edison how to
+open his first bank account."
+
+Again the lecturer's voice ceased to be heard; again another voice
+announced that the fourth talk would be given on a certain date a few
+days later. A negro song with banjo accompaniment followed and the radio
+entertainment was over.
+
+Everyone was talking, laughing and voicing pleasure in the increasingly
+wonderful demonstration of getting sounds out of the air, from hundreds
+of miles away. Only Gus and Bill remained and the two--as Billy always
+referred to their confabs--went into "executive session." This radio
+receiver was altogether absorbing, much too attractive to let alone
+easily. The boys were proud of their very successful construction and
+they could neither forget that fact, nor pass up the delight of
+listening in.
+
+This time Gus had the first inspiration. Billy often thought how,
+sometimes strangely or by chance or correct steering, his chum seemed to
+grasp the deeper matters of detection. Gus eagerly acknowledged Bill as
+possessing a genius for mechanical construction and invention, without
+which the comrades would get nowhere in such efforts, even admitting
+Gus's skill and cleverness with tools. But when it came to having
+hunches and good luck concerning matters of human mystery, Gus was the
+king pin.
+
+"I'm going to see what else we can get from near or far," Gus said,
+detaching the horn and using the head clamp with its two ear 'phones
+which had been added to the set. He sat down and began moving the switch
+arms, one from contact to contact, the other throughout the entire range
+of its contacts at each movement of the first, and proceeding thus
+slowly for some minutes.
+
+Bill had turned to the study of his Morse code, which the boys had taken
+up and pursued at every opportunity during the building of the radio
+sets. Gus, however, was less familiar with the dots and dashes. A
+whisper, as though Gus were afraid the sound of his voice would disturb
+the electric waves, suddenly switched Bill's attention.
+
+"Two dots, three dots, two dots, one dash, one dot and dash, one dot,
+one dash and two dots, same, dot, dash, dot, two dots, two dashes and
+dot, four dots, one dash, two dots, two dashes, two dots." A pause. Gus
+had whispered each signal to Bill; then he asked: "What do you make it?"
+
+"I make it: 'Is it all right, then?' They have been talking some time, I
+guess," said Bill; and added: "That's a good way to pick up and wrestle
+with the code; it's dandy practice and we want--"
+
+"Wait, pal, wait!" gasped Gus, bending forward again.
+
+Words came now, instead of the code. It was evident that the person
+giving them out had sought authority for so doing from headquarters.
+
+Gus heard:
+
+"This is to whom it may concern: Five hundred dollars' reward is to be
+paid for information leading to the arrest of a party who last night
+broke into the home of Nathan R. Hallowell. After deliberately and,
+without apparent cause, shooting and badly wounding Mrs. Hallowell and
+striking down an old servant woman, he stole several hundred dollars'
+worth of jewels and silverware. Both the servant, who kept her wits
+about her, and Mrs. Hallowell, who is now out of danger, have described
+the assailant. He is about eighteen, of medium height, slender, dark
+complexioned, one eye noticeably smaller than the other, nose long and
+pointed, has a nervous habit of twitching his shoulder. He wore a light
+brown suit and a gray cap. Send all information, or broadcast same to
+Police Headquarters, Willstown. Immediate detention of any reasonable
+suspect is recommended."
+
+Gus wheeled about.
+
+"Bill, it's Thad! Description hits him exactly and there's five hundred
+reward. He's done a house-breaking stunt and tried to kill two people
+and I don't believe they've got him yet. Mr. Hooper wouldn't want us to
+keep quiet on this; would he?"
+
+"It might be a good idea to talk to Mrs. Hooper and Grace about it
+before you inform on Thad," Bill said.
+
+"I'll do that," Gus agreed and was off. In half an hour he was back
+again.
+
+"I saw them, late as it was. Grace and Skeets were playing crokinole and
+Mrs. Hooper came down. And, what do you think? Mr. Hooper wrote that
+Thad had forged his name on a check for several hundred dollars and got
+away with it and, even if he did still want to shield Thad, the law
+wouldn't let him. Grace says Thad ought to be caught and punished and
+that her father will want it done."
+
+"But Gus, even if you got Willstown on the long distance 'phone, how
+would that help to----"
+
+"We'll get them later; after we have located Thad."
+
+"Oh, Gus, do you think Ben Shultz was dreaming?"
+
+"When he said he saw Thad out there in the barren ground woods by the
+old cabin? Not a bit of it! It's the last place they'd ever think of
+looking for him--right on his uncle's place. Thad is pretty keen in some
+ways. But I doubt if he'll stay there long. He'll be pulling out for the
+mountains. There's a late moon to-night, you see."
+
+"I wish I could go with you; this old leg--"
+
+"Never mind now; don't worry. I'll take Bennie Shultz and make him
+messenger. If Thad's there you can get down to the drug store and call
+Willstown. That'll make our case sure. By cracky, old scout, five
+hundred! We can--"
+
+"Chickens, old man; chickens. Hatch 'em first. But you will, I'll bet,
+and it will be yours; not--"
+
+"What are you talking about? Ours! It's as much your job as mine.
+Divy-divy, half'n'half, fifty-fifty. Well, I'm off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+JUSTICE
+
+
+"Now then, Bennie," whispered Gus, "beat it on the q.t. Then streak it
+for Bill's house. He'll be watching for you. Tell him our man is here
+and probably getting ready to light out. You needn't come back; I'm only
+going to spot this bird and find out where he goes, if I can. You'll get
+well paid for this, kid."
+
+The two boys were lying on the sandy ground among young cedars, and
+watching the little cabin not fifty yards distant. Out of this crude
+shack had come the sole occupant, to stand and gaze about him for a
+minute, lifting his face to the moon. Gus could plainly distinguish the
+gray cap, the slender build of the youth; he recognized the walk, a
+certain manner of standing, and once he plainly caught that upward shift
+of the shoulder. Then Gus gave his orders to Bennie, knowing that they
+would be carried out with precision, for the little fellow, almost a
+waif and lacking proper influences, would have nearly laid down his life
+for Gus after the athlete had very deservedly whipped two town bullies
+that were making life miserable for him. Moreover, the youngster wanted
+to be like Gus and Bill, in the matter of mentality, and a promise of
+reward meant money with which he could buy books.
+
+Left alone, Gus crept nearer the cabin. He could be reasonably sure of
+himself, but not of Bennie, who might crack a stick or sneeze. Some low
+cedars grew on the slope above the cabin; Gus took advantage of these
+and got within about forty feet of the shack. Then he lay watching for
+fully an hour, there being no sign of the inmate. But after what had
+seemed to Gus almost half the night, out came the suspect, stood a
+moment as before and started off; it could be seen that he carried a
+small pack and a heavy stick in his hands.
+
+Then Gus was taken by surprise; even his ready intuition failed him. He
+had made up his mind that he was in for a long hike to the not too
+distant mountains and that over this ground the work of keeping the
+other fellow in sight and of keeping out of sight himself was going to
+mean constant vigilance and keen stalking. But the midnight prowler
+swung around the cabin and with long, certain strides headed straight
+for the Hooper mansion.
+
+This was easier going for Gus than the open road toward the mountains
+would have been; there was plenty of growth--long grass, trees and
+bushes--to keep between him and the other who never tried to seek
+shelter, nor hardly once looked behind him until the end of the broad
+driveway was reached.
+
+Gus knew the watchman must be about, though possibly half asleep. He
+also believed that the suspected youth, by the way he advanced, must
+know the ways of the watchman. Roger, the big Saint Bernard, let out a
+booming roar and came bounding down the driveway; the fellow spoke to
+him and that was all there was to that. Gus stayed well behind, fearing
+the friendly beast might come to him also and thus give his presence
+away, but Roger was evidently coaxed to remain with the first comer.
+
+The big house stood silent, bathed in the moonlight; there was no sign
+of anyone about, other than the miscreant who stood now in the shadow,
+surveying the place. Presently he put down his pack, went to a window
+and, quick and silent as an expert burglar, jimmied the sash. There was
+only one sudden, sharp snap of the breaking sash bolt and in a moment
+the fellow had vanished within the darkness and Gus distinguished only
+the occasional flash of a pocket torch inside.
+
+There was but one thing to do, and that as quickly as possible. The dog
+had gone around to lie again on the front veranda. Gus made a bolt for
+the rear of the grounds, reached the garage, found an open door, began
+softly to push it open and suddenly found himself staring into the
+muzzle of a revolver that protruded from the blackness beyond.
+
+"Don't shoot! I'm Gus Grier, Mr. Watchman." The boy was conscious of a
+certain unsteadiness in his own voice.
+
+"Oh! An' phwat air yes doin' here?"
+
+"Talk low," said Gus, "but listen first: There's a burglar in the house.
+I spotted him some time ago, followed him and saw him get through the
+dining-room window. Move fast and he's yours!"
+
+Pat moved fast. He recognized that he had not been up to his duty so far
+and he meant to make amends. With Gus following, the boy's nerves on
+edge with the possibility that the housebreaker would shoot, the
+Irishman, who was no coward, reached the house, entered the basement,
+flooded the house with light, alarmed the inmates and in a few minutes
+had every avenue of escape guarded, the chauffeur, butler and gardener
+coming on the scene, all half dressed and armed.
+
+What followed needs little telling. Hardly had the men decided to search
+the house before the sound of a rapidly approaching motor horn was heard
+and from the quickly checked car two men leaped out, the constable and a
+deputy from the town--and then Bill Brown! The illuminated house had
+stopped their course. The search revealed Thad cowering in a closet, all
+the fight gone out of him. Grace and Skeets were not even awakened; Mrs.
+Hooper did not leave her room.
+
+As the constable turned a light on the handcuffed prisoner he remarked:
+"That's the chap all right. Description fits. He'll bring that five
+hundred all right."
+
+"A reward; is it?" said the watchman. "An' don't ye fergit who gits it.
+Not me, ner you, Constable, but the bye here." He laid his hand on Gus's
+shoulder. The constable laughed:
+
+"Oh, you're slow, Pat. We all know that. The kid and his pal, that young
+edition of Edison by the name of Billy Brown, got the thing cinched over
+their radio. We didn't know that the description that Willstown sent out
+fitted Mr. Hooper's own nephew."
+
+And so with relief, mixed with regret for Mr. Hooper's sake, Gus and
+Bill saw a sulky and rebellious Thad vanish into the night and out of
+their immediate affairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+GENIUS IS OFTEN ERRATIC
+
+
+The fourth radio talk on the life, character and accomplishments of the
+world's foremost inventor proved to be the most interesting of the
+series. Fairview had heard of these entertainments and so many people
+had asked Bill and Gus if they might attend, the boys became aware that
+the modest little living-room of the Brown home would not hold half of
+them. They, therefore, decided to let the radio be heard in the town
+hall, if a few citizens would pay the rent for the evening.
+
+This was readily arranged, but when the suggestion was made that an
+admission be charged, the boys refused. This was their treat all round,
+even to transferring their a๋rial to the hall between its cupola and a
+mast at the other end of the roof, put up by the ever willing Mr. Grier
+who could not do too much to further the boys' interests.
+
+Early in the evening the hall was filled to overflowing, and ushers were
+appointed to seat the crowd. Naturally there was much chattering and
+scraping of feet until suddenly a strain of music, an orchestral
+selection, began to come out of the horn and there was instant quiet.
+After its conclusion came the voice:
+
+"This is our last lecture on Edison. Following this will be given a
+series on Marconi, the inventor of the wireless.
+
+"As I have told you, Mr. Thomas Alva Edison's leap to fortune was sudden
+and spectacular, as have been most of his accomplishments since. Those
+who do really great things along the lines of physical improvement, or
+concerning the inception of large enterprises are apt to startle the
+public and to surprise thoughtful people almost as though some
+impossible thing had been achieved.
+
+"From a mere salaried operator to forty thousand dollars in a lump sum
+for expert work was quite a jump.
+
+"The forty thousand dollars, however, did not turn Mr. Edison's head as
+has been the effect of sudden wealth on many a good-sized but smaller
+minded man.
+
+"He used it as a fund to start a plant and hire expert men to experiment
+and work out the inventions which came to him so fast in his ceaseless
+work and study. He could get along with as little sleep as Napoleon is
+said to have required when a mighty battle was on. Edison could lie down
+on a settee or table and sleep just as the Little Corporal did even
+while cannon were booming all around him.
+
+"There was something Napoleonic, also, about Edison's intensity of
+application and his masterfulness in his gigantic undertakings. If
+genius is the ability to take great pains, Thomas A. Edison is the
+greatest genius in the world to-day--if not in all history.
+
+"Sometimes, as Napoleon did with his chief generals before a decisive
+engagement, Edison would shut himself up with his confidential
+coworkers. Sometimes he and they would neither eat nor sleep till they
+had fought out a problem of greater importance to the world than even
+Napoleon's crossing the Alps or the decisive battle of Austerlitz. But,
+though he began to work on a large scale, young Edison's financial
+facilities were of the crudest and simplest.
+
+"Almost all of his men were on piece-work, and he allowed them to make
+good salaries. He never cut them down, although their pay was very high
+as they became more and more expert.
+
+"Instead of _books_ he kept _hooks_--two of them. All the bills he owed
+he jabbed on one hook, and stuck mems of what was due him on the other.
+If he had no tickers ready to deliver when an account came due, he gave
+his note for the amount required.
+
+"Then as one bill after another fell due, a bank messenger came with a
+notice of protest pinned to the note, demanding a dollar and a quarter
+extra for protest fees besides principal and interest. Whereupon he
+would go to New York and borrow more funds, or pay the note on the spot
+if he happened to have money enough on hand. He kept up this expensive
+way of doing business for two years, but his credit was perfectly good.
+Every dealer he patronized was glad to furnish him with what he wanted,
+and some expressed admiration for his new method of paying bills.
+
+"But, to save his own time, Edison had to hire a bookkeeper whose
+inefficiency made him regret for a while the change in his way of doing
+business. He tells of one of his experiences with this accountant:
+
+"'After the first three months I told him to go through his books and
+see how much we had made.
+
+"Three thousand dollars!" he told me after studying a while. So, to
+celebrate this, I gave a dinner to several of the staff.
+
+"'Two days after that he came to tell me he had made a big mistake, for
+we had _lost_ five hundred dollars. Several days later he came round
+again and tried to prove to me that we had made seven thousand dollars
+in the three months!'
+
+"This was so disconcerting that the inventor decided to change
+bookkeepers, but he never 'counted his chickens before they were
+hatched.' In other words, he did not believe that he had made anything
+till he had paid all his bills and had his money safe in the bank.
+
+"Mr. Edison once made the remark that when Jay Gould got possession of
+the Western Union Telegraph Company, no further progress in telegraphy
+was possible, because Gould took no pride in building up. All he cared
+for was money, only money.
+
+"The opposite was true of Edison. While he had decided to invent only
+that which was of commercial value, it was not on account of the money
+but because that which millions of people will buy is of the greatest
+value to the world.
+
+"After he stopped telegraphing, Edison turned his mind to many
+inventions. It is not generally known that the first successful, widely
+sold typewriter was perfected by him.
+
+"This typewriter proved a difficult thing to make commercial. The
+alignment of the letters was very bad. One letter would be one-sixteenth
+of an inch above the others, and all the letters wanted to wander out of
+line. He worked on it till the machine gave fair results. The typewriter
+he got into commercial shape is now known as the Remington.
+
+"It is not hard to understand that Mr. Edison invented the American
+District Messenger call-box system, which has been superseded by the
+telephone, but very few people know when they are eating caramels and
+other sticky confectionery that wax or paraffin paper was invented by
+Edison. Also the tasimeter, an instrument so delicate that it measures
+the heat of the most distant star, Arcturus. One of the few vacations
+Mr. Edison allowed himself was when he traveled to the Rocky Mountains
+to witness a total eclipse of the sun and experiment on certain stars
+with his tasimeter, and this very clearly shows that Mr. Edison is as
+much interested in the advancement of science as in matters purely
+commercial."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+THE GENIUS OF THE AGE
+
+
+"I want to tell you something more about the personal side of this great
+man," continued the voice from the horn.
+
+"One of the striking things about Thomas Alva Edison is his gameness. In
+this respect he has been greater than Napoleon, who was not always a
+'good loser,' for he had come to regard himself as bound to win, whether
+or no; so when everything went against him, he expressed himself by
+kicking against Fate. But when Edison saw the hard work of nine years
+which had cost him two million dollars vanish one night in a sudden
+storm, he only laughed and said, 'I never took much stock in spilt
+milk.'
+
+"When his laboratories were burned or he suffered great reverses, Edison
+considered them merely the fortunes of war. In this respect he was most
+like General Washington, who, though losing more battles than he gained,
+learned to 'snatch victory from the jaws of defeat,' and win immortal
+success.
+
+"Some of Edison's discoveries were dramatic and amusing. During his
+telephone experiments he learned the power of a diaphragm to take up
+sound vibrations, and he had made a little toy that, when you talked
+into the funnel, would start a paper man sawing wood. Then he came to
+the conclusion that if he could record the movements of the diaphragm
+well enough he could cause such records to reproduce the movements
+imparted to them by the human voice.
+
+"But in place of using a disk, he got up a small machine with a cylinder
+provided with grooves around the surface. Over this some tinfoil was to
+be placed and he gave it to an assistant to construct. Edison had but
+little faith that it would work, but he said he wanted to get up a
+machine that would 'talk back.' The assistant thought it was ridiculous
+to expect such a thing, but he went ahead and followed the directions
+given him. Edison has told of this:
+
+"'When it was finished and the foil was put on, I shouted a verse of
+"Mary had a little lamb" into the crude little machine. Then I adjusted
+the reproducer, which when he began to operate it, proceeded to grind
+out--
+
+"'Mary had a little lamb,
+ Its fleece was white as snow,
+And everywhere that Mary went,
+ The lamb was sure to go'
+
+"with the very quality and tones of my voice! We were never so taken back
+in our lives. All hands were called in to witness the phenomenon and,
+recovering from their astonishment, the boys joined hands and danced
+around me, singing and shouting in their excitement. Then each yelled
+something at the machine--bits of slang or slurs--and it made them roar
+to hear that funny little contraption 'sass back!'
+
+"Edison has always had a saving sense of humor. Though such a driver for
+work--sometimes twenty hours a day seemed too short and they often
+worked all of twenty-four,--there was not unfrequently a jolly,
+prank-playing relaxation among the employees in the laboratory. If some
+fellow fell asleep and began snoring the others would get a record of it
+and play it later for the culprit or they would fix up a 'squawkophone'
+to outdo his racket. Most amusing was Edison's means of taking a short
+nap by curling up in an ordinary roll-top desk, and then turning over
+without falling out.
+
+"Everybody knows Edison really invented the telephone--that is, he made
+it work perfectly and brought it to the greatest commercial value, so
+that a billion men, women and children are using it in nearly all the
+languages and dialects in the civilized world. But he was very careful
+to give Dr. Alexander Graham Bell credit for his original work on this
+great invention.
+
+"When a friend on the other side of the Atlantic wired that the English
+had offered 'thirty thousand' for the rights to one of Edison's
+improvements to the telephone for that country, it was promptly
+accepted. When the draft came the inventor found, much to his surprise,
+that it was for thirty thousand _pounds_--nearly one hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars.
+
+"The phonograph or talking machine has been considered one of Edison's
+greatest inventions, but it does not compare in importance and value
+with the electric incandescent burner light. This required many
+thousands of experiments and tests to get a filament that would burn
+long enough in a vacuum to make the light sufficiently cheap to compete
+with petroleum or gas. During all the years that he was experimenting on
+different metals and materials for the electric light which was yet to
+be, in a literal sense, the light of the world, he had men hunting in
+all countries for exactly the right material out of which the carbon
+filament now in use is made. Thousands of kinds of wood, bamboo and
+other vegetable substances were tried. The staff made over fifty
+thousand experiments in all for this one purpose. This illustrates the
+art and necessity of taking pains, one of Mr. Edison's greatest
+characteristics. The story of producing electric light would fill a big
+volume.
+
+"When the proper filament was discovered and applied there was great
+rejoicing in the laboratory and a regular orgy of playing pranks and
+fun.
+
+"The philosophers say we measure time by the succession of ideas. If
+this is true the time must have been longer and seemed shorter in
+Edison's laboratories than anywhere else. The great inventor seldom
+carried a watch and seemed not to like to have clocks about.
+
+"Soon after he was married, the story went the rounds of the press that
+within an hour or two after the ceremony, Edison became so engrossed
+with an invention that he forgot that it was his wedding day. Edison has
+declared this story to be untrue.
+
+"'That's just one of the kind of yarns,' said the inventor laughing,
+'that the reporters have to make up when they run short of news. It was
+the invention of an imaginative chap who knows I'm a little
+absent-minded. I never forgot that I was married.
+
+"'But there was an incident that may have given a little color to such a
+story. On our wedding day a lot of stock tickers were returned to the
+factory and were said to need overhauling.
+
+"'About an hour after the ceremony I was reminded of those tickers and
+when we got to our new home, I told my wife about them, adding that I
+would like to walk down to the factory a little while and see if the
+boys had found out what was the matter.
+
+"'She consented and I went down and found an assistant working on the
+job. We both monkeyed with the machines an hour or two before we got
+them to rights. Then I went home.
+
+"'My wife and I laughed at the story at first, but when we came across
+it about every other week, it began to get rather stale. It was one of
+those canards that stick, and I shall be spoken of always as the man who
+forgot his wife within an hour after he was married.'
+
+"A similar yarn was told of Abraham Lincoln, which was equally false,
+but even more generally believed.
+
+"Out of a multitude of labor savers and world-beaters--and world savers,
+too!--to be credited to Mr. Edison, it is impossible to mention more
+than these:
+
+"The quadruplex telegraph system for sending four messages--two in each
+direction--at the same time; the telephone carbon transmitter; the
+phonograph; the incandescent electric light and complete system;
+magnetic separator; Edison Effect now used in Radio bulbs; giant rock
+crushers; alkaline storage battery; motion picture camera. These are but
+few of Edison's inventions, but they are giving employment to over a
+million people and making the highest use of billions of dollars.
+
+"With Mr. Edison's modesty it is difficult to get him to talk of the
+relative importance of his inventions, but he has expressed the opinion
+that the one of most far-reaching importance is the electric light
+system which includes the generation, regulation, distribution and
+measurement of electric current for light, heat and power. The invention
+he loves most is the phonograph as he is a lover of music. He has
+patented about twelve hundred inventions.
+
+"Recent developments are proving that the moving picture, because of its
+educational and emotional appeal is the greatest of them all. It is
+estimated that more than one hundred millions of people go to one of
+these shows once every seven days, which is equivalent to every man,
+woman and child in the United States of America going to a movie once a
+week. The motion picture reaches, teaches and preaches to more people in
+America than all the schools, churches, books, magazines and newspapers
+put together, and when it teaches, it does it in a vivid way that live
+people like.
+
+"Political campaigns are beginning to be carried on with the silver
+screen for a platform. Writers in great magazines are proving, on the
+authority of the Japanese themselves, that the American moving picture
+is re-making Japan. Another, who has studied the signs of the times,
+asserts that the only way to bring order out of chaos in Russia is by
+means of the motion picture.
+
+"Comparisons are of times odious, but not in this case, for there is no
+man living, nor has there ever lived a man, except the Great Teacher,
+who has more greatly and generally benefited humanity or cast a stronger
+light upon the processes of civilization than Thomas Alva Edison."
+
+At the close of another musical number there was a general expectation
+of dismissal, a shuffling of feet and a murmur of voices. This was
+checked suddenly by Bill. The boy had been near the receiver all the
+while, on the chance of being needed in case of mishap, or for a sharper
+"tuning in"; now he got what the others did not and rising he let out a
+yell:
+
+"Everybody quiet! Something else!" and in the instant hush was heard the
+completion of an announcement:
+
+"--Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts and other organizations of kindred
+nature, upon their urgent invitation. We are making this announcement
+now for the fourth and last time in the hope that it may be universally
+received. Mr. Edison will now probably be here within an hour from this
+minute. All the youth of the land who may avail themselves of radio
+service will please respond and listen in. In a warmly appreciative
+sense this must be a gala occasion."
+
+"That's all, folks; I'm certain." Bill shouted the school yell and the
+class year: "Umpah, umpah, ho, ho; it's up to you, Fairview, 1922!"
+Then: "Bring 'em all back here, Gus."
+
+But not one of them needed urging nor reminding. Separating themselves
+from the rapidly diminishing and retreating audience came Ted, Terry,
+Cora, Dot, Grace, with Skeets as a guest, Bert Haskell, Mary Dean, Lem
+Upsall, Walt Maynard, Lucy Shore and Sara Fortescue, the entire bunch
+eagerly attentive. They crowded around Bill and Gus and were well aware
+of the purpose.
+
+"Sure, we'll all be here, I'll bet a cow!" shouted Ted.
+
+"Dot and I could listen in on our own radio," said Cora. "We've got it
+finished and it works fine and dandy, Billy. We want you and Gus and
+everybody to come over and try it. But we'll join in with the class on
+this; eh, Dot?"
+
+"Sure will," agreed Dot. "Ours is only a crystal set, but it has some
+improvements you boys haven't seen. Wait till we get it all done, and
+we'll give you a spread and a surprise."
+
+"Say, Bill, this thing's great," Terry said. "Father is going to get me
+an outfit in the city and I'll pay you and Gus to set it up for--"
+
+"Set it up yourself, you lazy thing!" said Cora.
+
+"If you please, miss, I've got other matters--"
+
+"All right, Terry,--see you later about it. Now, listen, hopefuls.
+You'll all be here, but this occasion is going to be incomplete, unless
+we have a lot more on deck. We all want to get out, and scout round and
+fetch in every kid that wants to amount to anything at all and is big
+enough to understand and appreciate what's going on. And even then it
+won't be quite up to snuff unless--"
+
+"I know! You want Mr. Hooper here, too!" shouted Skeets. But in trying
+to rise to make herself heard, she upset her chair and then sat down on
+the floor, jarring the building. When the shout of mirth subsided, Bill
+said:
+
+"That's right. Mr. Hooper and Professor Gray. We'll have to tell them
+about it."
+
+"Father wrote that he's coming home to-night," announced Grace proudly.
+
+"Great shakes! Did he? Gus, get on the 'phone and find out!" Bill
+commanded. "Now, then, let's all get busy and----"
+
+"Righto, Billy, but what will our folks think has become of us when it's
+so late?" Dot questioned.
+
+"I move we go into executive session!" shouted Walt Maynard.
+
+"Sure, and the president of the class can call a meeting," said Terry
+Watkins.
+
+"It's up to you then, Billy," Cora agreed.
+
+"I call it. Come to order and dispense with the minutes, Miss
+Secretary," Billy grinned at Dot. "Motion in order to send a committee
+to inform all the girls' parents."
+
+"I make that motion," said Bert.
+
+"Second it. The boys' parents can get wise by radio," asserted Ted.
+
+"Bert and Ted appointed. Get out and get busy!" Bill was no joke as an
+executive. "Here's Gus. Did you get Mrs. Hooper?"
+
+"I sure did. Mr. Hooper got home an hour ago."
+
+"Glory!" Grace, you're driving your little runabout? I appoint Grace and
+Mary a committee to go and get Mr. and Mrs. Hooper here right off. No
+objections? Don't fail, Grace, or we'll send the entire bunch."
+
+"We'll fetch him," laughed Grace as she and Mary hurried out.
+
+"Now then, everybody else, including the chair, is appointed a committee
+to bring in every boy and girl in the town who will come. Work fast! I
+wonder if we could promise some eats." Bill glanced at Terry.
+
+"Yes; tell them there'll be refreshments!" shouted the rich boy. "It'll
+be my treat. Bill, make me a committee of one to hive the grub. Cakes,
+candy, bananas and ice cream; eh?"
+
+"Done!" declared Bill. "Go to it, with the class's blessing!"
+
+"Yes and Heaven's best on Terry Watkins," said Cora.
+
+In a moment the hall was empty. Twenty minutes later the Hooper party
+arrived and about three minutes thereafter who should appear but
+Professor Gray, hurried, eager, registering disappointment when he saw
+the empty room, then smiling as the Hoopers and Mary Dean came to greet
+him.
+
+"I had hoped to find my class here," he began and was interrupted by the
+thump of Bill's crutch on the steps without. Forgetting his support the
+boy leaped, rather than limped, forward, followed more sedately by
+several lads and lasses he had rounded up.
+
+"If this isn't the best thing that _ever happened_!" shouted Bill,
+grasping the hands of the two men held out to him. "Both of you! And
+you, too, Mrs. Hooper. Great! Just got back, Professor! And now we're
+going to get the very thing we talked about, Mr. Hooper: we're going to
+hear Mr. Edison's voice or that of his right-hand man, nearly three
+hundred miles away. The rest of the bunch will be here in a minute. I
+expect Gus and Ted and Cora to fetch in a few dozen besides. Hello,
+here's Terry with the eats."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+GOOD COUNSEL
+
+
+"This quite overcomes me," said Professor Gray to Mr. Hooper. "I hurried
+back to invite some of my pupils to hear a message from Mr. Edison's
+laboratory; but trust Bill to do the thing in a monumental fashion!"
+
+"That there lad's a reg'lar rip-snorter, Perfesser. You can't beat him.
+Well, now, let's set down here in the middle; eh, Mother? an' wait fer
+what's a-comin'. I want a chance to tell the Perfesser 'bout that there
+water-power plant an' what them boys done. Them's the lads, I'm
+a-sayin'."
+
+But conversation was out of the question, for in came another troop of
+youngsters, landed by Cora, Dot and Lucy, followed a moment later by
+more, invited by the boys, who had joined forces in the street. The hall
+was half filled by an expectant and noisy throng. Of course, half of
+them anticipated the refreshments more eagerly than anything else. These
+were already, under the ministration of a young woman from the
+confectionery hastily engaged by Terry, now becoming evident.
+
+Bill was beside the radio outfit, silently listening with the ear
+'phones clamped to the side of his head. Suddenly he arose and shouted:
+
+"Quiet! Silence, everybody, and listen hard!"
+
+Out of the horn again came the well-known voice of the transmitting
+station official announcer:
+
+"It gives us great pleasure to be able to broadcast very worth while
+messages of helpfulness and cheer to the youth of America. This occasion
+and opportunity was largely inspired by the Boy Scouts and the Girl
+Scouts and it will interest you to know that the presidents, secretaries
+and many of the executive officers of these splendid organizations are
+now here with us in person to inspire the occasion. They have asked me
+to express to you the hope that every Girl and Boy Scout--and I add
+every other self-respecting girl and boy--has access to a radio receiver
+and is now listening in to catch these words. I will now reproduce for
+you a message from one of the world's foremost citizens and greatest
+men, one who has brought more joy and comfort to civilized millions than
+any other man of his time, and therefore the greatest inventor in
+history; Mr. Thomas Alva Edison will now speak to the boys and girls of
+America through his constant associate and devoted friend, Mr. William
+H. Meadowcroft."
+
+There was a slight pause. The silence in the hall was most impressive.
+Bill cast his eyes for a brief moment over the waiting throng. There was
+in the eager faces, some almost wofully serious, some half-smiling, all
+wide-eyed and with craning necks, a tremendous indication of an almost
+breathless interest. Then, from the horn came slow and measured accents
+in a loud voice, perhaps a trifle tremulous from a proper feeling of the
+gravity of the occasion, but it was perfectly distinct:
+
+"Young people, I--"
+
+"_That's_ Bill--hello, Bill Medders--when did _you_------?"
+
+And the startled company, staring about, saw Mr. Hooper stumbling
+forward in the aisle toward the trumpet.
+
+"You win, me lads, you--"
+
+Bill Brown could not help laughing at the impetuous honesty of his kind
+old friend. Pointing to the horn, and placing his hand like a shell
+behind his own ear, the amused boy signed to the excited old man to
+listen.
+
+"The old geezer looks like 'His Master's Voice,' don't he?" came like a
+sneer from the background.
+
+During the pandemonium, the voice in the trumpet was proceeding quite
+unperturbed.
+
+"Silence!" shouted Bill, looking severely in the direction of the "seat
+of the scornful." "All please listen in on this. Mr. Meadowcroft is
+speaking." The confusion subsided and they heard these words:
+
+"--sometimes impossible to get Mr. Edison's attention for weeks at a
+time. He has his meals brought in and sleeps in the laboratory--when he
+sleeps at all--and so intense is his interest in his work that it is
+useless to attempt to disturb him even for what seems to me to be
+business of the highest importance.
+
+"But he has permitted me to express his deep and sincere interest in all
+you young people, and I am adding, on my own responsibility, three
+expressions of his which now seem to have maximum force because he has
+used them:
+
+"'Never mind the milk that's spilt.'
+
+"Genius is one per cent. _in_spiration, and ninety-nine per cent.
+_per_spiration.'
+
+"'Don't watch--don't clock the watch--oh!--_don't_ watch the CLOCK!--'
+Why, Mr. Edison, I thought you--I have just been explaining why you
+couldn't come--and now (with a laugh) here you are!
+
+"There was a hearty chuckle and another voice said:
+
+"I know it's mean to make you a victim of misplaced confidence, but it
+came across me like a flash that I couldn't do a better thing for the
+Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts and all the 'good scouts,' old and young,
+than to broadcast a good word for my friend Marconi. So I have run up
+here to speak to the Radio Boys after all. I know it's a shame, but--"
+
+"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Edison,--not on your life!" (It is the more
+familiar voice of Mr. Meadowcroft now.)
+
+"Wait, let me introduce you: Boys and girls, you are now 'listening in'
+with Thomas Alva Edison, who said, like the young man in the parable, 'I
+go not,' then he changed his mind and went. He is here--not to give you
+any message for or about himself, but to express his regard for the man
+to whom all Radio Boys and Girls owe so much. Mr. Edison has come on
+purpose to say a word to you."
+
+When the room was in a silence so solemn that those present could hear
+their own hearts beat, the voice the company now recognized as Mr.
+Edison's came through with trumpet clearness:
+
+"I have great admiration and high regard for Marconi, the pioneer
+inventor of wireless communication. I wish you all the happiness that
+Comes through usefulness. Good night."
+
+"Mr. Edison--one moment! In the name of the millions who are not
+'listening in' on this, won't you please write this sentiment so that it
+can be seen as well as heard?"
+
+"All right"--came through in Edison's voice. A brief pause ensued
+and--"Thank you, Mr. Edison," from Mr. Meadowcroft in a low tone, which
+he immediately raised:
+
+"Mr. Edison has just written the words you have heard him speak to be
+broadcast, as it were, to the young eyes of America."[A]
+
+Hearty cheers followed this closing announcement, but as the speakers
+they had heard were not aware of this, the demonstration soon ceased.
+Exuberant youth, however, must be heard, and so, led by the
+irrepressible Ted, they immediately sought fresh inspiration and began
+to cheer whomever and whatever came quickly into their minds; first Bill
+and Gus, with demands for a speech from Bill; then in answer to the
+school yell, they cheered the school and Professor Gray. Finally they
+began to cheer the refreshments as these suddenly developed a full-form
+materialization. But this was suddenly switched off into a sort of
+doubtful hurrah as Mr. Hooper, with his wife trying to dissuade him by
+his coat-tails, arose and cleared his throat.
+
+"Lads and lasses: I sez to this 'ere lad, Bill Brown, sez I, some time
+back; I sez: 'Bill, me lad, if you ever fix it so's I kin hear my old
+friend Bill Medders talkin' out loud more'n a hunderd mile off,' I sez,
+'then,' I sez, 'I'll give you a thousand dollers.' Well, this Bill,
+he sez: 'No, sir, Mr. Hooper,' he sez: 'We won't accept of no sich,'
+he sez, an' what he sez he sticks to, this 'ere lad Bill does, an' so
+does his buddy, Gus, 'ere. So, young people, I'm goin' to tell you
+what I'm a-goin' to do. I'm goin' to spend that thousand some way
+to sort o' remember this occasion by, an' it'll be spent fer whatever
+your teacher here an' Bill an' Gus an' any more that want to git into
+it sez it shall be. An', b'jinks, if you spring anything extry fine
+an' highfalutin I'll double it--make it two thousand; anything to
+help 'em along, gettin' an eddication, which I ain't got, ner never
+kin git, but my gal shall an' all her young friends. So, go to it,
+folks, an' I'm thinkin' my friends, Bill an' Gus--"
+
+Roaring cheers interrupted the earnest speaker. He smiled broadly and
+sat down. Professor Gray got to his feet, but Bill, not seeing him, was
+first to be heard when the crowd silenced; the boy had got to the
+platform and then on a chair. Standing there balanced on his crutch, a
+hand where his shoulder usually rested, he was a sight to stir the
+pathos and inspire admiration in any crowd.
+
+"I say, people, give three royal yells for Mr. Hooper! He's one of the
+dearest old chaps that ever drew breath! Ready, now----"
+
+The roof didn't quite raise, but the nails may have been loosened some
+and the timbers strained. With the ceasing of the cheers, Bill shouted
+again:
+
+"And now don't forget Professor Gray! He's going to be in on this deal,
+big, as you know!"
+
+Again the walls trembled. Once more Bill was heard:
+
+"And I have this suggestion: We'll put up a radio broadcasting station
+at the school. Get a government license, find means to make our service
+worth while and talk to anyone we want to. How's that?"
+
+The building didn't crumble, but it surely shook. And then Professor
+Gray had the floor:
+
+"Girls and boys, we mustn't forget William Brown and Augustus Grier. You
+can hardly mention one without the other. I propose--"
+
+Gus shamelessly interrupted his respected teacher and friend:
+
+"Three yells for Bill Brown's radio! Let her go!"
+
+It went; as did also the refreshments a little later.
+
+How Bill's idea of building a radio broadcasting station was carried out
+will be told in "Bill Brown Listens In."
+
+THE END
+
+[Footnote A: This message will be found in _facsimile_ in the foreword
+of this book.]
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RADIO BOYS CRONIES***
+
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Radio Boys Cronies, by Wayne Whipple and S.
+F. Aaron
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Radio Boys Cronies
+
+Author: Wayne Whipple and S. F. Aaron
+
+Release Date: March 31, 2004  [eBook #11861]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RADIO BOYS CRONIES***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Dorota Sidor, and Project Gutenberg
+Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+RADIO BOYS CRONIES
+
+or
+
+Bill Brown's Radio
+
+by
+
+Wayne Whipple
+
+Author of "Radio Boys Loyalty"
+
+and
+
+S. F. Aaron
+
+Co-author of "Radio Boys Loyalty"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: MADE IN U.S.A.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+THE CRONIES
+
+
+"Come along, Bill; we'll have to get there, or we won't hear the first
+of it. Mr. Gray said it would begin promptly at three."
+
+"I'm doing my best, Gus. This crutch----"
+
+"I know. Climb aboard, old scout, and we'll go along faster." The first
+speaker, a lad of fifteen, large for his age, fair-haired, though as
+brown as a berry and athletic in all his easy, deliberate yet energetic
+movements, turned to the one he had called Bill, a boy of about his own
+age, or a little older, but altogether opposite in appearance, for he
+was undersized, dark-haired, black-eyed, and though a life-long cripple
+with a twisted knee, as quick and nervous in action as the limitations
+of his physical strength and his ever-present crutch permitted.
+
+In another moment, despite the protests of generous consideration for
+his chum's strenuous offer, William Brown was heaved up on the broad
+back of Augustus Grier and the two cronies thus progressed quite rapidly
+for a full quarter of a mile through the residential section of
+Fairview. Not until the pair arrived at the entrance of one of the
+outlying cottages did husky Gus cease to be the beast of burden, though
+he was greatly tempted to turn into a charging war horse when one of a
+group of urchins on a street corner shouted:
+
+"Look at the monkey on a mule!"
+
+Gus cared nothing for taunts and slurs against himself, but he deeply
+resented any suggestion of insult aimed at his crippled friend. However,
+although Bill could not defend his reputation with his fists, a method
+which most appealed to Gus, the lame boy had often proved that he had a
+native wit and a tongue that could give as good as was ever given him.
+
+"Here we are, Gus, and how can I ever get square with you?" Bill said,
+his crutch and loot thumping the steps as the boys gained the doorway.
+
+In answer to the bell, a sweet-faced lady opened the door, greeted the
+boys by name and ushered them into a book-lined study where already
+several other boys and girls of about the same age were gathered about
+their school teacher.
+
+Professor James B. Gray, although this was vacation time, was the sort
+of man who got real and continued pleasure out of instruction,
+especially concerning his hobbies. Thus his advanced classes, here
+represented, had come into much additional knowledge regarding the
+microscope and the stereopticon and had also greatly enjoyed the
+Professor's moving-picture apparatus devoted to serious subjects. The
+latest wonder, and one worthy of intense interest, was a newly installed
+radio receiver.
+
+"Come in, come in, David and Jonathan,--I mean William and Augustus!"
+greeted Professor Gray. "Find chairs, boys. I'm glad you've come. Now,
+then, exactly in nine minutes the lecture starts and it will interest
+you. The announcement, as sent out yesterday, makes the subject the life
+and labors of the great scientist and inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, and
+it begins with his boyhood. Don't you think that a fitting subject upon
+an occasion where electricity is the chief factor? But before the time
+is up, let me say a few words concerning our little boxed instrument
+here, out of which will come the words we hope to hear. Some of you, I
+think, have become pretty familiar with this subject, but for those who
+have not given much attention to radio, I will briefly outline the
+principles upon which these sounds we shall hear are made possible.
+
+"It would seem that our earth and atmosphere," continued the Professor,
+"and all of the universe, probably, is surcharged with electrical energy
+that may be readily set in motion through the mechanical vibrations of a
+sensitive diaphragm much as when one speaks into a telephone. This
+motion is transmitted in waves of varying intensity and frequency which
+are sent into space by the mechanism of the broadcasting station, which
+consists of a sound conducting apparatus induced by strong electrical
+currents from generators or batteries and extensive aerial or antennas
+wires high in the air. Thus sound is converted into waves, and the
+receiving station, as you see here, with its aerial on the roof, its
+detector, its 'phone and its tuner, gets these waves and turns them
+again into sound. That is the outline of the thing, which you will
+understand better 'after' than 'before using.'
+
+"The technical construction of the radio receiving set is neither
+difficult nor expensive; it is described fully in several books on the
+subject and I shall be glad to give any of you hints on the making and
+the operation of a receiving set. The 'phone receivers and the crystal
+detector will have to be purchased as well as some of the accessories,
+such as the copper wire, pulleys, battery, switches, binding posts, the
+buzzer tester and so forth. With proper tools and much ingenuity some of
+these appliances may be home-made.
+
+"The making of the tuner, the wiring, the aerial and the assembling are
+all technicalities that may be mastered by a careful study of the
+subject and the result will be a simple and inexpensive set having a
+limited range. With more highly perfected appliances, as a vacuum, or
+audion tube, and an aerial elevated from sixty to over a hundred feet,
+you may receive radio energy thousands of miles away.
+
+"Now, this talk we are about to hear comes to us from the broadcasting
+station WUK at Wilmerding, a distance of three hundred miles, and this
+outfit of mine is such as to get the words loudly and clearly enough to
+be audible through a horn. The talks are in series; there have been
+three on modern poets, two on the history of great railroad systems and
+now this will be the first of several on great inventors, beginning with
+Edison, in four parts. The next will be on Friday and I want you all to
+be here. Time is up; there will be a preliminary-ah, there it is: a
+cornet solo by Drake."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+AN UNUSUAL LAD
+
+
+Professor Gray turned to the box and began moving the metal switch arms
+back and forth, thus tuning in more perfectly as indicated by the
+increased and clearer sound and the absence of interference from other
+broadcasting stations, noticed at first by a low buzzing. In a moment
+the music came clear and sweet, the stirring tune of "America." When the
+sound of the cornet ceased, there followed this announcement:
+
+"My subject is the early life of Thomas Alva Edison."
+
+Everyone settled down most contentedly and Gus saw Bill hug himself in
+anticipatory pleasure; the lame boy had always been a staunch admirer of
+the great inventor. There was no need of calling anyone's attention to
+the necessity for keeping quiet. Out of the big horn, as out of a
+phonograph, came the deliberate and carefully enunciated words:
+
+"It has been said that 'the boy is father to the man.' That may be
+worthy of general belief; at least evidences of it are to be found in
+the boyhood of him we delight to speak of as one of the first citizens
+of our country and probably the greatest scientific discoverer of all
+time. The boyhood of this remarkable man was almost as remarkable as his
+manhood; it was full of incidents showing the tendencies that afterward
+contributed to true greatness in the chosen field of endeavor of a mind
+bent upon experiment, discovery and invention.
+
+"Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio, in the year 1847. The
+precise date, even to Mr. Edison, seems somewhat doubtful.
+
+"He was a frail little chap, with an older brother and sister. But he
+was active enough to have several narrow escapes from death. He wouldn't
+have been a real boy if he hadn't fallen into the canal and barely
+escaped drowning at least once.
+
+"Then while he was a little bit of a fellow, climbing and prowling
+around a grain elevator beside the canal, he fell into the wheat bin and
+was nearly smothered to death.
+
+"Once he held a skate strap for another boy to cut off with a big ax and
+the lad sliced off the end of the fingers holding it!
+
+"Another time the small Edison boy was investigating a bumblebee's nest
+in a field close to the fence. He was so interested in watching the bees
+that he didn't notice a cross old ram till it had butted in and sent him
+sprawling. Although he was then 'between two fires,' the little lad was
+quick-witted enough to jump up and climb the fence just in time to
+escape a second attack from the ugly old beast. From a safe place he
+watched the bees and the ram with keen concern. But Edison says his
+mother used up a lot of arnica on his small frame after this double
+encounter. The little lad early learned to observe that 'It's a great
+life if you don't weaken!'
+
+"Mr. Edison tells this story about himself:
+
+"'Even as a small boy, before we moved away from Milan, I used to try to
+make experiments. Once I built a fire in a barn. I remember how startled
+I was to see how fast a fire spreads in such a place. Almost before I
+knew it the barn was in flames and I barely escaped with my life.
+
+"The neighbors thought I ought to be disciplined and made an example of.
+My mortified parents consented and I was publicly whipped in the village
+square. I suppose it was a good lesson to me and made the neighbors feel
+easier. But I think seeing that barn burning down made me feel worse
+than the whipping,--though I felt I deserved that, too.'
+
+"The Edisons moved to Port Huron, Michigan, and lived a little way out
+of the town on the St. Clair river, where it flows out of Lake Huron.
+The house was in an orchard, but within easy walking distance of the
+town. There was no compulsory school law in those days and young Edison
+did not attend school, but his mother taught him all she could. She was
+a good teacher--she had taught school before she was married--but even
+she could not be answering questions all the time. There was a public
+library in town, so the boy spent a good deal of his time there. He
+would have liked to read all the books in the library--but he started in
+on a cyclopedia. He thought because there was 'something about
+everything' in that, he'd know all there was to know if he read it
+through. But he soon found question after question to ask that the
+cyclopedia did not answer. Some of the books he took home to read.
+
+"Mr. Edison, the boy's father, had built a wooden tower that permitted a
+beautiful view of the town, River St. Clair and Lake Huron; one could
+see miles around in Michigan and over into Canada. Mr. Edison charged
+ten cents a head to go up and get the view on top of this tower. Very
+few people came, so the tower was not a great success. But the boy went
+up there to read, not caring so much for the view as to be alone.
+
+"Young Edison read all he could find about electricity. That always
+fascinated him. But the father seemed to have a hard time making a
+living and Al, as they called the boy, went to work. He began selling
+newspapers in Port Huron, but there was not much in that, so he got a
+chance to sell on the seven o'clock train for Detroit. He applied at the
+Grand Trunk offices for the job and made his arrangements before he told
+any one. He had to be at the station at 6:30 A.M. and have his stock all
+ready before the train started, which compelled him to leave home at
+six. The train was a local with only three cars--baggage, smoking and
+passenger. The baggage car was partitioned off into three compartments.
+One of these was never used, so Al was allowed to take that for his
+papers to which he added fruits, candies and other wares.
+
+"The run down to Detroit took over three hours. His train did not start
+back till 4:30 in the afternoon, so the lad had about six hours in the
+big city. He took all the time he needed to buy stock to sell on the
+train and to eat his lunch. This left him several hours for reading in
+the Detroit public library, where he found more books on the subjects he
+liked, more answers to appease his never abating curiosity."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+GETTING THE MONEY-MAKING HABIT
+
+
+"Those were the anxious days of the Civil War," the lecturer continued,
+"and every-one was worked up to a high pitch of excitement most of the
+time. When it was rumored that a battle had been fought the newspapers
+sold 'like hot cakes.' Any other boy would have been satisfied if he
+could supply as many papers as people wanted and let it go at that. But
+that was not the way with young Edison. He was not content with hoping
+for an opportunity. He made his opportunity.
+
+"In spite of his getting into trouble so often, Al was a most likable
+lad, and a real boy,--earnest, honest and industrious. He had a big
+stock of horse sense and a great fund of humor. Though his life seemed
+to be 'all work and no play,' he took great pleasure in his work. In the
+course of his daily routine at Detroit, he could hardly help making
+friends on the _Free Press_, the greatest newspaper there. In this he
+resembled that other great inventor, also a great worker as a
+boy--Benjamin Franklin.
+
+"Young Edison had a friend up in the printing office who let him see
+proofs from the edition being set up, so that he kept posted as to what
+was to be in the paper before it came off the press. After the _Free
+Press_ came out, he had to get an armful and hustle for his train. In
+this shrewd way the train-boy was better off than 'he who runs may
+read,' for he _had_ read, and could _shout_ while running: 'All about
+the big battle!' So he sold his papers in short order. He had learned to
+estimate ahead how many papers the news of a battle ought to sell, and
+so he stocked up well beforehand. One day he saw in the advance proofs a
+harrowing account of the great two-days' battle of Shiloh. He grasped
+not only the news value but also the strategic importance of that
+victory.
+
+"Running down to the telegraph office at the Grand Trunk Station in
+Detroit, he told the operator all about it. Edison has told us himself
+about the offer he made that telegrapher:
+
+"'If you will wire to every station on my run and get the station master
+to chalk up on the blackboard out on the station platform that there has
+been a big battle, with thousands killed and wounded, I'll give you
+_Harper's Weekly_ free for six months!'
+
+"The operator agreed and that Edison boy tore back to the _Free Press_
+office.
+
+"'I want a thousand papers!' he gasped. 'Pay you to-morrow!' This was
+more than three times as many as he had taken out before, so the clerk
+refused to trust him.
+
+"'Where's Mr. Storey?' demanded the lad. The clerk snickered as he
+jerked his head toward where the managing editor was talking with a
+'big' man from out of town. Young Edison was forced to break in, but the
+editor noticed how anxious and business-like he was. When the boy had
+told him what he wanted, the great newspaper man scribbled a few words
+on a scrap of paper and handed it down to him, saying:
+
+"'Here, take this. Wish you good luck!'
+
+"Al handed the clerk the order and got his thousand papers at once. He
+hired another 'newsie' to help him down to the station with them. Long
+after this, he told the rest of the story:
+
+"'At Utica, the first station, twelve miles out of Detroit, I usually
+sold two papers at five cents each. As we came up I put my head out and
+thought I saw an excursion party. The people caught sight of me and
+commenced to shout. Then it began to occur to me that they wanted
+papers. I rushed back into the car, grabbed an armful, and sold forty
+there.
+
+"'Mt. Clemens was the next stop. When that station came in sight, I
+thought there was a riot. The platform was crowded with a howling mob,
+and I realized that they were after news of Shiloh, so I raised the
+price to ten cents, and sold a hundred and fifty where I never had got
+rid of more than a dozen.
+
+"'At other stations these scenes were repeated, but the climax came when
+we got to Port Huron. I had to jump off the train about a quarter of a
+mile from the station which was situated out of town. I had paid a big
+Dutch boy to haul several loads of sand to that point, and the engineers
+knew I was going to jump so they slowed down a bit. Still, I was quite
+an expert on the jump. I heaved off my bundle of papers and landed all
+right. As usual, the Dutch boy met me and we carried the rest of the
+papers toward the town.
+
+"'We had hardly got half way when we met a crowd hurrying toward the
+station. I thought I knew what they were after, so I stopped in front of
+a church where a prayer-meeting was just closing. I raised the price to
+twenty-five cents and began taking in a young fortune.
+
+"'Almost at the same moment the meeting closed and the people came
+rushing out. The way the coin materialized made me think the deacons had
+forgotten to pass the plate in that meeting!'
+
+"In those days they commonly called trainboys 'Candy Butchers'; the
+terms 'Newsies' and 'Peanuts' may have been used then also but were not
+so common. They are not so common on trains nowadays, except in the West
+and South, but formerly they were even more of an institution than the
+water cooler or the old-fashioned winter stove. The station-shouting
+brakemen were no more familiar or comforting to weary passengers than
+the 'candy butchers' and their welcome stock."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+_Paul Pry_ ON WHEELS
+
+
+"With all he had to do, young Edison found that he had time on his hands
+which he might yet put to good use. One would think being 'candy
+butcher' and newsboy from 6 A.M. to 9 P.M., and making from $10.00 to
+$12.00 a day might satisfy the boy's cravings. But contentment wasn't
+one of Al Edison's numerous virtues.
+
+"He did not know it, but he was following the footsteps of that other
+great American inventor, Benjamin Franklin, as a printer, editor,
+proprietor and publisher. In one of the stores where he stocked up with
+books, magazines and stationery for his train, there was an old printing
+press which the dealer, Mr. Roys, had taken for a debt. Mr. Roys once
+told the little story of that press:
+
+"'Young Edison, who was a good boy and a favorite of mine, bought goods
+of me and had the run of the store. He saw the press, and I suppose he
+thought at once that he would publish a paper himself, for he could
+catch onto a new idea like lightning. He got me to show him how it
+worked, and finally bought it for a small sum.'
+
+"From his printer friends on the _Free Press_ he bought some old type.
+Watching the compositors at work, he learned to set type and make up the
+forms, so within two weeks after purchasing the press he brought out the
+first number of _The Weekly Herald_--the first paper ever written, set
+up, proof-read, printed, published and sold (besides all his other work)
+on a local train--and this by a boy of fourteen!
+
+"Of course, it had to be a sort of local paper, giving train and station
+gossip with sage remarks and 'preachments' from the boy's standpoint. It
+sold for three cents a copy, or eight cents a month to regular
+customers. Its biggest 'sworn circulation' was 700 copies, of which
+about 500 were _bona fide_ subscriptions, and the rest 'news-stand
+sales.'
+
+"The great English engineer, Robert Stephenson, grandson of the inventor
+and improver of the locomotive, is said to have ordered a thousand
+copies to be distributed on railways all over the world to show what an
+American newsboy could do.
+
+"Even the _London Times_, known for generations as '_The Thunderer_,'
+and long considered the greatest newspaper in both hemispheres, quoted
+from _The Weekly Herald_, as the only paper of its kind in the world.
+Young Edison's news venture was a financial success, for it added $45.00
+a month to his already large income.
+
+"But _Paul Pry_ came to grief because he tried to be funny in disclosing
+the secret motives of certain persons. People differ widely in their
+notions about fun. In a local paper, too, some one's feelin's are likely
+to get 'lacerated!' This was the case with a six-foot subscriber to the
+paper which was published then under Al Edison's pen name of 'Paul Pry.'
+One day the juvenile editor happened to meet his huge and wrathy reader
+too near the St. Clair river. Whereupon the subscriber took the editor
+by his collar and waistband and heaved him, neck and crop, into the
+river. Edison swam to shore, wet, but otherwise undisturbed,
+discontinued the publication of _Paul Pry_, and bade good-by to
+journalism forever!
+
+"While young Edison was wading through such mammoth works as Sears's
+_History of the World_, Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, and the
+_Dictionary of Sciences_ (and had begun to wrestle desperately with
+Newton's _Principia_!) he was showing a rare passion for chemistry. He
+'annexed' the cellar for a laboratory. His mother said she counted, at
+one time, no less than two hundred bottles of chemicals, all shrewdly
+marked POISON, so that no one but himself would dare to touch them.
+Before long the lad took up so much room in his mother's cellar with his
+'mess,' as she called it, that she told him to take it out, 'bag and
+baggage.'
+
+"He once stated that his great desire to make money was largely because
+he needed the cash to buy materials for experiments. Therefore, in this
+emergency, he took keen pleasure in buying all the chemicals, appliances
+and apparatus he wished, and installing them in his real 'bag and
+baggage' car. As the railroad authorities had allowed him to set up a
+printing press, in addition to his miscellaneous stock in trade, why
+should he not have his laboratory there also? So his stock of batteries,
+chemicals and other 'calamity' grew apace.
+
+"One day, after several weeks of happiness in his moving laboratory, he
+was 'dead to the world' in an experiment. Suddenly the car gave a lurch
+and jolted the bottle of phosphorus off its shelf. It broke, flamed up,
+set fire to the floor and endangered the whole train. While the boy was
+frantically fighting the fire, the Scotch conductor, red-headed and
+wrathy, rushed in and helped him to put it out.
+
+"By this time they were stopping at Mt. Clemens, where the indignant
+Scotchman boxed the boy's ears and put him out also. Then the man threw
+the lad's bottles, apparatus and batteries after him, as if they were
+unloading a carload of freight there.
+
+"These blows on his ears were the cause of the inventor's life-long
+deafness. But there never was a gamer sport than Thomas A. Edison. Once,
+long after this, he saw the labor of years and the outlay of at least
+two million dollars at the seashore washed away in a single night by a
+sudden storm. He only laughed and said that was 'spilt milk, not worth
+crying over.' Disappointments of that sort were 'the fortunes of war' or
+'all for the best' to him. The injury so unjustly inflicted on him by
+that irate conductor was not a defect to him. Many years afterwards he
+said:
+
+"'This deafness has been of great advantage to me in various ways. When
+in a telegraph office I could hear only the instrument directly on the
+table at which I sat, and, unlike the other operators, I was not
+bothered by the other instruments.
+
+"'Again, in experimenting on the telephone, I had to improve the
+transmitter so that I could hear it. This made the telephone commercial,
+as the magneto telephone receiver of Bell was too weak to be used as a
+transmitter commercially.'
+
+"It was the same with the phonograph. The great defect of that
+instrument was the rendering of the overtones in music and the hissing
+consonants in speech. Edison worked over one year, twenty hours a day,
+Sundays and all, to get the word 'specie' perfectly recorded and
+reproduced on the phonograph. When this was done, he knew that
+everything else could be done,--which was a fact.
+
+"'Again,' Edison resumed, 'my nerves have been preserved intact.
+Broadway is as quiet to me as a country village is to a person with
+normal hearing.'"
+
+The talk suddenly ceased. Then another voice announced from out of the
+horn: "The second installment of the lectures on Edison will be given at
+3 P.M. next Friday. We will now hear a concert by Wayple's band."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+OPINIONS
+
+
+The boys and girls filed out, after most of them had expressed
+appreciation of Professor Gray's interest in their enjoyment, and on the
+street a lively discussion started. Terry Watkins was laughing
+derisively at some remark of Cora Siebold, who, arm in arm with her chum
+"Dot" Myers, had paused long enough to fire a broadside at him.
+
+"Why don't some of you smarties who talk so much about the wonderful
+things you can do make yourselves receiving sets! Too lazy? Baseball and
+swimming and loafing around are all you think about. But leave it to the
+girls; Dot and I are going to tackle one."
+
+"What? You two? Won't it be a mess? Bet you can't hear yourselves think
+on it. Girls building a radio! Ho, ho, ho!"
+
+"Bet there'll be a looking-glass in it somewhere," laughed Ted Bissell.
+
+"Well, we aren't planning to ask advice from either of you," Cora said.
+
+"No, and it would be worth very little if you got any," Bill Brown
+offered, as he and Gus, who had been detained a moment by Professor
+Gray, joined the loitering group.
+
+"Thanks, Mr. Brown," said Dot, half shyly.
+
+"Who asked you for your two cents' worth?" Terry demanded.
+
+"I'm donating it, to your service. Go and do something yourself before
+you make fun of others," Bill said.
+
+"That's right, too, Billy. Terry can't drive a carpet tack, nor draw a
+straight line with a ruler." Ted was always in a bantering mood and
+eager for a laugh at anybody. "I'll bet Cora's radio will radiate
+royally and right. You going to make one--you and Gus?"
+
+"I guess we can't afford it," Bill replied quickly. "We're both going to
+work in the mill next Monday. Long hours and steady, and not too much
+pay, either. But we need the money; eh, Gus?"
+
+"We do," agreed Gus, smiling.
+
+Bill's countenance was altogether rueful. Life had not been very kind to
+him and he very naturally longed for some opportunity to dodge continued
+hardship. He wished that he might, like the boy Edison, make
+opportunity, but that sounded more plausible in lectures than in real
+life. He was moodily silent now, while the others engaged in a spirited
+discussion started by Dot's saying kindly:
+
+"Well, lots of boys and girls have to work and they often are the better
+for it. Edison did--and was."
+
+"Oh, I guess he could have been just as great, or greater if he hadn't
+worked," remarked Terry sententiously. "It isn't only poor boys that
+amount to----"
+
+"Mostly," said Bill.
+
+"Oh, of course, _you'd_ say that. We'll charge your attitude up to
+envy."
+
+"When I size up some of the rich men's sons I know, I'm rather glad I'm
+poor," said Bill, "and I would rather make a thousand dollars all by my
+own efforts than inherit ten thousand."
+
+"I guess you'd take what you could get," Terry offered, and Bill was
+quick to reply:
+
+"We know there'll be a lot coming to you and it will be interesting to
+know what you'll do with it and how long you'll have it."
+
+"He will never add anything to it," said Ted, who also was the son of
+wealth, but not in the least snobbish. The others all laughed at this
+and Terry turned away angrily.
+
+Bill, further inspired by what he deemed an unfair reference to Edison,
+began to wax eloquent to the others concerning his hero.
+
+"I don't believe Edison would have amounted to half as much as he has if
+he hadn't had the hard knocks that a poor fellow always gets. Terry
+makes me tired with his high and mighty----"
+
+"Oh, don't you mind him!" said Cora.
+
+"You've read a lot about Edison, haven't you, Bill?" asked Dot, knowing
+that the lame boy possessed a hero worshiper's admiration for the wizard
+of electricity and an overmastering desire to emulate the great
+inventor. The girl sat down on the grassy bank, pulled Cora down beside
+her and in her gentle, kindly way, continued to draw Bill out. "When
+only quite a little fellow he had become a great reader, the lecturer
+said."
+
+"I should say he was a reader!" Bill declared. "Why, when he was eleven
+years old he had read Hume's History of England all through and--"
+
+"Understood about a quarter of it, I reckon," laughed Ted.
+
+"Understood more than you think," Bill retorted. "He did more in that
+library than just read an old encyclopedia; he got every book off the
+shelves, one after the other, and dipped into them all, but of course,
+some didn't interest him. He read a lot on 'most every subject; mostly
+about science and chemistry and engineering and mechanics, but a lot
+also on law and even moral philosophy and what you call it?
+oh--ethics--and all that sort of thing. He had to read to find out
+things; there seemed to be no one who could tell him the half that he
+wanted to know, and I guess a lot of people got pretty tired of having
+him ask so many questions they couldn't answer. And when they would say,
+'I don't know,' he'd get mad and yell: '_Why_ don't you know?'"
+
+"Hume's history,--why, we have that at home, in ten volumes. If he got
+outside of all of that he was going some!" declared Ted.
+
+"Well, he did, and all of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
+too."
+
+"Holy cats! What stopped him?" Ted queried.
+
+"He didn't stop--never stopped. But he had to earn his living--didn't
+he? He couldn't read all the books and find out about everything right
+off. But you bet he found out a lot, and he believes that after a fellow
+gets some rudiments of education he can learn more by studying in his
+own way and experimenting than by just learning by rote and rule. Maybe
+he's not altogether right about that, for education is mighty fine and
+I'd like to go to a technical school; Gus and I both are aiming for
+that, but we're going to read and study a lot our own way, too, and
+experiment; aren't we, Gus? Nobody can throw Edison's ideas down when
+they stop to think how much he knows and what he's done."
+
+"He certainly has accomplished a great deal," the usually reticent Gus
+offered.
+
+"And yet he seems to be very modest about it," was Cora's contribution.
+
+"Of course, he is; every man who does really big things is never
+conceited," declared Bill.
+
+"Oh, I don't know. How about Napoleon?" queried Dot.
+
+"Napoleon? All he ever did was to get up a big army and kill people and
+grab a government. He had brains, of course, but he didn't put them to
+much real use, except for his own glory. You can't put Napoleon in the
+same class with Edison."
+
+"Oh, Billy, you can't say that, can you?"
+
+"I have said it and I'll back it up. Look how Edison has given billions
+of people pleasure and comfort and helped trade and commerce. Nobody
+could do more than that. War and fighting and being a king,--that's
+nothing but selfishness! Some day people will build the largest
+monuments to folks who have done big things for humanity,--not to
+generals and kings. Just knowing how to scrap isn't much good. I've got
+more respect for Professor Gray than I have for the champion prize
+fighter. You can't-----"
+
+"Maybe if you knew how to use your fists, you wouldn't talk that way;
+eh, Gus?" queried Ted.
+
+"Well, I don't know but I think Bill is right. It's nice to know how to
+scrap if scrapping has to be done, but it shouldn't ever have to be
+done,--between nations, anyway." This was a long speech for Gus, but
+evidently he meant it.
+
+Bill continued:
+
+"Talking about Edison when he was a boy: he wasn't afraid of work,
+either. He got up at about five, got back to supper at nine, or later,
+and maybe that wasn't some day! But he made from $12 to $20 a day
+profits, for it was Civil War times and everything was high."
+
+"I think I'd work pretty hard for that much," said Gus.
+
+"I reckon," remarked Ted, "that he had a pretty good reason to say that
+successful genius is one per cent. inspiration and ninety-nine per cent.
+perspiration."
+
+"But I guess that's only partly right and partly modesty," declared
+Bill. "There must have been a whole lot more than fifty per cent,
+inspiration at work to do what he has done. But he is too busy to go
+around blowing his own horn, even from a talking-machine record."
+
+"He doesn't need to do any blowing when you're around," Ted offered.
+
+Bill laughed outright at that and there seemed nothing further to be
+said. The girls decided to go on, Ted walked up the street with them,
+and Gus and his lame companion turned in the opposite direction toward
+the less opulent section of the town. There were chores to do at home
+and Gus often lent a hand to help his father who was the town carpenter.
+Bill, the only son of a widow whose small means were hardly adequate for
+the needs of herself and boy, did all he could to lessen the daily
+pinch.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+THE BOYHOOD OF A GENIUS
+
+
+The class had assembled again in Professor Gray's study and all were
+eager to hear the second talk on Edison. There was a delay of many
+minutes past the hour stated, but the anticipation was such that the
+time was hardly noticed. During the interim, Professor Gray came to
+where Bill and Gus sat.
+
+"I hear that you boys intend to go to work in the mills next week," he
+said. "Well, now, I have some news and a proposition, so do not be
+disappointed if the beginning sounds discouraging. In the first place I
+saw Mr. Deering, superintendent of the mills, again and he told me that
+while he would make good his promise to take you on, there would hardly
+be more than a few weeks' work. Orders are scarce and they expect to lay
+off men in August, though there is likely to be a resumption of business
+in the early fall when you are getting back into school work. So
+wouldn't it be better to forego the mill work,--there goes the
+announcement! I'll talk with you before you leave."
+
+"But we need the money; don't we, Gus?"
+
+"We do," said Gus.
+
+"I wonder if the Professor thinks we're millionaires." Bill was plainly
+disappointed.
+
+"Oh, well, he didn't finish what he was saying to us. Let's listen to
+the weather report," demanded Gus, ever optimistic and joyful.
+
+The words came clearer than ever out of that wonderful horn. There was
+to be rain that afternoon--local thunderstorms, followed by clearing and
+cooler. On the morrow it would be cloudy and unsettled.
+
+Bill felt as though that prediction suited his mental state! Gus was
+never the kind to worry; he sat smiling at the horn and he received with
+added pleasure the music of a band which followed. And then came the
+second talk on the boyhood of the master of invention.
+
+"It has been said," spouted the horn, "that high mental characteristics
+are accompanied by heroic traits. Whether true or not generally, it was
+demonstrated in young Edison and it governed his learning telegraphy and
+the manner thereof. The story is told by the telegraph operator at Mt.
+Clemens, where the red-headed conductor threw the train boy and his
+laboratory off the train.
+
+"'Young Edison,' says the station agent, 'had endeared himself to the
+station agents, operators and their families all along the line. As the
+mixed train did the way-freight work and the switching at Mt. Clemens,
+it usually consumed not less than thirty minutes, during which time Al
+would play with my little two-and-a-half-year old son, Jimmy.
+
+"'It was at 9:30 on a lovely summer morning. The train had arrived,
+leaving its passenger coach and baggage car standing on the main track
+at the north end of the station platform, the pin between the baggage
+and the first box car having been pulled out. There were about a dozen
+freight cars, which had pulled ahead and backed in upon the
+freight-house siding. The train men had taken out a box car and pushed
+it with force enough to reach the baggage car without a brakeman
+controlling it.
+
+"'At this moment Al turned and saw little Jimmy on the main track,
+throwing pebbles over his head in the sunshine, all unconscious of
+danger. Dashing his papers and cap on the platform he plunged to the
+rescue.
+
+"'The train baggage man was the only eyewitness. He told me that when he
+saw Al jump toward Jimmy he thought sure both boys would be crushed.
+Seizing Jimmy in his arms just as the box car was about to strike them,
+young Edison threw himself off the track. There wasn't a tenth of a
+second to lose. By this instinctive act he saved his own life, for if he
+had thrown the little chap first and then himself, he would have been
+crushed under the wheels.
+
+"'As it was, the front wheel struck the heel of the newsboy's boot and
+he and Jimmy fell, face downward on the sharp, fresh-gravel ballast so
+hard that they were both bleeding and the baggage man thought sure the
+wheel had gone over them. To his surprise their injuries proved to be
+only skin deep.
+
+"'I was in the ticket office when I heard the shriek and ran out in time
+to see the train hands carrying the two boys to the platform. My first
+thought was: 'How can I, a poor man, reward the dear lad for risking his
+life to save my child's?' Then it came to me, 'I can teach him
+telegraphy.' When I offered to do this, he smiled and said, 'I'd like to
+learn,' and learn he did. I never saw any one pick it up so fast. It was
+a sort of second nature with him. After the conductor treated him so
+badly, throwing off his apparatus, boxing his ears and making him hard
+of hearing, Al seemed to lose his interest in his business as train boy.
+
+"'Some days Al would stop at my station at half past nine in the morning
+and stay all day while the train went on to Detroit and returned to Mt.
+Clemens in the evening. The train baggage man who saw Al rescue Jimmy
+would get the papers in Detroit and bring them up to Mt. Clemens for
+him. During these long hours the Edison boy made rapid progress in
+learning. And every day he made the most of the half hour or more of
+practice he had while the train stopped at Mt. Clemens each way.
+
+"'At the end of a couple of weeks I missed him for several days. Next
+time he dropped off he showed me a set of telegraph instruments he had
+made in a gunshop in Detroit, where the stationer who had sold him goods
+had told the owner of the machine shop the story of the printing press.'
+
+"The first place young Edison worked after he was graduated from the Mt.
+Clemens private school of telegraphy was in Port Huron, his home town.
+Here he had too many boy friends to let him keep on the job as a
+youthful telegrapher should. Besides, he had a laboratory in his home
+and found it too fascinating to take enough sleep. Between too much side
+work and mischief, young Edison sometimes found himself in trouble. Some
+of his escapades he has described to his friend and assistant, William
+H. Meadowcroft.
+
+"'About every night we could hear the soldiers stationed at Fort
+Gratiot. One would call out: "Corporal of Guard Number One!" This was
+repeated from one sentry to another till it reached the barracks and
+"No. 1" came out to see what was wanted. The Dutch boy (who used to help
+me with the papers) and I thought we would try our hand in military
+matters.
+
+"'So one dark night I called, "Corporal of the Guard Number One!" The
+second sentry, thinking it had come from the man stationed at the end,
+repeated this, and the words went down the line as usual. This reached
+Corporal Number One, and brought him back to our end only to find out
+that he had been tricked by someone.
+
+"'We did this three times, but on the third night they were watching.
+They caught the Dutch boy and locked him up in the fort. Several
+soldiers chased me home. I ran down cellar where there were two barrels
+of potatoes and a third which was almost empty. I dumped the contents of
+three barrels into two, sat down, pulled the empty barrel over my head,
+bottom upwards. The soldiers woke my father, and they all came hunting
+for me with lanterns and candles.
+
+"'The corporal was perfectly sure I had come down cellar. He couldn't
+see how I had got away, and asked father if there wasn't a secret place
+for me to hide in the cellar. When father said "No," he exclaimed,
+"Well, that's very strange!"
+
+"'You can understand how glad I was when they left, for I was in a
+cramped position, and as there had been rotten potatoes in that barrel,
+I was beginning to feel sick.
+
+"'The next morning father found me in bed and gave me a good switching
+on my legs--the only whipping I ever received from him, though mother
+kept behind the old clock a switch which had the bark well worn off! My
+mother's ideas differed somewhat from mine, most of all when I mussed up
+the house with my experiments.
+
+"'The Dutch boy was released the next morning.'
+
+"Another escapade described by Edison was pulled off on the Canada side
+of the St. Clair, in Port Sarnia, opposite Port Huron.
+
+"'In 1860 the Prince of Wales (afterward King Edward) visited Canada.
+Nearly every lad in Port Huron, including myself, went over to Sarnia to
+see the celebration. The town was profusely draped in flags--there were
+arches over some streets--and carpets were laid on the crossings for the
+prince to walk on.
+
+"'A stand was built where the prince was to be received by the mayor.
+Seeing all these arrangements raised my idea of the prince very high.
+But when he finally came I mistook the Duke of Newcastle for Albert
+Edward. The duke was a very fine-looking man. When I discovered my
+mistake--the Prince of Wales being a mere stripling--I was so
+disappointed that I couldn't help mentioning the fact. Then several of
+us American boys expressed our belief that a prince wasn't much after
+all! One boy got well whipped for this and there was a free-for-all
+fight. The Canucks attacked the Yankee boys and, as they greatly
+outnumbered us, we were all badly licked and I got a black eye. This
+always prejudiced me against that kind of ceremonial and folly.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+THE MAKING OF AN INVENTOR
+
+
+"It was during the time young Edison was employed at Port Huron," the
+radio continued, "that the cable under River St. Clair between that city
+and Port Sarnia was severed by an ice jam. The river at that point is
+three quarters of a mile wide. Navigation was suspended and the ice had
+broken up so that the stream could not be crossed on foot nor could the
+broken cable lying in the bed of the river be mended.
+
+"The ingenious young telegrapher suggested signaling Sarnia by giving,
+with the whistle of a locomotive, the dot-and-dash letters of the Morse
+telegraph code. Or course, this strange whistling caused considerable
+wonderment on the Canada side until a shrewd operator recognized the
+long-and-short telegraph letters, and communication was at once
+established--important messages being transmitted by steam whistles--a
+gigantic system of broadcasting. This was a simple way out of a sublime
+difficulty involving the affairs of two great peoples.
+
+"But the too-enterprising operator had started so much trouble for
+himself that he decided to find employment where his mind would not be
+distracted from his job or tempted away from working out his chemical
+and electrical experiments. Because of these he preferred the position
+of night operator. His telegraph work was really a side line.
+
+"On these accounts he found a job as night operator at Stratford
+Junction, Canada West, as Ontario was then called. He was only sixteen
+but his salary of twenty-five dollars a month seemed very small after
+making ten or twelve dollars a day as 'candy butcher.' But on account of
+the chances it gave him for experimenting, he resigned himself to the
+smallness of his pay. The treatment he had received at the hands of that
+train conductor had convinced him that he could not follow his bent
+while working all day on the railroad.
+
+"Mr. Edison likes to tell of the prevailing ignorance of the science of
+telegraphy. He once told a friend:
+
+"'The telegraph men themselves seemed unable to explain how the thing
+worked, though I was always trying to find out. The best explanation I
+got was from an old Scotch line repairer employed by the Montreal
+Telegraph Company, then operating the railway wires. Here is the way he
+described it: "If you had a dachshund long enough to reach from
+Edinburgh to London, and pulled his tail in Edinburgh he would bark in
+London!"
+
+"'I could understand that, but I never could get it through me what went
+through the dog or over the wire.'
+
+"It was at Stratford Junction that the Edison boy began his career of
+invention. From the first his chief aim was the saving of labor. In
+order to be sure that the operators all along the line were not asleep
+at their posts, they were required to send to the train dispatcher's
+office a certain dot-and-dash signal every hour in the night. Young
+Edison was like young Napoleon in grudging himself the necessary hours
+of sleep. While the ingenious lad was fond of machinery--to make a
+machine of himself was utterly distasteful to him. It was against his
+principles and instincts to do anything a mere machine could do instead.
+So he made a little wheel with a few notches in the rim, with which he
+connected the clock and the transmitter, so that at the required instant
+every hour in the night the wheel revolved and sent the proper signal to
+headquarters. Meanwhile that wily young operator slept the sleep of the
+genius, if not of the just. Of one experience at this little place
+Edison relates:
+
+"'This night job just suited me, as I could have the whole day to
+myself. I had the faculty of sleeping in a chair any time for a few
+minutes at a time. I taught the night yardman my call, so I could get
+half an hour's sleep now and then between trains, and in case the
+station was called the watchman was to wake me. One night I got an order
+to hold a freight train, and I replied that I would do so. I ran out to
+find the signal man, but before I could locate him and get the signal
+set--_the train ran past!_ I rushed back to the telegraph office and
+reported that I could not hold it.
+
+"'But on receiving my first message that I would hold the freight, the
+dispatcher let another train leave the next station going the opposite
+way. There was a station near the Junction where the day operator slept.
+I started to run in that direction, but it was pitch dark. I fell down a
+culvert and was knocked senseless.'
+
+"The two engineers, with a feeling that all was not as it should be,
+kept a sharp lookout and saw each other just in time to avert a fatal
+accident. But young Edison was cited to trial, for gross neglect of
+duty, by the general manager. During an informal hearing two Englishmen
+called on the manager. While he was talking with them the young night
+operator disappeared. Boarding a freight train bound for Port Sarnia, he
+made his escape from the five-years' term in prison threatened by the
+irate manager. Edison afterward confessed that his heart did not leave
+his throat until he had crossed the ferry to Port Huron and 'one wide
+river' lay between him and the Canadian authorities.
+
+"Following his escape from Canada young Edison knocked about the home
+country, North and South. As it was during the Civil War he had some
+peculiar adventures. After making a long circuit, broken in many places
+by 'short circuits,' the journeyman telegrapher landed in Port Huron,
+and wrote his friend Adams, then in Boston to find him a job.
+
+"His friend relates that he asked the Boston manager of the Western
+Union Telegraph office if he wanted a first-class operator from the
+West.
+
+"'What kind of copy does he make?'" was the manager's first query.
+"Adams continues:
+
+"'I passed Edison's letter through the window for his inspection. He was
+surprised, for it was almost as plain as print, and asked:
+
+"'Can he take it off the wire like that?'
+
+"'I said he certainly could, and that there was nobody who could stick
+him. He told me to send for my man and I did. When Edison came he landed
+the job without delay.'"
+
+"The inventor himself has told the story of his reporting for duty in
+Boston:
+
+"'The manager asked me when I was ready to go to work.
+
+"'_Now_!' said I, and was instructed to return at 5:30 P.M., which I
+did, to the minute. I came into the operators' room and was ushered into
+the night manager's presence.
+
+"'The weather was cold and I was poorly dressed; so my appearance, as I
+was told afterward, occasioned considerable merriment, and the night
+operators conspired to "put up a job on the jay from the wild and woolly
+West." I was given a pen and told to take the New York No. 1 wire. After
+an hour's wait I was asked to take my place at a certain table and
+receive a special report for the Boston _Herald_, the conspirators
+having arranged to have one of the fastest operators in New York send
+the despatch and "salt" the new man.
+
+"'Without suspecting what was up I sat down, and the New York man
+started in very slowly. Soon he increased his speed and I easily adapted
+my pace to his. This put the man on his mettle and he "laid in his best
+licks," but soon reached his limit.
+
+"'At this point I happened to look up and saw the operators all looking
+over my shoulder with faces that seemed to expect something funny. Then
+I knew they were playing a trick on me, but I didn't let on.
+
+"'Before long the New York man began slurring his words, running them
+together and sticking the signals; but I had been used to all that sort
+of thing in taking reports, so I wasn't put out in the least. At last,
+when I thought the joke had gone far enough, and as the special was
+nearly finished, I calmly opened the key and remarked over the wire to
+my New York rival:
+
+"'Say, young man, change off and send with the other foot!'
+
+"'This broke the fellow up so that he turned the job over to another
+operator to finish, to the real discomfiture of the fellows around me.'
+
+"Friend Adams goes on to tell of other happennings at the Hub:
+
+"'One day Edison was more than delighted to pick up a complete set of
+Faraday's works, bringing them home at 4 A.M. and reading steadily until
+breakfast time, when he said, with great enthusiasm:
+
+"'Adams, I have got so much to do and life is so short, _I am going to
+hustle_!'"
+
+"'Then he started off to breakfast on a dead run.'
+
+"He soon opened a workshop in Boston and began making experiments. It
+was here that he made a working model of his vote recorder, the first
+invention he ever patented.
+
+"Edison has told us of this trip to Washington and how he showed that
+his invention could register the House vote, pro and con, almost
+instantaneously. The chairman of the committee saw how quickly and
+perfectly it worked and said to him:
+
+"'Young man, if there is any invention on earth that we _don't_ want
+down here, it is this. Filibustering on votes is one of the greatest
+weapons in the hands of a minority to prevent bad legislation, and this
+instrument would stop that.'
+
+"The youth felt the force of this so much that he decided from that time
+forth not to try to invent anything unless it would meet a genuine
+demand,--not from a few, but many people.
+
+"It was while in Boston that Edison grew weary of the monotonous life of
+a telegraph operator and began to work up an independent business along
+inventive lines, so that he really began his career as an inventor at
+the Hub.
+
+"After the vote recorder, he invented a stock ticker, and started a
+ticker service in Boston which had thirty or forty subscribers, and
+operated from a room over the Gold Exchange.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"The third talk on Mr. Edison and his inventions will be given from this
+broadcasting station WUK next Monday at the same hour."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
+
+
+As the young people rose to depart, Professor Gray beckoned Bill and Gus
+to remain. He turned to a large table desk, took from it a roll of
+papers, untied and laid before the boys a number of neatly executed
+plans and sections--all drawn to scale. In an upper corner was
+pen-printed the words:
+
+Water Power Electric Plant to be erected for and on the estate of Mr.
+James Hooper, Fairview. Engineer and Contractor, J. R. Gray.
+
+"Boys, you see here," began the Professor, "the layout of a job to be
+done on the Hooper property. You know I do this sort of thing in a small
+way between school terms and I am told to go ahead with this at once.
+The amount I am to receive, on my own estimate, is ample, but naturally
+not very great; it covers all material, labor and a fair profit.
+
+"But now," he went on, "comes the hitch. I am compelled, by another
+matter which is far more important,--having been appointed one of the
+consulting engineers on the Great Laurel Valley Power Plant,--to desert
+this job almost entirely, and yet, I am bound, on the strength of my
+word, to see that it is completed. If I hand it over to another
+engineer, or a construction firm, it will cost me more than I get out of
+it. And naturally, while I don't expect to gain a thing, I would prefer
+also not to lose anything. Now, what would you fellows advise in this
+matter?"
+
+Bill looked at Gus and Gus looked at Bill; there was a world of meaning,
+of hope and hesitation, in both glances. The Professor saw this, and he
+spoke again:
+
+"Out with it, boys! I asked you to stay, in order to hear what you might
+say about it. There seems to be only one logical solution. I cannot
+afford to spend a lot of my own money and yet I will gladly give all of
+my own profits, for I must complete Mr. Hooper's job and look after my
+bigger task at once."
+
+"I don't suppose," said Gus, with the natural diffidence he often
+experienced in expressing his mind, "that we could help you."
+
+"Why, of course we can, and we will, too," said Bill, the idea breaking
+on him suddenly. "We can carry on the work perfectly under your
+occasional direction. Is that what you wanted us to say, Professor?"
+
+"I did. I hoped you would see it that way and I wanted you to
+acknowledge the incentive to yourselves. I am sure you can carry on the
+work, as you say. We have had enough of practical experimentation
+together, and then, what made me think of you, was that fish dam you put
+in for old Mr. McIlvain last summer."
+
+The boys glanced at each other again, but this time with mutual feelings
+of pride. Bill had interested a well-to-do farmer in making a pool below
+a fine spring and with his consent and some materials he had furnished.
+The boys had stonewalled a regular gulch, afterwards stocking the
+crystal clear pool they had made with landlocked salmon obtained from
+the state hatchery. The fish were now averaging a foot in length and
+many a fine meal the boys and the farmer had out of that pond.
+
+"Now, fellows, I'll divide between you the entire profits," Professor
+Gray began, but Bill and Gus both stopped him.
+
+"No, sir! You pay us no more than we could have got in the mill, and the
+rest is yours. Look at the fun we'll have, that's worth a lot." Bill
+always tried to be logical and he never failed to have a reason for his
+conclusions. "And then," he added, "this will be for you and we couldn't
+do enough--"
+
+"I'll see that you are paid and thank you, also," laughed the Professor.
+"And tomorrow morning, if it suits you, we shall start with the work,
+which means making a survey of the ground and listing materials. There
+will be a segment dam, with flood gates; about an eighth of a mile of
+piping; a Pelton wheel, boxed in; a generator speeded down; a
+two-horse-power storage battery; wiring and connections made with
+present lighting system in house; lodge; stables and garage;--and the
+thing is done if it works smoothly. The closest attention to every
+detail, taking the utmost pains, will be necessary and I know you
+will--"
+
+"Just like Edison!" Bill fairly shouted, making Professor Gray and Gus
+laugh heartily. The Professor said:
+
+"Eight! And we shall hope to follow his illustrious example. Tomorrow it
+is, then."
+
+When the two chums, elated over their sudden advancement to be
+professional engineers, came out on the street, they were not a little
+surprised to see all the girls and boys of the class waiting, and
+evidently for them, as they could but judge on hearing the words:
+
+"Here they come! We'll get him started. Bill knows."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+GUS HOLDS FORTH AGAIN
+
+
+"Say, old scout," cautioned Gus, in a low voice, "better not tell about
+our job. Let it dawn on them later."
+
+"Righto, Gus. It's nobody's business but ours. But what do the bunch
+want?"
+
+Bill soon found out, however, when Cora and Ted came to meet him.
+
+"We've had an argument, Terry and I, about Edison," said the girl, "and
+I know you can settle it. I said that--"
+
+"Hold on! Don't tell me who said anything; then it'll be fair," Bill
+demanded.
+
+"'O wise, wise judge!'" gibed Ted. "Ought to have a suit of ermine.
+Proper stunt, too. Let me put it, Cora; I'll be the court crier. Come on
+and let's squat on the bank like the rest. Judge, you ought to be the
+most elevated. Now, then, here's the dope: Did Edison really ever do
+anything much to help with the war?"
+
+"He did more than any other man," Bill declared promptly. "Positively!
+Everybody ought to know that. He invented a device so that they could
+smell a German submarine half a mile away, and they could tell when a
+torpedo was fired. Another invention turned a ship about with her prow
+facing the torpedo, so that it would be most likely to go plowing and
+not hit her, as it would with broadside on. I guess that saved many a
+ship and it helped to destroy lots of submarines with depth bombs. It
+got the Germans leery when their old submersibles failed to get in any
+licks and went out never to come back; it was as big a reason as any why
+they were so ready to quit. Well, who was right?"
+
+"I was!" announced Cora, gleefully. "Terry just can't see any good in
+Edison at all. He says he hires people who really make his inventions
+and he gets the credit for them. He says--"
+
+"I don't suppose it makes much difference what he says; he simply
+doesn't know what he's talk--"
+
+"You think you know, but do you? You've read a lot of gush that--" Terry
+began, but Gus interrupted him, almost a new thing for the quiet chap.
+
+"Listen, Terry: get right on this. Don't let a lot of foolish people
+influence you; people who can't ever see any real good in success and
+who blame everything on luck and crookedness. And Bill does know."
+
+"Anybody who tries to make Edison out a small potato," declared Bill,
+addressing the others, rather than the supercilious youth who had
+maligned his hero, "is simply ignorant of the facts. My father knew a
+man well who worked for Edison in his laboratory for years. He said that
+the stories about Edison making use of the inventions of others is all
+nonsense; it is Edison who has the ideas and who starts his assistants
+to experimenting, some at one thing, some at another, so as to find out
+whether the ideas are good.
+
+"He said that the yarns they tell about Edison's working straight ahead
+for hours and hours without food and sleep, then throwing himself on a
+couch for a short nap and getting up to go at it again are all exactly
+true, over and over again. He said that one of the boys in the shop
+tried to play a trick on the old man, as they call him, while he was
+napping on the couch. They rigged up a talking-machine on a stand and
+dressed it in some of Edison's old clothes, put a lullaby record on it,
+lugged it in, set it up in front of the couch and set it going, to
+express the idea that he was singing himself to sleep. But while they
+were at this Mr. Edison, getting on to the joke, for he generally naps
+with one eye open, got up and put a lot of stuffing under the couch
+spread, stuck his old hat on it so as to make it look as though his face
+was covered; then peered through the crack of a door. When the music
+commenced he opened the door and said:
+
+"'Boys, it won't work; music can't affect dead matter.' Then they pulled
+off the couch cover and all had a good laugh.
+
+"Now. you can see," Bill went on, with ever increasing enthusiasm, "just
+how that shows where Mr. Edison stands. Nobody can get ahead of him, and
+there isn't anyone with brains who knows him who doesn't admit he has
+more brains and is wider awake than anybody else. There's nothing that
+he does that doesn't show it. You have all seen his questionnaires for
+the men who are employed in his laboratories and you can bet they're no
+joke. And his inventions--they're not just the trifling things like
+egg-beaters, rat-traps, coat-hangers, bread-mixers, fly-swatters and
+lipsticks."
+
+"But some of these things are mighty cute and they coin the dough," said
+Ted.
+
+"Oh, they're ingenious and money-makers some of them, I'll admit, but we
+could get along very well without them and most of us do. But think of
+the real things Edison has done. The first phonograph; improving the
+telegraph so that six messages can be sent over the same wire at the
+same time; improving the telephone so that everybody can use it;
+collecting fine iron ore from sand and dirt by magnets; increasing the
+power and the lightness of the storage battery. And there are the
+trolleys and electric railways that have been made possible. And the
+incandescent electric lamp--how about that? Edison has turned his
+wonderful genius only to those things that benefit millions of--"
+
+"And he deserved to make millions out of it," said Ted.
+
+"I guess he has, too," offered one of the girls.
+
+"You bet, and that's what he works for: not just to benefit people,"
+asserted Terry.
+
+"I suppose your dad and most other guys got their dough all by accident
+while they were trying to help other folks; eh?" Bill fired at Terry.
+
+But the rich boy walked away, his usual method to keep from getting the
+worst of an argument.
+
+"Oh, I wish Grace Hooper were here," Cora said. "She's no snob like
+Terry and wouldn't she enjoy this?"
+
+"And her dad, too. Isn't he a nice old fellow, even though he's awfully
+rich?" laughed Dot.
+
+"He'd have his say about this argument, grammar or no grammar. He thinks
+a lot of this chap he calls Eddy's son," Mary Dean declared.
+
+"Great snakes! Does he really think the wizard is the child of some guy
+named Eddy?" Ted queried.
+
+"Sounds so," Cora said. "But you can't laugh at him, he's so kind and
+good and it would hurt Grace. He would be interested in radio, too."
+
+"Wonder he hasn't got a peach of a receiver set up in his house," Lucy
+Shore ventured.
+
+"Is he keen for all new-fangled things?" asked Ted.
+
+"You bet he is, though somebody would have to tell him and show him
+first. Well, people, I'm going home; who's along?"
+
+With one accord the others got to their feet and started up or down the
+street. Gus and Bill went together, as always; they had much to talk
+about.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+BRASS TACKS
+
+
+On the day following the radio lecture, true to his promise, Professor
+Gray led Bill and Gus to the broad acres of the Hooper estate and there,
+with the plans before them, they went over the ground chosen for the
+water-power site, comprehending every detail of the engineering task.
+Professor Gray was more pleased than surprised by the ready manner in
+which both lads took hold of the problem and even suggested certain
+really desirable changes.
+
+Bill indicated a better position fifty yards upstream for the dam and he
+sketched his idea of making a water-tight flood gate which was so
+ingenious that the Professor became enthusiastic and adopted it at once.
+
+After nearly a whole day spent thus along the rocky defiles of the
+little stream, eating their lunch beside a cold spring at the head of a
+miniature gulch, the trio of engineers were about to leave the spot when
+a gruff voice hailed them from the hilltop. Looking up they saw another
+group of three: an oldish man, a slim young fellow who was almost a
+grown man and a girl in her middle teens. The young people seemed to be
+quarreling, to judge from the black looks they gave each other, but the
+man paid them no attention. He beckoned Professor Gray to approach and
+came slowly down the hill to meet him, walking rather stiffly with a
+cane.
+
+"Well, Professor, you're beginnin' to git at it, eh? Struck any snags
+yit? Some job! I reckon you're not a goin' to make a heap outside the
+price you give me. When you goin' to git at it reg'lar?"
+
+"Right away, Mr. Hooper. To-morrow. We have been making our plans to-day
+and these young assistants of mine, who will principally conduct the
+work, are ready to start in at once. They--"
+
+"Them boys? No, sir! I want this here work done an' done right; no
+bunglin'. What's kids know about puttin' in water wheels an' 'letric
+lights? You said you was--"
+
+"These boys are no longer just kids, Mr. Hooper, and they know more than
+you think; all that is needed to make this job complete. Moreover, I am
+going to consult with them frequently by letter and I shall be entirely
+responsible. It is up to me, you know."
+
+Mr. Hooper evidently saw the sense in this last remark; he stood
+blinking his eyes at Bill and Gus and pondering. The slim youth plucked
+at his sleeve and said something in a low voice.
+
+Gus suddenly remembered the fellow. The youth had come into the town a
+week or two before. He had, without cause, deliberately kicked old Mrs.
+Sowerby's maltese cat, asleep on the pavement, out of his way, and Gus,
+a witness from across the street, had departed from his usually reticent
+mood to call the human beast down for it. But though Gus hoped the
+fellow would show resentment he did not, but walked on quickly instead.
+
+Mr. Hooper listened; then voiced a further and evidently suggested
+opposition:
+
+"Them lads is from the town here; ain't they? Nothin' but a lot o'
+hoodlums down yan. You can't expec'--"
+
+"You couldn't be more mistaken, Mr. Hooper. I'll admit there are a lot
+of young scamps in Fairview, but these boys, William Brown and Augustus
+Grier, belong to a more self-respecting bunch. I'll answer for them in
+every way."
+
+"Of course, Dad, Professor Gray knows about them. Billy and Gus are in
+our class at school." This from the girl who had joyfully greeted the
+Professor and the boys, yodeling a school yell from the hillside. Then
+she shot an aside at the slim youth: "You're a regular, downright
+simpleton, Thad, and forever looking for trouble. Don't listen to him,
+Dad."
+
+This appeared to settle the matter. Mr. Hooper squared his shoulders and
+grinned broadly, adding: "Well, I ain't just satisfied 'bout them
+knowin' how, but go to it your own way, Professor. I'm a goin' to watch
+it, you know; not to interfere with your plans an' ways, but it's got to
+be done right. If it goes along free an' fine, I ain't goin' to kick."
+
+The Professor explained that they had further work to do on the plans
+and must be going back. He took leave of Mr. Hooper and the daughter,
+and retreated with the boys as hurriedly as Bill could manage his handy
+crutch. They all proceeded silently in crossing the broad field, but
+when in the road Bill had to voice his thoughts:
+
+"I expect that old fellow'll make it too hot for us."
+
+"Not for a minute; you need not consider that at all. Of course it would
+be more satisfactory if Mr. Hooper could be assured at once of your real
+ability, but it will have to grow on him. Just let him see what you can
+do; that's all."
+
+"I rather expect we can frame up something that will satisfy him and
+Bill can spring it," said Gus.
+
+"In just what way, can you imagine?" queried the Professor.
+
+"Some geometrical stunt, maybe; triangulation, or--"
+
+"Why, sure! That's just it!" exploded Bill. "I know how we can get him:
+Parallax! Shucks, it'll be easy! Just leave it to me."
+
+"Looks as though some kind of Napoleonic strategy were going to be
+pulled off," asserted Professor Gray, laughing. "But, boys, keep in mind
+that Mr. Hooper, while a rough-and-ready old chap, with a big fortune
+made in cattle dealing, is really an uncut diamond; a fine old fellow at
+heart, as you will see."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+ENGINEERING
+
+
+Two busy days followed during which Bill and Gus went to the city with
+Professor Gray to purchase materials in full for the power plant. They
+also had cement, reinforcing iron, lumber for forms and a small tool
+house hauled out to the power site and they drove the first stakes to
+show the position of wheel and pipe line. Mr. Hooper did not put in an
+appearance.
+
+On the third morning the Professor bade the boys good-by, exacting the
+promise that they would write frequently of their progress. They had
+privately formed an engineering company with Professor Gray as
+president, Gus as vice-president, which was largely honorary, and Bill
+as general manager and secretary. Advance payments necessary for extra
+labor and their own liberal wages were deposited at the Fairview Bank by
+Professor Gray and the boys were given a drawing account thereon, with a
+simple expense book to keep.
+
+That afternoon, dressed in new overalls and blouses, with a big,
+good-natured colored man to help with the laboring work, the boys were
+early on the job, at first making a cement mixing box; then Bill drove
+the center stake thirty feet below where the dam was to be placed and
+from which, using a long cord, the curve of the structure twenty-nine
+feet wide, was laid out upstream.
+
+At the spot chosen the rock-bound hillsides rose almost perpendicularly
+from the narrow level ground that was little above the bed of the
+stream; it was the narrowest spot between the banks. George, the colored
+fellow, was set to work digging into one bank for an end foundation; the
+other bank held a giant boulder.
+
+The boys were giving such close attention to their labors that they did
+not see observers on the hilltop. Presently the gruff voice that they
+had heard before hailed them from close by and they looked up to see Mr.
+Hooper and the slim youth approaching. The boys had heard that this
+Thaddeus was the old man's nephew and that he called the Hooper mansion
+his home.
+
+"What you drivin' that there stake down there for? Up here's where the
+Perfesser said the dam was to set," Mr. Hooper demanded.
+
+"Yes, right here," Bill replied. "But it is to be curved upstream and
+that stake is our center."
+
+"What's the idea of curvin' it?"
+
+"So that it will be stronger and withstand the pressure. You can't break
+an arch, you know, and to push this out the hills would have to spread
+apart."
+
+"I kind o' see." The old man was thoughtful and looked on silently while
+the dam breast stakes were being driven every three feet at the end of a
+stretched cord, the other end pivoting on the center stake below, this
+giving the required curve.
+
+"How deep you goin' into that hill? Seems like the water can't git round
+it now." Mr. Hooper, at a word from Thad, seemed inclined to criticize.
+
+"We must get a firm end, preferably against rock," Bill explained.
+
+"Shucks! Reckon the clay ain't goin' to give none. How much fall you
+goin' to git on that Pullet wheel?"
+
+"Pelton wheel. About eighty feet, Professor Gray figured it roughly.
+We'll take it later exactly."
+
+"Kin you improve on the Perfesser?"
+
+"No, but he made only a rough calculation. We'll take it both by levels
+and by triangulation, using an old sextant of the Professor's. It isn't
+a diff----"
+
+"What's try-angleation?" Mr. Hooper was becoming interested.
+
+"The method of reading angles of different degrees and in that way
+getting heights and distances. That's the way they measure mountains
+that can't be climbed and tell the distance of stars."
+
+"Shucks, young feller! I don't reckon anybody kin tell the distance o'
+the stars; they only put up a bluff on that. They ain't no ackshall way
+o' gittin' distance onless you lay a tape measure, er somethin' like it
+on the ground. These here surveyors all does it; I had 'em go round my
+place."
+
+Bill smiled and shook his head. "I guess you just haven't given it any
+consideration. There are lots of easier and better ways. Triangulation.
+Now, for instance, suppose an army comes to a wide river and wants to
+get across. They can't send anybody over to stretch a line; there may be
+enemy sharp-shooters that would get them and it is too wide, anyway. But
+they must know how many pontoon boats and how much flooring plank they
+must have to bridge it and so they sight a tree or a rock on the other
+shore and take the distance across by triangulation. Or suppose--"
+
+"Never heard of it. Why wouldn't surveyors git from here to yan that
+a-way, 'stead o' usin' chains? Could you----?"
+
+"Chaining it is a little more accurate, where they have a lot of curves
+and angles and the view is cut off by woods and hills. Yes, we can work
+triangulation; we could tell the distance from the hilltop to your house
+if we could see it and we had the time."
+
+"Bunk! Don't let 'em bluff you that a-way, Uncle. Make 'em prove it."
+Thad showed his open hostility thus.
+
+Gus dropped his shovel and came from the creekside where he had begun to
+dig alongside of the stakes for the foundation. He was visibly and, for
+him, strangely excited as he walked up to Thad.
+
+"See here, fellow, Bill can do it and if there is anything in it we will
+do it, too! You are pretty blamed ignorant!"
+
+Mr. Hooper threw back his head and let out a roar of mirth. "Well, I
+reckon that hits me, too. An' I reckon it might be true in a lot o'
+things. But Thad an' me, we kind o' doubt this."
+
+"We sure do. I'd bet five dollars you couldn't tell it within half a
+mile an' it ain't much more than that."
+
+"I'll take your bet and dare you to hold to it," said Gus.
+
+"Bet 'em, Thad; bet 'em! I'll stake you."
+
+"Oh, we don't want your money; betting doesn't get anywhere and it isn't
+just square, anyway." Bill was smilingly endeavoring to restore good
+feeling. "Now, Mr. Hooper, we're not fixed to make a triangulation
+measurement to-day, but----"
+
+"Not fixed? Of course not. Begins with excuses," sneered Thad.
+
+"But to-morrow we'll bring out Professor Gray's transit and show you the
+way it's done."
+
+"Oh, yes, Uncle; they'll show us--to-morrow, or next day, or next week.
+Bunk!" Thad was plainly trying to be offensive.
+
+"You'll grin on the other side of your hatchet face, fellow, when we do
+show you," said Gus.
+
+"Now, Gus, cut out the scrapping. You can't blame him, nor Mr. Hooper,
+for doubting it if they've never looked into the matter. We can bring
+the transit out this afternoon for taking the levels. Be here after
+dinner, Mr. Hooper, if you can."
+
+"I'll be here, lads," said the ex-cattle-dealer. "An' I reckon my
+nephew'll come along, too."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+DISTANCE LENDS ENCHANTMENT
+
+
+Mr. Hooper, his nephew, his daughter and another girl, fat and dumpy,
+were at the power site before two o'clock, and without more ado Bill
+asked Gus to bring the transit to the comparatively level field on top
+of the hill.
+
+"Now, Mr. Hooper, please don't think we're doing this in a spirit of
+idle controversy; we only want to show you something interesting."
+
+"That's all right, lad; an' I ain't above learnin', old as I am. But
+Thad here, he's different." Mr. Hooper gave Bill and Gus a long wink.
+"Thad, he don't reckon he can be learned a thing, an' he's so blame
+sure--say, Thad, how 'bout that bet?"
+
+"We don't want to bet anything; that only--" began Bill, but Gus was
+less pacific.
+
+"Put up, or shut up," he said, drawing a borrowed five dollar note out
+of his pocket and glaring at Thad. The slim youth did not respond.
+
+"He's afraid to bet," jeered the daughter. "Hasn't got the nerve, or the
+money."
+
+"I ain't afraid to bet." Thad brought forth a like amount in bills.
+"Uncle'll hold the stakes. You got to tell how far it is from here to
+the house without ever stepping the distance."
+
+"We'll make a more simple demonstration than that," Bill declared.
+"It'll be the same thing and take less time and effort. Mr. Hooper, take
+some object out there in the field; something that we can see;
+anything."
+
+"Here, Gracie, you take a stake there an' go out yan an' stick it up.
+Keep a-goin' till I holler."
+
+Both girls carried out these directions, the fat one falling down a
+couple of times, tripped by the long grass and getting up shaking with
+laughter. The boys were to learn that she was a chum of Grace Hooper,
+that her name was Sophronia Doyle, though commonly nicknamed "Skeets."
+
+The stake was placed. Bill drove another at his feet, set the transit
+over it, peeped through it both ways and at his direction, after
+stretching the steel tape, Gus drove a third stake exactly sixty feet
+from the transit at an angle of ninety degrees from a line to the field
+stake.
+
+"Now, folks," explained Bill, "the stake out yonder is A, this one is B
+and the one at the other end of the sixty-foot base line is C. Please
+remember that."
+
+The transit was then placed exactly over the stake C and, peeping again,
+Bill found the angle from the base line to the stake B and the line to
+stake A to be 78 degrees. Thereupon Gus produced a long board, held up
+one end and rested the other on a stake, while Bill went to work with a
+six-foot rule, a straight edge and a draughtsman's degree scale. Bill
+elucidated:
+
+"Now, then, to get out of figuring, which is always hard to understand,
+we'll just lay the triangulation out by scale, which is easily
+understood. One-eighth of an inch equals one foot. This point is stake B
+and the base line to C is this line at right angles, or square across
+the board. C stake is 7-1/2 inches from B which is equal to sixty feet
+on the scale, that is sixty one-eighth inches. Now, this line, parallel
+to the edge of the board, is the exact direction of your stake A. Do you
+all follow that?
+
+"The direction to your stake was 78 degrees from the base line at C.
+This degree scale will give us that." Bill carefully centered the latter
+instrument, sharpened his pencil and marked the angle; then placing the
+straight edge on the point C and the degree mark he extended the line
+until it crossed the other outward line. At this crossing he marked a
+letter A and turned to his auditors.
+
+"This is your stake out yonder. The rule shows it to be a little over
+34-5/8 inches from the base line at B. That is, by the scale, a few
+inches over 277 feet and that is the distance from here to where Grace
+stuck it into the ground. Our hundred-foot steel tape line is at your
+service, Mr. Hooper."
+
+Mr. Hooper merely glanced at Bill. He took up the tape line and spoke to
+his nephew. "Git a holt o' this thing, Thad, an' let's see if--"
+
+Grace interrupted him. "No, Dad; never let Thad do it! He'd make some
+mistake accidentally on purpose. I'll help you."
+
+There was utter silence from all while Grace carried out the end of the
+tape and placed her sticks, Mr. Hooper following after. Skeets borrowed
+a pencil and a bit of paper from Gus and went along with Grace to keep
+tally, but she dropped the pencil in the grass, stepped on and broke it,
+was suffused with embarrassment and before she could really become
+useful, the father and daughter had made the count mentally and they
+came back to the base line, still without saying a word, a glad smile on
+the girl's face and something between wonder and surprise on the old
+man's features.
+
+Still without a word Mr. Hooper came straight to Bill, thrust out his
+big hand to grasp that of the smiling boy and in the other hand was held
+the bills of the wager, which he extended toward Gus.
+
+"Yours, lad," he said. "We made the distance two hundred and
+seventy-eight foot. I reckon you git the money."
+
+Thad stood for a moment, nonplussed, a scowl on his face. Suddenly he
+recovered.
+
+"Hold on! That's more than they said it was. The money's mine."
+
+"Shucks, you dumb fool! Maybe a couple o' inches. I reckon we made the
+mistake, fer we wasn't careful. It gits me they was that near it. The
+cash is his'n."
+
+Gus took the bills, thrust his own into his pocket again and handed the
+two dollar note and the three ones to Skeets.
+
+"Please give them to him for me," indicating Thad, "I don't want his
+money."
+
+"Not I," said the fat girl; "it isn't my funeral. Let him do the weeping
+and you take and give them to the poor."
+
+Gus offered them to Grace, who also refused, shaking her head. Bill took
+the bills, and, limping over to Thad, handed him his wager. "You mustn't
+feel sore at us," counseled the youthful engineer. "This was only along
+the lines of experiment and--and fun."
+
+But though Bill meant this in the kindliest spirit of comradeship, the
+boy sensed a feeling of extreme animosity that he was at a loss to
+account for. Bill backed off, further speech toward conciliation
+becoming as lame as his leg. The others witnessed this and Grace said,
+quite heatedly:
+
+"Oh, you can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear. Thad's an incurable
+grouch," at which Skeets laughed till she shook, and Mr. Hooper nodded
+his head.
+
+"Lad," he said, "you're a wonder an' I ain't got no more to say ag'in'
+your doin' this work here. Go ahead with it your own way. But this I am
+abossin': to-morrow's half day, I reckon, so both o' you come over to
+the house nigh 'long about noon an' set at dinner with us. You're more'n
+welcome."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+COUNTER INFLUENCES
+
+
+Thereafter, having been fully convinced by the demonstration and fully
+assured of the precise accuracy in the work on the power plant, Mr.
+Hooper treated the boys with the utmost consideration and confidence.
+The owner of the great estate came down to see them every day and
+chatted as familiarly as though he had been a lifelong crony of their
+own age. From time to time the boys were taken to dinner at the big
+house; they were given access to the library, and they found some time
+for social and sportive pastimes with the young folks whom Grace invited
+to her home.
+
+Throughout all this Bill shone as an entertainer, a mental uplift that
+was really welcome, so spontaneous and keen were his talks and comments
+on people and things. Gus, though having little practice, held his own
+at tennis and golf; in swimming races and other impromptu sports he
+greatly excelled; and when a young fellow who bore the reputation of an
+all-round athlete came for the week-end from the city, Gus put on the
+gloves with him and punched the newcomer all over an imaginary ring on
+the lawn to the delight of Mr. Hooper, Grace and Skeets, as well as the
+admiring Bill.
+
+Throughout all this, also, there was an element of ill feeling, an often
+open expression of antagonism toward the boys, which probably the other
+guests all tensed unpleasantly, but which the contented, jovial host and
+his impetuous and volatile daughter hardly recognized or thought of.
+Thaddeus, the thin-faced, pale, stoop-shouldered, indolent,
+cigarette-smoking nephew, though often treated with slight courtesy,
+continually pushed himself to the front, compelling consideration
+apparently for the sole purpose of exerting a counter-influence upon the
+popularity of Bill and Gus, especially the latter. The youth even went
+so far at times as to attempt an interference in the power-plant work,
+declaring that it did not proceed rapidly enough and that certain
+methods were at fault, to all of which Mr. Hooper turned a deaf ear.
+
+There was nothing else but open warfare between Grace and Thad, Skeets
+also echoing the daughter's hostility, while the nephew easily pretended
+to ignore it, or to regard the sharp words aimed at him as jokes. He
+treated Skeets with as much contempt as her jovial manner permitted, but
+now and then it could be seen that his pale eyes glared at Grace's back
+in a way that seemed almost murderous.
+
+One day Gus and George, the colored man, were working at the far end of
+the curved dam breast, the stone work having risen to four feet in
+height. Bill was stooping to inspect the cement on the near end and the
+view of the hill was cut off. Presently voices came to him, mostly a
+sort of good-natured protest in monosyllables; then Thad's tones, low
+enough to keep Gus from hearing.
+
+"I tell you, Uncle, they're putting it over on you. It ain't any of my
+business, but I hate to see you having your leg pulled."
+
+"'Taint!" was the brief answer.
+
+"Well, if you don't want to think so; but I know it. Look at this dam:
+not over two feet thick and expected to hold tons of water. Wait till a
+flood hits it. Will it go out like a stack of cards, or won't it? And
+they're not using enough cement; one-fourth only with the sand."
+
+"Grouting, broken stones," growled Mr. Hooper.
+
+"Not sufficient, as you'll see. And does anybody want to say that a
+two-inch pipe is going to run a water wheel with force enough to turn a
+generator that will drive thirty or forty lights? Bosh!"
+
+"They ought to know."
+
+"You think they do, but have you any proof of it? What they don't know
+would fill a libra--"
+
+"How 'bout that there triang--what you call it? They knew that."
+
+"Oh, just a draughtsman's smart trick; used to catch people. I'm talking
+about things that are practical. You'll see. I'll bet you these blamed
+fools are going to strike a snag one of these days, or they'll leave
+things so that there'll be a fall-down. But what need they care after
+they get their money?"
+
+Bill heard footsteps retreating and dying away; Mr. Hooper went over to
+Gus and, with evident hesitation, asked:
+
+"Do you reckon you're makin' the stone work thick enough? It does look
+most terrible weak."
+
+"Sure, Mr. Hooper. Bill'll explain that to you. Professor Gray and he
+worked out the exact resistance and the pressure."
+
+And then Bill limped over; he had left his crutch on the hillside, and
+he said, half laughing:
+
+"This wall, Mr. Hooper, can't give way, even if it had the ocean behind
+it, unless the stone and cement were mashed and crumbled by pressure.
+The only thing that could break it would be about two days' hammering
+with a sledge, or a big charge of blasting powder, and even that
+couldn't do a great deal of damage."
+
+"All right, me lad; you ought to know an' I believe you."
+
+Mr. Hooper's genial good humor returned to him immediately; it was
+evident that he was from time to time unpleasantly influenced by the
+soft and ready tongue of his nephew. The old gentleman turned toward
+home and disappeared; a short time afterward Thad came and stood near
+where Gus was working, but he said nothing, nor did Gus address him.
+Then the slim youth also departed and hardly half an hour elapsed before
+down the hill came Grace and Skeets, the latter stumbling several times,
+nearly pitching headlong and yet most mirthful over her own near
+misfortune; but little Miss Hooper seemed unusually serious-minded. A
+lively exchange of jests and jolly banter commenced between Skeets and
+Gus, who could use his tongue if forced to; but presently Grace left her
+laughing chum and came over to where Bill had resumed his inspection.
+
+"They can't hear us, can they?" she queried, glancing back at the
+others.
+
+"Why, I expect not," Bill replied, surprised and mystified.
+
+"If I say something to you, real confidentially, you won't give me away,
+will you? Honest, for sure?"
+
+"Honest, I won't; cross my heart; wish I may die; snake's tongue;
+butcher knife bloody!"
+
+"That ought to do, and anybody with any sense would believe you, anyway.
+But, then, it will be a big temptation for you--"
+
+"Resistance is my nickname; you may trust me."
+
+"Well, then, in some way," said the girl, dropping her voice still
+lower, "you are going to find that this work here won't be--it won't
+go--not just as you expect it to; it--it won't be just plain sailing as
+it ought to be and would be if you were let alone. There are things,"
+she put a forceful accent on the last word, "that will interfere--oh,
+sometimes dreadfully, maybe, and I felt that I must tell you, but--"
+
+Bill, wondering, glanced up at her; she stood with her pretty face
+turned away, a troubled look in her bright eyes, the usually smiling
+lips compressed with determination. The boy's quick wits began to fathom
+the drift of her intention and the cause thereof; he must know more to
+determine her precise attitude.
+
+"I must believe that you mean this in real kindness and friendliness
+toward Gus and me."
+
+"Of course I do; else I would not have told you a thing," Grace said,
+blushing a little.
+
+"I think it must be something real and that you know. This thing, then,
+as you call it, is more likely a person--some person who is working
+against us. You mean that; don't you?"
+
+"Please don't ask me too much. I think you're very quick and intelligent
+and that you'll find out and be on your guard."
+
+"I think I understand. Naturally you must feel a certain loyalty toward
+a relation, or at least if not just that, toward one who has your
+father's good will. Gus and I surely appreciate your warning; you'll
+want me to tell him, of course."
+
+"I don't know. Gus is not so cool-headed as you are; I was afraid he
+might--"
+
+"Trust Gus. He and I work together in everything. And I do thank you,
+Grace, more than I can express. Well keep our eyes open."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+FURTHER OPPOSITION
+
+
+The dam was built, the flood gate in place, the pipe valve set for
+further extension of the line down the little valley; and as the pipe
+had all come cut and threaded, Bill and George were working with
+wrenches and white lead to get the sections tightly jointed against the
+pressure that would result. Gus, the carpenter, was laying out the
+framing of heavy timbers reinforced with long bolts and set in cement on
+which the Pelton wheel was to be mounted.
+
+Several days were thus spent; the water was pouring over the spillway of
+the dam and it was with satisfaction that the boys found, after an
+inspection one quitting hour, that the wall, five feet high, was not
+leaking a drop.
+
+That night Gus came over to Bill's home and the two went over the plans
+until late; then Gus chatted awhile on the steps, Bill standing in the
+doorway. Suddenly, from over toward the northeast, in the direction of
+the upper tract of the Hooper estate, there was a flash in the sky and a
+dull reverberation like a very distant or muffled blast. Bill was
+talking and hardly noticed it, but Gus had been looking in that
+direction and, calling Bill's attention, wondered as to the cause of the
+odd occurrence.
+
+In the morning, as the boys descended the hill, George, who was always
+on hand half an hour ahead of time, came up to meet them and was plainly
+excited.
+
+"Mist' Bill an' Gus, de dam's done busted a'ready an' de water's jes'
+a-pourin' through t' beat ol' Noah's flood! Whut you 'low was de because
+o' dis givin' way?"
+
+"By cracky, Bill!" was Gus' comment as they stood looking at the break
+which seemed to involve a yard square of the base and cracks, as though
+from a shock. "You know and I know that the water didn't push this out.
+How about that flash and bang we heard last night?"
+
+"I can't see how the water could have done it," said Bill, who evidently
+had more talent for construction than for determining destruction.
+
+"There's something behind this that I don't like and I'm going to find
+out about it," said Gus, his usually quiet demeanor entirely gone. "You
+ought to be able," he continued, "to put two and four together. How
+about that warning Grace gave you? And how did she know anything out of
+which to give it? And why wouldn't she give any names?"
+
+"Well, I have wondered; I thought I saw why," Bill said.
+
+"Of course you see why, old scout. And if you'll leave it to me, you'll
+know why and all the how and the what of it, too." Gus was never
+boastful; now he was merely determined.
+
+The boys opened the flood gate and after the water no longer flowed
+through the break, they began a closer examination that surprised them.
+Mr. Hooper, Thad, Grace and Skeets descended the hill.
+
+Bill, after greetings, merely pointed to the break. Mr. Hooper started
+to say something about the structure's being too weak; Thad laughed, and
+Grace, looking daggers at him, turned away and pulled Skeets with her.
+Gus, gazing at Thad, addressed Mr. Hooper.
+
+"Yes, too weak to stand the force of an explosion. It wasn't the water
+pressure. Mr. Hooper; you'll notice that the stones there are forced in
+against the water; not out with it. And the cracks--they're further
+evidence. We heard the explosion about eleven o'clock; saw the light of
+the flash, too."
+
+"Shucks! You reckon that's so? Got any notion who it was that done it?"
+
+"Yes, sir; got a big notion who it was; but we won't say till we get it
+on him for sure. And then's it's going to be a sorry day for him."
+
+Gus was still gazing straight at Thad and that youth, first attempting
+to ignore this scrutiny and then trying to match it, at last grew
+restless and turned away. Mr. Hooper also had his eyes on Thad; the old
+gentleman looked much troubled. He raised his voice loud enough for Thad
+to hear as he walked off:
+
+"We'll git a watchman an' put him on the job,--that's what we'll do!
+They ain't goin' to be any more o' this sort o' thing."
+
+And Bill chimed in: "Good idea. There's George, Mr. Hooper; we're nearly
+through with him and we've been wondering what to put him at, for we'd
+be sorry to lose him."
+
+So it was arranged then and there, much to the satisfaction of everyone,
+especially the old darkey, and Mr. Hooper, saying nothing more but
+looking as though there were a death in his family, started away toward
+home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+MR. EDDY'S SON'S SONS
+
+
+It took but a short time to repair the break; before many other days had
+passed the Pelton wheel, a direct action turbine, was going at a
+tremendous rate, driven by a nozzled stream from the pipe. It was
+necessary to belt it down from a small to a larger pulley to run the
+generator at a slower speed, which was 1200 a minute. Then came the
+boxing in, the wiring to the house, and the making of connections with
+the wiring to the house after the town company's service was dispensed
+with, and it was a proud moment when Gus turned on the first bulb and
+got a full and brilliant glare.
+
+Mr. Hooper clasped the hands of both boys, compelled them to spend the
+evening, ordered special refreshments for the occasion, told Grace to
+invite a lot of the young folks and when, at dusk all the lights of the
+house went on with an illumination that fairly startled the guests, the
+host proposed a cheer for the boys which found an eager and unanimous
+response. Mr. Hooper attempted to make a speech, with his matronly and
+contented wife laughing and making sly digs at his effort, and his
+daughter encouraging him.
+
+"Now, young fellers," he began, "these boys--uh, Mister Bill Brown an'
+Mister 'Gustus Grier,--I says to them,--in the first place, I says:
+'Perfesser, these here kids don't know enough to build a chicken coop,'
+I says, an' Perfesser Gray he says to me, he says, he would back them
+fellers to build a battleship or tunnel through to Chiny, he says. So I
+says: 'You kids kin go ahead,' I says, an' these blame boys they went
+ahead an' shucks! you all see what they, Bill an' Gus, has done. You
+fellers has got to have a lot o' credit an' you are goin' to git it!
+
+"Now, my wife she don't think I'm any good at makin' a speech an 'I
+ain't, but I'm a-makin' it jes' the same fer these boys, Bill an' Gus,
+b'jinks! They got to git credit fer what they done, jes' two kids doin'
+a reg'lar man's job. An' I reckon that not even that feller Eddy's son,
+that there chap they call the 'Wizard of Menlo Park,' I reckon he
+couldn't 'lectrocute nothin' no better'n these here boys, Bill an' Gus,
+has lighted this here domycile. An'--oh, you kin laugh, Ma Hooper,
+b'jinks, but I reckon you're as proud o' these here young Eddy's son's
+sons as I be. Now, Mister Bill an' Mister Gus, you kin bet all these
+folks'd like to have a few words. Now, as they say in prayer meetin',
+'Mister Bill Brown'll lead us in a speech.' Hooray!"
+
+Bill seized his crutch, got it carefully under his arm and arose. He was
+not just a rattle-box, a mere word slinger, for he always had something
+to say worth listening to; talking to a crowd was no great task for him
+and he had a genius for verbal expression.
+
+"I hope my partner in mechanical effort and now in misery will let me
+speak for him, too, for he couldn't get up here and say a word if you'd
+promise him the moon for a watch charm. Our host, Mr. Hooper, would have
+given us enough credit if he had just stated that we were two
+persevering ginks, bent on making the best of a good chance and using,
+perhaps with some judgment, the directions of our superior, Professor
+Gray, along with some of our own ideas that fitted, in. But to compare
+us and our small job here, which was pretty well all mapped out for us,
+to the wonderful endeavors of Thomas Alva Edison is more than even our
+combined conceit can stand for. If we deserved such praise, even in the
+smallest way, you'd see us with our chests swelled out so far that we'd
+look like a couple of garden toads.
+
+"Edison! Mr. Hooper, did you, even in your intended kindness in
+flattering Gus and myself, really stop to think what it could mean to
+compare us with that wonderful man? I know you could not mean to
+belittle him, but you certainly gave us an honor far beyond what any
+other man in the world, regarding electrical and mechanical things,
+could deserve. If we could hope to do a hundredth part of the great
+things Edison has done, it would, as Professor Gray says, indeed make
+life worth living.
+
+"But we thank you, Mr. Hooper, for your kind words and for inviting all
+these good friends and our classmates, and we thank you and good Mrs.
+Hooper for this bully spread and everything!"
+
+Bill started to sit down amidst a hearty hand-clapping, but Cora Siebold
+waved her hand for silence and demanded:
+
+"Tell us more about Edison, Billy, as you did after the talk over the
+radio! You see, we missed the last of it and I'll bet we'd all like to
+hear more--"
+
+"Yes!" "Yes!" "Sure!" "Me, too!" "Go on, Billy!" came from Dot Myers,
+Skeets, Grace Hooper, Ted Bissell and Gus. In her enthusiastic efforts
+at showing an abundant appreciation, the fat girl wriggled too far out
+on the edge of her chair, which tilted and slid out from under her,
+causing sufficient hilarious diversion for Bill to take a sneak out of
+the room. When Cora and Grace captured and brought him back, the keen
+edge of the idea had worn off enough for him to dodge the issue.
+
+"I'll tell you what we're going to do," he said, and it will be better
+than anything we can think of just between us here. You all read, didn't
+you, that the lectures were to be repeated by request in two months
+after the last talk? We didn't hear it because Professor went away, and
+now three weeks of the time have gone by. But I'll tell you what Gus and
+I are going to do: we're going to build a radio receiver and get it done
+in time to get those talks on Edison all over again."
+
+"Really?"
+
+"Do you think you can do it?"
+
+"If Billy says he can, why, the--"
+
+"Oh, you Edison's son!" This from the irrepressible Ted.
+
+"Go to it, Bill!"
+
+"Can we all listen in?"
+
+"Why, of course," said Bill, replying to the last question.
+"Everybody'll be invited and there will be a horn. But don't forget
+this: We've only got a little over four weeks to do it and it's some
+job! So, if you're disappointed--"
+
+"We won't be."
+
+"No; Bill'll get there."
+
+"Hurrah for old Bill!"
+
+"Say, people, enough of this. I'm no candidate for President of the
+United States, and remember that Gus is in this, too, as much as I am."
+
+"Hurrah for Gus!" This was a general shout.
+
+Gus turned and ran.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE DOUBTERS
+
+
+The party was on the point of breaking up, with much laughter over the
+embarrassment of poor Gus, when Skeets unexpectedly furnished further
+entertainment. She had paused to lean comfortably against a center
+table, but its easy rolling casters objected to her weight, rolled away
+hastily and deposited her without warning on the floor. Ted, who
+gallantly helped her to her feet, remarked, with a grunt due to extreme
+effort, that she really might as well stand up or enlist the entire four
+legs of a chair to support her.
+
+Bill, about to take leave of the host and hostess, felt a slight jerk at
+his sleeve and looking round was surprised to find Thad at his elbow.
+The youth said in a low voice:
+
+"Want to see you out yonder among the trees. Give the rest the slip. Got
+a pipe of an idea."
+
+Bill nodded, wondering much. A moment later Mr. Hooper was repeating
+that he was proud of the work done by the boys and glad that he had
+trusted them. Then he added:
+
+"But say, young feller, much as I believe in you and Gus, seein' your
+smartness, I got to doubt all that there bunk you give them young people
+'bout that there what you call radier. I been borned a long time--goin'
+on to seventy year now,--an' I seen all sorts of contraptions like
+reapers an' binders, ridin' plows, typewritin'-machines, telephones,
+phonygraphs, flyin'-machines, submarines an' all such, but b'jinks, I
+ain't a-believin' that nobody kin hear jes' common talk through the air
+without no wires. An' hundreds o' miles! 'Tain't natch'all an' 'taint
+possible now, is it?"
+
+"Why, yes, Mr. Hooper; it's both poss--"
+
+"Come on, Billy! Good-night, Mr. Hooper and Mrs. Hooper. We all had a
+dandy time." And Bill was led away. But he was able, by hanging back a
+little, to whisper to Gus that he was on the track of something from
+Thad,--for Bill could only think that the young man would make a
+confession or commit himself in some way.
+
+"See you in the morning," he added and turned back.
+
+Thad was waiting and called to Bill from his seat on a bench beneath the
+shade of a big maple. The fellow plunged at once into his subject,
+evidently holding the notion that youth in general possesses a shady
+sense of honor.
+
+"See here, Brown. I think I get you and I believe you've got wit enough
+to get Uncle Hooper. Did he say anything to you as you came out about
+being shy on this radio business?"
+
+Bill nodded.
+
+"Say, he don't believe it's any more possible than a horse car can turn
+into a buzzard! Fact! He told me you fellows might fool him on a lot of
+things and that you were awful smart for kids, but he'd be hanged for a
+quarter of beef if you could make him swallow this bunk about talking
+through the air. You know the way he talks."
+
+"I think he can and will be convinced," said Bill, "and you can't blame
+him for his notion, for he has never chanced to inquire about radio and
+I expect he doesn't read that department in the paper. If he meets a
+plain statement about radio broadcasting or receiving, it either makes
+no impression on him, or he regards it as a sort of joke. But, anyway,
+what of it?"
+
+"Why, just this and you ought to catch on to it without being told:
+Unk's a stubborn old rat and he hasn't really a grain of sense, in spite
+of all the money he made. All you've got to do is to egg him on as if
+you thought it might be a little uncertain and then sort o' dare to make
+a big bet with him. I'll get busy and tell him that this radio business
+is the biggest kind of an expert job and that you fellows are blamed
+doubtful about it. Then, when you get your set working and let Unk
+listen in, he'll pay up and we'll divide the money. See? Easy as pie. Or
+we might work it another way: I'll make the bet with him and you fellows
+let on to fall down. Or we might--"
+
+"Well, I've listened to your schemes," said Bill, "and I'm going to say
+this about them: I think you are the dirtiest, meanest skunk I ever ran
+across. You--"
+
+"Say, now, what's the matter?"
+
+"You're a guest under your uncle's roof; eating his grub, accepting his
+hospitality, pretending to be his friend--"
+
+"Aw, cut that out, now! You needn't let on you're so awful fine."
+
+"And then deliberately trying to hatch a scheme to rob him! Of all the
+rotten, contemptible--" Unable to voice his righteous indignation, Bill
+clenched his fist and struck Thad square in the eye.
+
+Thad had risen and was standing in front of Bill, trembling with rage as
+impotent as though _he_ were little and lame, leaning, like Bill, on the
+crutch a less valiant cripple would have used instead of his bare fist.
+
+With a look of fiendish hatred, instead of returning blow for blow, Thad
+made a sudden grab and tore Bill's crutch out of the hand which had felt
+no impulse to use it in defense against his able-bodied antagonist.
+
+"Now, you blow to Uncle and I'll break this crutch!"
+
+Strange, isn't it, how we often are reminded of funny things even in the
+midst of danger? Bill, a cripple and unable to move about with the
+agility needed to fend off a cowardly attack by this miserable piker,
+showed the stuff he was made of when he burst out laughing, for he was
+reminded by this threat of that old yarn about a softy's threatening to
+break the umbrella of his rival found in the vestibule of his girl's
+house, then going out and praying for rain!
+
+Thad, astonished at Bill's sudden mirth, held the crutch mid-air, and
+demanded with a malignant leer:
+
+"Huh! Laugh, will you?"
+
+"Go ahead and break it, but it won't be a circumstance to what I'll do
+to you. I can imagine your uncle--"
+
+"So? Listen, you pusillanimous, knock-kneed shrimp? I'm going to mash
+your jaw so you'll never wag it again! And right now, too, you--"
+
+Possibly there was as much determination back of this as any evil
+intent, but it also was doomed to failure. There was a quick step from
+the deeper shadows and a figure loomed suddenly in front of Thad who,
+with uplifted crutch, was still glaring at Bill. Only two words were
+spoken, a "_You_, huh?" from the larger chap; then a quick tackle, a
+short straining scuffle, and Thad was thrown so violently sidewise and
+hurtled against the bench from which Bill had just risen, that it and
+Thad went over on the ground together. The bench and the lad seemed to
+lie there equally helpless. Gus picked up the crutch and handed it to
+his chum.
+
+"Let's go. He won't be able to get up till we've gone."
+
+But as they passed out from among the shadows there followed them a
+threat which seemed to be bursting with the hatred of a demon:
+
+"Oh, I'll get even with you two little devils. I'll blow you to--"
+
+The two boys looked at each other and only laughed.
+
+"Notice his right eye when you see him again," chuckled Bill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+THE UNEXPECTED
+
+
+"Where did you come from, Gus?" Bill asked, still inclined to laugh.
+
+"The road. Slipped away from the others for I was wondering whether you
+might not get into trouble. Couldn't imagine that chump would spring
+anything that wouldn't make you mad, and I knew you'd talk back. So I
+did the gumshoe."
+
+"Well, I suppose he would have made it quite interesting for me and I am
+eternally grateful to you. If it weren't for you, Gus, I guess, I'd have
+a hard time in--"
+
+"By cracky, if it weren't for you, old scout, where would I be? Nowhere,
+or anywhere, but never somewhere."
+
+"That sounds to me something like what Professor Gray calls a paradox,"
+laughed Bill.
+
+"I don't suppose you're going to peach on Thad," Gus offered.
+
+"No; but wouldn't I like to? It's a rotten shame to have that lowdown
+scamp under Mr. Hooper's roof. It's a wonder Grace doesn't give him
+away; she must know what a piker he is."
+
+"Bill, it's really none of our business," Gus said. "Well, see you in
+the morning early."
+
+The boys wished once more to go over carefully all the completed details
+of the water power plant; they had left the Pelton wheel flying around
+with that hissing blow of the water on the paddles and the splashing
+which made Bill think of a circular log saw in buckwheat-cake batter.
+The generator, when thrown in gear, had been running as smoothly as a
+spinning top; there were no leaks in the pipe or the dam. But now they
+found water trickling from a joint that showed the crushing marks of a
+sledge, the end of the nozzle smashed so that only enough of the stream
+struck the wheel to turn it, and there was evidence of sand in the
+generator bearings.
+
+Then appeared George, with an expression of mingled sorrow, shame,
+wonder and injured pride on his big ebony features, his eyes rolling
+about like those of a dying calf. At first he was mute.
+
+"Know anything about this business, George?" asked Bill.
+
+"Don't know a thing but what Ah does know an' dat's a plenty. What's
+happened here?"
+
+"The plant has been damaged; that's all."
+
+"Damage? When? Las' night, close on t' mawnin'? Well, suh, Ah 'low that
+there ghos' done it."
+
+"Ghost? What--where was any ghost?"
+
+"Right yer at de tool house. Come walkin' roun' de corner fo' Ah could
+grab up man stick an' Ah jes' lef' de place."
+
+"What? Ran away and from your duty? You were put here to guard the
+plant; not to let any old--"
+
+"Didn't 'low t' guard it 'gainst no ghos'es. Dey don' count in de
+contrac'. Folks is one thing an' ghos'es--"
+
+"Ghosts! Bosh! There's no such thing as a ghost! If you had swung your
+club at the silly thing you'd have knocked over some dub of a man that
+we could pretty well describe right now, and saved us a heap of trouble
+and expense--and you'd have kept your job!" Bill was disgusted and
+angry.
+
+"Lawsee! Ah ain't gwine lose mah job jes' fo' dodgin' a ghos', is I?"
+
+"What did this fellow look like?" asked Gus.
+
+"Ah nevah could tell 'bout it; didn't take no time for' t' look sharp.
+Ah wuz on'y jes' leavin'."
+
+"Now, see here, George," said Bill, his native gentleness dominating,
+"if you'll promise to say nothing about this, keep on the job and grab
+the next ghost, we'll let you stay on. And we'll make an awful good
+guess when we tell you that you'll find the ghost is Mr. Hooper's
+nephew. If you do grab him, George, and lock him in the tool house,
+we'll see that you're very nicely rewarded,--a matter of cold cash. Are
+you on?"
+
+"Ah shore is, an' Ah'll git him, fo' Ah reckon he's gwine come again.
+'Tain't no fun tacklin' whut looks lak a ghos', but Ah reckon Ah'll make
+that smahty think he's real flesh an' blood fo' Ah gits through with
+him!"
+
+The boys were two days making repairs, which time encroached upon their
+plan to get their promised radio receiver into action. Having no shop
+nor proper tools for finer work, they would be handicapped, for they had
+decided, because of the pleasure and satisfaction in so doing, to make
+many of the necessary parts that generally are purchased outright. Bill
+made the suggestion, on account of this delay, that they abandon their
+original plan, but Gus, ever hopeful, believed that something might turn
+up to carry out their first ideas.
+
+The afternoon that they had everything in normal condition again, Mr.
+Hooper came down to see them; he knew nothing of the tampering with the
+work, but it became evident at once that his nephew had slyly and
+forcibly put it into his head that amateur radio construction was
+largely newspaper bunk, without any real foundation of fact. Thad may
+have had some new scheme, but at any rate the unlettered old man would
+swallow pretty nearly everything Thad said, even though he often
+repudiated Thad's acts. Again Mr. Hooper, Bill and Gus got on the
+subject of radio and the old gentleman repeated his convictions:
+
+"I ain't sayin' you boys can't do wonders, an' I'm fer you all the time,
+but I'm not goin' t' b'lieve you kin do what's pretty nigh out o'
+reason. Listen to me, now, fer a minute: If you fellers kin rig up a
+machine to fetch old man Eddy's son's talk right here about two hundred
+an' fifty mile, I'll hand out to each o' you a good hundred dollars;
+yes, b'jinks. I'll make it a couple a hun--"
+
+"No, Mr. Hooper, we value your friendship altogether too much to take
+your money and that's too much like a wager, anyway." Bill was most
+earnest. "But you must take our word for it that it can be done."
+
+"Fetch old man Eddy's son's voice--!"
+
+"Just that exactly--similar things have been done a-plenty. People are
+talking into the radio broadcasters and their voices are heard
+distinctly thousands of miles. But, Mr. Hooper, you wouldn't know Mr.
+Edison's voice if you heard it, would you?"
+
+"N--no, can't say as how I would--but listen here. I do know a feller
+what works with him--they say he's close to the ol' man. Bill Medders.
+Knowed Bill when he was a little cack, knee-high to a grasshopper. They
+say he wrote a book about Eddy's son. I'd know Bill Medder's voice if I
+heard it in a b'iler factory."
+
+Bill Brown could hardly repress a smile. "I guess you must mean William
+H. Meadowcroft. His 'Boys' Life of Edison' sure is a dandy book. I liked
+it best of all. Sometimes no one can see Mr. Edison for weeks at a time,
+when he's buried in one of his 'world-beaters.' But I reckon we can let
+you hear Mr. Meadowcroft's voice. He wrote me a pippin of a letter once
+about the Chief."
+
+"All righty. I'll take Medders's. I know Bill, an' you can't fool me on
+that voice."
+
+"Mr. Hooper, I'll tell you what," said the all-practical Bill eagerly.
+"This demonstration will be almost as interesting to you as it is to us,
+and you can help us out. We can get what little power we need from any
+power plant. But we want a shop most of all--a loft or attic with room
+enough to work in. We're going to get all the tools we need--"
+
+"No. I'll get 'em fer you an' you kin have all that there room over the
+garage." (The old gentleman pronounced this word as though it rhymed
+with carriage.) "An' anything else you're a mind to have you kin have.
+Some old junk up there, I reckon," he went on. "You kin throw it out, er
+make use of it. An' now, let's see what you kin do!"
+
+The boys were eager to acknowledge this liberal offer, and they
+expressed themselves in no measured terms. They would do better than
+make one receiver; they would make two and one would be installed in Mr.
+Hooper's library,--but of this they said nothing at first. Get busy they
+did, with a zeal and energy that overmatched even that given the power
+plant. That afternoon they moved into the new shop and were delighted
+with its wide space and abundant light. The next day they went to the
+city for tools and materials. Two days later a lathe, a grinder and a
+boring machine, driven by a small electric motor wired from the Hooper
+generator were fully installed, together with a workbench, vises, a
+complete tool box and a drawing board, with its instruments. No young
+laborers in the vineyard of electrical fruitage could ask for more.
+
+"Isn't it dandy, Gus?" Bill exclaimed, surveying the place and the
+result of their labors in preparation. "If we can't do things here, it's
+only our fault. Now, then--"
+
+"It is fine," said Gus, "and we're in luck, but somehow, I think we must
+be on our guard. I can't get my mind off ghosts and the damage over
+yonder. I'm going to take a sneak around there to-night again, along
+around midnight and a little after. I did last night; didn't tell you,
+for you had your mind all on this. George was on duty, challenged me,
+but I've got a hunch that he knows something he doesn't want to worry us
+about and thinks he can cope with."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+A BIT TRAGIC
+
+
+"Hold up your hands, nigger!"
+
+The voice was low and sepulchral, but either the ghostly apparition that
+uttered the command had slipped up on its vernacular, or it was the
+spirit of a bandit. Some demand of the kind was, however, urgently
+necessary, for George did not, as formerly, show a desire to flee; his
+belligerent attitude suggested fight and he was a husky specimen with a
+handy club. Even though he might have suffered a qualm at again
+beholding the white apparition in the moonlight, his determination to
+dare the spectre was bolstered by the voice and the manner of the
+command.
+
+"Ah knows who yo' is an' Ah's gwine hol' yo' up! Yo' ain't no ghos'. Dis
+club'll knock de sure 'nough breff out'n yo'; then we'll see."
+
+To Gus, on the hillside above the power plant, it looked very much as
+though this threat were going to be carried out. He had been quietly
+observing, under the light of a half moon, the ghostly visitation and
+even the advent of this individual before the white raiment had been
+donned some distance behind the tool house and unknown to the watchful
+George. All this had not surprised Gus, but he had been puzzled by the
+appearance on the hillside of another figure that kept behind the scant
+bushes much as Gus was doing, except that it was screened against being
+seen from below and evidently did not know of Gus's presence. Now,
+however, all attention was given to the altercation before the tool
+house, around which the ghost had come, evidently to be disappointed at
+not seeing George take to his heels.
+
+Suddenly there was a shot. The reverberation among the hills seemed
+ominous, but not more so than the staggering back and sinking down of
+poor George. Gus saw the white figure stand for a moment, as though
+peering down at the victim of this murderous act; then it turned and
+fled straight up the hill and directly toward the one up there crouching
+and--waiting? Were they in collusion? Gus had but a moment to guess.
+Still crouching, unseen, though brave,--for Gus was courageous even
+sometimes to the point of being foolhardy in the rougher sports, or
+where danger threatened others,--he avoided now the almost certain fate
+of George, for the villain was still armed and desperate, no doubt. And
+Gus hoped that the arrest of the scamp would surely follow his meeting
+with the other observer.
+
+But this safe and sane attitude of the watching Gus suffered a sudden
+change when, as the ascending ruffian fairly stumbled upon the other
+figure crouching on the hillside, a scream, unmistakably that of a
+female in dire distress, came to the ears of the witness. He could dimly
+see the two struggling together, the dark figure with the white. The
+next instant, forgetting all danger to himself, Gus lessened the
+distance by leaps and scrambles along the declivity and flung himself
+upon the assailant.
+
+There was a short, sharp tussle; a second shot, but this time the weapon
+discharged its leaden pellet harmlessly. Then the ghost, taking
+advantage of the hillside, flung Gus aside and before the boy had time
+to leap upon his foeman again, the white figure, his habiliments torn
+off, had backed away and threatened Gus with the pistol. There was no
+mistaking the voice that uttered the threat:
+
+"Keep off, or you'll get punctured! You needn't think anybody's going to
+get me. I'm going to vanish. If you try to follow me now, I'll kill
+you!"
+
+This sounded desperate enough and Gus had reason to believe the fellow
+meant it. But in spite of that and driven by righteous anger, he would
+again have tackled the enemy had not the voice of Grace Hooper checked
+him:
+
+"Oh, let him go; let him go!" she begged. "He'll shoot, and you--you
+must not be killed! No; you shall not!"
+
+And then, as the rascal turned and fled over the brow of the hill, Gus
+turned to the girl, sitting on the ground.
+
+"How did you come here--what--?"
+
+"I knew something was going to happen, and I thought I might prevent it
+some way. Then he fired, and I saw how desperate he was,--and he shot--"
+
+"Yes--we must do all we can for poor George, if anything can be done.
+But are you hurt?"
+
+"Not very much; he meant to hurt me. I dodged when he struck and only my
+shoulder may be--bruised."
+
+"Then you should bathe it in hot water. Can I help you up? No, you must
+not go home alone--but I must see about poor George. I heard him groan."
+
+"I'd better go down with you."
+
+"It might be--too horrible--for a girl, you see. Better stay here."
+
+Gus had extended his hand to give her a lift; she took it and came
+slowly to her feet; then suddenly crumpled up and lay unconscious before
+him, her face white against the dark sod, her arms outflung. Gus stared
+at her a few long seconds, as foolishly helpless as any boy could be. He
+told Bill afterward that he never felt so flabbergasted in his life.
+What to do he knew not, but he must try something, and do it quickly.
+Perhaps Grace had only fainted; should he go to George first? He might
+be dying--or dead! Then the thought came to him: "Women and children
+first."
+
+Gus dashed down the hill, dipped his cap, cup fashion, into the water of
+the dam and fled up with it again, brimming full and spilling over. He
+was able to dash a considerable quantity of reviving water into the
+girl's face. With a gasp and a struggle she turned over, opened her
+eyes, sat up,--her physical powers returning in advance of her mental
+grasp.
+
+"Oh, am I,--no, not dead? Please help me--up and home."
+
+"Yes, I'll take you home in just a jiffy. Do you feel a little better?
+Can you sit still here, please, till I see about George? Just a moment?"
+
+Again the boy went down the hill, now toward the tool house; he was
+brave enough, but a sort of horror gripped him as he rounded the corner
+of the little shack. What, then, was his relief when he found the
+watchman on his feet, a bit uncertain about his balance and leaning
+against the door frame. It was evident from the way he held his club
+that he meant not to desert his post and that he believed his late
+assailant was returning. At sight of Gus, the colored man's relief
+showed in his drawn face.
+
+"Mist' Gus! It's you, honey! My Lawd! Ah done been shot! By the ghos',
+Mist' Gus, whut ain't nothin' no mo'n dat low-down, no 'count nephew o'
+ol' Mist' Hooper's. Ah reckon Ah's gwine die, but Ah ain't yit--not ef
+he's comin' back!"
+
+"Good boy, George! You're the stuff! But you're not going to die and
+he's not coming back. He lit out like a rabbit. Come now; we'll go to a
+doctor and then--"
+
+"Reckon Ah can't do it. Got hit in de hip some'ers; makes mah leg total
+wuthless. You-all go on an' Ah'll git me some res' yere till mawnin'."
+
+"And maybe bleed nearly to death! No, I'll be back for you in no
+time,--as soon as I get Miss Grace home. She's on the hill there. She
+came out to watch that cousin of hers. You hang on till I get back."
+
+Grace tried to show her usual energy, but seemed nearly overcome by
+fatigue. She made no complaint, but presently Gus saw that she was
+crying, and that scared him. In his inexperience he could not know that
+it was only overwrought nerves. He felt he must make speed in carrying
+out his intentions to get help to George and put the authorities on the
+track of Thad. Gus could see but one thing to do properly and his
+natural diffidence was cast aside by his generous and kindly nature.
+
+"Let me give you a lift, as I do Bill, sometimes," he said, and drew the
+girl's arm over his shoulder, supporting her with his other arm. In a
+second or two they were going on at a rather lively pace. In a few
+minutes they had reached the house. Grace entered and called loudly. Her
+father and mother appeared instantly in the hallway above. The girl,
+half way up the stairway, told of the incidents at the power plant and
+added:
+
+"Thad boasted to me that he was going to give the boys a lot more
+trouble, and I watched and saw him leave the house. So I followed,
+hoping to stop him, and after he shot George he ran into me and was so
+angry that he struck me. I wish _I_ had had a pistol! I would have--"
+
+"Gracie, dear little girl! You mustn't wish to kill or wound anyone! Oh,
+are you _hurt_? Come, dear--"
+
+"I'll be with you right off, me boy!" said Mr. Hooper to Gus, and
+presently they were in the library alone.
+
+"Listen to me, lad. This nevvy o' mine is me dead sister's child, an' I
+swore t' her I'd do all I could fer him. His brother Bob, he's in the
+Navy, a decent lad; won't have nothin' to do with Thad. An' you can't
+blame him, fer Thad's a rapscallion. Smart, too, an' friendly enough to
+his old uncle. But now, though, I'm done with him. I'm fer lettin' him
+slide, not wantin' to put the law on him. I'll take care o' George. He
+shall have the best doctor in the country, an' I'll keep him an' his
+wife in comfort, but I don't want Thaddeus to be arrested. Now I reckon
+he's gone an' so let luck take him--good, bad, er indifferent. Won't you
+let him hit his own trail, foot-loose?"
+
+"I'd like to see him arrested and jailed," said Gus, "but for you and
+because of what you'll do for George and your being so good to Bill and
+me, I'll keep mum on it."
+
+"Good, me lad. An' now you git back to George an' tell him to keep
+Thad's name out of it. I'll 'phone fer 'Doc' Little and 'Doc' Yardley,
+an' have an ambulance sent fer the poor feller. Then you can tell his
+wife. It means very little sleep fer you this night, but you can lay
+abed late."
+
+Gus went away upon these duties, but with a heavy heart; he felt that
+Mr. Hooper, because of the very gentleness of the man was defeating
+justice, and though he had been nearly forced to give his promise, he
+felt that he must keep it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+CONSTRUCTION AND DESTRUCTION
+
+
+Bill and Gus worked long hours and diligently. All that the power plant
+construction had earned for Bill, the boy had turned in to help his
+mother. But Mr. Grier, busy at house building and doing better than at
+most other times, was able to add something to _his_ boy's earnings, so
+that Gus could capitalize the undertaking, which he was eager to do.
+
+The layout of the radio receiver outfits to be built alike were put at
+first on paper, full size; plan, side and end elevations and tracings
+were made of the same transferred to heavy manila paper. These were to
+be placed on the varnished panels, so that holes could be bored through
+paper and panel, thus insuring perfect spacing and arrangement.
+Sketches, also, were made of all details.
+
+The audion tubes, storage batteries and telephone receivers had been
+purchased in the city. Almost all the other parts were made by the boys
+out of carefully selected materials. The amplifiers consisted of iron
+core transformers comprising several stages of radio frequency. The
+variometers were wound of 22-gauge wire. Loose couplers were used
+instead of the ordinary tuning coil. The switch arms, pivoting shafts
+and attachments for same, the contact points and binding posts were
+home-made. A potentiometer puzzled them most, both the making and the
+application, but they mastered this rather intricate mechanism, as they
+did the other parts.
+
+In this labor, with everything at hand and a definite object in view, no
+boys ever were happier, nor more profitably employed, considering the
+influence upon their characters and future accomplishments. How true it
+is that they who possess worthy hobbies, especially those governed by
+the desire for construction and the inventive tendency, are getting
+altogether the most out of life and are giving the best of themselves!
+
+The work progressed steadily--not too hastily, but most satisfactorily.
+Leaving at supper time, Bill's eyes would sparkle as he talked over
+their efforts for that day, and quiet Gus would listen with nods and
+make remarks of appreciation now and then.
+
+"The way we've made that panel, Gus, with those end cleats doweled on
+and the shellacking of both sides--it'll never warp. I'm proud of that
+and it was mostly your idea."
+
+"No, yours. I would have grooved the wood and used a tongue, but the
+dowels are firmer."
+
+"A tongue would have been all right."
+
+"But, dear boy, the dowels were easier to put in."
+
+"Oh, well, it's done now. To-morrow we'll begin the mounting and wiring.
+Then for the aerial!"
+
+But that very to-morrow brought with it the hardest blow the boys had
+yet had to face. Full of high spirits, they walked the half mile out to
+the Hooper place and found the garage a mass of blackened ruins. It had
+caught fire, quite mysteriously, toward morning, and the gardener and
+chauffeur, roused by the crackling flames, had worked like beavers but
+with only time to push out the two automobiles; they could save nothing
+else.
+
+The Hoopers had just risen from breakfast when the boys arrived; at once
+Grace came out, and her expressions of regret were such as to imply that
+the family had lost nothing, the boys being the only sufferers. And it
+_was_ a bit staggering--all their work and machinery and tools and plans
+utterly ruined--the lathe and drill a heap of twisted iron. It was with
+a rueful face that Bill surveyed the catastrophe.
+
+"Never mind, Billy," said Grace, detecting evidence of moisture in his
+eyes; but she went over to smiling Gus and gazed at him in wonder.
+"Don't you care?" she asked.
+
+"You bet I care; mostly on Bill's account, though. He had set his heart
+mighty strong on this. I'm sorry about your loss, too."
+
+"Oh, never mind that! Dad is 'phoning now for carpenters and his
+builder. He'll be out in a minute."
+
+Out he did come, with a shout of greeting; he, too, had sensed that the
+real regrets would be with them.
+
+"It'll be all right, me lads!" he shouted. "Herring'll be here on the
+next train, with a bunch o' men, an' I'll git your dad, Gus, too. Must
+have this building up just like it was in ten days. An' now count up
+just what you lads have lost; the hull sum total, b'jinks! I'm goin' to
+be the insurance comp'ny in this deal."
+
+"The insurance company!" Bill exclaimed and Gus stared.
+
+"Sure. Goin' to make up your loss an' then some. I'm a heap int'rested
+in this Eddy's son business, ain't I? Think I ain't wantin' to see that
+there contraption that hears a hunderd miles off? Get busy an' give me
+the expense. We've got to git a-goin'."
+
+"But, Mr. Hooper, our loss isn't yours and you have got enough to--"
+
+"Don't talk; figger! I'm runnin' this loss business. Don't want to make
+me mad; eh? Git at it an' hurry up!" He turned and walked away. Grace
+followed in a moment, but over her shoulder remarked to the wondering
+boys:
+
+"Do as Dad says if you want to keep our friendship. Dad isn't any sort
+of a piker,--you know that."
+
+The insistency was too direct; "the queen's wish was a command." The
+boys would have to comply and they could get square with their good
+friends in the end. So at it they went, Bill with pad and pencil, Gus
+calling out the items as his eye or his memory gleaned them from the
+hard-looking objects in the burned mass as he raked it over. Presently
+Grace came out again.
+
+"Dad wants the list and the amount," she said. "He's got to go to the
+city with Mr. Herring."
+
+Bill handed over his pad and she was gone, to return as quickly in a few
+minutes.
+
+"Here is an order on the bank; you can draw the cash as you need it. You
+can start working in the stable loft; then bring your stuff over. There
+will be a watchman on the grounds from to-night, so don't worry about
+any more fires. I must go help get Dad off."
+
+Once more she retreated; again she stopped to say something, as an
+afterthought, over her shoulder:
+
+"And, boys, won't you let Skeets and me help you some? Skeets will be
+here again next week and I love to tinker and contrive and make all
+sorts of things; it'll be fun to see the radio receiver grow."
+
+"Sure, you can," said Gus; and Bill nodded, adding: "We have only a
+limited time now, and any help will count a lot."
+
+Going down to the bank, Bill again outlined the work in detail,
+suggesting the purchases of even better machinery and tools, of only the
+best grades of materials. There must be another trip to the city, the
+most strenuous part of the work.
+
+"We'll get it through on time, I guess," said Bill.
+
+"I'm not thinking so much of that as about how that fire started," said
+Gus.
+
+"It couldn't have been any of our chemicals, could it?"
+
+"Chem--? My eye! Don't you know, old chap? I'll bet Mr. Hooper and Grace
+have the correct suspicion."
+
+"More crooked business? You don't mean--"
+
+"Sure, I do! Thad, of course. And, Bill, we're going to get him, sooner
+or later. Mr. Hooper won't want to stand this sort of thing forever.
+I've got a hunch that we're not through with that game yet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+"TO LABOR AND TO WAIT"
+
+
+It was truly astonishing what well organized labor could do under
+intelligent direction; the boys had a fine example of this before them
+and a fine lesson in the accomplishment. The new garage grew into a new
+and somewhat larger building, on the site of the old, almost over night.
+There were three eight-hour shifts of men and two foremen, with the
+supervising architect and Mr. Grier apparently always on the job. As
+soon as the second floor was laid, the roof on and the sheathing in
+place, Bill and Gus moved in. The men gave them every aid and Mr. Grier
+gave special attention to building their benches, trusses, a
+drawing-board stand, shelving and tool chests. Then, how those new radio
+receivers did come on!
+
+Grace and Skeets were given little odd jobs during the very few hours of
+their insistent helping. They varnished, polished, oiled, cleaned copper
+wire, unpacked material, even swept up the _debris_ left by the
+carpenters; at least, they did until Skeets managed to fall headlong
+down about one-half of the unfinished stairway and to sprain her ankle.
+Then Grace's loyalty compelled her attention to her friend.
+
+Mr. Hooper breezed in from time to time, but never to take a hand; to do
+so would have seemed quite out of place, though the old gentleman
+laughingly made an excuse for this:
+
+"Lads, I ain't no tinker man; never was. Drivin' a pesky nail's a
+huckleberry above my persimmon. Cattle is all I know, an' I kin still
+learn about them, I reckon. But I know what I kin see an' hear an',
+b'jinks, I'm still doubtin' I'm ever goin' to hear that there Eddy's son
+do this talkin'. But get busy, lads; get busy!"
+
+"Oh, fudge, Dad! Can't you see they're dreadfully busy? You can't hurry
+them one bit faster." Grace was ever just.
+
+"No," said Skeets, who had borrowed Bill's crutch to get into the shop
+for a little while. "No, Mr. Hooper; if they were to stay up all night,
+go without eats and work twenty-five hours a day they couldn't do any--"
+And just then the end of the too-much inclined crutch skated outward and
+the habitually unfortunate girl dropped kerplunk on the floor. Gus and
+Grace picked her up. She was not hurt by her fall. Her very plumpness
+had saved her.
+
+"For goodness' sake, Skeets, are you ever going to get the habit of
+keeping yourself upright?" asked Grace, who laughed harder than the
+others, except Skeets herself; the stout girl generally got the utmost
+enjoyment out of her own troubles.
+
+Quiet restored, Mr. Hooper returned to his subject.
+
+"I reckon you lads, when you git this thing made that's goin' to hoodoo
+the air, will be startin' in an' tryin' somethin' else; eh?" he
+ventured, grinning.
+
+"Later, perhaps, but not just yet," Bill replied. "Not until we can
+manage to learn a lot more, Gus and I. Mr. Grier says that the
+competition of brains nowadays is a lot sharper than it was in Edison's
+young days, and even he had to study and work a lot before he really did
+any big inventing. Professor Gray says that a technical education is
+best for anyone who is going to do things, though it is a long way from
+making a fellow perfect and must be followed up by hard practice."
+
+"And we can wait, I guess," put in Gus.
+
+"Until we can manage in some way to scrape together enough cash to buy
+books and get apparatus for experiments and go on with our schooling."
+
+"We want more physics and especially electricity," said Gus.
+
+"And other knowledge as well, along with that," Bill amended.
+
+"I reckon you fellers is right," said Mr. Hooper, "but I don't know
+anything about it. I quit school when I was eleven, but that ain't
+sayin' I don't miss it. If I had an eddication now, like you lads is
+goin' to git, er like the Perfesser has, I'd give more'n half what I
+own. Boys that think they're smart to quit school an' go to work is
+natchal fools. A feller may git along an' make money, but he'd make a
+heap more an' be a heap happier, 'long of everything else, if he'd got a
+schoolin'. An' any boy that's got real sand in his gizzard can buckle
+down to books an' get a schoolin', even if he don't like it. What I'm a
+learnin' nowadays makes me know that a feller can make any old study
+int'restin' if he jes' sets down an' looks at it the right way."
+
+"That's what Gus and I think. There are studies we don't like very much,
+but we can make ourselves like them for we've got to know a lot about
+them."
+
+"Grammar, for instance," said Gus.
+
+"Sure. It is tiresome stuff, learning a lot of rules that work only
+half. But if a fellow is going to be anybody and wants to stand in with
+people, he's got to know how to talk correctly and write, too." Bill's
+logic was sound.
+
+"Daddy should have had a drilling in grammar," commented Grace,
+laughing.
+
+"Oh, you!" blurted Skeets. "Mr. Hooper can talk so that people
+understand him--and when you _do_ talk," she turned to the old
+gentleman, "I notice folks are glad to listen, and so is Grace."
+
+"But, my dear," protested the subject of criticism, "they'd listen
+better an' grin less if I didn't sling words about like one o' these
+here Eye-talians shovelin' dirt."
+
+"You just keep a-shovelin', Mr. Hooper, your own way," said Bill, "and
+if we catch anybody even daring to grin at you, why, I'll have Gus land
+on them with his famous grapple!"
+
+Mr. Hooper threw back his coat, thrust his thumbs into the armholes of
+his big, white vest and swelled out his chest.
+
+"Now, listen to that! An' this from a lad who ain't got a thing to
+expect from me an' ain't had as much as he's a-givin' me, either--an'
+knows it. But that's nothin' else but Simon pure frien'ship, I take it.
+An' Gus, here, him an' Bill, they think about alike; eh, Gus?" Gus
+nodded and the old gentleman continued, addressing his remarks to his
+daughter and Skeets:
+
+"Now, if I know anything at all about anything at all I know what I'm
+goin' to do. I ain't got no eddication, but that ain't goin' to keep me
+from seein' some others git it. You Gracie, fer one, an' you, too,
+Skeeter, if your old daddy'll let you come an' go to school with Gracie.
+But that ain't all; if you lads kin git ol' Eddy's son out o' the air on
+this contraption you're makin' an' hear him talk fer sure, I'm goin' to
+see to it that you kin git all the tec--tec--what you call
+it?--eddication there is goin' an' I'm goin' to put Perfesser Gray wise
+on that, too, soon's he comes back. No--don't you say a word now. I
+know what I'm a-doin'." With that the old gentleman turned and marched
+out of the shop. But at the bottom of the garage steps he called back:
+
+"Say, boys, I gotta go away fer a couple o' weeks, or mebbe three. Push
+it right along an' mebbe you'll be hearin' from old man Eddy's son when
+I git back!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+EARLY STRUGGLES
+
+
+The receiving outfits were completed; the aerials had been put up, one
+installed at the garage, the other at the mansion. Grace naturally had
+all, the say about placing the one in her home. The aerial, of four
+wires, each thirty feet long and parallel, were attached equi-distant,
+and at each end to springy pieces of ash ten feet long, these being
+insulators in part and sustained by spiral spring cables, each divided
+by a glass insulator block, the extended cables being fastened to a
+maple tree and the house chimney. The ground wire went down the side of
+the house beside a drain pipe.
+
+The house receiver, in a cabinet that had cost the boys much painstaking
+labor, was set by a window and, after Grace and Skeets had been
+instructed how to tune the instrument to varying wave lengths, they and
+good Mrs. Hooper enjoyed many delightful periods of listening in, all
+zealously consulting the published programs from the great broadcasting
+stations.
+
+The other outfit made by the boys, which, except the elaborate box and
+stand, was an exact duplicate of the Hooper receiver, was taken to the
+Brown cottage. Gus insisted that Bill had the best right to it, and as
+the Griers and Mrs. Brown had long been the best of friends and lived
+almost next door to each other, all the members of the carpenter's
+family would be welcome to listen in whenever they wanted to. The little
+evening gatherings at certain times for this purpose were both mirthful
+and delightful.
+
+The boys' aerial was a three-wire affair, stretching forty feet, and
+erected in much the same way as that at the Hooper house, except that
+one mast had to be put up as high as the gable end of the cottage, which
+was the other support, thirty-five feet high.
+
+Then, when the announcement was made that the talks on Edison were to be
+repeated, Bill and Gus told the class and others of their friends, so
+the Hoopers came also, the merry crowd filling the Brown living-room.
+Mr. Hooper's absence was noted and regretted from the first, as his
+eagerness "to be shown" was well known to them all.
+
+The first lectures concerning Edison's boyhood were repeated. The second
+and third talks were each better attended than the preceding ones. Cora,
+Dot, Skeets and two other girls occupied the front row; Ted Bissell and
+Terry Watkins were present. Bill presided with much dignity, most
+carefully tuning in, making the announcements, then becoming the most
+interested listener, the theme being ever dear to him.
+
+On the occasion of the third lecture, Bill said:
+
+"Now, then, classmates and other folks, this is a new one to all of us.
+The last was where we left off in June on the Professor's receiver. You
+can just bet this is going to be a pippin. First off, though, is a
+violin solo by--by--oh, I forget his name,--and may it be short and
+sweet!"
+
+After the music, the now well-known voice came from the horn:
+
+"This is the third talk on the career and accomplishments of Thomas Alva
+Edison:
+
+"In a little while young Edison began to get tired of the humdrum life
+of a telegraph operator in Boston. As I have told you, after the
+vote-recorder, he had invented a stock ticker and started a quotation
+service in Boston. He opened operations from a room over the Gold
+Exchange with thirty to forty subscribers.
+
+"He also engaged in putting up private lines, upon which he used an
+alphabetical dial instrument for telegraphing between business
+establishments, a forerunner of modern telephony. This instrument was
+very simple and practical, and any one could work it after a few
+minutes' explanation.
+
+"The inventor has described an accident he suffered and its effect on
+him:
+
+"'In the laboratory,' he says, 'I had a large induction coil. One day I
+got hold of both electrodes of this coil, and it clinched my hands on
+them so that I could not let go!
+
+"'The battery was on a shelf. The only way I could get free was to back
+off and pull the coil, so that the battery wires would pull the cells
+off the shelf and thus break the circuit. I shut my eyes and pulled, but
+the nitric acid splashed all over my face and ran down my back.
+
+"'I rushed to a sink, which was only half big enough, and got in as well
+as I could, and wiggled around for several minutes to let the water
+dilute the acid and stop the pain. My face and back were streaked with
+yellow; the skin was thoroughly oxidized.
+
+"'I did not go on the street by daylight for two weeks, as the
+appearance of my face was dreadful. The skin, however, peeled off, and
+new skin replaced it without any damage.'
+
+"The young inventor went to New York City to seek better fortunes. First
+he tried to sell his stock printer and failed in the effort. Then he
+returned to Boston and got up a duplex telegraph--for sending two
+messages at once over one wire. He tried to demonstrate it between
+Rochester and New York City. After a week's trial, his test did not
+work, partly because of the inefficiency of his assistant.
+
+"He had run in debt eight hundred dollars to build this duplex
+apparatus. His other inventions had cost considerable money to make, and
+he had failed to sell them. So his books, apparatus and other belongings
+were left in Boston, and when he returned to New York he arrived there
+with but a few cents in his pocket. He was very hungry. He walked the
+streets in the early morning looking for breakfast but with so little
+money left that he did not wish to spend it.
+
+"Passing a wholesale tea house, he saw a man testing tea by tasting it.
+The young inventor asked the 'taster' for some of the tea. The man
+smiled and held out a cup of the fragrant drink. That tea was Thomas A.
+Edison's first breakfast in New York City.
+
+"He walked back and forth hunting for a telegraph operator he had known,
+but that young man was also out of work. When Edison finally found him,
+all his friend could do was to lend him a dollar!
+
+"By this time Edison was nearly starved. With such limited resources he
+gave solemn thought to what he should select that would be most
+satisfying. He decided to buy apple dumplings and coffee, and in telling
+afterward of his first real 'eats' in New York, Mr. Edison said he never
+had anything that tasted so good.
+
+"Just as young Ben Franklin, on arriving in New York City from Boston,
+looked for a job in a printing office, the youthful modern inventor
+applied for work in a telegraph office there. As there was no vacancy
+and he needed the rest of his borrowed dollar for meals, Edison found
+lodging in the battery room of the Gold Indicator Company.
+
+"It was four years after the Civil War and, besides there being much
+unemployment, the fluctuations in the value of gold, as compared with
+the paper currency of that day, made it necessary to have gold
+'indicators' something like the tickers from the Stock Exchange to-day.
+Dr. Laws, presiding officer of the Gold Exchange, had recently invented
+a system of gold indicators, which were placed in brokers' offices and
+operated from the Gold Exchange.
+
+"When Edison got permission to spend the night in the battery room of
+this company, there were about three hundred of these instruments
+operating in offices in all directions in lower New York City.
+
+"On the third day after his arrival, while sitting in this office, the
+complicated instrument sending quotations out on all the lines made a
+very loud noise, and came to a sudden stop with a crash. Within two
+minutes over three hundred boys---one from every broker's office in the
+street--rushed upstairs and crowded the long aisle and office where
+there was hardly room for one-third that number, each yelling that a
+certain broker's wire was out of order, and that it must be fixed at
+once.
+
+"It was pandemonium, and the manager got so wild that he lost all
+control of himself. Edison went to the indicator, and as he had already
+studied it thoroughly, he knew right where the trouble was. He went
+right out to see the man in charge, and found Dr. Laws there also--the
+most excited man of all!
+
+"The Doctor demanded to know what caused all the trouble, but his man
+stood there, staring and dumb. As soon as Edison could get Laws'
+attention he told him he knew what the matter was.
+
+"'Fix it! Fix it! and be quick about it!' Dr. Laws shouted.
+
+"Edison went right to work and in two hours had everything in running
+order. Dr. Laws came in to ask the inventor's name and what he was
+doing. When told, he asked the young man to call on him in his office
+the next day. Edison did so and Laws said he had decided to place Edison
+in charge of the entire plant at a salary of three hundred dollars a
+month!
+
+"This was such a big jump from any wages he had ever received that it
+quite paralyzed the youthful inventor. He felt that it was too much to
+last long, but he made up his mind he would do his best to earn that
+salary if he had to work twenty hours a day. He kept that job, making
+improvements and devising other stock tickers, until the Gold and Stock
+Telegraph Company consolidated with the Gold Indicator Company."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+FAME AND FORTUNE
+
+
+"At twenty-two," the lecturer continued, "while Edison was with the Gold
+and Stock Telegraph Company, he often heard Jay Gould and 'Jim' Fisk,
+the great Wall Street operators of that day, talk over the money market.
+At night he ate his lunches in the coffee-house in Printing House
+Square, where he used to meet Henry J. Raymond, founder of _The New York
+Times_, Horace Greeley of the _Tribune_ and James Gordon Bennett of the
+_Herald_, the greatest trio of journalists in the world. One of the most
+memorable remarks made by a frequenter of this night lunch, as recorded
+by Mr. Edison was:
+
+"'This is a great place; a plate of cakes, a cup of coffee, and a
+Russian bath, all for ten cents!'
+
+"The so-called bath was on account of the heat of the crowded room.
+
+"Mr. Edison tells this story of the terrible panic in Wall Street, in
+September, 1869, brought on chiefly by the attempt of Jay Gould and his
+associates to corner the gold market:
+
+"'On Black Friday we had a rather exciting time with our indicators. The
+Gould and Fisk crowd had cornered the gold and had run up the quotations
+faster than the indicator could record them. In the morning it was
+quoting 150 premium while Gould's agents were bidding 165 for five
+millions or less.
+
+"'There was intense excitement. Broad and other streets in the Wall
+Street district were crammed with crazy crowds. In the midst of the
+excitement, Speyer, another large operator, became so insane that it
+took five men to hold him. I sat on the roof of a Western Union booth
+and watched the surging multitudes.
+
+"'A Western Union man I knew came up and said to me: "Shake hands,
+Edison. We're all right. We haven't got a cent to lose."'
+
+"After the company with which our young inventor was connected had sold
+out its inventions and improvements to the Gold and Stock Telegraph
+Company, Mr. Edison produced a machine to print gold quotations instead
+of merely indicating them. The attention of the president of the Gold
+and Stock Company was attracted to the success of the wonderful young
+inventor.
+
+"Edison had produced quite a number of inventions. One of these was the
+special ticker which was used many years in other large cities, because
+it was so simple that it could be operated by men less expert than the
+operators in New York. It was used also on the London Stock Exchange.
+
+"After he had gotten up a good many inventions and taken out patents for
+them, the president of the big company came to see him and was shown a
+simple device to regulate tickers that had been printing figures wrong.
+This thing saved a good deal of labor to a large number of men, and
+prevented trouble for the broker himself. It impressed the president so
+much that he invited Edison into his private office and said, in a stage
+whisper:
+
+"'Young man, I would like to settle with you for your inventions here.
+How much do you want for them?"
+
+"Edison had thought it all over and had come to the conclusion that, on
+account of the hard night-and-day work he had been doing, he really
+ought to have five thousand dollars, but he would be glad to settle for
+three thousand, if they thought five thousand was too much. But when
+asked point-blank, he hadn't the courage to name either sum--thousands
+looked large to him then--so he hesitated a bit and said:
+
+"'Well, General, suppose _you_ make _me_ an offer.'
+
+"'All right,' said the president. 'How would forty thousand dollars
+strike you?'
+
+"Young Edison came as near fainting then as he ever did in his life. He
+was afraid the 'General' would hear his heart thump, but he said quietly
+that he thought that amount was just about right. A contract was drawn
+up which Edison signed without reading.
+
+"Forty thousand dollars was written in the first check Thomas A. Edison
+ever received. With throbbing heart and trembling fingers he took it to
+the bank and handed it in to the paying teller, who looked at it
+disapprovingly and passed it back, saying something the young inventor
+could not hear because of his deafness. Thinking he had been cheated,
+Edison went out of the bank, as he said, 'to let the cold sweat
+evaporate.'
+
+"Then he hurried back to the president and demanded to know what it all
+meant. The president and his secretary laughed at the green youth's
+needless fears and explained that the teller had probably told him to
+write his name on the back of the check. They not only showed him how to
+endorse it, but sent a clerk to the bank to identify him--because of the
+large amount of money to be paid over.
+
+"Just for a joke on the 'jay,' the teller gave him the whole forty
+thousand dollars in ten- and twenty-dollar bills. Edison gravely stowed
+away the money till he had filled all his pockets including those in his
+overcoat. He sat up all night in his room in Newark, in fear and
+trembling, lest he be robbed. The president laughed next day but said
+that joke had gone far enough; then he showed Thomas A. Edison how to
+open his first bank account."
+
+Again the lecturer's voice ceased to be heard; again another voice
+announced that the fourth talk would be given on a certain date a few
+days later. A negro song with banjo accompaniment followed and the radio
+entertainment was over.
+
+Everyone was talking, laughing and voicing pleasure in the increasingly
+wonderful demonstration of getting sounds out of the air, from hundreds
+of miles away. Only Gus and Bill remained and the two--as Billy always
+referred to their confabs--went into "executive session." This radio
+receiver was altogether absorbing, much too attractive to let alone
+easily. The boys were proud of their very successful construction and
+they could neither forget that fact, nor pass up the delight of
+listening in.
+
+This time Gus had the first inspiration. Billy often thought how,
+sometimes strangely or by chance or correct steering, his chum seemed to
+grasp the deeper matters of detection. Gus eagerly acknowledged Bill as
+possessing a genius for mechanical construction and invention, without
+which the comrades would get nowhere in such efforts, even admitting
+Gus's skill and cleverness with tools. But when it came to having
+hunches and good luck concerning matters of human mystery, Gus was the
+king pin.
+
+"I'm going to see what else we can get from near or far," Gus said,
+detaching the horn and using the head clamp with its two ear 'phones
+which had been added to the set. He sat down and began moving the switch
+arms, one from contact to contact, the other throughout the entire range
+of its contacts at each movement of the first, and proceeding thus
+slowly for some minutes.
+
+Bill had turned to the study of his Morse code, which the boys had taken
+up and pursued at every opportunity during the building of the radio
+sets. Gus, however, was less familiar with the dots and dashes. A
+whisper, as though Gus were afraid the sound of his voice would disturb
+the electric waves, suddenly switched Bill's attention.
+
+"Two dots, three dots, two dots, one dash, one dot and dash, one dot,
+one dash and two dots, same, dot, dash, dot, two dots, two dashes and
+dot, four dots, one dash, two dots, two dashes, two dots." A pause. Gus
+had whispered each signal to Bill; then he asked: "What do you make it?"
+
+"I make it: 'Is it all right, then?' They have been talking some time, I
+guess," said Bill; and added: "That's a good way to pick up and wrestle
+with the code; it's dandy practice and we want--"
+
+"Wait, pal, wait!" gasped Gus, bending forward again.
+
+Words came now, instead of the code. It was evident that the person
+giving them out had sought authority for so doing from headquarters.
+
+Gus heard:
+
+"This is to whom it may concern: Five hundred dollars' reward is to be
+paid for information leading to the arrest of a party who last night
+broke into the home of Nathan R. Hallowell. After deliberately and,
+without apparent cause, shooting and badly wounding Mrs. Hallowell and
+striking down an old servant woman, he stole several hundred dollars'
+worth of jewels and silverware. Both the servant, who kept her wits
+about her, and Mrs. Hallowell, who is now out of danger, have described
+the assailant. He is about eighteen, of medium height, slender, dark
+complexioned, one eye noticeably smaller than the other, nose long and
+pointed, has a nervous habit of twitching his shoulder. He wore a light
+brown suit and a gray cap. Send all information, or broadcast same to
+Police Headquarters, Willstown. Immediate detention of any reasonable
+suspect is recommended."
+
+Gus wheeled about.
+
+"Bill, it's Thad! Description hits him exactly and there's five hundred
+reward. He's done a house-breaking stunt and tried to kill two people
+and I don't believe they've got him yet. Mr. Hooper wouldn't want us to
+keep quiet on this; would he?"
+
+"It might be a good idea to talk to Mrs. Hooper and Grace about it
+before you inform on Thad," Bill said.
+
+"I'll do that," Gus agreed and was off. In half an hour he was back
+again.
+
+"I saw them, late as it was. Grace and Skeets were playing crokinole and
+Mrs. Hooper came down. And, what do you think? Mr. Hooper wrote that
+Thad had forged his name on a check for several hundred dollars and got
+away with it and, even if he did still want to shield Thad, the law
+wouldn't let him. Grace says Thad ought to be caught and punished and
+that her father will want it done."
+
+"But Gus, even if you got Willstown on the long distance 'phone, how
+would that help to----"
+
+"We'll get them later; after we have located Thad."
+
+"Oh, Gus, do you think Ben Shultz was dreaming?"
+
+"When he said he saw Thad out there in the barren ground woods by the
+old cabin? Not a bit of it! It's the last place they'd ever think of
+looking for him--right on his uncle's place. Thad is pretty keen in some
+ways. But I doubt if he'll stay there long. He'll be pulling out for the
+mountains. There's a late moon to-night, you see."
+
+"I wish I could go with you; this old leg--"
+
+"Never mind now; don't worry. I'll take Bennie Shultz and make him
+messenger. If Thad's there you can get down to the drug store and call
+Willstown. That'll make our case sure. By cracky, old scout, five
+hundred! We can--"
+
+"Chickens, old man; chickens. Hatch 'em first. But you will, I'll bet,
+and it will be yours; not--"
+
+"What are you talking about? Ours! It's as much your job as mine.
+Divy-divy, half'n'half, fifty-fifty. Well, I'm off."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+JUSTICE
+
+
+"Now then, Bennie," whispered Gus, "beat it on the q.t. Then streak it
+for Bill's house. He'll be watching for you. Tell him our man is here
+and probably getting ready to light out. You needn't come back; I'm only
+going to spot this bird and find out where he goes, if I can. You'll get
+well paid for this, kid."
+
+The two boys were lying on the sandy ground among young cedars, and
+watching the little cabin not fifty yards distant. Out of this crude
+shack had come the sole occupant, to stand and gaze about him for a
+minute, lifting his face to the moon. Gus could plainly distinguish the
+gray cap, the slender build of the youth; he recognized the walk, a
+certain manner of standing, and once he plainly caught that upward shift
+of the shoulder. Then Gus gave his orders to Bennie, knowing that they
+would be carried out with precision, for the little fellow, almost a
+waif and lacking proper influences, would have nearly laid down his life
+for Gus after the athlete had very deservedly whipped two town bullies
+that were making life miserable for him. Moreover, the youngster wanted
+to be like Gus and Bill, in the matter of mentality, and a promise of
+reward meant money with which he could buy books.
+
+Left alone, Gus crept nearer the cabin. He could be reasonably sure of
+himself, but not of Bennie, who might crack a stick or sneeze. Some low
+cedars grew on the slope above the cabin; Gus took advantage of these
+and got within about forty feet of the shack. Then he lay watching for
+fully an hour, there being no sign of the inmate. But after what had
+seemed to Gus almost half the night, out came the suspect, stood a
+moment as before and started off; it could be seen that he carried a
+small pack and a heavy stick in his hands.
+
+Then Gus was taken by surprise; even his ready intuition failed him. He
+had made up his mind that he was in for a long hike to the not too
+distant mountains and that over this ground the work of keeping the
+other fellow in sight and of keeping out of sight himself was going to
+mean constant vigilance and keen stalking. But the midnight prowler
+swung around the cabin and with long, certain strides headed straight
+for the Hooper mansion.
+
+This was easier going for Gus than the open road toward the mountains
+would have been; there was plenty of growth--long grass, trees and
+bushes--to keep between him and the other who never tried to seek
+shelter, nor hardly once looked behind him until the end of the broad
+driveway was reached.
+
+Gus knew the watchman must be about, though possibly half asleep. He
+also believed that the suspected youth, by the way he advanced, must
+know the ways of the watchman. Roger, the big Saint Bernard, let out a
+booming roar and came bounding down the driveway; the fellow spoke to
+him and that was all there was to that. Gus stayed well behind, fearing
+the friendly beast might come to him also and thus give his presence
+away, but Roger was evidently coaxed to remain with the first comer.
+
+The big house stood silent, bathed in the moonlight; there was no sign
+of anyone about, other than the miscreant who stood now in the shadow,
+surveying the place. Presently he put down his pack, went to a window
+and, quick and silent as an expert burglar, jimmied the sash. There was
+only one sudden, sharp snap of the breaking sash bolt and in a moment
+the fellow had vanished within the darkness and Gus distinguished only
+the occasional flash of a pocket torch inside.
+
+There was but one thing to do, and that as quickly as possible. The dog
+had gone around to lie again on the front veranda. Gus made a bolt for
+the rear of the grounds, reached the garage, found an open door, began
+softly to push it open and suddenly found himself staring into the
+muzzle of a revolver that protruded from the blackness beyond.
+
+"Don't shoot! I'm Gus Grier, Mr. Watchman." The boy was conscious of a
+certain unsteadiness in his own voice.
+
+"Oh! An' phwat air yes doin' here?"
+
+"Talk low," said Gus, "but listen first: There's a burglar in the house.
+I spotted him some time ago, followed him and saw him get through the
+dining-room window. Move fast and he's yours!"
+
+Pat moved fast. He recognized that he had not been up to his duty so far
+and he meant to make amends. With Gus following, the boy's nerves on
+edge with the possibility that the housebreaker would shoot, the
+Irishman, who was no coward, reached the house, entered the basement,
+flooded the house with light, alarmed the inmates and in a few minutes
+had every avenue of escape guarded, the chauffeur, butler and gardener
+coming on the scene, all half dressed and armed.
+
+What followed needs little telling. Hardly had the men decided to search
+the house before the sound of a rapidly approaching motor horn was heard
+and from the quickly checked car two men leaped out, the constable and a
+deputy from the town--and then Bill Brown! The illuminated house had
+stopped their course. The search revealed Thad cowering in a closet, all
+the fight gone out of him. Grace and Skeets were not even awakened; Mrs.
+Hooper did not leave her room.
+
+As the constable turned a light on the handcuffed prisoner he remarked:
+"That's the chap all right. Description fits. He'll bring that five
+hundred all right."
+
+"A reward; is it?" said the watchman. "An' don't ye fergit who gits it.
+Not me, ner you, Constable, but the bye here." He laid his hand on Gus's
+shoulder. The constable laughed:
+
+"Oh, you're slow, Pat. We all know that. The kid and his pal, that young
+edition of Edison by the name of Billy Brown, got the thing cinched over
+their radio. We didn't know that the description that Willstown sent out
+fitted Mr. Hooper's own nephew."
+
+And so with relief, mixed with regret for Mr. Hooper's sake, Gus and
+Bill saw a sulky and rebellious Thad vanish into the night and out of
+their immediate affairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+GENIUS IS OFTEN ERRATIC
+
+
+The fourth radio talk on the life, character and accomplishments of the
+world's foremost inventor proved to be the most interesting of the
+series. Fairview had heard of these entertainments and so many people
+had asked Bill and Gus if they might attend, the boys became aware that
+the modest little living-room of the Brown home would not hold half of
+them. They, therefore, decided to let the radio be heard in the town
+hall, if a few citizens would pay the rent for the evening.
+
+This was readily arranged, but when the suggestion was made that an
+admission be charged, the boys refused. This was their treat all round,
+even to transferring their aerial to the hall between its cupola and a
+mast at the other end of the roof, put up by the ever willing Mr. Grier
+who could not do too much to further the boys' interests.
+
+Early in the evening the hall was filled to overflowing, and ushers were
+appointed to seat the crowd. Naturally there was much chattering and
+scraping of feet until suddenly a strain of music, an orchestral
+selection, began to come out of the horn and there was instant quiet.
+After its conclusion came the voice:
+
+"This is our last lecture on Edison. Following this will be given a
+series on Marconi, the inventor of the wireless.
+
+"As I have told you, Mr. Thomas Alva Edison's leap to fortune was sudden
+and spectacular, as have been most of his accomplishments since. Those
+who do really great things along the lines of physical improvement, or
+concerning the inception of large enterprises are apt to startle the
+public and to surprise thoughtful people almost as though some
+impossible thing had been achieved.
+
+"From a mere salaried operator to forty thousand dollars in a lump sum
+for expert work was quite a jump.
+
+"The forty thousand dollars, however, did not turn Mr. Edison's head as
+has been the effect of sudden wealth on many a good-sized but smaller
+minded man.
+
+"He used it as a fund to start a plant and hire expert men to experiment
+and work out the inventions which came to him so fast in his ceaseless
+work and study. He could get along with as little sleep as Napoleon is
+said to have required when a mighty battle was on. Edison could lie down
+on a settee or table and sleep just as the Little Corporal did even
+while cannon were booming all around him.
+
+"There was something Napoleonic, also, about Edison's intensity of
+application and his masterfulness in his gigantic undertakings. If
+genius is the ability to take great pains, Thomas A. Edison is the
+greatest genius in the world to-day--if not in all history.
+
+"Sometimes, as Napoleon did with his chief generals before a decisive
+engagement, Edison would shut himself up with his confidential
+coworkers. Sometimes he and they would neither eat nor sleep till they
+had fought out a problem of greater importance to the world than even
+Napoleon's crossing the Alps or the decisive battle of Austerlitz. But,
+though he began to work on a large scale, young Edison's financial
+facilities were of the crudest and simplest.
+
+"Almost all of his men were on piece-work, and he allowed them to make
+good salaries. He never cut them down, although their pay was very high
+as they became more and more expert.
+
+"Instead of _books_ he kept _hooks_--two of them. All the bills he owed
+he jabbed on one hook, and stuck mems of what was due him on the other.
+If he had no tickers ready to deliver when an account came due, he gave
+his note for the amount required.
+
+"Then as one bill after another fell due, a bank messenger came with a
+notice of protest pinned to the note, demanding a dollar and a quarter
+extra for protest fees besides principal and interest. Whereupon he
+would go to New York and borrow more funds, or pay the note on the spot
+if he happened to have money enough on hand. He kept up this expensive
+way of doing business for two years, but his credit was perfectly good.
+Every dealer he patronized was glad to furnish him with what he wanted,
+and some expressed admiration for his new method of paying bills.
+
+"But, to save his own time, Edison had to hire a bookkeeper whose
+inefficiency made him regret for a while the change in his way of doing
+business. He tells of one of his experiences with this accountant:
+
+"'After the first three months I told him to go through his books and
+see how much we had made.
+
+"Three thousand dollars!" he told me after studying a while. So, to
+celebrate this, I gave a dinner to several of the staff.
+
+"'Two days after that he came to tell me he had made a big mistake, for
+we had _lost_ five hundred dollars. Several days later he came round
+again and tried to prove to me that we had made seven thousand dollars
+in the three months!'
+
+"This was so disconcerting that the inventor decided to change
+bookkeepers, but he never 'counted his chickens before they were
+hatched.' In other words, he did not believe that he had made anything
+till he had paid all his bills and had his money safe in the bank.
+
+"Mr. Edison once made the remark that when Jay Gould got possession of
+the Western Union Telegraph Company, no further progress in telegraphy
+was possible, because Gould took no pride in building up. All he cared
+for was money, only money.
+
+"The opposite was true of Edison. While he had decided to invent only
+that which was of commercial value, it was not on account of the money
+but because that which millions of people will buy is of the greatest
+value to the world.
+
+"After he stopped telegraphing, Edison turned his mind to many
+inventions. It is not generally known that the first successful, widely
+sold typewriter was perfected by him.
+
+"This typewriter proved a difficult thing to make commercial. The
+alignment of the letters was very bad. One letter would be one-sixteenth
+of an inch above the others, and all the letters wanted to wander out of
+line. He worked on it till the machine gave fair results. The typewriter
+he got into commercial shape is now known as the Remington.
+
+"It is not hard to understand that Mr. Edison invented the American
+District Messenger call-box system, which has been superseded by the
+telephone, but very few people know when they are eating caramels and
+other sticky confectionery that wax or paraffin paper was invented by
+Edison. Also the tasimeter, an instrument so delicate that it measures
+the heat of the most distant star, Arcturus. One of the few vacations
+Mr. Edison allowed himself was when he traveled to the Rocky Mountains
+to witness a total eclipse of the sun and experiment on certain stars
+with his tasimeter, and this very clearly shows that Mr. Edison is as
+much interested in the advancement of science as in matters purely
+commercial."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+
+THE GENIUS OF THE AGE
+
+
+"I want to tell you something more about the personal side of this great
+man," continued the voice from the horn.
+
+"One of the striking things about Thomas Alva Edison is his gameness. In
+this respect he has been greater than Napoleon, who was not always a
+'good loser,' for he had come to regard himself as bound to win, whether
+or no; so when everything went against him, he expressed himself by
+kicking against Fate. But when Edison saw the hard work of nine years
+which had cost him two million dollars vanish one night in a sudden
+storm, he only laughed and said, 'I never took much stock in spilt
+milk.'
+
+"When his laboratories were burned or he suffered great reverses, Edison
+considered them merely the fortunes of war. In this respect he was most
+like General Washington, who, though losing more battles than he gained,
+learned to 'snatch victory from the jaws of defeat,' and win immortal
+success.
+
+"Some of Edison's discoveries were dramatic and amusing. During his
+telephone experiments he learned the power of a diaphragm to take up
+sound vibrations, and he had made a little toy that, when you talked
+into the funnel, would start a paper man sawing wood. Then he came to
+the conclusion that if he could record the movements of the diaphragm
+well enough he could cause such records to reproduce the movements
+imparted to them by the human voice.
+
+"But in place of using a disk, he got up a small machine with a cylinder
+provided with grooves around the surface. Over this some tinfoil was to
+be placed and he gave it to an assistant to construct. Edison had but
+little faith that it would work, but he said he wanted to get up a
+machine that would 'talk back.' The assistant thought it was ridiculous
+to expect such a thing, but he went ahead and followed the directions
+given him. Edison has told of this:
+
+"'When it was finished and the foil was put on, I shouted a verse of
+"Mary had a little lamb" into the crude little machine. Then I adjusted
+the reproducer, which when he began to operate it, proceeded to grind
+out--
+
+"'Mary had a little lamb,
+ Its fleece was white as snow,
+And everywhere that Mary went,
+ The lamb was sure to go'
+
+"with the very quality and tones of my voice! We were never so taken back
+in our lives. All hands were called in to witness the phenomenon and,
+recovering from their astonishment, the boys joined hands and danced
+around me, singing and shouting in their excitement. Then each yelled
+something at the machine--bits of slang or slurs--and it made them roar
+to hear that funny little contraption 'sass back!'
+
+"Edison has always had a saving sense of humor. Though such a driver for
+work--sometimes twenty hours a day seemed too short and they often
+worked all of twenty-four,--there was not unfrequently a jolly,
+prank-playing relaxation among the employees in the laboratory. If some
+fellow fell asleep and began snoring the others would get a record of it
+and play it later for the culprit or they would fix up a 'squawkophone'
+to outdo his racket. Most amusing was Edison's means of taking a short
+nap by curling up in an ordinary roll-top desk, and then turning over
+without falling out.
+
+"Everybody knows Edison really invented the telephone--that is, he made
+it work perfectly and brought it to the greatest commercial value, so
+that a billion men, women and children are using it in nearly all the
+languages and dialects in the civilized world. But he was very careful
+to give Dr. Alexander Graham Bell credit for his original work on this
+great invention.
+
+"When a friend on the other side of the Atlantic wired that the English
+had offered 'thirty thousand' for the rights to one of Edison's
+improvements to the telephone for that country, it was promptly
+accepted. When the draft came the inventor found, much to his surprise,
+that it was for thirty thousand _pounds_--nearly one hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars.
+
+"The phonograph or talking machine has been considered one of Edison's
+greatest inventions, but it does not compare in importance and value
+with the electric incandescent burner light. This required many
+thousands of experiments and tests to get a filament that would burn
+long enough in a vacuum to make the light sufficiently cheap to compete
+with petroleum or gas. During all the years that he was experimenting on
+different metals and materials for the electric light which was yet to
+be, in a literal sense, the light of the world, he had men hunting in
+all countries for exactly the right material out of which the carbon
+filament now in use is made. Thousands of kinds of wood, bamboo and
+other vegetable substances were tried. The staff made over fifty
+thousand experiments in all for this one purpose. This illustrates the
+art and necessity of taking pains, one of Mr. Edison's greatest
+characteristics. The story of producing electric light would fill a big
+volume.
+
+"When the proper filament was discovered and applied there was great
+rejoicing in the laboratory and a regular orgy of playing pranks and
+fun.
+
+"The philosophers say we measure time by the succession of ideas. If
+this is true the time must have been longer and seemed shorter in
+Edison's laboratories than anywhere else. The great inventor seldom
+carried a watch and seemed not to like to have clocks about.
+
+"Soon after he was married, the story went the rounds of the press that
+within an hour or two after the ceremony, Edison became so engrossed
+with an invention that he forgot that it was his wedding day. Edison has
+declared this story to be untrue.
+
+"'That's just one of the kind of yarns,' said the inventor laughing,
+'that the reporters have to make up when they run short of news. It was
+the invention of an imaginative chap who knows I'm a little
+absent-minded. I never forgot that I was married.
+
+"'But there was an incident that may have given a little color to such a
+story. On our wedding day a lot of stock tickers were returned to the
+factory and were said to need overhauling.
+
+"'About an hour after the ceremony I was reminded of those tickers and
+when we got to our new home, I told my wife about them, adding that I
+would like to walk down to the factory a little while and see if the
+boys had found out what was the matter.
+
+"'She consented and I went down and found an assistant working on the
+job. We both monkeyed with the machines an hour or two before we got
+them to rights. Then I went home.
+
+"'My wife and I laughed at the story at first, but when we came across
+it about every other week, it began to get rather stale. It was one of
+those canards that stick, and I shall be spoken of always as the man who
+forgot his wife within an hour after he was married.'
+
+"A similar yarn was told of Abraham Lincoln, which was equally false,
+but even more generally believed.
+
+"Out of a multitude of labor savers and world-beaters--and world savers,
+too!--to be credited to Mr. Edison, it is impossible to mention more
+than these:
+
+"The quadruplex telegraph system for sending four messages--two in each
+direction--at the same time; the telephone carbon transmitter; the
+phonograph; the incandescent electric light and complete system;
+magnetic separator; Edison Effect now used in Radio bulbs; giant rock
+crushers; alkaline storage battery; motion picture camera. These are but
+few of Edison's inventions, but they are giving employment to over a
+million people and making the highest use of billions of dollars.
+
+"With Mr. Edison's modesty it is difficult to get him to talk of the
+relative importance of his inventions, but he has expressed the opinion
+that the one of most far-reaching importance is the electric light
+system which includes the generation, regulation, distribution and
+measurement of electric current for light, heat and power. The invention
+he loves most is the phonograph as he is a lover of music. He has
+patented about twelve hundred inventions.
+
+"Recent developments are proving that the moving picture, because of its
+educational and emotional appeal is the greatest of them all. It is
+estimated that more than one hundred millions of people go to one of
+these shows once every seven days, which is equivalent to every man,
+woman and child in the United States of America going to a movie once a
+week. The motion picture reaches, teaches and preaches to more people in
+America than all the schools, churches, books, magazines and newspapers
+put together, and when it teaches, it does it in a vivid way that live
+people like.
+
+"Political campaigns are beginning to be carried on with the silver
+screen for a platform. Writers in great magazines are proving, on the
+authority of the Japanese themselves, that the American moving picture
+is re-making Japan. Another, who has studied the signs of the times,
+asserts that the only way to bring order out of chaos in Russia is by
+means of the motion picture.
+
+"Comparisons are of times odious, but not in this case, for there is no
+man living, nor has there ever lived a man, except the Great Teacher,
+who has more greatly and generally benefited humanity or cast a stronger
+light upon the processes of civilization than Thomas Alva Edison."
+
+At the close of another musical number there was a general expectation
+of dismissal, a shuffling of feet and a murmur of voices. This was
+checked suddenly by Bill. The boy had been near the receiver all the
+while, on the chance of being needed in case of mishap, or for a sharper
+"tuning in"; now he got what the others did not and rising he let out a
+yell:
+
+"Everybody quiet! Something else!" and in the instant hush was heard the
+completion of an announcement:
+
+"--Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts and other organizations of kindred
+nature, upon their urgent invitation. We are making this announcement
+now for the fourth and last time in the hope that it may be universally
+received. Mr. Edison will now probably be here within an hour from this
+minute. All the youth of the land who may avail themselves of radio
+service will please respond and listen in. In a warmly appreciative
+sense this must be a gala occasion."
+
+"That's all, folks; I'm certain." Bill shouted the school yell and the
+class year: "Umpah, umpah, ho, ho; it's up to you, Fairview, 1922!"
+Then: "Bring 'em all back here, Gus."
+
+But not one of them needed urging nor reminding. Separating themselves
+from the rapidly diminishing and retreating audience came Ted, Terry,
+Cora, Dot, Grace, with Skeets as a guest, Bert Haskell, Mary Dean, Lem
+Upsall, Walt Maynard, Lucy Shore and Sara Fortescue, the entire bunch
+eagerly attentive. They crowded around Bill and Gus and were well aware
+of the purpose.
+
+"Sure, we'll all be here, I'll bet a cow!" shouted Ted.
+
+"Dot and I could listen in on our own radio," said Cora. "We've got it
+finished and it works fine and dandy, Billy. We want you and Gus and
+everybody to come over and try it. But we'll join in with the class on
+this; eh, Dot?"
+
+"Sure will," agreed Dot. "Ours is only a crystal set, but it has some
+improvements you boys haven't seen. Wait till we get it all done, and
+we'll give you a spread and a surprise."
+
+"Say, Bill, this thing's great," Terry said. "Father is going to get me
+an outfit in the city and I'll pay you and Gus to set it up for--"
+
+"Set it up yourself, you lazy thing!" said Cora.
+
+"If you please, miss, I've got other matters--"
+
+"All right, Terry,--see you later about it. Now, listen, hopefuls.
+You'll all be here, but this occasion is going to be incomplete, unless
+we have a lot more on deck. We all want to get out, and scout round and
+fetch in every kid that wants to amount to anything at all and is big
+enough to understand and appreciate what's going on. And even then it
+won't be quite up to snuff unless--"
+
+"I know! You want Mr. Hooper here, too!" shouted Skeets. But in trying
+to rise to make herself heard, she upset her chair and then sat down on
+the floor, jarring the building. When the shout of mirth subsided, Bill
+said:
+
+"That's right. Mr. Hooper and Professor Gray. We'll have to tell them
+about it."
+
+"Father wrote that he's coming home to-night," announced Grace proudly.
+
+"Great shakes! Did he? Gus, get on the 'phone and find out!" Bill
+commanded. "Now, then, let's all get busy and----"
+
+"Righto, Billy, but what will our folks think has become of us when it's
+so late?" Dot questioned.
+
+"I move we go into executive session!" shouted Walt Maynard.
+
+"Sure, and the president of the class can call a meeting," said Terry
+Watkins.
+
+"It's up to you then, Billy," Cora agreed.
+
+"I call it. Come to order and dispense with the minutes, Miss
+Secretary," Billy grinned at Dot. "Motion in order to send a committee
+to inform all the girls' parents."
+
+"I make that motion," said Bert.
+
+"Second it. The boys' parents can get wise by radio," asserted Ted.
+
+"Bert and Ted appointed. Get out and get busy!" Bill was no joke as an
+executive. "Here's Gus. Did you get Mrs. Hooper?"
+
+"I sure did. Mr. Hooper got home an hour ago."
+
+"Glory!" Grace, you're driving your little runabout? I appoint Grace and
+Mary a committee to go and get Mr. and Mrs. Hooper here right off. No
+objections? Don't fail, Grace, or we'll send the entire bunch."
+
+"We'll fetch him," laughed Grace as she and Mary hurried out.
+
+"Now then, everybody else, including the chair, is appointed a committee
+to bring in every boy and girl in the town who will come. Work fast! I
+wonder if we could promise some eats." Bill glanced at Terry.
+
+"Yes; tell them there'll be refreshments!" shouted the rich boy. "It'll
+be my treat. Bill, make me a committee of one to hive the grub. Cakes,
+candy, bananas and ice cream; eh?"
+
+"Done!" declared Bill. "Go to it, with the class's blessing!"
+
+"Yes and Heaven's best on Terry Watkins," said Cora.
+
+In a moment the hall was empty. Twenty minutes later the Hooper party
+arrived and about three minutes thereafter who should appear but
+Professor Gray, hurried, eager, registering disappointment when he saw
+the empty room, then smiling as the Hoopers and Mary Dean came to greet
+him.
+
+"I had hoped to find my class here," he began and was interrupted by the
+thump of Bill's crutch on the steps without. Forgetting his support the
+boy leaped, rather than limped, forward, followed more sedately by
+several lads and lasses he had rounded up.
+
+"If this isn't the best thing that _ever happened_!" shouted Bill,
+grasping the hands of the two men held out to him. "Both of you! And
+you, too, Mrs. Hooper. Great! Just got back, Professor! And now we're
+going to get the very thing we talked about, Mr. Hooper: we're going to
+hear Mr. Edison's voice or that of his right-hand man, nearly three
+hundred miles away. The rest of the bunch will be here in a minute. I
+expect Gus and Ted and Cora to fetch in a few dozen besides. Hello,
+here's Terry with the eats."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+
+GOOD COUNSEL
+
+
+"This quite overcomes me," said Professor Gray to Mr. Hooper. "I hurried
+back to invite some of my pupils to hear a message from Mr. Edison's
+laboratory; but trust Bill to do the thing in a monumental fashion!"
+
+"That there lad's a reg'lar rip-snorter, Perfesser. You can't beat him.
+Well, now, let's set down here in the middle; eh, Mother? an' wait fer
+what's a-comin'. I want a chance to tell the Perfesser 'bout that there
+water-power plant an' what them boys done. Them's the lads, I'm
+a-sayin'."
+
+But conversation was out of the question, for in came another troop of
+youngsters, landed by Cora, Dot and Lucy, followed a moment later by
+more, invited by the boys, who had joined forces in the street. The hall
+was half filled by an expectant and noisy throng. Of course, half of
+them anticipated the refreshments more eagerly than anything else. These
+were already, under the ministration of a young woman from the
+confectionery hastily engaged by Terry, now becoming evident.
+
+Bill was beside the radio outfit, silently listening with the ear
+'phones clamped to the side of his head. Suddenly he arose and shouted:
+
+"Quiet! Silence, everybody, and listen hard!"
+
+Out of the horn again came the well-known voice of the transmitting
+station official announcer:
+
+"It gives us great pleasure to be able to broadcast very worth while
+messages of helpfulness and cheer to the youth of America. This occasion
+and opportunity was largely inspired by the Boy Scouts and the Girl
+Scouts and it will interest you to know that the presidents, secretaries
+and many of the executive officers of these splendid organizations are
+now here with us in person to inspire the occasion. They have asked me
+to express to you the hope that every Girl and Boy Scout--and I add
+every other self-respecting girl and boy--has access to a radio receiver
+and is now listening in to catch these words. I will now reproduce for
+you a message from one of the world's foremost citizens and greatest
+men, one who has brought more joy and comfort to civilized millions than
+any other man of his time, and therefore the greatest inventor in
+history; Mr. Thomas Alva Edison will now speak to the boys and girls of
+America through his constant associate and devoted friend, Mr. William
+H. Meadowcroft."
+
+There was a slight pause. The silence in the hall was most impressive.
+Bill cast his eyes for a brief moment over the waiting throng. There was
+in the eager faces, some almost wofully serious, some half-smiling, all
+wide-eyed and with craning necks, a tremendous indication of an almost
+breathless interest. Then, from the horn came slow and measured accents
+in a loud voice, perhaps a trifle tremulous from a proper feeling of the
+gravity of the occasion, but it was perfectly distinct:
+
+"Young people, I--"
+
+"_That's_ Bill--hello, Bill Medders--when did _you_------?"
+
+And the startled company, staring about, saw Mr. Hooper stumbling
+forward in the aisle toward the trumpet.
+
+"You win, me lads, you--"
+
+Bill Brown could not help laughing at the impetuous honesty of his kind
+old friend. Pointing to the horn, and placing his hand like a shell
+behind his own ear, the amused boy signed to the excited old man to
+listen.
+
+"The old geezer looks like 'His Master's Voice,' don't he?" came like a
+sneer from the background.
+
+During the pandemonium, the voice in the trumpet was proceeding quite
+unperturbed.
+
+"Silence!" shouted Bill, looking severely in the direction of the "seat
+of the scornful." "All please listen in on this. Mr. Meadowcroft is
+speaking." The confusion subsided and they heard these words:
+
+"--sometimes impossible to get Mr. Edison's attention for weeks at a
+time. He has his meals brought in and sleeps in the laboratory--when he
+sleeps at all--and so intense is his interest in his work that it is
+useless to attempt to disturb him even for what seems to me to be
+business of the highest importance.
+
+"But he has permitted me to express his deep and sincere interest in all
+you young people, and I am adding, on my own responsibility, three
+expressions of his which now seem to have maximum force because he has
+used them:
+
+"'Never mind the milk that's spilt.'
+
+"Genius is one per cent. _in_spiration, and ninety-nine per cent.
+_per_spiration.'
+
+"'Don't watch--don't clock the watch--oh!--_don't_ watch the CLOCK!--'
+Why, Mr. Edison, I thought you--I have just been explaining why you
+couldn't come--and now (with a laugh) here you are!
+
+"There was a hearty chuckle and another voice said:
+
+"I know it's mean to make you a victim of misplaced confidence, but it
+came across me like a flash that I couldn't do a better thing for the
+Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts and all the 'good scouts,' old and young,
+than to broadcast a good word for my friend Marconi. So I have run up
+here to speak to the Radio Boys after all. I know it's a shame, but--"
+
+"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Edison,--not on your life!" (It is the more
+familiar voice of Mr. Meadowcroft now.)
+
+"Wait, let me introduce you: Boys and girls, you are now 'listening in'
+with Thomas Alva Edison, who said, like the young man in the parable, 'I
+go not,' then he changed his mind and went. He is here--not to give you
+any message for or about himself, but to express his regard for the man
+to whom all Radio Boys and Girls owe so much. Mr. Edison has come on
+purpose to say a word to you."
+
+When the room was in a silence so solemn that those present could hear
+their own hearts beat, the voice the company now recognized as Mr.
+Edison's came through with trumpet clearness:
+
+"I have great admiration and high regard for Marconi, the pioneer
+inventor of wireless communication. I wish you all the happiness that
+Comes through usefulness. Good night."
+
+"Mr. Edison--one moment! In the name of the millions who are not
+'listening in' on this, won't you please write this sentiment so that it
+can be seen as well as heard?"
+
+"All right"--came through in Edison's voice. A brief pause ensued
+and--"Thank you, Mr. Edison," from Mr. Meadowcroft in a low tone, which
+he immediately raised:
+
+"Mr. Edison has just written the words you have heard him speak to be
+broadcast, as it were, to the young eyes of America."[A]
+
+Hearty cheers followed this closing announcement, but as the speakers
+they had heard were not aware of this, the demonstration soon ceased.
+Exuberant youth, however, must be heard, and so, led by the
+irrepressible Ted, they immediately sought fresh inspiration and began
+to cheer whomever and whatever came quickly into their minds; first Bill
+and Gus, with demands for a speech from Bill; then in answer to the
+school yell, they cheered the school and Professor Gray. Finally they
+began to cheer the refreshments as these suddenly developed a full-form
+materialization. But this was suddenly switched off into a sort of
+doubtful hurrah as Mr. Hooper, with his wife trying to dissuade him by
+his coat-tails, arose and cleared his throat.
+
+"Lads and lasses: I sez to this 'ere lad, Bill Brown, sez I, some time
+back; I sez: 'Bill, me lad, if you ever fix it so's I kin hear my old
+friend Bill Medders talkin' out loud more'n a hunderd mile off,' I sez,
+'then,' I sez, 'I'll give you a thousand dollers.' Well, this Bill,
+he sez: 'No, sir, Mr. Hooper,' he sez: 'We won't accept of no sich,'
+he sez, an' what he sez he sticks to, this 'ere lad Bill does, an' so
+does his buddy, Gus, 'ere. So, young people, I'm goin' to tell you
+what I'm a-goin' to do. I'm goin' to spend that thousand some way
+to sort o' remember this occasion by, an' it'll be spent fer whatever
+your teacher here an' Bill an' Gus an' any more that want to git into
+it sez it shall be. An', b'jinks, if you spring anything extry fine
+an' highfalutin I'll double it--make it two thousand; anything to
+help 'em along, gettin' an eddication, which I ain't got, ner never
+kin git, but my gal shall an' all her young friends. So, go to it,
+folks, an' I'm thinkin' my friends, Bill an' Gus--"
+
+Roaring cheers interrupted the earnest speaker. He smiled broadly and
+sat down. Professor Gray got to his feet, but Bill, not seeing him, was
+first to be heard when the crowd silenced; the boy had got to the
+platform and then on a chair. Standing there balanced on his crutch, a
+hand where his shoulder usually rested, he was a sight to stir the
+pathos and inspire admiration in any crowd.
+
+"I say, people, give three royal yells for Mr. Hooper! He's one of the
+dearest old chaps that ever drew breath! Ready, now----"
+
+The roof didn't quite raise, but the nails may have been loosened some
+and the timbers strained. With the ceasing of the cheers, Bill shouted
+again:
+
+"And now don't forget Professor Gray! He's going to be in on this deal,
+big, as you know!"
+
+Again the walls trembled. Once more Bill was heard:
+
+"And I have this suggestion: We'll put up a radio broadcasting station
+at the school. Get a government license, find means to make our service
+worth while and talk to anyone we want to. How's that?"
+
+The building didn't crumble, but it surely shook. And then Professor
+Gray had the floor:
+
+"Girls and boys, we mustn't forget William Brown and Augustus Grier. You
+can hardly mention one without the other. I propose--"
+
+Gus shamelessly interrupted his respected teacher and friend:
+
+"Three yells for Bill Brown's radio! Let her go!"
+
+It went; as did also the refreshments a little later.
+
+How Bill's idea of building a radio broadcasting station was carried out
+will be told in "Bill Brown Listens In."
+
+THE END
+
+[Footnote A: This message will be found in _facsimile_ in the foreword
+of this book.]
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RADIO BOYS CRONIES***
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