diff options
Diffstat (limited to '23728-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 23728-h/23728-h.htm | 8464 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23728-h/images/002.jpg | bin | 0 -> 32439 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23728-h/images/003.jpg | bin | 0 -> 30356 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23728-h/images/004.jpg | bin | 0 -> 36858 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23728-h/images/005.jpg | bin | 0 -> 40963 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23728-h/images/logo.png | bin | 0 -> 1344 bytes |
6 files changed, 8464 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/23728-h/23728-h.htm b/23728-h/23728-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88374a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/23728-h/23728-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8464 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Walter and the Wireless, + by Sara Ware Bassett. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + +p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em; } + +p.main {font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; text-indent: 0em;} + +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both;} +hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + +body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-family: serif} + +.cen {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */ +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps; font-size: 95%;} /* small caps, normal size */ +.right {text-align: right; padding-right: 2em;} /* right aligning paragraphs */ + +.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 2em; font-size: 70%; + text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + +.totoc {position: absolute; left: 2em; font-size: 70%; + text-align: right;} /* Table of contents anchor */ + +.figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + +table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} +.tdr {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + /* right align cell, with bottom vertical alignment */ +.tdl {text-align: left; padding-left: .25em;} + /* left align cell, with a small bit of left padding */ + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Walter and the Wireless, by Sara Ware Bassett + +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: Walter and the Wireless + +Author: Sara Ware Bassett + +Illustrator: William F. Stecher + +Release Date: December 4, 2007 [EBook #23728] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WALTER AND THE WIRELESS *** + + + + +Produced by Sigal Alon, David T. Jones, La Monte H.P. +Yarroll and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>WALTER AND THE WIRELESS</h1> + +<h3>By Sara Ware Bassett</h3> + +<h4><i>The Invention Series</i></h4> + +<h5><span class="smcap">Paul and the Printing Press</span></h5> +<h5><span class="smcap">Steve and the Steam Engine</span></h5> +<h5><span class="smcap">Ted and the Telephone</span></h5> +<h5><span class="smcap">Walter and the Wireless</span></h5> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="i002"></a> +<img src="images/002.jpg" width="350" height="530" +alt="" title="" /> +</div><br /> +<h5>"K Y W Chicago, Illinois. Stand by fifteen minutes<br /> +for——." <span class="smcap">frontispiece</span> <i>See page</i> 208</h5> +<br /><br /> +<h4>The Invention Series</h4> + +<h1>WALTER AND</h1> +<h1>THE WIRELESS</h1> + +<h4>BY</h4> +<h3>SARA WARE BASSETT</h3> + +<h5>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY</h5> +<h5>WILLIAM F. STECHER</h5> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 94px;"> +<img src="images/logo.png" width="94" height="133" +alt="logo" title="" /> +</div> +<br /><br /> + +<h5>BOSTON</h5> +<h5>LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY</h5> +<h5>1923</h5> + + +<h6><i>Copyright, 1923</i>,</h6> +<h6><span class="smcap">By Little, Brown, and Company</span>.</h6> +<hr style="width: 15%;" /> +<h6><i>All rights reserved</i></h6> +<h6>Published March, 1923</h6> +<br /><br /> +<h6><span class="smcap">Printed in the United States of America</span></h6> + + +<h5>To</h5> +<h4>PAUL MARBLE</h4> +<h5>AND HIS COLLIE BOBS,</h5> +<h5>THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY</h5> +<h5>DEDICATED</h5> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<a name="toc" id="toc"></a> +<table width="70%" summary="toc" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr" width="10%"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span></td> +<td width="50%"> </td> +<td class="tdr" width="10%"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">His Highness</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">1</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="smcap">The New Job</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">17</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">What Worried Mrs. King</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">36</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">Walter Makes His Bow To His Employer</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">50</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">The Conquest of Achilles</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">64</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">His Highness in a New Role</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">75</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">The Pursuit of Lola</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">92</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">A Blunder and What Came of It</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">104</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">More Clues</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">116</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><span class="smcap">Bob</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">127</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><span class="smcap">The Decision</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">138</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><span class="smcap">Lessons</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">147</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><span class="smcap">Information from a New Source</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">162</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIV</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><span class="smcap">Bob As Pedagogue</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">169</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XV</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><span class="smcap">Tidings</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">183</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVI</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><span class="smcap">Miracles</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">197</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVII</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><span class="smcap">The Laws of the Air</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">210</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVIII</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><span class="smcap">The Net Tightens</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">228</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIX</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><span class="smcap">Walter Steps into the Breach</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">238</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XX</td> +<td><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><span class="smcap">The Return of the Wanderers</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">248</td> +</tr> +</table> +<br /><br /><br /> + +<h3>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h3> + +<table width="85%" summary="list of illos" border="0"> +<tr> +<td width="75%"><a href="#i002">"<span class="smcap">KYW Chicago, Illinois. Stand by fifteen minutes for——</span>"</a></td> +<td class="tdr" width="10%"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td> </td> +<td class="tdr" width="10%"><span class="smcap">page</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#i003"><span class="smcap">The two boys would discuss boats, fishing and kindred interests</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">76</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#i004"><span class="smcap">You will get all the wireless coming to you, that's all. Take it from me</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">154</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><a href="#i005"><span class="smcap">Clearly and evenly the message ticked itself off. Then there was silence</span></a></td> +<td class="tdr">240</td> +</tr> +</table> +<br /><br /> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WALTER AND THE WIRELESS</h2> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<h4>HIS HIGHNESS</h4> +<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>His Highness came by the nickname honestly enough and yet those who +heard it for the first time had difficulty in repressing a smile at +the incongruity of the title. In fact perhaps no term could have been +found that would have been less appropriate. For Walter King possessed +neither dignity of rank nor of stature. On the contrary he was a +short, snub-nosed boy of fifteen, the epitome of good humor and +democracy.</p> + +<p>His hair was red and towsled, his face spangled with great golden +freckles which sea winds and sunshine had multiplied until there was +scarce room for another on his beaming countenance. Hands and arms +were freckled too, for when one lives in a bathing suit six months of +the year and is either in the water or on it most of the time the skin +fails to retain its pristine whiteness of hue. But His Highness did +not care a fig for that. He was far too busy baiting eel and lobster +traps, mending fish nets, untangling lines, and painting boats to give +a thought to his personal beauty.</p> + +<p>Indeed his mother often bewailed the fact that he was not more +interested in his appearance and there were times when it seemed as if +she were right. Certainly when her son ambled home at dusk with every +rebellious hair standing upended upon his head and a string of +flounders dripping salt from the tips of their slimy tails she was +justified to a degree in wishing he had more regard for the niceties +of life.</p> + +<p>"Look at the mess you're making!" she would pipe indignantly. "I've +just mopped this floor, Walter."</p> + +<p>"You have? Now isn't that the dickens! Well, no matter, Ma; I'll swab +the place down again when I've finished cleaning these fish. They're +beauties, aren't they? A batch of them fried won't go bad for supper +to-night. I'm hungry as a bear. Shouldn't think I'd eaten anything in +ten years. Say, Ma, what do you s'pose? Dave Corbett was out in the +<i>Nancy</i> three hours and never got a bite. What do you think of that? +The wind died down, his engine got stalled, and he and Hosey Talbot +had to row home from the Bell Reef Shoals. Haw, haw! Maybe I didn't +roar when I saw them come pulling in against the tide, mad as two +man-eating sharks. Fit to harpoon the first person they met, they +were. I sung out and asked them were they practicing for the Harvard +and Yale boat race and Dave was that peeved he shied an oarlock after +me. Haw, haw, haw!"</p> + +<p>"You ought not to provoke Dave, Walter."</p> + +<p>"Provoke him? But he was provoked already, Ma. There's no harm +putting an extra stick on the fire when it's burning, anyhow. Besides, +Dave is never in earnest when he bawls me out. He just likes to hear +himself scold."</p> + +<p>"He has a terrible temper."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know half the town is scart to death of him. But he always will +take a jolly from me. We understand each other, Dave and I. Say, Ma, +these rubber boots leak. Did you know that? Yes, siree! They leak like +sieves. I might as well be without 'em."</p> + +<p>Mrs. King sighed.</p> + +<p>"I don't see," murmured she, "how you manage to go through everything +you have so quickly, Walter. Nothing you wear lasts you more than a +week."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say, make it a month. Do, now!"</p> + +<p>He saw his mother smile faintly.</p> + +<p>"Well, a month then."</p> + +<p>"You couldn't stretch it to two?"</p> + +<p>"Not possibly. Four weeks seems to be your limit."</p> + +<p>The sharpness of her tone, however, had weakened.</p> + +<p>"Four weeks, eh? I did think I'd had these rubber boots longer than +that. It is amazing how attached you can get to things even in a +little while."</p> + +<p>Holding aloft the knife with which he was preparing to behead the +unlucky flounders, His Highness gazed reflectively down at his feet.</p> + +<p>"It's awful that I have to keep having so many things, isn't it? I +hate to be costing you money all the time. Now if you'd only let me +ship for the Grand Banks when the <i>Katie B.</i> goes out——"</p> + +<p>"Walter! What is the use of digging up that old bone again? I never +shall let you ship for the Grand Banks or any other Banks so long as I +live. We've had this out hundreds of times before. You know you and +Bob are all I've got in the world. Do you suppose I want you lost in a +fog and never heard from again?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Great Scott, Ma! They don't lose fishing boats now as they used +to. They carry wireless, and the fleet keeps in touch every minute."</p> + +<p>"The dories have no wireless aboard them," observed Mrs. King grimly.</p> + +<p>"I suppose not, no, probably they don't," His Highness admitted +reluctantly.</p> + +<p>"Anyway, wireless or no wireless, you are not going on a fishing +cruise to the Grand Banks."</p> + +<p>"I hear you, Ma," grinned the boy.</p> + +<p>"There is plenty of work right here on the land if you're looking for +it. Why must you always be wanting to go to sea to earn money?"</p> + +<p>"Faith, Mother, I don't know," laughed Walter. "I expect it's because +I see chores to do when I'm afloat that I can't see ashore. It is the +way I was born."</p> + +<p>"A poor way."</p> + +<p>"Maybe it is. At any rate I can't help it."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you do not try to help it very hard."</p> + +<p>The lad shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"There's that chance you have to hire out at the Crowninshields' for +the summer."</p> + +<p>"Those snobs."</p> + +<p>"Beggars cannot be choosers. Besides, they may not be snobs at all. +What makes you think they are?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't mind the lugs they put on," protested Walter, evading the +issue. "I suppose all New York swells do that. It's what they want me +for that gets my goat." Again the knife he held was tragically +upraised. "How would you like to be nursemaid to six or eight +brainless little pups no bigger than rats? Not but what I like dogs. +I'd like nothing better than to own a fine dog of some spirit. But +those imitations! Why, before a week was out, I'd have their necks +wrung."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Crowninshield promised to pay you well."</p> + +<p>"What's money if all the kids in town are going to josh you?"</p> + +<p>"Money is a good deal when you need it." His mother shook her head +gravely. "Have you ever considered how badly we are in want of money, +Walter?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Ma?" The boy wheeled about, startled.</p> + +<p>"I haven't said anything about it, dear, because I could not bear to +have you boys bothered," was the quiet answer. "But lately things have +not been going well and I have been pretty much worried. The money +your Uncle Henry invested for us isn't paying any dividends; there +seems to be something the matter with the company's affairs. As for +your Uncle Mark Miller, I've heard nothing from him in months. His +ship was to put in at Shanghai for cargo and I ought to have had a +letter by now; but none has come and I am afraid something must be the +trouble. He is a good brother and never fails to send me money. I can +ill afford to be without help now when the mortgage is coming due and +I have so many bills to meet. It takes a deal of money to live +nowadays. You boys do not realize that."</p> + +<p>"Why, I had no idea you were fussed, Mother, and I'm sure Bob hadn't +either," declared Walter soberly.</p> + +<p>"Then I have done better than I thought I had," returned his mother, +with the shadow of a smile. "I wanted to keep it secret if I could."</p> + +<p>"But you shouldn't have tried to keep it a secret, Mater dear," Walter +replied. "I'm sure we'd rather know—at least I would."</p> + +<p>"But what use is it?"</p> + +<p>"Use? Why, all the use in the world, Ma. I shall go ahead and take Mr. +Crowninshield's job for one thing."</p> + +<p>"But you said——"</p> + +<p>"Shucks! I was only fooling about the dogs, Mother. I shan't really +mind exercising and taking care of them at all. Of course, I won't +deny I'd rather they were Great Danes or police dogs; I'd even prefer +Airedales or Cockers. Still I suppose these little mopsey Pekingese +must have some brains or the Lord would not have made them. No doubt I +shall get used to them in time."</p> + +<p>"It is only for the summer vacation anyway, you know," ventured his +mother. "The Crowninshields go back to New York in October."</p> + +<p>"I certainly ought to be able to bear up a few months," laughed +Walter, with a ludicrously wry twist of his mouth. "I hate to think +you've been bothered and have been keeping it all to yourself."</p> + +<p>"Misery does like company," Mrs. King returned with an unsteady laugh. +"I believe I feel better already for having told you. But you must not +worry, dear. We shall pull through all right, I guess. How I came to +speak of it I don't know. It was only that it seemed such a pity to +toss the Crowninshield offer aside without even considering it. Nobody +knows where it might end. The village people say Mr. Crowninshield is +a very generous man, especially if he takes a fancy to anybody."</p> + +<p>"But he may not take a fancy to me."</p> + +<p>"He must have done so already to be asking you to help with the dogs."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Ma! Did you think Mr. Crowninshield picked me out himself? +Why, he's never laid eyes on me. That great privilege is still in +store for him. No, he simply told Jerry Thomas, the caretaker, to find +somebody for the job before the family arrived. He doesn't care a darn +who it is so long as he has a person who can be trusted with his +priceless pups. Why, I heard the other day that a dealer from New York +had offered five thousand dollars for the smallest one."</p> + +<p>"Walter!"</p> + +<p>"Straight goods!"</p> + +<p>"Five thousand dollars for a dog!" gasped Mrs. King.</p> + +<p>Her son chuckled at her incredulity.</p> + +<p>"Sure!"</p> + +<p>"But it's a fortune," murmured she. "I had no idea there was a dog on +earth worth that much."</p> + +<p>"All of them are not."</p> + +<p>"But five thousand dollars!" she repeated. "Why, Walter, I wouldn't +have you responsible for a creature like that for anything in the +world. You might as well attempt to be custodian of a lot of gold +bonds. I shouldn't have a happy moment or sleep a wink thinking of it. +Suppose some of the little wretches were to run away and get lost? Or +suppose they were to be stolen? Or they might get sick and die on your +hands."</p> + +<p>"That is why they want a responsible person to keep an eye on them."</p> + +<p>His Highness squared his shoulders and threw out his chest.</p> + +<p>"But you are not a responsible person," burst out Mrs. King with +unflattering candor.</p> + +<p>"Mother!"</p> + +<p>"Well—are you?" she insisted.</p> + +<p>The boy's figure shriveled.</p> + +<p>"No," he confessed frankly, "I'm afraid I'm not."</p> + +<p>"Of course you're not," continued his mother with the same brutal +truthfulness. "It isn't that you do not mean to be, sonny," added she +kindly. "But your mind wanders off on all sorts of things instead of +the thing you're doing. That is why you do not get on better in +school. All your teachers say you are bright enough if you only had +some concentration to back it up. What you can be thinking of all the +time I cannot imagine; but certainly it isn't your lessons."</p> + +<p>"I know," nodded Walter without resentment. "My mind does flop about +like a kite. I think of everything but what I ought to. It's a rotten +habit."</p> + +<p>"Well, all I can say is you'd be an almighty poor one to look after a +lot of valuable dogs," sniffed his mother.</p> + +<p>"I'll bet I could do it if I set out to."</p> + +<p>"But would you set out to—that is the question? Would you really +put your entire attention on those dogs so that other people could +drop them from their minds? That is what taking care means."</p> + +<p>"I couldn't promise. I could only try."</p> + +<p>"I should never dare to have you undertake it."</p> + +<p>"That settles it, Ma," announced His Highness. "I've evidently got to +prove to you that you are wrong. I'm going up to Crowninshields' this +minute to tell Jerry he can count on me from July until October."</p> + +<p>"You're crazy."</p> + +<p>"Wait and see."</p> + +<p>"I know what I'll see," was the sharp retort. "I shall see all those +puppies kicking up their heels and racing off to Provincetown, and Mr. +Crowninshield insisting that you either find them and bring them back +or pay him what they cost him."</p> + +<p>"Don't you believe it."</p> + +<p>"That is what will happen," was the solemn prophecy.</p> + +<p>"But you were keen for me to take the job."</p> + +<p>"That was before I knew what the little rats were worth."</p> + +<p>"You just thought it was a cheap sort of a position and that I was to +race round and make it pleasant for a lot of ordinary curs, didn't +you?" interrogated the lad with mock indignation.</p> + +<p>In spite of herself his mother smiled.</p> + +<p>"Well, you see you were wrong," went on Walter. "It is not that sort +of thing at all. It is a job for a trustworthy man, Jerry Thomas said, +and will bring in good wages."</p> + +<p>"It ought to," replied his mother sarcastically, "if a person must +spend every day for three months sitting with his eyes glued on those +mites watching every breath they draw."</p> + +<p>"It isn't just days, Mother; I'd have to be there nights as well."</p> + +<p>"<i>What!</i>"</p> + +<p>"That's what Jerry told me. I'd have to sleep on the place. Mr. +Crowninshield wants some one there all the time."</p> + +<p>"But Walter——!" Mrs. King broke off in dismay.</p> + +<p>"I know that would mean leaving you alone now that Bob has a regular +position at the Seaver Bay Wireless station. Still, why should you +mind? I have always been gone all day, anyhow; and at night I sleep so +soundly that you yourself have often said burglars might carry away +the bed from under me and I not know it."</p> + +<p>"You are not much protection, that's a fact," confessed Mrs. King. +"Fortunately, though, I am not a timid person. It is not that I am +afraid to stay here alone. My chief objection is that it seems foolish +to run a great house like this simply for myself."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you get some one to come and keep you company?"</p> + +<p>"Who, I should like to know?"</p> + +<p>"Why—why—well, I haven't thought about it. Of course +there's Aunt Marcia King."</p> + +<p>"Mercy on us!" exclaimed his mother, instantly flaring up. "I'd rather +see the evil one himself put in an appearance than your Aunt Marcia. +Of all the fault-finding, critical, sharp-tongued creatures in the +world she is the worst. Why, I'd let burglars carry away every stick +and stone I possess and myself thrown in before I would ask her here +to board."</p> + +<p>"My, Mother! I'd no idea you had such a temper. You're as bad as Dave +Corbett," asserted Walter teasingly.</p> + +<p>His mother tossed her head but he saw her flush uncomfortably.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you wouldn't want a regular boarder," suggested the boy in +order to turn the conversation.</p> + +<p>"A <i>boarder</i>!" There was less disapproval than surprise in the +ejaculation, however.</p> + +<p>"Lots of people in the town do take summer boarders," added he.</p> + +<p>"The thought never entered my head before," reflected his mother +aloud. "There certainly is plenty of room in the house, and we have a +royal view of the water. Besides, there's the garden. Strangers are +always coming here in vacation time and asking if they may look at it +or sketch it. It never seemed anything very remarkable to me for most +of the flowers have sown themselves and grow like weeds, but of course +there's no denying the hollyhocks, poppies, and larkspur are pretty. +But visitors always call it wonderful."</p> + +<p>"Most likely you could get a big price if you were to rent rooms."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I could," replied Mrs. King thoughtfully. "It would help +toward the mortgage and the other bills, too. I've half a mind to try +it, Walter."</p> + +<p>"It would mean extra work for you."</p> + +<p>"Pooh! What do I care for that? Not a fig! In fact, with both of you +boys away I'd rather be busy than not," was the quick retort.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose Bob would mind?"</p> + +<p>"Bob? Why, he's seldom at home nowadays. Why should he care?"</p> + +<p>"Aunt Marcia might think——" began the boy mischievously. +But the comment was cut short.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know what your Aunt Marcia would say," broke in Mrs. King. +"She'd hold up her hands in horror and announce that it was beneath +the dignity of the family to take boarders."</p> + +<p>They both laughed.</p> + +<p>"I believe the very notion of scandalizing her will be what will +decide me," concluded his mother with finality. "I'll put an +advertisement in the Boston paper to-morrow and see what luck I have. +If the right people do not turn up, why I don't have to take them."</p> + +<p>"Sure you don't."</p> + +<p>"It's a good plan, a splendid plan, Walter. Boarders will give me +company and money too. I wonder it never occurred to me to do it +before." Then she patted the lad's shoulder, adding playfully, "I +guess if you have brains in one direction you must have them in +another. Still, as I said before, I do not fancy your being +responsible for those dogs."</p> + +<p>"Pooh! You quit worrying, Ma, or I shall be sorry I told you they were +blue ribbon pups."</p> + +<p>"I should have heard of it, never fear. You hear of everything in this +town. You can't help it. Like as not everybody in the place will know +by to-morrow morning that I am going to take boarders. Luckily I don't +care—that's one good thing. And as to the dogs, if you are +resolved to accept that position all I can say is that you must keep a +head on your shoulders. You cannot hire out for a job unless you are +prepared to give a full return for the money paid you. It is not +honest. So think carefully what you mean to do before you embark. And +remember, if you get into some careless scrape you cannot come back on +me for money for I haven't any to hand over."</p> + +<p>"I shall shoulder my own blame," responded Walter, drawing in his +chin.</p> + +<p>"Well and good then. If you are ready to do that, it is your affair +and I have nothing more to say," announced Mrs. King, preparing to +leave the room.</p> + +<p>But Walter stayed her on the threshold.</p> + +<p>"I don't see," he began, "why you always seem to expect I'm going to +get into a scrape. You are never looking for trouble with Bob."</p> + +<p>"Bob! Bless your heart I never have to! You know that as well as I do. +Any one could trust Bob until the Day of Judgment. He never forgets a +word you tell him. Ask him to do an errand and it is as good as done. +You can drop it from your mind. From a little child he was dependable +like that. His teachers couldn't say enough about him. Wasn't he +always at the head of his class? The way he's turned out is no +surprise. Think of his picking up wireless enough outside school hours +to get a radio job during the war, and afterward that fine position at +Seaver Bay! Few lads his age could have done it. And think of the +messages he's entrusted with—government work, and sinking ships, +and goodness knows what not!"</p> + +<p>The proud mother ceased for lack of breath.</p> + +<p>"I wish I was like Bob," sighed Walter gloomily.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" was the instant exclamation. "You're yourself, and +scatter-brain as you are, I'd want you no different. You're but a lad +yet. When you are Bob's age you may be like him. Who knows?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not," came dismally from Walter. "I haven't started out as +Bob did."</p> + +<p>"What if you haven't? There's time enough to catch up if you hurry. +And anyway, I do not want my children all alike. Variety is the spice +of life. I wouldn't have you patterned after Bob if I could speak the +word."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't?" the boy brightened.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I wouldn't! Who would I be patching torn trousers or darning +ripped sweaters for if you were like Bob, I'd like to know? Who'd be +pestering me to hunt up his cap and mittens? And who would I be frying +clams for?"</p> + +<p>"Bob never could abide clam fritters, could he?" put in the younger +brother.</p> + +<p>"Bob never had any frivolities," mused Mrs. King, shaking her head. +"Sometimes I've almost wished he had if only to keep the rest of us in +countenance. Many's the time I've feared lest he was going to die he +was that near perfect."</p> + +<p>"Well, Ma, you haven't had to lie awake worrying because I was too +good for this world, have you?" chuckled His Highness, breaking into a +grin.</p> + +<p>His mother regarded him affectionately.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you'll make your way too, sonny, some day. It won't be as Bob has +done it; but you'll make it nevertheless. Folks are going to do things +for you simply because they cannot help it."</p> + +<p>The boy studied her with a puzzled expression.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Mater?"</p> + +<p>As if coming out of a reverie Mrs. King started, the mistiness that +had softened her eyes vanishing.</p> + +<p>"There! Look at the way you've splashed up my nice clean sink!" +complained she tartly. "Did any one ever see such a child—always +messing up everything! Come, clear out of here and take your fish with +you. It does seem as if you needed four nursemaids and a valet at your +heels to pick up after you. Be off this minute."</p> + +<p>With a cloth in one hand and a bar of soap in the other, she elbowed +him away from the dishpan.</p> + +<p>"You'll fry these flounders for supper, won't you, Ma?" called the lad +as he disappeared into the shed.</p> + +<p>"Fry 'em? I reckon I'll have to. It's wicked to catch fish and not use +'em."</p> + +<p>But he saw his mother's eyes twinkle and her grumbling assent did not +trouble him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h4>THE NEW JOB</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>May at Lovell's Harbor was one of the most beautiful seasons of the +year. In fact the inhabitants of the town often remarked that they put +up with the winters the small isolated village offered for the sake of +its springs and summers. Certain it was that when easterly storms +swept the marshes and lashed the harbor into foam; when every boat +that struggled out of the channel returned whitened to the gunwale +with ice, there was little to induce anybody to take up residence in +the hamlet. How cold and blue the water looked! How the surf boomed up +on the lonely beach and the winds howled and whined around the eaves +of the low cottages!</p> + +<p>One buttoned himself tightly into a greatcoat then, twisted a muffler +many times about his neck, pulled his cap over his ears, and rushed +for school with a velocity that almost equaled the scudding schooners +whose sails billowed large against the horizon. At least that was what +His Highness, Walter King, invariably did.</p> + +<p>But from the instant the breath of spring stole into the +air,—ah, then Lovell's Harbor became a different place +altogether. The stems of the willows fringing the small fresh-water +ponds mellowed to bronze before one's very eyes; the dull reaches of +salt grass turned emerald; the steely tint of the sea softened to +azure and glinted golden in the sun. How shrill sounded the cries of +the redwings in the marsh! How jolly the frogs' twilight chorus!</p> + +<p>The miracle went on with amazing rapidity. Soon you were scouring the +hollows in the woods for arbutus or splashing bare-legged into the +bogs for cowslips. You even ventured knee-deep into the sea which +although still chill was no longer frigid. And then, before you knew +it, you were hauling out your fishing tackle and looking over your +flies; inspecting the old dory and calking her seams with a coat of +fresh paint. Then came the raking of the leaves, the uncovering of the +hollyhocks, and the burning of brush; and through the mists of smoke +that rose high in air you could hear the resonant chee-ee of the +blackbirds swinging on the reeds along the margin of the creek.</p> + +<p>And afterward, when summer had really made its appearance, what days +of blue and gold followed! Was ever sky so cloudless, grass so vividly +green, or ocean so sparkling? Ah, a boy never lacked amusement now! He +wriggled into his bathing suit directly after breakfast and was off to +the shore to swim, fish, or sail, or do any of the thousand-and-one +alluring things that turned up. And things always did turn up in that +small horseshoe where the boats made in. It was the club of Lovell's +Harbor.</p> + +<p>Here all the men of the village congregated daily to smoke, swap +jokes, and heckle those who worked.</p> + +<p>"That's no way to mend a net, Eph," one of the spectators would +protest. "Where was you fetched up, man? Tote the durn thing over here +and I'll show you how they do it off the Horn."</p> + +<p>Or another member of the audience would call:</p> + +<p>"Was you reckonin' you'd have enough paint in that keg to finish your +yawl, Eddie? Never in the world! What are you so scrimpin' of it for? +Slither it on good and thick and let it trickle down into the cracks. +'Twill keep 'em tight."</p> + +<p>Oh, one learned to curb his temper and bend to the higher criticism if +he carried his work down to the beach. He got an abundance of advice +whether he asked for it or not and for the most part the counsel was +sound and helpful. There you heard also tales of tempests, wrecks, +strange ports, and sea serpents,—weird tales that chilled your +blood; and sometimes the piping note of an old chanty was raised by +one whose sailing days were now only a memory.</p> + +<p>What marvel that to be a boy at Lovell's Harbor was a boon to be +coveted even if along with the distinction went a throng of homely +tasks such as shucking clams, cleaning cod, baiting lobster pots, and +running errands? No cake is all frosting and no chowder all broth. You +had to take the bad along with the good if you lived at Lovell's +Harbor. And while you were sandwiching in work and fun what an +education you got! Why, it was better than a dozen schools. Not only +did you learn to swim like a spaniel, pull a strong oar, hoist a sail, +and gain an understanding of winds and tides, but also you came to +handle tools with an ease no manual training school could teach you. +You made a wooden pin do if you had no nail; and a bit of rope serve +if the whittled pin were lacking. Instead of hurrying to a shop to +purchase new you patched up the old, and the triumph of doing it +afforded a satisfaction very pleasant to experience.</p> + +<p>Moreover, as a result, you had more pennies in your pocket and more +brains in your head. Both Bob and Walter King, as well as most of the +other village lads, outranked the town-bred boy in all-round practical +skill. They may not have cut such a fine figure at golf or dancing; +perhaps they did not excel at Latin or French; but they had at the +tips of their tongues numberless useful facts which they had tried out +and proven workable and which no city dweller could possibly have +gleaned.</p> + +<p>His Highness might be freckled and towsled and, as his mother +affirmed, forgetful and careless, but like a sponge his active young +mind had soaked up a deal no books could have given him. You would +best beware how you jollied Walter King or put him down for a "Rube." +More than likely you would later regret your snap judgment.</p> + +<p>No doubt it was this realization that had stimulated Jerry Thomas to +ask him to come to Surfside, the Crowninshields' big summer estate, +and look after the dogs. Jerry was an old resident of Lovell's Harbor, +and having watched the boy grow up, he unquestionably knew what he +was about. That there were plenty of other boys at the Harbor to +choose from was certain. If the honor descended to His Highness rest +assured it was not without reason.</p> + +<p>Hence Jerry was not only pleased but immensely gratified when on the +morning following Walter rounded the corner of the great barn and +appeared in the doorway.</p> + +<p>"I've come to say Yes to that job you offered me the other day," +announced he, without wasting words on preliminaries.</p> + +<p>"Good, youngster!"</p> + +<p>"When shall you want me?"</p> + +<p>"When can you come?" grinned Jerry.</p> + +<p>He was a lank, sharp-featured man with china blue eyes that narrowed +to a mere slit when he smiled, and from the corners of which +crowsfeet, like fan-shaped streaks of light from the rising sun, +radiated across his temples. His skin was tanned to the hue of old +hickory and deep down in its furrows were lines of white. He had a big +nose that was always sunburned, powerful hands with a reddish fuzz on +their backs, and gnarled fingers that bore the scars of innumerable +nautical disasters. But the chief glory he possessed was a neatly +tattooed schooner that sailed under full canvas upon his forearm and +bore beneath it the inscription:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Mollie D. The finest ship afloat.</p></div> + +<p>The words had been intended as a tribute rather than a challenge for +Jerry was a peaceful soul, but unfortunately they had proved +provocative of many a brawl, and had the truth been known a certain +odd slant of Jerry's chin could have been traced back to this +apparently harmless assertion. Possibly had this mate of the <i>Mollie +D.</i> foreseen into what straits his boast was to lead him he might not +have expressed it so baldly in all the naked glory of blue ink; but +with the sentiment once immortalized what choice had he but to defend +it? Therefore, being no coward but a sturdy seaman with a swinging +undercut, he had in times past delivered many a blow in order to +uphold the <i>Mollie D.'s</i> nautical reputation, after which encounters +his challengers were wont to emerge with a more profound respect not +only for the bark but for Jerry Thomas as well.</p> + +<p>All that, however, was long ago. Since the great storm of 1890 when so +many ships had perished and the <i>Mollie D.</i>, bound from Norfolk to +Fairhaven, had gone down with the rest, Jerry had abandoned the sea. +It was not the perils of the deep, nevertheless, that had driven him +landward, or the fear of future disasters; it was only that since his +first love was lost he could not bring himself to ship on any other +vessel.</p> + +<p>Accordingly he took to the shore and for a time a very strange misfit +he was there. How he fumed and fidgeted and roamed from one place to +another, searching for some spot in which his restless spirit would +find peace! And then one day he had wandered into Lovell's Harbor and +there he had stayed ever since. For several seasons he had taken out +sailing parties of summer boarders or piloted amateur fishermen out to +the Ledges; but the timidity and lack of sophistication of these city +patrons at length so rasped his nerves that he gave up the task and +was about to betake himself to pastures new when he fell beneath the +eye of Mr. Glenmore Archibald Crowninshield, a New York banker, who +had bought the strip of land forming one arm of the bay and was on the +point of erecting there a diminutive summer palace.</p> + +<p>From that instant Jerry's fortune was made. Mr. Crowninshield was a +keen student of human nature and was immediately attracted to the +sailor with his ambling gait and twinkling blue eyes. Moreover, the +New Yorker happened to be in search of just such a man to look out for +his interests when he was not at Lovell's Harbor. Hence Jerry was +elevated to the post of caretaker and delegated to keep guard over the +edifice that was about to be erected.</p> + +<p>In view of the fact that up to the moment Jerry had been the most +care-free mortal alive and had never from day to day been able to +remember the whereabouts of his sou'wester or his rubber boots, his +ensuing transformation was nothing short of a miracle. Promptly +settling down with doglike fidelity he began mildly to urge on the +lagging carpenters; but presently, magnificent in his wrath, he rose +above them, whiplash in hand, and drove them forward. His watery blue +eyes followed every stick of timber, every foot of piping, every nail +that was placed. There was no escaping his watchfulness. If corners +were not true or moldings did not meet he saw and called attention to +it. Many a time a slipshod workman was ready to throw him over the +cliff into the sea and perhaps might have done so had he not been +conscious of the justice of the criticism.</p> + +<p>In consequence the Crowninshield house was built on honor; and when +the bills began to come in and showed a marked falling off in +magnitude the owner of the mansion could not but express gratitude. +Jerry, however, did not covet thanks. Instead he tagged along at his +employer's heels, proudly calling notice first to one skillful bit of +work and then to another. The house and all that concerned it became +his hobby. It was to him what the <i>Mollie D.</i> had been, the primary +interest of his life. He knew every inch of plumbing; where every +shut-off, valve, ventilator, and stopcock was located. Moreover, he +could have told, had not his jaws been clamped together tightly as a +scallop shell, exactly how much every article in the mansion cost.</p> + +<p>Later he superintended the grading of the lawns, the laying out of +tennis courts, and the building of garages, boathouses, and +bathhouses. By this time Mr. Crowninshield would willingly have +trusted him with every farthing he possessed so complete was his +confidence in his man Friday.</p> + +<p>Jerry, however, was modest. He declared he had only done his duty and +insisted that it go at that. But having set this high standard of +fidelity for himself it followed that he demanded a like faithfulness +in others; and if he were not merciful to those who came under his +dictatorship at least no one of them could deny that he was just. +Hence Walter King did not shrink from the prospect of working with +him, stern though he was reputed to be. One can only do one's best and +that the boy was determined to do. Therefore he smiled up into Jerry's +misty blue eyes and answered:</p> + +<p>"I could begin work when school closes toward the end of June."</p> + +<p>"Humph! I wish you could make it earlier. Well, we must put up with +that since it is the best you can do. Goodness knows I'd be the last +one to discourage learning in the young. I got all too little of it +when I was a shaver. Not a day goes by that I don't wish I'd had +my chance. I shipped to sea when I was only twelve—would +go—nothing would stop me—and I've been knocking round ever +since, picking up here and there what scraps of knowledge I could get. +Don't let anything tempt you to sea till you're full-grown, sonny, for +you'll live to regret it, sure as my name is Jerry Taylor."</p> + +<p>Walter flushed guiltily, wondering as he did so whether Jerry's little +blue eyes had bored their way into his skull and read there his +aspirations.</p> + +<p>"Nope!" went on the sailor. "Take it from me, seafaring is a man's +job. You much better stay ashore and——" he stopped as if +at a loss and then smiling broadly added, "play governess to a pack of +dogs."</p> + +<p>"I figure that is about what I'm going to do," replied His Highness +with a comic air of resignation.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's the matter with that?" inquired Jerry sharply. "You'll +be getting paid for it, won't you—well paid? And you'll have +cozy quarters all to yourself, and three good meals a day. Land alive! +Some folks want the earth! Why, when I was your age, I was swung up in +a hammock between decks with not an inch of space that I could call my +own. If I wanted to stow away anything I hadn't a place to put it +where it wasn't common property. As for meals I took what I could get +and was thankful that I didn't starve. And here you come along and +tilt up your freckled pug nose at a room and board and ten a week. +Bah! What's come over this generation anyway?"</p> + +<p>"I wasn't turning up my nose," Walter ventured to protest. "It turns +up anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Then you need to be careful how you make it go higher," grinned +Jerry.</p> + +<p>"And—and—I had no idea you meant to pay me that much."</p> + +<p>"What do you think we are up here?" bristled Jerry. "A sweatshop? No +siree! We stand for the square deal every time, we do. Only you've got +to understand, young one, that it's to be square on both sides. You're +to do no shirking; if you do you'll get fired so quick you'll wonder +what hit you. But if you do your part you need have no worries. Now +think good and plenty before you embark on the cruise."</p> + +<p>"I have thought."</p> + +<p>"All right then. We'll haul up anchor and be off the latter part of +June."</p> + +<p>"You'll have to tell me exactly what you want me to do."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll tell you right 'nough," drawled Jerry, with a humorous twist +of his lips. "You'll get a chart to sail by. Still, it won't wholly +cover your duties. The thing for you to do is to keep your eyes peeled +and look alive. Watch out and see where there's a hole an' be in that +hole so it won't be empty. That's the best recipe I know for being +useful."</p> + +<p>"I'll try."</p> + +<p>"If you honestly do that I reckon there'll be no cause for you to +worry," observed the caretaker kindly. "Towards the end of June, then, +I'll be on the lookout for you. Your quarters will be all ready, +shipshape and trim as a liner's cabin."</p> + +<p>"Where will they be?" inquired Walter.</p> + +<p>"Want to see 'em?"</p> + +<p>"I'd like to, yes."</p> + +<p>"I s'pose you would," nodded Jerry. "You can as well as not; only they +ain't fixed up as they'll be later. Look kinder dismal."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I shan't mind."</p> + +<p>The big man smiled at the eagerness of the boy's tone.</p> + +<p>"Likely you ain't never been away from home before, son," said he, as +he took a key out of a glass case on the wall of the barn and slipped +it into his pocket.</p> + +<p>"No—that is, not to stay."</p> + +<p>"Quite some adventure, eh?"</p> + +<p>The lad shot a bright glance toward him.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, well! Count yourself lucky, youngster, that you've had a good +home and a good mother up to now; and bless your stars, too, that +since you are going to start branching out you're coming to a place +like Surfside rather'n somewhere else."</p> + +<p>His voice was gentle and his misty eyes mistier than ever.</p> + +<p>Striding ahead he crossed the lawn, unlocked a low building, and +mounting the stairs, stopped before a door in the hall above. With a +turn of the key it swung open, disclosing a small sheathed room +containing a white iron bed, bureau, table, chairs, and bookshelves.</p> + +<p>"Think this will suit your Highness?" grinned he.</p> + +<p>"It's—it's corking!" stammered Walter, almost too delighted to +reply.</p> + +<p>"'Tain't bad," admitted Jerry, strolling over to one of the windows +that faced the sea and looking out. "Mr. Crowninshield makes it a rule +never to stow away other folks where he wouldn't be stowed himself. It +isn't a bad principle, either. You'll have a couple of the chauffeurs +for company." With his thumb he motioned to other rooms flanking the +narrow hall. "They may josh you some at first. That's part of starting +out in the world. Keep a civil tongue in your head and if you don't +mind 'em they'll soon quit. If they don't it's up to you to find the +way to get on with 'em. Half of life is learning to shy round the +corners of the folks about you. And old Tim, who used to be gardener +for Mr. Crowninshield's father and has been in the family 'most half a +century, bides here, too. A rare soul, Tim. You'll like him. Everybody +does. Simple as a child, he is, and so gentle that it well-nigh breaks +his heart to kill a potato bug. You can count on Tim standing your +friend no matter what the rest may do, so cheer up."</p> + +<p>"And the dogs?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the kennels, you mean? They're close by where you'll get the full +benefit of the pups' barking in the early morning," said Jerry, with a +twinkle. "'Twill give you a pleasant feeling to be certain your +charges are alive. Most often, though, they do no yammering until +about six, and goodness knows all Christians ought to be up at that +hour. You'll find the dogs fitted out comfortable as the rest of us. +They've a fine enclosure to stay in when they want to be out of doors; +a big airy room if it's better to have 'em under cover; steam heat +when it's cold; and blankets and brushes without end. Sometimes Lola, +the pet of 'em all, sleeps up at the big house; but mostly she's here +with the rest. There's too big a caravan of 'em to have the lot live +with the family. Besides, the folks like to sleep late in the morning +and not be disturbed by the noise of a pack of puppies. Then there's +guests here off and on. So take it all in all, the dogs are best by +themselves."</p> + +<p>"But I don't know anything about taking care of dogs," faltered +Walter.</p> + +<p>"I thought you'd had a dog yourself."</p> + +<p>"So I had once. But he wasn't like any of these. He was just a dog. +All you had to do was to chuck him a bone."</p> + +<p>"Well, you'll have a darn sight more to do for these critters than +that," announced Jerry.</p> + +<p>"But how'll I know——" began the boy, alarmed by the +prospect before him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you'll get your instructions from the Madam, most +likely—get 'em all written down in black and white along with +the history of every dog. She'll tell you just what every one of 'em +is to eat, and how much; and where they're all to sleep. And if she +don't Miss Nancy or Mr. Dick will. You'll get yards and yards of +directions before you're through," chuckled Jerry. "You want to listen +well to every word you hear too, son, for these dogs ain't like your +Towser—or whatever his name was; a crumb of food too much might +kill 'em. Or a blast of air."</p> + +<p>"Scott!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's no use getting panicky at the outset," declared Jerry +comfortably. "Follow orders and use your brains; and remember that if +you get addled you can always consult Tim. Tim has a world of common +sense and a heap of knowledge of odd sorts. And more than that, he's +never swept off his feet by the cost of things. Having been brought up +in the company of Rolls-Royce cars, and diamond rings, and +thousand-dollar dogs they don't move him an inch. He just treats 'em +same's he would anything else and often it's the best plan. Instead +of losing his head, and standing wringing his hands 'cause the prize +roses have got bugs on 'em he sets to work and kills the bugs; sprays +the plants same's he would ordinary bushes, and they go to growing +again like any other civilized flowers. An orchid ain't no more to him +than a buttercup. He's too used to 'em. He's used to dogs as well, and +with the shifting fashions he's seen during his fifty years with the +family he's had experience with most every kind of dog that ever was. +For there's fashions in dogs, you know, as well as in coats and hats. +So turn to Tim when you're in a tight place. He'll help you, never +fear."</p> + +<p>"I hope he will," sighed His Highness ruefully. "I shall need him."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! Why, Mr. Dick has often cared for the pups when there was +no one else; and certainly you ought to have as many brains as he."</p> + +<p>"Tell me about him."</p> + +<p>"Richard? You've seen him round town lots of times—you must +have. At the village and other places."</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course I've seen him," agreed Walter quickly. "In the summer +he drives past our house almost every day in his car. But I don't know +him any."</p> + +<p>"You will now," asserted Jerry. "He's a great chap, Mr. Dick is! About +your age, too, I guess. Quite a mechanic and always tinkering with +tools and machinery. If there's anything wrong with the motor boat he +can usually fix her up all right. As for mending a car, he beats all +the chauffeurs out. They know it and have to say so. Likely you've +seen him fluking through the main street in his racer. She's a trim +little thing and could go like the wind if his Pa hadn't forbidden +letting out the engine. I reckon Mr. Crowninshield is afraid he'll +either kill himself or somebody else, and I will own the thing ain't +no proper toy for a lad his age. Still, city folks ain't content with +what would please you or me. They must have the biggest, the fastest, +the most expensive article there is or 'tain't good for nothin'. The +mere knowin' it's the biggest, fastest, and cost the most seems to +make 'em happy somehow. Funny, ain't it?"</p> + +<p>His Highness did not reply. He was thinking.</p> + +<p>"And Miss Nancy?" interrogated he presently.</p> + +<p>"Ha! There's a girl for you!" ejaculated Jerry with enthusiasm. +"She'll be either seventeen or eighteen come June. Swims like a fish. +In fact, I ain't sure she couldn't outdistance some of 'em. And such +an oar as she pulls! It's strong and steady as any man's. Besides +that, she can beat the crowd at tennis, golf, and those other fool +games such folks play. Has a runabout of her own, too, and drives it +neat as a pin."</p> + +<p>"She's better at sports than Mr. Dick, then."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she can wipe the ground up with him," sniffed Jerry. "She can +swim overhand to the raft and get back almost before her brother has +started. By Guy! I never saw a woman swim as she does! Dick gets +kinder peeved with her sometimes when she jollies him. But let her car +play a prank and he has her, for she's no more idea what to do with +an engine than the man in the moon. She treats brother Richard with +proper respect then, I can tell you."</p> + +<p>Walter smiled.</p> + +<p>"And Mrs. Crowninshield?"</p> + +<p>"She? She's all right! You'll like her and she'll like you—that +is, if you get on with the pups. Dogs are her hobby. What she don't +know about raisin' 'em ain't worth knowin'. But I just warn you not to +think that because she's so pleasant she's easy goin', 'cause she +ain't. Slip up on your job and she'll be down on you like a thousand +of brick. She's a fair-weather sailin' craft—that's what she is; +floats along nice as anything until something goes wrong and +then—my soul—but she kicks up a sea. Yet with all that +you'll like her. We all do. Almost everybody on the place would get +down and let her walk on 'em. She has a kind of way with her that +makes you itch to please her. Tim would let her cut his head clean off +if she wanted to and I ain't sure I wouldn't. Have a smart sore throat +once and see the things she'll do for you. And she'll do 'em herself, +too—not set other people on the job. I believe that woman has +the biggest heart in the world."</p> + +<p>"And—and—Mr. Crowninshield?" ventured Walter.</p> + +<p>"The boss?" Jerry cleared his throat and for the first time hesitated. +"You've got to understand the boss, my son," said he earnestly. "He +ain't like other men. And in order that you may, I better give you a +pointer or two for it will most probably save you trouble. The boss +is something like a big dog that barks fit to murder you and don't +mean a thing by it. You've seen the kind. To hear him go on when he's +roused you'd believe he was going to have your blood. My, how he does +orate!" Jerry smiled and shook his head indulgently. "I've seen the +men stand up before him with their knees shaking until you'd expect +'em to give way every second. And the master would rage and rage +because they'd done something he didn't want done. And then, like a +hurricane that's blown itself out, he'll calm down and the next you +know he's given you a smile that's made you forget all the rest of it. +That's him all over. Learn not to be afraid of him, that's the only +thing to do. He wouldn't hurt a fly really. He just gets to blusterin' +and tearin' round from force of habit. It don't mean nothin'—not +a thing in the world. And with all his money he ain't a mite cocky. To +see him you'd scarce dream he had a copper in his pocket. Yet he could +paper the house with thousand-dollar bills was he so minded. There's +no end to his money, seems to me. Just the same, you don't want to go +wastin' it for him on that account. Remember you ain't got the right +to, not havin' earned it. If he chooses to splash it round that's his +hunt. He made it. But it ain't yours or mine to slosh away. Jot that +down in your log. It may help you later."</p> + +<p>Jerry paused.</p> + +<p>"You deal square and honorable with the boss, standing up to what +you've done like you was a trooper at your gun, and he'll deal square +and honorable with you. But go to hoodwinking and imposing on him and +instead of a lamb you'll find you've got a rattlesnake at your heels. +Now you have an idea, I guess, what you're going to be up against +here," concluded the caretaker, taking out his pipe and cramming it +with tobacco. "If there's anything else you want to know now's your +chance, for after to-day I am never going to open my lips again about +any of the Crowninshield family. You'll be one of the employees and +your job will be to hold your tongue on them and their affairs, and be +loyal to 'em. Their bread will be feeding you and 'twill be only +decent. After you once have got your place the keeping of it will rest +with you. That's fair, ain't it?"</p> + +<p>Walter nodded.</p> + +<p>Yet he turned slowly toward home, depressed by a throng of misgivings. +Suppose he was not able to hold the job at Surfside once it was his? +What then?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h3> + +<h4>WHAT WORRIED MRS. KING</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>By the middle of May Lovell's Harbor had fully awakened from its +winter's sleep. Freshly painted dories were slipped into the water; +newly rigged yawls and knockabouts were anchored in the bay; the float +was equipped with renovated bumpers, and a general air of anticipation +pervaded the community.</p> + +<p>Yes, hot weather was really on the way. Already the summer cottages +were being opened, aired, and put in order, and even some of the +houses had gayly figured hangings at the windows and a film of smoke +could be seen issuing from the chimneys.</p> + +<p>At Surfside workmen bustled about, hurrying across the lawn with +boards, paint pots, and hammers. Tim Cavenough and his little host of +helpers scurried to uncover the flower beds, and from morning to night +trudged back and forth from the greenhouses bearing shallow boxes of +seedlings which they transplanted to the gardens. Shutters were +removed and stored away, piazza chairs brought out, awnings put up, +and lawns and tennis courts rolled and cut.</p> + +<p>As far as one could see a spangled expanse of ocean dazzled the eye +and the tiny salt creeks that meandered across the meadows were like +winding ribbons of blue. Certainly it was no weather to be shut up in +school and boys and girls went hither with reluctant feet, checking +off the days on their fingers and even counting the hours that must +drag by before they would be free to roam at will amid this panorama +of beauty.</p> + +<p>To Walter King it seemed as if the closing period of his captivity +would never be at an end. He studied rebelliously, and with only a +half—nay, rather a quarter—of his mind on his lessons. All +his thought was centered around Surfside and the novel experiences +that beckoned him there. So impatient was he to begin his new duties +that he found it impossible to settle down to anything.</p> + +<p>"You'll be failing in your last examinations, Walter, if you don't +watch what you're doing," cautioned his mother. "And should you do +that, little profit would it be that you are hired out to Mr. +Crowninshield for the summer. In the fall you'd have to stay behind +your class, and think of the disgrace of that! Why, I'd be ready to +hide my head with shame! Money or no money, you must buck up and put +the Crowninshields and their doings out of your head. To lose a year +now would mean just that much longer before you could graduate and +take a regular job. I almost wish Jerry Thomas had never asked you to +come up there, I do indeed."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't go getting all fussed up, Ma," returned His Highness, +irritated because he recognized the truth of his mother's words. "I'm +going to buckle down until the term is over, honest I am. It is hard, +though, with the weather so fine. It seems as if I must be out. It's +like being on a leash."</p> + +<p>"You're thinking of those dogs again!"</p> + +<p>The lad flushed sheepishly.</p> + +<p>"No, I wasn't."</p> + +<p>"But you were—whether you realized it or not. It is all you talk +of nowadays—<i>dogs</i>! What it will be after they get here and +you're up at Surfside living with them I don't know. Whatever else you +do, though, you must not fail in your lessons and at the last moment +spoil your whole year's record. School is your first duty now and you +have no moral right to put anything else in its place."</p> + +<p>"I know it, Ma," Walter agreed.</p> + +<p>"Of course you know it," was the tart response. "Just see that you do +not forget it, that's all."</p> + +<p>With this final admonition Mrs. King whisked about and taking up her +cake of Sapolio and pail of steaming water ascended the stairs. Like +the rest of Lovell's Harbor she was busy as a bee in clovertime. She +had rented all her rooms and had so many things to do in preparation +for her expected guests that she had not a second to waste.</p> + +<p>After she had gone Walter loitered in the kitchen, whistling absently +and at the same time winding a piece of string aimlessly over his +fingers. His mother's words had stirred a vague, uncomfortable +possibility in his mind. What if he were to fail in those final exams? +It would be terrible. Such a disaster did not seem real. It couldn't +happen—actually happen—to him. It would be too awful. +Nevertheless, try as he would to banish them, visions of Surfside with +its myriad fascinations would dance in his head.</p> + +<p>He had never been away from home for more than a night before and to +take up residence elsewhere for an entire season was in itself a +novelty. Then there were the tennis courts, the golf links, the +automobiles, motor boats, and the yacht! Why, it would be like +fairyland! The next instant, however, his spirits drooped. It was +absurd to imagine for a moment that he was to have any part in those +magic amusements. He was not going to Surfside for recreation but for +work. Notwithstanding that fact, though, it was beyond his power to +forget that all these many activities would be going on about him and +there was the chance, the bare chance, that an occasion might arise +when he would be invited to participate in some of them.</p> + +<p>Fancy spinning over the sandy roads of the Cape in that wonderful +racing car! Or sailing the blue waters of the harbor in one of those +snowy motor boats! As for the yacht, with its trimmings of glistening +brass and spotless decks, had he not dreamed of going aboard it ever +since the day it had first steamed into the bay two summers ago? +People said there was every imaginable contrivance aboard: ice-making +machines, electric lights, and electric piano, goodness only knew +what! Simply to see such things would be wonderful. And if it ever +should come about (of course it never would and it was absurd to +picture it—ridiculous) but if it ever <i>did</i> that he should go +sailing out of the bay on that mystic craft what a miracle that would +be!</p> + +<p>With such visions floating through his mind what marvel that it was +well-nigh out of the question for Walter King to focus his attention +on algebra, Latin, history, and physics. X + Y seemed of very little +consequence, and as for the Punic Wars they were so far away as to be +hazy beyond any reality at all.</p> + +<p>Possibly, although she was quite unconscious of it, some of the fault +was his mother's for she kept the topic of his departure to the +Crowninshields' ever before him.</p> + +<p>"I have your new shirts almost finished, son," she would assert with +satisfaction, "and they're as neat and well made as any New York +tailor could make them, if I do say it; and you've three pairs of +khaki trousers besides your old woolen ones and corduroys. With your +Sunday suit of blue serge and those fresh ties and cap you'll have +nothing to be ashamed of. Then you've those denim overalls, and your +slicker, and Bob's outgrown pea-coat. I can't see but what you have +everything you can possibly need. Do be watchful of your shoes and use +them carefully, won't you, for they cost a mint of money? And remember +whenever you can to work in your old duds and save your others. You +can just as well as not if you only think of it. Your washing you'll +bring home and don't forget that I want you to keep neat and clean. +Rich folks notice those things a lot. So scrub your hands and neck +and clean your nails, even if I'm not there to tell you to. Just +because you are going to traipse round with the dogs is no excuse for +looking like 'em," concluded she.</p> + +<p>"I'll remember, Ma," returned His Highness patiently.</p> + +<p>"And if you eat with the chauffeurs and a pack of men, don't go +stuffing yourself with food until you're sick. There's a time to stop, +you know. Don't wait until you've got past it and are so crammed that +you can't swallow another mouthful."</p> + +<p>"I won't, Ma," was the meek response.</p> + +<p>"Brush your teeth faithfully, too. I've spent too much money on them +to have them go to waste now."</p> + +<p>"Yes," came wearily from Walter.</p> + +<p>"Of course there's no call for me to talk to a person your age about +smoking," continued his mother. "When you've got your full growth and +can earn money enough to pay for such foolishness you've a right to +indulge in it if you see fit; but until then don't start a habit that +will do you no good and may make a pigmy of you for life."</p> + +<p>"I promise you right now, Ma, that I——"</p> + +<p>"No, don't promise. A promise is a sacred thing and one that it is a +sacrilege to break. Never make a promise lightly. But just remember, +laddie, that I'd far rather you didn't smoke for a few years yet. But +should you feel you must why come and tell me, that's all."</p> + +<p>"I will, Ma," answered the boy soberly. Somehow going away from home +suddenly seemed a very solemn business.</p> + +<p>"I guess that's the end of my cautions," smiled Mrs. King, "the end, +except to say that I hope you won't like Surfside so well that you'll +forget to come home now and then and tell me how you are making out. +Of course I'll have my boarders and work same's you; still, there'll +be times when we won't be busy and can see each other," her voice +trembled a little. "Nobody will be more anxious to hear of your doings +than I—remember that. I shall miss you, sonny. It's the first +time you've been away from me and I can't but feel it's a sort of +milestone. You'll be getting grown up and leaving home for good now +before I know it, same as Bob has."</p> + +<p>Her eyes glistened and for an instant she turned her head aside.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I shan't be branching out to make my fortune yet, Mother," +protested Walter gayly. "I don't know enough. I'm not clever like +Bob—you said so yourself only the other day."</p> + +<p>"You're clever as is good for you," was the ambiguous retort. "I'm +glad you're no different."</p> + +<p>"Think of the money I'd be handing in if I could only earn as much as +Bob."</p> + +<p>"The money? Aye, there's no denying it would be a help. However, with +what you and Bob and I are going to earn this summer we should make +out very well, even if your Uncle Mark Miller has left us in the lurch +and your Uncle Henry King's investments have gone bad on us. I'll be +turning a tidy penny with my boarders, thanks to you. And for a lad +your age ten dollars a week is not to be sneezed at. Why, we'll have +quite a little fortune between us!"</p> + +<p>He saw her face brighten.</p> + +<p>"Now if Bob could only be near at hand like you I believe I should be +entirely happy," she sighed. "I hate to think of him way out there on +that spit of sand with the sea booming all around him and nothing for +company but the other fellow, who's asleep whenever he's awake, and +that clicking wireless instrument. Imagine the loneliness of it! The +solitude would drive me crazy inside a week—I know it would."</p> + +<p>"Bob doesn't mind."</p> + +<p>"He's not the lad to say so if he did," replied the mother grimly. +"Nobody'd be any the wiser for what Bob thinks. Often at night I fall +to wondering what he'd do was he to be taken sick."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he'd be all right, Mother," answered His Highness cheerfully. +"O'Connel is there, you know."</p> + +<p>"And what kind of a nurse would he be, do you think, with his ear to +that switchboard from daylight until dark?"</p> + +<p>"Not quite that. Mother."</p> + +<p>"Well, almost that, anyhow. It is all well enough for you to say so +jauntily that Bob doesn't mind being off there with the wind howling +round him and nothing to do but listen to it."</p> + +<p>"Nothing to do!" repeated Walter. "Why, Ma, he's busy all the time."</p> + +<p>"Tinkering with those wires, you mean?" was the indignant question. +"Yes, I grant he has plenty of that, especially in bad weather. But I +mean pleasures——"</p> + +<p>"Moving pictures, church sociables, strawberry festivals," interrupted +the lad mischievously.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do," maintained Mrs. King stoutly. "Folks must have something +to brighten up their lives. Bob doesn't have a thing."</p> + +<p>"He often has days that are lively enough, according to his stories."</p> + +<p>"When there's wrecks, you mean?" She shook her head gravely. "It isn't +those that I'm talking about. It's sitting day after day and listening +to the meaningless taps and buzzings that come whining through that +instrument."</p> + +<p>"They're not meaningless to him."</p> + +<p>"No-o, I suppose not," sighed the woman. For a moment she paused only +to resume her complaints. "Then there's the responsibility of it. I +never did like to think of that. Should he tap once too much or too +little when sending one of those dot and dash messages, think what it +might mean! And suppose he heard a dot too much and didn't get the +thing the other fellow was trying to tell him straight?"</p> + +<p>"But he has been trained so he does not make mistakes."</p> + +<p>"All human clay makes mistakes," was the tragic answer, "although I +will say Bob makes fewer than most. And then the thunder +storms—I'm always worried about those."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll confess there is some danger from lightning," owned Walter +unwillingly. "And of course there is danger from the current at all +times if one is not careful. Even then accidents sometimes happen. +However, Bob explained once that accidental shocks seldom result +fatally unless the person is left too long without help. The man in +charge of the radio outfit would almost never get the full force of +the current, because part of it would be carried off through the wires +and ground. Such accidents are mainly due to the temporary and faulty +contact of the conductors."</p> + +<p>"I can't help what they're due to," sniffed Mrs. King. "The point is +that Bob might get knocked out and die."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Mother. You would not worry if you understood more about +it. Besides, should a man get a shock, if you go promptly to work over +him and keep at it long enough, you can almost always bring him back +to consciousness. They do just about the same things to restore him +that they do for a person that's been drowned. The aim is to make him +breathe. If you can get him to, he will probably live. Of course, +though, you have to break the circuit first."</p> + +<p>"The circuit?"</p> + +<p>"Stop the current that is going through his body," explained Walter.</p> + +<p>"But how can you?"</p> + +<p>"Bob told me how. He saw a chap knocked out once and helped fix him +up. You had to be awfully careful about moving him away from the +apparatus, Bob said, or you might get a shock yourself. They took a +dry stick because it was a nonconductor of electricity, you know, and +rolled the man over to one side, so he was out of reach of the wires. +Had you covered your hands with dry cloth you could have moved him, +too; rubber gloves are best but Bob did not happen to have any handy +at the minute. So they poked the fellow out of the way with the stick, +turned him over on his back, loosened his collar and clothing, and +went to work on him. You know how they always roll up a coat or +something and stuff it under drowned persons' shoulders to throw their +head backward? Well, they did that; and afterward they began to move +his arms up and down to make him breathe. The idea is to depress and +expand the chest. We learned it in our 'first aid' class. Of course +there are lots of things you have to do besides, and if you can get a +doctor he will know of others that are better still. But Bob said the +chief point was not to get discouraged and give up. Sometimes people +die just because the folks fussing over them do not keep at it long +enough. They get tired and when they see no results they decide it is +no use and stop trying. You ought to work an hour anyhow, repeating +the exercises at the rate of sixteen times a minute, Bob said. Then, +if the poor chap does not come to, you can at least feel you have done +all you can."</p> + +<p>"Ugh! It makes me shiver to think of it!"</p> + +<p>"You didn't shiver when Minnie Carlton fell off the float and almost +got drowned," remarked Walter significantly.</p> + +<p>"I had too much to think of," was Mrs. King's laconic reply.</p> + +<p>"It was the fussing you did over her that saved her life."</p> + +<p>"They said so."</p> + +<p>"You know it was."</p> + +<p>"Mebbe it was," admitted his mother modestly. "But it wasn't any +credit to me. I've always lived near the water and I feel at home with +drowned people."</p> + +<p>"These electric accidents are much the same—easier, if anything, +because the lungs are not filled with water."</p> + +<p>"I hadn't thought of that."</p> + +<p>"This is just a straight case of making a man breathe. You did that +for Minnie."</p> + +<p>"I contrived to, yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, this stunt is the same. Bob said if you once got that through +your head and kept in mind what you were driving at instead of flying +off the handle you would get on all right."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he's right. He generally is," sighed Mrs. King. "Still it is +a worrisome business having him tinkering with those wires all the +time. I am thankful you are not doing it. I'd rather you tended dogs."</p> + +<p>"But you've forgotten what they're worth," put in His Highness.</p> + +<p>"So I had. Oh, dear! I don't see but what I've got to worry about both +of you."</p> + +<p>"Pooh, Ma! Don't be foolish. Think of the money we'll have by fall, +the three of us. Why, we'll be rich!"</p> + +<p>"Not rich, with that last payment on the mortgage looming ahead."</p> + +<p>"But it <i>is</i> the last—think of that! We won't ever have another +to make."</p> + +<p>A radiant smile flitted over Mrs. King's face but a moment later it +was eclipsed by a cloud.</p> + +<p>"There'll be other things to pay; there always are," fretted she.</p> + +<p>"Oh, shucks, Ma! Why borrow trouble? It's always hanging round wanting +to be borrowed. Why gratify it?"</p> + +<p>"I know. It is a foolish habit, isn't it? Still, it was always my way +to be prepared for the worst. I've done it all my life."</p> + +<p>"Then why not whiffle round now and just for a change be prepared for +the best?"</p> + +<p>In spite of herself his mother laughed.</p> + +<p>"I expect that if I was as young as you and as happy-go-lucky I'd +never worry," she answered not unkindly. "But since I'm made with a +worrying disposition and bound to worry anyhow, at least I've got +something perfectly legitimate to worry about this summer, and you +can't deny it. With one son liable to be electrocuted by wireless and +the other likely to be run into jail for losing a million-dollar dog I +shall have plenty to occupy my mind, not to mention all those +boarders that are coming."</p> + +<p>"Now, Ma, you know you are actually looking forward to the boarders," +Walter declared. "Already you are simply itching to see them and find +out what they are like."</p> + +<p>"And if I am, what then?" admitted his mother flushing that she should +have been read so accurately. "Seeing them isn't all there is to it by +a good sight. There is feeding them, and to keep them filled up in +this bracing climate is no small matter."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever know any one to go hungry in this house?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no; I can't say I ever did."</p> + +<p>"Do you imagine boarders will eat more than Bob or I?"</p> + +<p>"Mercy on us! I hope not."</p> + +<p>"Well, you always gave us enough to eat. I guess if you contrived to +do that you needn't worry about your boarders," chuckled His +Highness.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h3> + +<h4>WALTER MAKES HIS BOW TO HIS EMPLOYER</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>The last day of June dawned dismal and foggy. A grim gray veil +enshrouded Lovell's Harbor, rendering it cold and dreary. Had one been +visiting it for the first time he would probably have turned his back +on its forlornity and never have come again. The sea was wrapped in a +mist so dense that its vast reach of waves was as complete a secret as +if they had been actually curtained off from the land. On every leaf +trembled beads of moisture and from the eaves of the sodden houses the +water dripped with a melancholy trickle.</p> + +<p>It was wretched weather for the Crowninshields to be coming to +Surfside and yet that they were already on the way the jangling +telephone attested.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't have had 'em put in an appearance a day like this for the +world!" fretted Jerry Taylor, who for some unaccountable reason seemed +to hold himself responsible for the general dampness and discomfort. +"Fog ain't nothin' to us folks who are used to it. We've lived by the +ocean long enough to love it no matter how it behaves. But for it to +go actin' up this way for strangers is a pity. It gives 'em a bad +impression same's a ill-behaved child does."</p> + +<p>"But you can't help it," ventured Walter, who had just come into +sight.</p> + +<p>"N-o. Still, somehow, I'm always that anxious for the place to look +it's prettiest that I feel to blame when it doesn't."</p> + +<p>The boy nodded sympathetically. Deep down within him lay an +inarticulate affection for the hamlet in which he had been born and +the great throbbing sea that lapped its shores. He therefore +understood Jerry's attitude and shared in it far more than he would, +perhaps, have been willing to admit. Nevertheless he merely knocked +the drops from his rubber hat, muttered that it was a rotten day, and +loitered awkwardly about, wondering just what to do.</p> + +<p>At last school was at an end. He had squeaked through the examinations +with safety if not with glory, and having wheeled his small trunk up +to Surfside on a wheelbarrow and deposited it in his room he +speculated as to what to do next. There was plenty he might have done. +There was no question about that. He might at the very moment have +been unpacking his possessions, hanging his clothes in the closet, and +stowing away his undergarments in the chest of drawers provided for +the purpose. Moreover, there were books to tuck into place on his +bookshelves and other minor duties relative to the settling of his new +quarters.</p> + +<p>Oh, there were a score of things he might have done. His Highness, +however, was in much too agitated a frame of mind to turn his +attention to such humdrum tasks. Furthermore, since he had pledged +himself to bear a hand wherever it was needed, he felt he should be on +the spot and within call. And if beneath this worthy motive lurked a +certain desire to see whatever there was to be seen, who can say his +curiosity was not pardonable? One does not set forth every day to make +his fortune. The adventure was very alluring to him who had never +tried it.</p> + +<p>Possibly Jerry Taylor had enough of the boy in him to understand this. +However that might be, he did not hurry the lad indoors to unpack even +though he sensed full well that precious time was being wasted; +instead, as he started across the lawn he called back over his +shoulder:</p> + +<p>"If you've nothing better to do, sonny, than to stand shivering in the +barn, come along up to the house with me and help bring up some wood; +I'm going to start fires burning in the rooms to cheer the folks up +and dry 'em off when they get here. To my mind there ain't nothin' +like an open fire to right you if you're out of sorts. And likely they +will be out of sorts. Mr. Crowninshield will, that's sure. Now I +myself don't mind a gray day off and on. It's sorter restful and +calming. But these city people can't see it that way. My eye, no! They +begin to groan so you can hear 'em a mile away the minute the sun is +clouded over; and by the second day of a good northeaster they are +done for. You'd think to listen to 'em that the end of the world had +come. No motoring! No golf! No tennis! Why, they might as well be +dead. They begin to wonder why they ever came here anyway and talk of +nothing but how nice it is in New York. Why, you would split your +sides laughing to hear Mr. Crowninshield moan for Wall Street and +Fifth Avenue. Three days of fog is his limit. After that ropes +couldn't tie him here. He tumbles his traps into a suitcase and off he +goes to the city."</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" Walter ejaculated.</p> + +<p>"Oh, 'tain't a bad thing to have him go, take it by and large. He +ain't much addition here when he's fidgeting round, poking into +everything and suggesting it better be done some other way. He's much +better off somewhere else—he's happier and so are we. By and by +he comes back again cheerful as if nothing had happened. Mebbe it's as +well you should be told what's in store for you in foggy weather," +concluded Jerry, with a touch of humor, "for you'll come in for your +share together with the rest of us. Everybody gets it. Most likely +you'll hear that an egg-beater is a much better thing to smooth down a +dog's hair with than a brush; that all the world knows that and only +an idiot uses anything else. Don't smile or venture a yip in reply. +Just say you'll be glad to use the egg-beater if he prefers it. Remark +that, in fact, you quite hanker to try the egg-beater. To agree with +him always takes the wind out of his sails quicker'n anything else. +He'll calm down soon as he sees you aren't ruffled and go off and hunt +up somebody else to reform. And when the fog blows out to sea his +temper will go with it and he will forget he ever suggested an +egg-beater. Oh, we understand the boss. He's all right! If you only +know how to take him you'll never have a mite of trouble with him."</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached the house and having removed rubbers and +dripping coats they entered the basement door and proceeded to the +cellar. It was not the sort of cellar with which His Highness was +familiar although his mother's cellar was clean, as cellars go. This +one was immaculate. Indeed it seemed, on glancing about, that one +might have done far worse than live in the Crowninshields' cellar. +Every inch of the interior was light, dry, and spotless with +whitewash, paint, and tiling. Even the coal that filled the bins had +taken on a borrowed glory and shone as if polished.</p> + +<p>"This is my kingdom!" announced Jerry proudly. "You could eat off the +floor were you so minded."</p> + +<p>"I should say you could!"</p> + +<p>"When once you've set out it's no more work to keep things shipshape +than to let 'em go helter-skelter. Now here's a basket. Load into it +as many of those birch logs as you can carry and bring 'em upstairs. +I've kindlings there already."</p> + +<p>While Walter was obeying these instructions Jerry himself was piling +up on his lank arm a pyramid of wood, and together the two ascended +the stairway and tiptoed through the kitchen. As they went the boy +caught a glimpse of gleaming porcelain walls; ebon-hued stoves +resplendent with nickel trimmings; a blue and white tiled floor; and +smart little window hangings that matched it.</p> + +<p>"They don't cook here!" he gasped.</p> + +<p>"Everything in the house is electric," explained Jerry, as if he were +conducting a sight-seeing party through the Louvre. "All the baking, +washing, ironing, bread-making, and cleaning is done by electricity. +There's even an electric sewing-machine to sew with, and an electric +breeze to keep you cool while you're doing it. If I hadn't seen the +thing with my own eyes I'd never have believed it."</p> + +<p>He paused to watch the effect of his words.</p> + +<p>"'Tain't much like the way you and me are used to," he grinned.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"I suppose in time you get so nothing knocks the breath out of you. +I'm just coming to looking round here without feeling all of a +flutter. The place did used to turn me endwise at first, it was so +white and awesome. I actually hated to set foot within its walls. +Seems 's if my fingers was always all thumbs every time I come inside +the room. Still, I had to come in though; there were things I had to +do here. So I schooled myself to forget the whiteness, and the +blueness, and all the silvery glisten and call it just a kitchen. +Besides, I found that grand as it is, it ain't a patch on some of the +other things in the house. My eye! It's like the Arabian Nights!"</p> + +<p>The Cape Codder stopped quite speechless from retailing these marvels.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he went on presently, "they've got almost everything the +electric market has to offer. Last year, though, Mr. Dick got a +hankerin' for a wireless set. It appears that you can buy an outfit +that will make you hear concerts, sermons, speeches, and about +everything that's going on; at least that's what Mr. Crowninshield +undertook to tell me, though whether he was fooling or not I couldn't +quite make out. Still, it may be true. After what I've seen in this +house I'm ready to believe about anything. Was he to say you could put +your eye to a hole in the wall and see the Chinese eating rice in +Hongkong it wouldn't astonish me."</p> + +<p>Walter laughed.</p> + +<p>"You <i>can</i> hear music and such things. My brother, who is a +wireless operator, told me so. They broadcast all sorts of +entertainments—songs, band-playing, sermons, and stories so that +those who have amateur apparatus can listen in."</p> + +<p>"Broadcast? Listen in?" repeated Jerry vaguely.</p> + +<p>"Broadcasting means sending out stuff of a specified wave length from +a central station so that amateurs with a range of from two hundred to +three hundred meters can pick it up."</p> + +<p>Jerry halted midway in the passage.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say," inquired he, "that a person can sling a song off +the top of a wire into the air and tell it to stop when it's gone two +hundred meters?"</p> + +<p>"Something like that," chuckled Walter, amused.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe it!" declared Jerry bluntly.</p> + +<p>"But it can be done; really it can."</p> + +<p>"No doubt you think you are speaking the truth, youngster," returned +the skeptic mildly. "Somebody's stuffed you, though. Such a thing +couldn't be, any way in the world."</p> + +<p>As if that were the end of the matter Jerry opened a door confronting +him and stepped into the great hall, the splendor of which instantly +blotted every other thought from Walter King's mind.</p> + +<p>Not only was the interior spacious and imposing but it was +bewilderingly beautiful and contained marvel after marvel that the lad +longed to examine. The large tiger-skin rugs that covered the floor +piqued his interest, so did the chiming clock, and a fountain that +welled up and splashed into a marble pool filled with goldfish. Why, +he could have entertained himself for an hour with this latter wonder +alone!</p> + +<p>There was, however, no leisure for loitering for on hearing the +cadence of the chimes Jerry ejaculated in consternation:</p> + +<p>"Eleven o'clock already! Land alive! We'll have to get the fires +blazing lively. Why, the folks may be here any minute now. Here, hand +me one of those long sticks you've got, sonny; or rather—wait! +You know how to lay a fire, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"I reckon I've done such a thing once or twice in my lifetime," was +the dry response.</p> + +<p>"Then go ahead. You build this fire while I go upstairs and start the +others," said Jerry. "After you've got this one going you can make one +in the library, that red room through those curtains."</p> + +<p>"All right."</p> + +<p>"Step lively! Don't take all day about it."</p> + +<p>With awkward gesture Jerry swooped up some of the logs with his long +arm and disappeared into the hall above.</p> + +<p>As for Walter, he had built too many fires in his mother's kitchen +stove and started too many blazes of driftwood on the beach to be at a +loss as to how to proceed. Almost in a twinkling scarlet flames were +roaring up the wide-throated chimneys and he had placed fenders before +them to keep in captivity any straying sparks. While he looked about +for a spot in which to deposit the remaining birch sticks there was a +sound of horns, a crunching of gravel, and Jerry's scurrying feet came +pattering down the stairs.</p> + +<p>"It's the folks!" he announced excitedly. "We warn't a minute too +soon. Tuck those logs into the brass box; pick up your cap, laddie, +and light out of here quick."</p> + +<p>The order, alas, came too late. His Highness had only time enough to +hurry the birch wood into the box and bang down the cover before +flying footsteps filled the house, maids appeared from every door, and +there was a blast of wind, a babel of voices, and the discomfited boy +found himself face to face with his employers.</p> + +<p>His first impression of Mr. Crowninshield, muffled to the chin in a +heavy motor coat, was of a large, red-cheeked man who, although he +moved with little apparent stir, nevertheless in an incredibly short +interval had shaken hands with most of the servants, directed where +each piece of luggage was to be put, commented on a new lock on the +front door, and noticed that the clock was two minutes slow. His +moving eye had also been caught by the roses on the table and he +turned to ask from which garden they came.</p> + +<p>"All this he did, Ma," explained Walter to his mother afterward, +"before you could say Jack Robinson. And in between he was scolding +all the time about the weather and saying how idiotic it was to leave +a warm, comfortable city like New York and come to a damp hole like +the Cape."</p> + +<p>"Is this the best day you could manage to get together, Jerry?" +growled he. "Pretty beastly, I call it."</p> + +<p>"It certainly is wet, sir."</p> + +<p>"Wet! I should say it was! It's infernally wet! How long is it going +to keep up like this?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, you have the sun out to-morrow or I shall go straight back +where I came from. Little old New York is good enough for me when the +place looks like this."</p> + +<p>At that instant he espied His Highness lurking near a distant window.</p> + +<p>"Who are you, young man?" he called.</p> + +<p>"Walter King, sir."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the young chap who is going to look after the dogs?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Humph! Like dogs?"</p> + +<p>"I—yes, sir," answered the lad at a warning glance from Jerry.</p> + +<p>Ruthlessly the hawklike eyes devoured him.</p> + +<p>"So you think you can take care of a lot of prize pups, do you?"</p> + +<p>"I am going to try," was the modest reply.</p> + +<p>"You can't stop with trying, my son. You've got to do it," announced +the man sharply.</p> + +<p>"I shall do my best."</p> + +<p>"That is all I shall ask."</p> + +<p>A sudden smile melted the stern countenance into geniality and the +master held out a hand.</p> + +<p>"So King is your name."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"It is a royal one and gives you something to live up to."</p> + +<p>As the boy did not know what to answer he was silent.</p> + +<p>"And you like dogs?" said the inquisitor more kindly.</p> + +<p>"I like all animals," returned Walter evasively, "and I am sure I +shall like your dogs because you always like anything you take care +of."</p> + +<p>"So you do! I remember when I was about your age I tamed an old +brown weasel. He was a wretch of a creature with scarcely a +virtue—cruel, deceitful, cold-blooded; and yet I grew to love +that brute as much as if he had had the gentleness of a dove. You know +how it is."</p> + +<p>Walter nodded. For the moment the two came together on a plane of real +contact and sympathy, and the smile the elder gave him bound the lad +to his new employer as no spoken words could possibly have done.</p> + +<p>But a second later Mr. Crowninshield's mood had changed and he was +storming at Mary, the waitress, and demanding whether she meant to +freeze them all by leaving the outside door open. Walter could see the +girl flush red and as he leaped forward to close the door she flashed +him a grateful, tremulous smile. Then Mr. Crowninshield turned toward +his wife.</p> + +<p>"Mollie," he replied, "this is Walter King who is going to look after +your dogs. Come and speak to him."</p> + +<p>The mistress of the house came. She was wearing a long blue traveling +coat and a jaunty little hat against which the gold of her hair was +resplendent as sunshine. Tucked under her arm was a wee dog with soft +brown fur and sharp little eyes. Mrs. Crowninshield was very pretty, +especially when she spoke. As Walter looked into her face he found it +so amazingly youthful that it was difficult for him to believe she was +actually the mother of a grown son and daughter.</p> + +<p>"So it is you who are to be master of the kennels?" smiled she, +showing her even white teeth.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mrs. Crowninshield," faltered His Highness, a trifle overcome by +this new title.</p> + +<p>From head to foot her glance swept over him.</p> + +<p>"Well," said she at length, "if you keep the puppies as tidy as you +keep yourself I fancy we shall get on nicely together."</p> + +<p>A flood of color mounted to the lad's forehead. He had not anticipated +such close inspection and instinctively he began to fumble with the +corner of his sweater and look nervously down at his hands. They must +be very dirty from making the fires. And he had been actually greeting +Mr. and Mrs. Crowninshield with paws like those! The horror of it +chilled his blood.</p> + +<p>Apparently the woman, with swift intuition, read his thought for she +dimpled at him in friendly fashion.</p> + +<p>"Do not worry about your hands, my boy," said she. "You have been +doing useful things to soil them, things to bid us welcome and make us +more comfortable. I can see you started out clean. I have a boy of my +own, you know. Richard," she went on, turning to a tall youth who was +bending over the luggage, "this is Walter King who is coming to look +after the kennels. He must be about your age."</p> + +<p>The boys stared at each other awkwardly.</p> + +<p>"I am fifteen," announced Walter for the lack of something more +brilliant to say.</p> + +<p>"I beat you by a year," was the shy retort of the other boy. "I am +sixteen."</p> + +<p>Then Nancy interrupted them with her breezy comment.</p> + +<p>"Fifteen, are you?" she put in. "My, I should not have thought it! You +must be pretty crazy about dogs to give up all your summer vacation to +them."</p> + +<p>"My mother needs the money," was the simple answer.</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>He saw her blush as if regretting her thoughtless remark.</p> + +<p>"It is nice of you to help your mother," she observed quickly. "I am +sure you will not find the place so bad. We shall try to make you +happy."</p> + +<p>With that she was gone but she left behind her a memory of sweetness +and appealing kindliness.</p> + +<p>"You might run out to the garage now, sonny," declared Jerry with a +desire to help the lad make his escape. "They will be landing the pups +there soon, and you may as well be on hand."</p> + +<p>Only too glad to beat a retreat His Highness picked up his cap and +slipping from the room raced across the lawn in the direction of his +own quarters.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h3> + +<h4>THE CONQUEST OF ACHILLES</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>Jerry's prediction proved to be quite true for as His Highness neared +the garage a hum of activity pervaded it. Four mud-caked cars stood in +the driveway and chauffeurs in their shirt sleeves hurried in and out +the building, shouting to one another and carrying in their hands +grimy rags and cans of oil. A short half hour had transformed the +quiet spot to a beehive of noise and bustle. The rush seemed +contagious for wherever one looked moving figures could be seen. Some +crossed the lawn bearing belated satchels or traveling wraps which in +the confusion had found their way into the wrong place; some strode +toward the boathouse, some toward the garden, some to the stables. Men +appeared to have risen through the earth so quickly had their numbers +multiplied.</p> + +<p>No longer was there the leisurely loitering and smoking that had +marked the week before. A spirit of activity was infused into the air +until even those who had no cause to hurry scrambled with the rest.</p> + +<p>As Walter approached the garage he was waylaid by a young chauffeur +with rosy cheeks and a crisp, pleasant voice:</p> + +<p>"Say, youngster, don't you want to lend a hand with these cushions?" +interrogated he, beaming ingratiatingly. "They have got to be beaten +and brushed before they can go back in the car. Chuck them over on the +floor for me, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"Sure!" was the ready answer. "I'll beat them for you if you like."</p> + +<p>"You're a good-natured little cuss," grinned the man. "I'm not asking +you to do that, though."</p> + +<p>"But I'd be glad to."</p> + +<p>"Suit yourself. But in my opinion you are a fool to take on jobs you +are not hired to do and get no money for."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't care about the money."</p> + +<p>"You don't, eh?" chimed in the derisive note of another chauffeur who +had at the instant come out of the doorway. "Say, who are you, anyway? +One of the Vanderbilts?"</p> + +<p>"Quit heckling the young one, Peters," put in the chauffeur of the red +cheeks. "He's a good sort, all right."</p> + +<p>"Ha, ha, Wheeler! You think that because you've jollied him into doing +your work for you, you old shirk."</p> + +<p>"I didn't jolly him into anything. He offered."</p> + +<p>"A likely story."</p> + +<p>"But he did."</p> + +<p>"Then you should have told him better," sniffed the other. "You know +well enough it isn't etiquette round here to do a stroke of work for +anybody else or accept a stroke. <i>Every man for himself</i> is the +motto."</p> + +<p>"But that's a rotten way!" Walter ejaculated impulsively. "I'd hate to +live like that—never being willing to help anybody or ask them +to help me."</p> + +<p>The man called Peters gave him a contemptuous stare.</p> + +<p>"You'll find there's no whining or asking help of other people here," +announced he, with a sneer. "Those that are darn fools enough to get +into holes get out of them as best they can. It's their hunt."</p> + +<p>Spitting emphatically on the ground he proceeded to go into the garage +with the tire he was carrying.</p> + +<p>Walter took up a stick he saw lying near by.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?" demanded the red-cheeked man, regarding +him with unconcealed surprise.</p> + +<p>"Beat the cushions."</p> + +<p>"But—but—heavens, sonny! Didn't you hear what Peters +said?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I heard. I don't have to sign up to a creed like that, +though, if I don't want to, do I?"</p> + +<p>"We all do. We agree neither to borrow, lend, nor ask favors."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I shan't make one of the gang then," observed Walter, with +a smile so good-humored that the words could not offend.</p> + +<p>"Then the more fool you, that is all I can say," laughed Wheeler. "By +the end of a month you won't have so much as a collar button to your +name. Everything you own will be gone, especially your tools. We're a +lot of pirates. I give you fair warning."</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid you'll want much that I've got," grinned Walter.</p> + +<p>The upraised stick descended in a series of rhythmic blows, sending +into the air a cloud of dust.</p> + +<p>"Where's the brush?" panted the boy, when he had beaten until his arm +ached.</p> + +<p>"Say, kid, I'm not going to have you breaking your back over my job," +asserted Wheeler in a friendly tone.</p> + +<p>"I'm not breaking my back."</p> + +<p>"But what on earth are you doing it <i>for</i>?" questioned the man, his +eyes narrowing with curiosity.</p> + +<p>"I don't know myself," returned the lad shyly. "It was just the way I +was brought up, I guess."</p> + +<p>For an interval only the sweeping of the brush broke the stillness.</p> + +<p>"I was brought up to be decent, too," observed Wheeler slowly, "but +somehow since I've been knocking round I've got to be an awful brute. +There isn't any very high standard among the crowd I mix in. Still, +I'm afraid that isn't much of an excuse for shifting back into a +savage." He paused thoughtfully, then added, "I'm much obliged to you, +sonny, for your help, and just to show you I don't forget it, sometime +when you are hard put hunt me up and ask me to give you a lift. I'm a +human being though you may not think so."</p> + +<p>With a little glow at his heart Walter moved away toward the kennels.</p> + +<p>He had made a friend, and in this new environment where he was +conscious of being very much of an outsider the consciousness brought +him a sense of comradeship and happiness.</p> + +<p>It was fortunate, however, that his altruism had detained him no +longer for before he reached the spot where the dogs were to be +quartered he heard a chorus of sharp yelps and saw what appeared to be +a dozen dogs coming across the lawn accompanied by Mrs. Crowninshield +and two of the stablemen. Some of the pack were being led, while +others, wild with joy at finding themselves unconfined, leaped and +capered wildly about their mistress. A great police dog, straining at +the leash, gave Walter a thrill of mingled admiration and timidity. He +was a huge creature with mottled coat and mighty jaws, and within his +open mouth, from which lolled his red tongue, were cruel white teeth +that could do unthinkable things. His wide brown eyes, his pointing +tail, his upright ears moving with every sound, his alert poise all +bespoke keenness and intelligence. A dog one would far rather have for +an ally than an enemy, thought the boy.</p> + +<p>Beside pranced two Airedales and a white Sealyham and to their babel +of barking was added the shrill, sympathetic note of five or six +Pekingese, one of which Mrs. Crowninshield carried under her arm.</p> + +<p>"Hush, Achilles!" she cried. "Hush, all of you! Stop your racket this +instant! They are excited at being together again," explained she to +Walter who had approached. "The Belgian and Airedales have been +boarded out during the winter and have not seen the others for months. +So, you see, this is a sort of reunion for them and they have to bark +to show their delight. Moreover, they have had a long trip and are +tired and hungry. I am going to feed them now and this meal will last +most of them until to-morrow at the same hour."</p> + +<p>"Are they fed only once a day?" gasped Walter.</p> + +<p>"That is all. You see you will not have many meals to prepare," +laughed Mrs. Crowninshield. "Only the Peeks have breakfast, but only +part of a square of puppy biscuit or some bread; so it is very simple. +Dinner, however, is much more complicated and later I shall give you +your directions as to just what every dog must have; to-night we are +to treat the lot to some raw meat, toast, and spinach."</p> + +<p>"You'll let me help you," pleaded Walter.</p> + +<p>"Certainly. That is why I came out. I want you to feed the dogs and +learn their names. In order to get on with them you must get +acquainted with them and understand the peculiarities of each one. +They are just persons, you know, and have their little whims and +queernesses. But kindness will win them to you very quickly. It is far +better than a whip. So is feeding. A dog usually obeys the person who +feeds him. He is afraid not to."</p> + +<p>As she spoke she entered the wired enclosure and putting the smaller +dogs in half of it and shutting the wicket gate upon them she told the +men to slip the leashes from the collars of the others. In a second +the Belgian, Airedales, and the fluffy Sealyham were bounding about +her. Then she beckoned to Walter.</p> + +<p>"This is Achilles," went on she, with her hand on the head of the +great monster. "He is as gentle and kind as a kitten, although he does +look as if he could swallow us alive. Don't touch him but stand still +and let him sniff you all over. It is his way of getting acquainted."</p> + +<p>Obediently the boy remained motionless while the panting jaws and +moist black nose of the dog came nearer. He could feel the creature's +hot breath on his hands, face, and hair. Then over his clothing moved +the quivering nostrils. At length the brown eyes met his and he +whispered softly:</p> + +<p>"Achilles!"</p> + +<p>The dog wagged his tail.</p> + +<p>"You have nothing to fear from him now," announced Mrs. Crowninshield. +"The Airedales are Jack Horner and Boy Blue. And the Sealyham, Miss +Nancy's dog, is called Rags."</p> + +<p>Sensing that he was being talked about, the dog blinked with friendly +eyes at Walter through its mop of coarse white hair.</p> + +<p>"In the other pen," continued Mrs. Crowninshield, "are the Pekingese +pups and I shall expect you to take the best of care of them. They are +sensitive little creatures and very valuable. I myself, however, care +very little for the money value of a dog. It is the lovable traits it +has that interest me. I should adore wee Lola, here, if she were not +worth a cent. But Mr. Crowninshield likes to own blue ribbon dogs and +enter them at the shows and therefore I will caution you that Lola, +Mimi, and Fifi," as she spoke she pointed out the dogs in question, +"cost quite a fortune and their loss or illness would be a great +calamity. So you must follow the directions concerning them most +carefully. And should any question arise about them come at once to +me."</p> + +<p>As she spoke she occasionally glanced at the boy beside her with a +quick, bright smile.</p> + +<p>"I shall have the menu for each dog sent you every day—at least +for the present—together with directions as to how to prepare +the meal as it should be prepared. The meat for the small dogs must be +put through a meat chopper and no gristle allowed to get into it; the +larger dogs can have bigger pieces, and Achilles a bone. You will find +in the room inside an ice chest in which to keep such foods as spoil. +There are also glassed-in shelves where tins of various kinds of dog +bread and puppy biscuit will be stored that they may be out of the +dampness. You are not to trouble the servants at the big house for +anything. They do not like to be interfered with. All your supplies +will be here, and you can warm whatever it is necessary to heat on +your small electric stove. Be sure to scald out the dishes after they +have been used; and also never forget to keep the bowls filled with +plenty of fresh water."</p> + +<p>"I will, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"I am sure you will," returned Mrs. Crowninshield kindly. "And do not +worry if it takes a little time to win all the dogs over to your +authority. Dogs are like children when they change masters. They will +try to play it on you at first. Just be firm with them and soon you +will have them tagging at your heels, docile as lambs."</p> + +<p>The task of preparing the food was soon completed and the mistress +looked on and encouraged while Walter doled it out to the famished +animals.</p> + +<p>How daintily the wee dogs coquetted with what was given them! And how +greedily the larger ones gobbled down their allowance and lapped the +plate for more! Achilles, crouched on the lawn with his bone, crunched +it with terrifying zeal, cracking the big joint between his jaws as if +it were made of paper. His dinner devoured he ambled over toward +Walter, once more sniffed his shoes and clothing, at last nestled his +moist nose against the boy's hand.</p> + +<p>"I think you have won Achilles to your colors already," said Mrs. +Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"He does seem friendly," returned His Highness, more pleased by the +dog's good will than he would have been willing to own.</p> + +<p>"Achilles can be very friendly when he chooses," retorted his owner. +"He can also be quite the reverse. You should see him sometime when he +is on the scent of a foe. Last summer when a man broke into the +boathouse it transformed Achilles into a lion. I was certain he would +kill the fellow; as it was he mauled him badly before we could coax +him off. The thief almost died of fright and I do not wonder. He did +not need any further punishment."</p> + +<p>She unfastened the gate to go back to the house.</p> + +<p>Immediately there was a rush.</p> + +<p>"No, you can't come, not one of you," declared she, addressing the +yelping pack through the netting. "I have far too much to do to be +bothered with any of you. Be good and take a nap. You're tired enough +to rest."</p> + +<p>Still the animals barked, rebellious at their captivity.</p> + +<p>"When I am out of sight you can let Achilles out," called she, as she +moved away. "He can be trusted to roam the place and always does when +we're here. The Airedales and the Sealyham can also run about alone as +soon as they get used to obeying you. But the little dogs must never +be let off the leash unless they are watched every instant, for +something might happen to them."</p> + +<p>"I'll be careful."</p> + +<p>"That's right; do."</p> + +<p>The woman gave him a pleasant nod of farewell and walked with +springing step back in the direction of the house. As she went Walter +saw her halt and speak to old Tim, who was at work in the rose garden, +and beheld the gardener leap proudly forward to cut for her a blossom +she had evidently admired.</p> + +<p>It was even as Jerry had said. She was the idol of Surfside.</p> + +<p>After she had disappeared he opened the wicket and stepped out, +letting Achilles follow him.</p> + +<p>Instantly the great creature put his nose to the ground and with a +joyous bark he was gone in search of his mistress.</p> + +<p>It was now or never with the new master of the hounds.</p> + +<p>The lad whistled but the dog did not turn. Again he gave a quick call. +This time the rushing beast paused, looked round, and then slackening +his pace, continued to jog along on his way.</p> + +<p>Helplessly the boy saw him go farther and farther out of reach.</p> + +<p>He must compel obedience somehow.</p> + +<p>"Achilles!" shouted he sternly. "Achilles! Back, sir!"</p> + +<p>Although he uttered the words he had not the slightest faith they +would have any effect and was amazed to see the dog waver in his +tracks.</p> + +<p>"Achilles, come here!" repeated he sharply.</p> + +<p>With reluctance the dog turned and looked at him.</p> + +<p>"Here, sir!" called Walter, with coaxing cadence.</p> + +<p>The dog continued to regard him intently but he did not move. Then +suddenly there was a rush and with panting jaws widespread the Belgian +came bounding toward him. It was not until he was close at hand that +he abated his speed. Then he came to the side of his new master and +gently laid his cold nose on his sleeve.</p> + +<p>Walter patted the great head affectionately.</p> + +<p>The battle was won. He had conquered Achilles.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<h4>HIS HIGHNESS IN A NEW ROLE</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>Before a week had passed the strangeness of living at Surfside had to +a certain extent abated and Walter found himself not only content in +his new position but enjoying it. He rose early, feeding the dogs, +exercising them, and making fresh their quarters before he breakfasted +himself. Afterward, despite the score of odd duties with which the +morning was filled, he contrived to do many little kindnesses for +Jerry, Tim, Wheeler, and the other men. He was always willing to do a +favor and amid an atmosphere where generosity was rare the virtue of +aiding others rendered him immensely popular.</p> + +<p>In the meantime he had made such headway in the affections of Achilles +that the big Belgian not only tagged at his heels everywhere he went, +but at night insisted upon extending his giant frame before the boy's +doorsill from which vantage ground neither threats nor persuasions +could stir him. In consequence the lonely hours the lad might have +experienced were put to rout by the companionship of this silent +comrade.</p> + +<p>The Airedales, on the other hand, were less successfully won over to a +new allegiance. Although Richard, who owned them, took not the +smallest care of them and serenely passed them over to some one else +to be ministered unto, nevertheless they apparently sensed the +arrangement was one of convenience and returned scant gratitude for +what was done for them. They were polite, tolerant, but never +whole-heartedly cordial. Dick was their master and they would have no +other.</p> + +<p>Fortunately Miss Nancy's Sealyham, Rags, was more responsive; +nevertheless, although she frolicked about Walter's feet and accepted +food from his hand it was more because she loved to play and was +hungry than because her affection for the boy went very deep.</p> + +<p>As for the troupe of Pekingese, with aristocratic noses tilted high in +air, they submitted to being washed, brushed, and fed by Walter much +as they would have accepted the services of any other maid or valet. +They seemed to be conscious of their pedigree and claim attention as +their right. An occasional wag of the tail or the rare passage of a +rough little tongue across one's hand was all the gratitude His +Highness ever received from them.</p> + +<p>With the Crowninshield family, however, the boy made better progress +and as he and Dick became acquainted many a pleasant hour did they +spend together. Not infrequently, when the eager yelps of the dogs +heralded the fact that they were off for their afternoon run, the New +York lad would join the party and while the animals raced this way and +that the two boys would discuss boats, fishing, and kindred +interests.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="i003"></a> +<img src="images/003.jpg" width="350" height="531" +alt="" title="" /> +</div><br /> +<h5>The two boys would discuss boats, fishing, and<br /> +kindred interests. <i>Page</i> 76</h5> + +<p>"Do you happen to know anything about wireless?" inquired Richard one +day when, with Achilles prancing far ahead and Boy Blue, Jack Horner, +and Rags dashing to keep up with him, the group strode along the +beach.</p> + +<p>"I ought to," was Walter's smiling response. "I've a brother who is an +operator at the Seaver Bay station."</p> + +<p>"No! Really?" The exclamations voiced both surprise and admiration. +"How old is he?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty-two or three."</p> + +<p>"Gee! And he can really send and receive messages?"</p> + +<p>"He sure can."</p> + +<p>"How did he learn?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he first got interested in wireless through the papers and picked +up quite a lot of information that way. Later he and his chum Billy +Hicks bought a manual and with the help of the physics teacher at the +High School they rigged up a homemade receiving apparatus on Billy's +grandfather's barn. For a while it wouldn't work for a cent, although +they tinkered with it night and day. Then one evening they did +something to it and caught their first message. You should have seen +Bob! He was crazy and came rushing straight home to make Ma drop +everything she was doing and go down to Hicks's. Now Mother was +elbow-deep in bread and declared she couldn't spoil her biscuit for +any wireless on earth. Besides, she had never had any faith in the +thing. You see, Bob had teased her for wireless money and she had told +him time and time again it was dollars thrown into a hole. My father +used to joke her about not having a scientific mind and I guess she +hasn't one. At any rate, whenever Bob would read her the wonderful +things being done with wireless, all she would say was that it wasn't +likely folks could send speeches and music loose through the air. +Those who pretended to hear them were either fibbing or were genuinely +mistaken. So when Bob did get a broadcast you can imagine how wild he +was to convince her it wasn't all bluff."</p> + +<p>"And did he?" asked Dick with interest.</p> + +<p>"Well, after a fashion," replied Walter, smiling at some amusing +memory.</p> + +<p>"Like enough I shouldn't have known much about it, either, if Bob had +not told me," continued Walter. "Bob, however, talked nothing else +morning, noon, and night. Often I would drop asleep while he was +chattering of induction coils, wave lengths, and antenna. It makes me +yawn now to think of it. My goodness, weren't Ma and I sick to death +of hearing nothing but radio! Bob would rush into the house at +mealtime, swallow his food whole, and tear off to Hicks's with a piece +of pie in his hand, leaving all the chores to me. I got pretty sore, I +can tell you." He gave a short laugh.</p> + +<p>"Between Mother begrudging the poor chap every cent he spent for +batteries and wire, and me pitching into him for forgetting to chop +the kindlings, I'm afraid his early wireless career wasn't a very +pleasant one."</p> + +<p>Once more the lad laughed, this time with comic ruefulness.</p> + +<p>"Even when the apparatus actually did begin to work and Bob and Billy +were able to get a concert or lecture now and then, Ma insisted they +were bluffing her. She listened in but wasn't convinced, declaring +they had fastened a victrola to the receivers and that such sounds +never could come through the air. Finally they did succeed in getting +her to half believe they were telling her the truth and were not just +working her for money. But when they tried to explain the outfit to +her in detail, she put her hands over her ears, protesting that they +were wasting their breath to tell her of damped and undamped waves, +detectors, and generators. With that they gave up further attempts to +educate her."</p> + +<p>Both boys chuckled.</p> + +<p>"But she must be proud of your brother now," asserted Dick.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she is—tremendously, although what she chiefly thinks about +is the danger Bob is in of getting struck by lightning or +electrocuted."</p> + +<p>Achilles, who had been pursuing some sandpipers along the rim of the +surf and sent them circling into the air, now raced back to his +friends with a sharp bark of salutation and Dick bent to pat the +shaggy head.</p> + +<p>"So really," reflected he, "your brother taught himself wireless."</p> + +<p>"Not wholly. He simply laid a foundation," the other boy explained. +"He could never have taken a job on what he had picked up because, +you see, he knew nothing of sending messages, was ignorant of all the +rules an operator has to have at his tongue's end, and had no very +thorough knowledge of electricity. It was not like a complete +training, by any means. The war gave him that. When it broke out he +enlisted in the navy, and because he was partially equipped in radio +they sent him off posthaste to a wireless school. At the time he was +crazy because his dream was to get across and be in the fighting. To +sit at home studying was the last thing he wanted to do. Later, +though, when he began to see what a big part wireless was playing in +the scrimmage, he commenced to be more resigned to his lot. Besides he +got his chance before long, for he worked into being a crackerjack at +speed and passed his exams so well that he had no trouble in winning +his first-class operator's certificate.</p> + +<p>"There are grades of radio men, you know, just as there are grades of +everything else. There are the sharks, or first-class chaps, who are +able to pass every sort of test on the adjustment of apparatus and how +to use it; who can both send and receive messages at the rate of at +least twenty words a minute, and who can often go much faster; and who +have all the rules governing the exchange of radio messages stowed +away in their heads. They are the A1 men and every first-class ship is +obliged by law to have aboard it two of them. Then there are the +second-class certificate fellows who practically have as much radio +but cannot hit such a gait, and can only manage to send between +twelve and nineteen words a minute. They can go on first-class ships +provided more skilled operators are aboard. Sometimes, even, they +substitute for them under supervision. Their chief jobs, however, are +on ships that use wireless only for their personal benefit; that is, +to talk with their own crews. Often a fishing fleet, for instance, +will carry a man of this class to communicate with its other vessels. +They can talk, too, with shore stations when it is necessary. But the +law does not allow them to take positions where there is a great rush +of business and general responsibility. They must have the topnotchers +for such work."</p> + +<p>"I had no idea there were so many rules about radio," mused Dick.</p> + +<p>"There are—strict ones, too," replied his companion. "Moreover, +the government keeps tabs on all radio people to see they obey the +rules. Every wireless man is examined, classified, and given a license +just as an automobile driver is. He has to keep it handy, too, and be +ready to trot it out on request. You can't get by with bluffing. If an +operator is found to be unfamiliar with the rules, or is discovered +breaking any of them, his certificate can be withdrawn. No chap wants +to risk that, especially if he is trying to earn his living by +wireless. And if a ship, and not its radio operator, is found to be +breaking the rules, the coastal stations may be notified not to have +anything to do with her. In other words she is boycotted and the land +operators told neither to receive her messages nor answer them."</p> + +<p>"That would be some boycott!"</p> + +<p>"The shipboard radio stations, you see, come under the authority of +the commanding officer of the ship. It has to be so, because in case +of accident he would be the person responsible for sending out +distress calls and answering them. The radio man couldn't just grab +the power. There has to be one boss of every job."</p> + +<p>"I can see that," nodded Dick. "But why such a network of other +rules?"</p> + +<p>"There have to be. It all has to be charted in black and white or +there would be terrible mix-ups."</p> + +<p>"And do foreign ships have to fall into line and do as our ships do +when they come here?"</p> + +<p>"They are expected to, Bob said," answered Walter. "In case they do +not, however, they cannot be meddled with by underlings. Instead they +are immediately reported to the government and the two countries +involved settle their dispute by arbitration. It is too delicate a +matter for others to butt in on, for some blunderer might offend +another country and get us into war just through being stupid. +Conversely, when our ships are in foreign waters they must keep the +naval rules of the nation they are visiting."</p> + +<p>"That's fair."</p> + +<p>"It sure is," agreed Walter. "Besides that, all the shipboard radio +stations have to carry with them their license to prove that they are +authorized by their countries to operate a wireless outfit, and that +they fulfil the requirements of the government whose flag they fly. +Should any trouble arise when they are in a foreign port they can be +asked to produce this license; and if the foreign authorities whom +they are visiting have reason to suspect they are not meeting the +standards the license demands they can complain to the government that +is responsible for the ship."</p> + +<p>"But suppose the government didn't know anything about such a ship?"</p> + +<p>"Great Scott! But it does, man," ejaculated Walter. "There are lists +that contain not only the name and nationality of all ships but even +the names and addresses of its radio operators. There is no getting by +that."</p> + +<p>"So the ships themselves are not allowed to take up their own quarrel +if they are challenged?" commented Dick.</p> + +<p>"No. They simply have to stay perfectly polite and keep their mouths +shut, no matter how mad they are," grinned His Highness. "Otherwise +there would be squabbles all the time, for there are always +misunderstandings and grudges, and people who enjoy picking on one +another. All the ships would be fighting and the countries that owned +them, too, if everybody rolled up his sleeves and pitched into the +other fellow when things went wrong. Governments are supposed to be +more slow-moving, fair, and impartial. And anyhow, it is their job to +look out for their own citizens and see they are squarely treated. Bob +says it is a more dignified way than for individuals to fight out +their own quarrels. It certainly carries more weight. Nobody is going +to bully a ship and make trouble for its crew if a big nation stands +behind it. It serves as a check on the men, too, Bob told me, for when +they are in other countries and have shore leave they have to remember +that they must behave themselves and not disgrace their governments."</p> + +<p>"You can't sail out of reach of Uncle Sam, eh? Apparently he knows in +a general way just how you are conducting yourself all the time," +smiled Dick.</p> + +<p>"That's about it," acquiesced Walter.</p> + +<p>Whistling to the dogs, they turned about.</p> + +<p>"What a pile you know about all this," Dick presently observed.</p> + +<p>"Shucks! No, I don't," blushed His Highness. "I am only repeating what +Bob spieled off to me. He likes to talk when he's home and I like to +listen. It's interesting—at least I think so. Besides, I'm proud +of Bob knowing such a lot. I wish I did."</p> + +<p>The lad dug his heel into the moist sand and watched the hole fill +with water.</p> + +<p>"Somehow I'm an awful boob at books," he suddenly confessed. "I hate +so to study that Ma fairly has to haul me along by the hair or I'd +never go to school. I barely skinned through this year. Up to the very +last minute we all had cold chills for fear I wouldn't."</p> + +<p>Dick shot the offender a sympathetic glance.</p> + +<p>"I don't like reading about things myself so well as doing them," he +confided. "I'm crazy about machinery. It's fun to tinker with +it—take it to pieces and put it together again. I like nothing +better than to overhaul an engine."</p> + +<p>He held up two grease-stained hands.</p> + +<p>"It horrifies my mother," he continued, "but my father doesn't seem to +mind if I am all black with oil from my car or the motor boats. What I +want now is a wireless outfit. I'm going to strike Dad for one my +birthday. It comes the last of this month and he might as well give me +that as anything else. Do you suppose if he got it we could rig it up +together?"</p> + +<p>Walter's eyes opened at the casualness of the observation.</p> + +<p>In his family a birthday was an occasion for a chocolate cake, some +neckties, and perhaps a pair of rubber boots or a similar useful gift. +Or it sometimes brought with it a book and a box of candy. Never by +any chance did its felicitations expand into a gift so colossal as a +wireless apparatus. The breach between the two lads, which during the +exchange of confidences had narrowed into nothingness, widened +abruptly.</p> + +<p>"A good set would be some present," he commented, thinking, perhaps, +the other boy might be ignorant of its value.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess it would not break Dad," smiled Dick serenely. "He gave +me my car last year, and the year before—let me think—oh, +the pups!" He pointed to the Airedales, a streak of buff against the +green of the distant marsh. "Wireless couldn't cost much more."</p> + +<p>"N—o, I don't believe it would," His Highness admitted slowly, +the contrast in their financial standards seeping in on him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I imagine I could have a set all right if I said the word," +continued Dick, with the indifference of one to whom such presents +brought no agitation. "The question is, could we set it up if we had +it?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't," came promptly from Walter. "I think, though, that if Bob +was home on leave he might help us."</p> + +<p>"Your brother? I had forgotten him. So he is at home sometimes?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. He gets off for a day now and then."</p> + +<p>"It must be a whole lot of a bore to be tied down in a wireless +station listening for messages all the time," observed Dick +carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Operators do not have to sit with their ears glued to the receivers +every second, man," declared the village lad. "The men are relieved at +regular hours. Besides, all stations both on shore and on shipboard +are divided into classes and have their hours carefully mapped out for +them. There are three different varieties of shipboard stations, for +example. Some have constant service; that is, operators are always +listening while the ship is underway. Then there is a second sort +where the operator listens in only during specified hours when the +office is open for business. A third class has no fixed hours at all, +the radio man just listening the first ten minutes of each hour."</p> + +<p>"So the men just suit themselves, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Suit themselves! You bet they don't," laughed Walter. "The government +defines their hours when their license is issued. The class they are +put in decides it."</p> + +<p>"That's news to me," said Dick. "And the shore stations?"</p> + +<p>"The shore stations are a chapter in themselves," Walter replied. +"There are several different kinds and each kind has its own rules."</p> + +<p>"You don't propose to tell me about them, then," retorted the New +Yorker mischievously.</p> + +<p>"It's too long a yarn," answered the other. "Besides, I might not get +it straight. Sometime, though, if you want me to, I'll pass on what I +know. But to-day I guess we ought to be hiking back. It is close onto +the time the pack is fed and I may have them yelping at my throat if I +don't hurry."</p> + +<p>Quickening their pace the boys whistled to the dogs who came dashing +through the clumps of bayberry that dotted the field. They were +panting with thirst and only too ready to turn homeward. Across the +sandy hillocks, through pine-shaded stretches of woods, along the road +walled in with June roses they raced and chased, stopping now and +again to look back and make certain that their masters were following. +When the spit of sand narrowed to a ribbon and the entrance to +Surfside was reached they halted, lying down to cool off in the fresh +sea breeze until they should be overtaken. At the gate Dick and Walter +parted.</p> + +<p>It was amusing to see the Airedales waver, then lured by hunger, +desert their owner and pursue Walter and Achilles.</p> + +<p>They came up with lolling tongues at the kennels just as His Highness +was unlocking the door.</p> + +<p>While he fumbled with the latch he noticed they sniffed excitedly +about and that Achilles barked.</p> + +<p>"You're starved, poor old chaps!" remarked he aloud. "Well, no matter. +You shall have your dinner right off now."</p> + +<p>Coaxing them in he banged the wicket behind him and passed through +into the pen where the Pekingese, clamoring for their food, came +yelping to meet him.</p> + +<p>Instinctively he scanned the fluffy-coated group. Lola was not there.</p> + +<p>The discovery, however, caused him no concern for often Mrs. +Crowninshield carried the prize-winner up to the big house or took her +for a ride in the car. Therefore, although her bright eyes were +missing he did not worry, but fed the other dogs and gave them fresh +water.</p> + +<p>The task completed, he sauntered toward the garage.</p> + +<p>How still it was everywhere. With the exception of Dick's racer every +car was gone and all the chauffeurs with them. Even Jerry was nowhere +about; and the gardeners were far down on the south slope where he +could just detect the clip of their shears as they trimmed the privet +hedge.</p> + +<p>The grounds were as deserted as if the earth had swallowed up every +inhabitant. Surfside, deprived of its accustomed hum and bustle, was +actually lonely. With uncertain step the boy loitered in the sun, +glancing at the expanse of sea and at a knockabout that heeled +dangerously in the rising wind. Thinking he might find Jerry and thus +banish solitude he meandered up the avenue toward the house.</p> + +<p>Jerry, however, was nowhere to be seen but the silence was broken by +the siren horns of approaching motors and the Crowninshield cars came +rolling in through the broad entrance.</p> + +<p>Since he chanced to be on the spot he may as well go up to the +veranda, meet the family, and bring Lola back with him to be fed and +tucked up for the night.</p> + +<p>Accordingly he hurried along and was at the steps almost as soon as +the automobiles came to a stop.</p> + +<p>Together with a company of laughing guests, Nancy and Mr. and Mrs. +Crowninshield alighted.</p> + +<p>"Such a beautiful ride as we've had, Dick!" called Mrs. Crowninshield +to her son. "We've been over to Harwich and picked up the Davenports, +you see, and brought them home for the evening. I think, Mrs. +Davenport, you remember my son, Richard. Nancy, take Janet and Marie +in with you so they can leave their wraps. You young people will have +just about time for a set of tennis before dinner."</p> + +<p>The cars had shot away and she was about to go indoors when the +mistress of the house espied Walter.</p> + +<p>"Did you wish to see me?" she called.</p> + +<p>"I thought I'd take Lola down to the kennels."</p> + +<p>"Lola! Is she here?"</p> + +<p>"I thought you had her."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed."</p> + +<p>"But she must be here at the house."</p> + +<p>"No, she isn't. I never leave her with the maids. She is at the +kennels."</p> + +<p>"I've just come from there."</p> + +<p>"And she wasn't there?"</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?"</p> + +<p>"Positive!"</p> + +<p>"But my dear boy, didn't you leave her there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But I thought you took her when you went to drive. You have a +key."</p> + +<p>"I didn't."</p> + +<p>"And you did not give the key to any of the maids?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not."</p> + +<p>"Well, she isn't there," announced Walter, a tremor of trepidation +passing over him.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! She must be. Where else could she be?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you haven't half looked," smiled Mrs. Crowninshield reassuringly. +"Lola is such a tiny dog she often gets hidden away out of sight. I'll +come and find her for you."</p> + +<p>Excusing herself to her guests she followed Walter across the grass +and in silence they unfastened the wire gate that led into the +enclosure where the Pekingese were kept. But search as they would they +failed to discover the missing dog. Lola was gone! <i>Gone!</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<h4>THE PURSUIT OF LOLA</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>Yes, Lola was gone; there could be no question about that.</p> + +<p>Had not Walter scented trouble he would soon have been made aware of +it by the excitement that prevailed in the Peeks' kennels. Every dog +of the lot was barking furiously and with gleaming eyes and tail erect +striving to communicate tidings of importance. Yet bark as they might, +the message they sought to voice remained, alas, untold.</p> + +<p>"If they could only speak we should soon know what has happened," +bewailed the lad to Mrs. Crowninshield, as for the hundredth time they +searched every nook and corner for a clue to the mystery.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they know—poor little things," their mistress agreed. +"They are trying their best to tell the story, too. I'd give worlds to +know what it is."</p> + +<p>"And I."</p> + +<p>"You are certain you locked everything up when you took the other dogs +out."</p> + +<p>"Positive. Dick was with me and we both tried the gate before we +started."</p> + +<p>"Nothing seems to be disturbed."</p> + +<p>"No. That is the strange part of it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crowninshield stopped, hot and breathless from her search.</p> + +<p>"I cannot believe but that the mite will turn up. Have you asked Jerry +or Tim?"</p> + +<p>"They were nowhere about when I got back," Walter replied. "The whole +place was still as the grave. I was just going to hunt up Jerry when I +saw the cars coming up the avenue."</p> + +<p>"Well, I must not delay any longer now," announced Mrs. Crowninshield. +"The Davenports will be wondering what has become of me and so will +everybody else. Just find Jerry and Tim and quietly make sure they +have not taken the dog. In the meantime I will inquire of the maids at +the house. We will not, however, make too much talk about it, and send +out an alarm until we are certain there is a real tragedy. If I can +keep Mr. Crowninshield in ignorance of the matter until our guests +have gone I shall be glad. He will be dreadfully upset for he took +great pride in his possession of Lola and has declined numberless +offers to sell her."</p> + +<p>"I know it," groaned Walter. "If it were only one of the other dogs +that was missing!"</p> + +<p>"The fact that it isn't is what alarms me," returned the woman. "Lola +is a quiet little thing and has been petted so much that it would not +be like her to run away. Some of the other dogs might but she +wouldn't. She is far too timid."</p> + +<p>"How could she run away, even if she had a mind to, with the gate +locked?"</p> + +<p>"I know. That is another ominous fact." Mrs. Crowninshield shook her +head. "I'm afraid——"</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"That she has been stolen."</p> + +<p>"Stolen!" gasped Walter. "But how could she with—with everybody +around?"</p> + +<p>"But you yourself just said that nobody was around."</p> + +<p>"Jove! That's true. Still somebody must have been here some time +during the afternoon. It is not likely Jerry, Tim, and all the rest +were out of hearing all the time I was gone."</p> + +<p>"That is what we must find out."</p> + +<p>"I'll go and hunt up Jerry now."</p> + +<p>"Do. But work quietly; do not make a fuss. It will be time enough to +get everybody up in arms when we have to. I dread to think what Mr. +Crowninshield will say. He will be furious, simply furious."</p> + +<p>With this dubious prediction his wife walked away.</p> + +<p>She herself was upset. It was easy enough to see that. She strove, +however, to be calm, clinging desperately to the hope that the dog +might be discovered in the care of some of the men or maids. She +idolized Lola and although she did not admit it, His Highness knew +only too well that if it really proved that her pet was gone she, too, +would be furious.</p> + +<p>"A nice mess!" commented the lad to himself as he hurried across the +lawn in search of Jerry. "A nice hole I am in the very first thing! +Between them they will tear me to pieces. And Ma—Ma will say, +'<i>I told you so!</i>' That's all the sympathy I'll get from her. She'll +have to know, of course, for Mr. Crowninshield will fire me bag and +baggage. I must expect that. Jerry as good as told me so when I came. +I sha'n't have a chance to defend myself. They will just believe I +left the gate of the kennels unlocked when I went out and that Lola +made off as fast as her four small feet could carry her. They will +either think that, or they will think—" he stopped aghast at the +possibility that had taken possession of his mind. "They couldn't +think I left it open on purpose for some one to get in and <i>take</i> +Lola! They couldn't think that! But suppose Mr. Crowninshield did +decide I was an accomplice what proof have I but my word that I +wasn't. It does look bad—my being gone and taking Achilles and +the other dogs with me. Still, I've done it every day since I've been +here. And anyway, they would know I could not entice Jerry and Tim +away even if I had wanted to."</p> + +<p>The boy took courage.</p> + +<p>"No, of course they couldn't think <i>I</i> had anything to do with Lola +being gone," he murmured.</p> + +<p>By this time he had overtaken Tim and his fellow workers who were +still busy clipping the hedge.</p> + +<p>"Tim!" he called.</p> + +<p>There was no answer but the crisp snip, snip of the shears.</p> + +<p>"Tim!"</p> + +<p>"Did you call?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. You haven't seen Lola, have you?"</p> + +<p>"Lola? Indeed I haven't. What would she be doing round here, I'd like +to know?"</p> + +<p>His Highness struggled to smile.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I just thought you might have seen her."</p> + +<p>"She's not at the kennels?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then the mistress took her up to the house. She often does. She +is clean daffy over that dog. Give yourself no concern, sonny; the pup +is with the master and missis, being shown off to company, most +likely."</p> + +<p>"Probably she is. So you and the men have been here all the +afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"That we have. A hot job, the cutting of this hedge."</p> + +<p>"It looks fine," declared Walter, turning away.</p> + +<p>"It ought to," Tim growled. "Goodness knows it's trouble enough! A +privet hedge is the devil to keep even."</p> + +<p>Walter, however, did not wait to hear the virtues and vices of privet +hedges discussed. He was in too much of a hurry. Furthermore, he had +secured the information which he had come to seek. Tim and his host +knew nothing of the whereabouts of Lola. Nothing else mattered. In +fact, bewildered, anxious, and excited, it seemed at the moment as if +nothing else would ever matter again. He must find that dog—he +<i>must</i>!</p> + +<p>Nevertheless he remembered he must not appear agitated and therefore, +instead of racing across the lawn and shouting for Jerry as would have +been his inclination, he walked decorously along the path until he +came to the boathouse from which door Jerry was at that instant +issuing.</p> + +<p>"You haven't seen Lola, have you, Jerry?" he asked as indifferently as +he could.</p> + +<p>"Lola? No. Why?"</p> + +<p>"It—it is just her dinner time," stammered the lad, "and I +wanted to find her."</p> + +<p>"She'll be up at the house, most likely, if she isn't at the kennels," +announced Jerry. "There's visitors and Lola will be on deck to see +'em. She's a vain little lady and likes to be shown off."</p> + +<p>Walter greeted the remark with a sickly grin.</p> + +<p>"What have you been doing?" inquired he idly.</p> + +<p>"Me? Why, I was just starting to fix that hasp on the gate to the +chicken coop when Minnie came running down from the house to say +somebody wanted to speak to me on the telephone. It was a +long-distance call and kept me there most half an hour; and what it +was all about I don't know now. Some feller I never heard of kept +talking and talking, and I couldn't make head nor tail out of anything +he said. Finally I told him so and hung up the receiver. I can't +imagine who he was. Nobody ever telephones me."</p> + +<p>"So you didn't get the hasp fixed on the hen yard."</p> + +<p>"I would have hadn't the cook held me up just as I was leaving and +wanted I should put a new washer on the kitchen faucet. I saw it +needed it the worst way. In fact, I had planned to do it before the +folks came and it had slipped my mind. So I tinkered with that and +got nothing else done. I'm just after mending a hinge on the boathouse +door. A profitless afternoon, I call it."</p> + +<p>"So you haven't been back to your diggings since noon."</p> + +<p>"Not a once. Why? Did you want me?"</p> + +<p>"N—o. Oh, no."</p> + +<p>"That's lucky. Apparently everybody else did," concluded Jerry grimly.</p> + +<p>So went Walter's quest! Nobody had seen Lola. Nobody knew anything +about her. Question as he would, not the faintest trace of the missing +dog could be obtained; and when the Davenports rolled down the drive +the lad faced the awful moment when his secret must be divulged and +the alarm sounded that Lola, the Crowninshields' most valued +possession, was missing. Rapidly he turned the prospect of the coming +storm over in his mind.</p> + +<p>Since the dog had been left in his charge the only manly thing to do, +he argued, was to go directly to Mr. Crowninshield and himself +acquaint him with the direful tidings. It would be cowardly to shunt +this wretched task off on somebody else. It was his duty and his +alone. Nevertheless, as he stood for a moment summoning his courage, +he would have given all he possessed to escape the interview that +awaited him.</p> + +<p>He would be scolded, blamed, discharged—that he knew—and +he must bear bravely censure for something which he could not feel was +his fault. Yet notwithstanding the fact that his conscience +exonerated him it made the coming scene no less dreadful to +anticipate.</p> + +<p>If Bob were only at hand to offer him his advice and sympathy. Bob was +such a bully comforter. He never jumped on a man when he was down. +Besides, he had a level head and always knew exactly what to do in an +emergency. The instant this awful talk with Mr. Crowninshield was over +and he was actually "fired" he should call Bob on the telephone and +tell him the whole story. He must tell somebody, and Bob would +understand better than anyone else just how everything had happened.</p> + +<p>In the meantime there was nothing to be gained by further delay.</p> + +<p>Pulling himself together, His Highness (a very meek bit of royalty +now) dragged himself up the flower-bordered path toward Surfside. As +he went it seemed as if every pansy flanking the walk stared out at +him and whispered, "Aha, young man! You're in for it now!"</p> + +<p>Alas, he did not need to be told that! He knew it only too well. He +cleared his throat, wondering how he should begin his confession.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Crowninshield, I have some very sad news to impart to +you—etc."; or "Mr. Crowninshield, I regret to say a very +terrible thing has happened." Such an introduction was easily +delivered. It was the next sentence that appalled him. He could not +get it off his tongue. "<i>Lola has disappeared!</i>" He could see now the +great man's face as it flushed with anger and surprise. What would +<i>he</i> say—that was the question?</p> + +<p>Probably his reply would be something like this.</p> + +<p>"Young fellow, when I hired you, you undertook to look out for my dogs +and see that nothing happened to them. I agreed to pay you good wages +to perform that service and you, on your part, promised to do it +satisfactorily. How have you kept that promise? You knew Lola's value +and you should have looked out for her. It's up to you. You must +either produce that dog or you must pay for her."</p> + +<p>He had by this time reached the house and like a criminal who faces +execution and mounts the scaffold steps he climbed the broad flight +leading to the front door. Mr. Crowninshield was on the veranda, +sitting quietly in a big wicker chair, looking out toward the sea. He +was thinking so intently on some imagining of his own that he did not +hear the lad's footfall and Walter was obliged to address him twice +before he answered. Then he started suddenly, as if annoyed at being +disturbed.</p> + +<p>"Well?" interrogated he.</p> + +<p>The fine introduction that His Highness had planned to utter, together +with everything else he had arranged to say, fled from his memory and +he stood speechless before his employer.</p> + +<p>"You wish to see me?" Mr. Crowninshield repeated in a less sharp tone.</p> + +<p>"I—yes, sir."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, despite the heavy pause the words the boy sought would +not come. Instead a plaintive jumble of phrases tumbled incoherently +forth, astounding the lad himself almost as much as they did the +person to whom they were addressed:</p> + +<p>"Oh, sir, I've lost your dog, Lola! I didn't mean to and I didn't +really lose her. She was gone when I got back from my walk with +Achilles and the others. I left her locked in all right—I know I +did. Where she is or how she got out I've no idea. I'm terribly sorry. +I can't possibly pay for her, and you'll just have to put me in +prison. It's the only way, I guess. Don't blame my mother or Bob, +please, or Jerry either, because I've turned out to be such a duffer. +It isn't their fault. And perhaps I better go straight home. I suppose +you won't want me round here any more."</p> + +<p>A great gasp strangled any further utterance and only the lad's +sobbing breath broke the stillness.</p> + +<p>Nerved to receive a scourge of maledictions or a blow the culprit +waited. But nothing came—neither vindictives nor chastisement. +He ventured to raise his head and confront his judge.</p> + +<p>Mr. Crowninshield was sitting looking far out to sea exactly as before +and Walter actually began to wonder whether he had been turned to +stone or had been stricken with deafness.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Crowninshield!" he at last ejaculated when the silence had become +intolerable.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Did you hear what I said?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sonny."</p> + +<p>"Well—well—what are you going to do with me?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, my boy."</p> + +<p>"<i>What?</i>"</p> + +<p>"This job about Lola is nothing to do with you, my son. It has +evidently been planned for a long time and carefully executed by +professionals. Had you been on the spot they would have contrived to +circumvent you just as they did Jerry. A gang have beaten us, that's +all. But I will show them I am not to be beaten so easily. I'll have +that dog back if it takes every dollar I have in the world. And I'll +land those chaps behind the bars, every one of them, or my name isn't +Crowninshield."</p> + +<p>A tide of angry color surged over the face of the speaker and he rose +abruptly, as if forgetting the lad's presence.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir!" he continued. "I'll round up those thieves. They needn't +put me down for such an ass. Of course it's Daly and that New York +bunch that set them on. They have always wanted Lola and been mad as +hatters that I refused to sell her. Only the last time I saw Jake Daly +he said, 'What I can't get by fair means I sometimes get by foul, +Crowninshield, so you'd better look out for your precious dog.' I did +not heed the threat at the time, attributing it to temper. But +evidently he meant just what he said. He intended to have the dog, +whether or no. But by thunder," Mr. Crowninshield brought down his +fist on the piazza rail, "he won't win out in the deal! I'll jail him +and all his tribe—see if I don't!"</p> + +<p>Walter, watching, hardly knew whether to go or stay. The man's rage +was terrible and he thanked his lucky stars that it was not directed +toward himself.</p> + +<p>"Is—is—there anything I can do, Mr. Crowninshield?" he at +last managed to stammer after the master had ceased his pacing of the +veranda and at length became conscious of his presence.</p> + +<p>"Not a thing, little chap," returned his employer, flashing him one of +his rare smiles. "You have been mighty white about this, though. I +guess it took some nerve to come up here and tell me this, didn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, it did."</p> + +<p>"I wondered what you'd do."</p> + +<p>"Wondered?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Mrs. Crowninshield told me about Lola the minute the Davenports +went. I saw the affair had nothing to do with you. Nevertheless, I +wasn't sorry to try you out and see how much of the man was in you. +You're all right, boy. Cheer up! Nobody is going to pack you home to +your mother, so don't worry. And far from blaming you, if I want help +about finding Lola, I'll add you to my detective force. You may be +useful, who knows?"</p> + +<p>The words, designed merely to be comforting, were idly, kindly spoken, +and carried little real weight. Had the master of the house really +suspected how true they were to prove he would have been astonished.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h3> + +<h4>A BLUNDER AND WHAT CAME OF IT</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>As if a weight had been removed from his soul Walter moved away. The +whole world had suddenly become a different place. Although the +calamity of Lola's disappearance was none the less distressing at +least on his own particular horizon there no longer loomed the spectre +of discharge and all the disgrace that accompanied it. He could have +tossed his cap into the air for very joy and gratitude. In his relief +he was bursting to talk to somebody, and as he had permission to use +the telephone in order to keep in touch with his family it occurred to +him that now was the moment to call up Bob and impart the exciting +tidings of the afternoon. Bob was always off duty at this hour and if +he had the good luck to find him at the station just the sound of his +voice would be infinitely comforting.</p> + +<p>Hastening in the side door he glanced into the wee telephone closet.</p> + +<p>No one was there, and he took down the receiver and called the Seaver +Bay station. In another instant Bob's <i>Hello</i> came cheerily over the +wire.</p> + +<p>"It's Walter, Bob."</p> + +<p>"Anything the matter, kid?"</p> + +<p>"N—o. Yes. That is, something <i>was</i> the matter but it is all +over now. I just wanted to talk to you."</p> + +<p>"Well, fire ahead. What do you want to say?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, a lot. I hardly know how to start." The boy laughed nervously.</p> + +<p>"You're not sick?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no."</p> + +<p>"Well, we can't hold this line forever, son, so break away and tell +your tale as fast as you can."</p> + +<p>"I'll try to, Bob."</p> + +<p>Incoherently the lad poured out his story. Once launched it came +readily from his tongue and he continued to the end of it without +interruption from his distant listener. When, however, he had +finished, Bob's crisp tones came singing over the wire:</p> + +<p>"You went out to walk about three, you say?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And returned?"</p> + +<p>"It must have been half-past four or five, I guess."</p> + +<p>"And there was nobody about the place all that time?"</p> + +<p>"The men were all busy somewhere else. Strangely enough even Jerry, +who usually is on deck, had a telephone call and had to go up to the +big house."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he did!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It was funny, too, because it was somebody he didn't know at all +and he couldn't find out what the fellow wanted."</p> + +<p>"What's that?" The interrogation was sharp and tense.</p> + +<p>"Jerry just said it was some man up in Brockton whom he didn't know +and as he couldn't make head nor tail out of the message he hung up +the receiver. Nobody ever telephones to Jerry. It was queer they +should do it to-day, wasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Very. Did you tell Mr. Crowninshield about it?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, indeed. He was too busy about Lola to think of anything +else."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, I would tell him."</p> + +<p>"What for? It wouldn't interest him."</p> + +<p>"I think it might—a good deal. You tell him. Do you know whether +he has done anything yet or not?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't. I didn't dare ask him what he was going to do."</p> + +<p>"I suppose not. Well, I'm glad you got out of this snarl so well, kid. +It's a pity they've lost the dog. You take mighty good care of the +rest of the pups and don't let any more of them disappear."</p> + +<p>"I'll try. And Bob——"</p> + +<p>"I can't stop to talk any longer now, old chap. So long! If they get a +line on the thief you might ring me up again. I shall be interested. +Good-by."</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Bob."</p> + +<p>How fair Bob always was, reflected the boy, as he emerged into the +open and made his way back to the kennels. Some brothers would +probably have blurted out, "That's you all over!" or "Trust you to get +into a mess!" But Bob never enjoyed seeing somebody else miserable. +Instead he always tried to make everybody's troubles smaller than they +really were. One could confess one's sins to Bob, knowing that he +would be merciful.</p> + +<p>So thought Walter as he sped down the gravel path to greet the +clamoring pack of animals that hungrily awaited his coming.</p> + +<p>"Well, old sports!" called he as he turned the key in the lock, "I +guess you are ready for your supper. Wondering where your boss was, +eh? I'm not very late. Only a quarter of an hour. It isn't late enough +to warrant your making such a fuss. Down, Achilles! What's the matter +with you? Anybody'd think you were crazy to see you jumping up and +whining this way. What's got you, old man? Down, I say!"</p> + +<p>He pushed the dog from him and started to enter the room where the +food was kept; but again Achilles was in his path.</p> + +<p>"Get out of my way, you beggar!" smiled Walter, playfully attempting +to shake the creature off. "What is it? Are you clean starved? If you +are you must stand out of the way so I can get you something to eat."</p> + +<p>But the dog refused to move.</p> + +<p>Planting himself squarely in the lad's pathway he began to bark +furiously.</p> + +<p>Then he raced to the gate, sniffed, and struggled to get out.</p> + +<p>"What on earth has struck you, you giant?" inquired Walter, regarding +the great creature in bewilderment. "Don't you want your dinner?"</p> + +<p>It was plain in an instant that no matter what the lure of a bone +might ordinarily be to-day, it held no charms for the big police dog. +He had one wish and only one, and that was to be released from the +wire enclosure in which he was penned and left free to follow some +plan of his own which evidently absorbed him. So insistent was his +demand that it was not to be denied and Walter slipped the bolt and +allowed him to race away. Then the boy turned his attention to feeding +the other dogs.</p> + +<p>"Achilles probably has a bone buried somewhere," he muttered to +himself, "and is going to dig it up. Just why he prefers stale food to +fresh I can't see; but apparently he does."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless His Highness had scarcely finished giving the dogs their +dinner before Achilles was back again, and with no bone, either. On +the contrary he was hot, breathless, and panting from what had +obviously been a long run through the woods. Pine needles clinging to +his furry coat attested that he had been over in the grove that +flanked the estate on the west.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't find your hidden treasure, eh, old boy?" commented Walter. +"Gone, was it? Some other dog taken it?"</p> + +<p>But Achilles failed to accept the jest with the cordiality such jokes +commonly evoked. He neither wagged his tail nor stretched his jaws +into a grin. Instead he began to yelp and bound back and forth upon +the lawn.</p> + +<p>"You act possessed. What on earth is the matter?" asked the boy, +coming toward the gate and starting to open it.</p> + +<p>No sooner was his hand on the latch, however, than the Belgian raced +up with sharp barks of delight.</p> + +<p>"Want me to come out, do you? Got something to show me?"</p> + +<p>Again Achilles barked joyfully.</p> + +<p>"Aren't you the tyrant, though?" remarked Walter. "I've just been to +walk and am tired as the deuce. What do I wish to go tramping over the +country again for?"</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, despite his grudging protest, nothing else would satisfy +the dog and at length, curious to see what caused the creature's +excitement, he slipped the lock and stepped outside on to the turf. +Instantly an exultant bark came from Achilles and he dashed away, only +to return and take the lead through the woods, his nose to the ground +and his ears erect. The boy followed. It was a race to keep up with +the rapidly running vanguard. Now the chase skirted the lawn, now +dipped into the pine woods. On and on went the dog, and in pursuit of +him on and on went Walter.</p> + +<p>They floundered along the slippery matting of copper, stumbling this +way and that, and presently emerged where the land dropped down to the +shore. The lad paused. He had no mind to scramble through the tall +salt grass or sink ankle deep in the stretch of sand that adjoined it. +But Achilles compelled. It was now no longer a matter of choice. The +beast approached and catching the corner of the lad's sweater in his +mouth tugged at it resolutely, even angrily.</p> + +<p>Walter dared not resist. He let himself down over the edge of the bank +into the sharp-edged grass, and wading through it reached the sand. +Here Achilles halted. The end of their pilgrimage had, then, been +reached. What was it all about? For a moment dog and man faced one +another. Then, glancing about, His Highness gave a little cry. There +were footprints in the sand,—deep footprints that the moisture +had kept indelible. A train of them came and went toward a ribbon of +automobile tracks that narrowed away up the beach and were finally +lost in the confusion of a much traveled wood road.</p> + +<p>Walter's heart leaped within him as the significance of the discovery +rose before his imagination. This was the way Lola had gone.</p> + +<p>A thief, familiar with the country and knowing the isolation of this +sequestered cove, had driven through the wood road, left the car +behind the dunes, and skulking through the woods, had successfully +carried out a daring robbery. Perhaps he had been lingering concealed +about the gardens all day or even many days. Who could tell? At any +rate, he had chosen a propitious moment, provided himself with a +skeleton key, and carried Lola away in the waiting motor car. Where +they were now, who could tell? A car travels fast and a long distance +could be covered in the two hours that had elapsed. Certainly no more +time must be wasted.</p> + +<p>With Achilles leaping before him Walter raced back to Surfside. Mr. +Crowninshield, irritable and excited, was just coming out of the +house.</p> + +<p>"May I speak to you a moment, sir?" panted the boy.</p> + +<p>"Yes, if it is important. I'm in a rush so do not delay me."</p> + +<p>"But it's about Lola."</p> + +<p>"Lola! Go ahead, then, if you have anything to say."</p> + +<p>The lad told his story.</p> + +<p>"Ha! Well done, Achilles!" exclaimed the financier when the tale was +told. "Well done, old fellow! And well done you too, little shaver! +Between you you have given us a big boost toward catching the thief. +Now just one thing, sonny. I meant to caution you before you left but +forgot it. You are not to speak of this affair to any one—not to +any one at all. Do you understand? A false move on our part might undo +everything and ruin our cause. Nobody is going to be caught red-handed +with that dog in his possession. Rather than be trapped he would kill +her. We mustn't let that happen. We shall follow up our man quietly +without letting him suspect that he is being watched. That is the only +way we can hope to get the pup back again. So mind you hold your +tongue. Not a word to anybody on your life. Not a syllable. Be dumb as +the grave and let me see how capable you are of keeping your own +counsel. The trouble with most people is they blab everything. They +can't wait to tell it. Let anything happen and they are off to confide +it to some one before you can say Jack Robinson. Now don't you do +that—at least not this time. Hold your tongue. This isn't your +secret; it's mine."</p> + +<p>In terror Walter hung his head. Should he confess that he had already +telephoned Bob or should he keep silent.</p> + +<p>Of course Bob wouldn't tell. There wouldn't be anybody to tell way off +there at Seaver Bay. Besides, he himself could ring him up and caution +him not to. Why need Mr. Crowninshield know anything about it?</p> + +<p>But suppose Bob had told already and harm was done? Certainly it would +be more honest to speak.</p> + +<p>The boy took a big swallow.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid, sir, that I have already told some one," he blurted out +miserably. "I didn't know it would do any harm and so I called up my +brother and——"</p> + +<p>"You young idiot!" burst out Mr. Crowninshield indignantly. "Why in +thunder couldn't you keep still? We're in a nice mess now! If the +story gets about and the police start to track down the thief it is +good-by to Lola. Why did you have to run hot-footed to the telephone +the first thing? Jove!"</p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry, sir. I had no idea it would do any harm."</p> + +<p>"But you have an idea of it now, haven't you?" inquired the master +grimly.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I see what you mean."</p> + +<p>Mr. Crowninshield heaved an exasperated sigh.</p> + +<p>"The game's up now, I guess," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"But my brother lives off by himself in a very lonely place," the lad +explained desperately. "Just he and another fellow have a house out on +a point of land a long way off from everywhere. They couldn't tell +anybody about Lola if they wanted to, especially if I call them right +up and ask them not to."</p> + +<p>"Where is it?"</p> + +<p>"Seaver Bay."</p> + +<p>"Never heard of it—or, stop a minute, isn't there a wireless +station there or something?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. My brother——"</p> + +<p>"Well, no matter about your brother now. You go into the house and +call him up. When you get the line let me know and I will speak with +him."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir." Nevertheless the lad lingered. "I'm—I'm awfully +sorry," repeated he.</p> + +<p>"There, there, go along. You meant no harm. You just blundered. But +blunders are expensive things sometimes and this one may prove so +unless we can prevent it."</p> + +<p>Still His Highness did not go.</p> + +<p>"Well, what are you waiting for?" asked his employer impatiently.</p> + +<p>"My brother told me to tell you that Jerry had a telephone message +this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"A telephone message? What has that got to do with it?" burst out Mr. +Crowninshield at the end of his patience.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. Bob just said to tell you."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead then."</p> + +<p>Hurriedly the boy related the facts of the mysterious communication.</p> + +<p>"So! Your brother has some brains if you haven't," said Mr. +Crowninshield on hearing the story, and Walter saw him smile. "That +was neat of them, very! They took the precaution to get Jerry, who is +unfailingly about, out of the way."</p> + +<p>"They?"</p> + +<p>"The thieves, youngster. It was a Brockton call, you say."</p> + +<p>"That was what Jerry told me."</p> + +<p>"Good! That gives us another clue."</p> + +<p>It was evident the information had put the master in rare good humor.</p> + +<p>"Trot along, now, and call up this brother of yours. I shall be glad +to talk with him, for he sounds as if he might be worth talking to. As +for you, son, cheer up! No milk is spilled yet and perhaps it won't be +if you have as wise a big brother as it appears. I might never have +known of Jerry's message but for him. Jerry himself would not have +placed enough importance on it to tell me, I am sure—or you, +either, for that matter. So perhaps, after all, you did a good thing +to enlist your brother in our behalf."</p> + +<p>"I hope so, sir. I meant no harm; really I didn't."</p> + +<p>"There, there, don't think of it again," said Mr. Crowninshield +kindly. "I should have remembered you are not a man's age and cannot +be expected to have the judgment that goes with fifty or sixty years +of living. Even old codgers like myself blunder sometimes."</p> + +<p>His eyes twinkled and in the radiance of his smile Walter saw the last +cloud of wrath roll from his brow. Truly, as Jerry had affirmed, Mr. +Crowninshield's rages were like thunderstorms—awesome while they +lasted but unfailingly followed by sunshine.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h3> + +<h4>MORE CLUES</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>Notwithstanding Mr. Crowninshield's comforting words, however, Walter +could not shake off the consciousness that take it all in all he had +blundered desperately throughout the entire train of events connected +with Lola and his vanity was sadly hurt. If any good had come out of +what he had done it was more by chance than as a result of wise +calculation. He had meant well, that was all that could be said, and +the patronage these words implied was by no means flattering to one +anxious to make himself valuable to his employer.</p> + +<p>What a boob he was; what a blunderer! The name Mr. Crowninshield had +so wrathfully bestowed on him was unquestionably deserved. It fitted +him like a glove. The fact that the great man had afterward sought to +palliate the sting of the term did not actually help matters any. What +he had thought in the beginning and so spontaneously declared was what +he really believed, and as his dispirited retainer observed to +himself, who could blame him?</p> + +<p>He couldn't have made a worse start at a job had he tried. In his +depression he almost wished he had never seen Surfside, the +Crowninshields, or anything belonging to them.</p> + +<p>Nor was his melancholy lightened when he found on entering the house +that the telephone line was busy and that some one was calling Mr. +Crowninshield. Goodness only knew how long it might be now before the +wire would be free for the master to reach and warn Bob to keep secret +the tidings his brother had tattled to him. Wasn't it infernal luck to +encounter this delay? If he had only held his tongue in the first +place! Well, it had taught him a lesson. The next time he got mixed up +in somebody else's affairs he would keep them to himself.</p> + +<p>Meandering aimlessly outdoors he sat down on the steps to wait until +the owner of the house should finish his conversation.</p> + +<p>For a time he remained quite quiet; but when the minutes lengthened +into a quarter of an hour he began to fidget. Would the talkers never +stop? Why, their chattering seemed to be endless? Even through the +door he could hear Mr. Crowninshield's curt tones and the eager rise +and fall of his voice. Once he laughed as if pleased, and twice Walter +heard a cry of "<i>Good!</i>" When he did appear on the piazza his face was +wreathed in smiles.</p> + +<p>"That brother of yours is a Jim Dandy!" he exclaimed, rubbing his +hands. "You did a mighty clever thing, young one, to get him on the +job. We never can thank you enough."</p> + +<p>"Me?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly you! Why didn't you tell me more about this family paragon +of yours? I didn't take in he was a radio operator."</p> + +<p>"I—I—I don't know," replied Walter, bewildered.</p> + +<p>"Well, his quick action has helped us no end—that is all I can +say," announced the owner of Surfside triumphantly. "The instant he +got your message he went to work with his wireless outfit. He flashed +messages to all the stations in the outlying cities or else +telephoned, and inside of half an hour every road to Boston and to New +York was watched. You see a man with a little dog had stopped at his +station for water. The wood road skirting our shore goes right by +Seaver Bay and probably the thief reasoned that no one would be on the +lookout for him on such an out-of-the-way thoroughfare. At any rate he +had to have water for his engine and he took a chance. He told your +brother he was touring the Cape, and had you not called Bob up he +would have thought no more of the happening. But when you told him +about Lola immediately he pricked up his ears. The dog tallied +perfectly with what you had previously told him and the fact that it +was a Pekingese made him suspicious. Leaping at the possibility that +his visitor was in reality the man wanted, he sent out a broadcast +describing the culprit.</p> + +<p>"With an accurate description of the man, car, and dog we cannot fail +to get tidings soon. And at any rate we have something definite to +work on. We know what the thief looks like, what he had on, the make +of his car and all about him. Unquestionably he will be stopped either +between here and Boston or between here and New York,—for he is +probably aiming for one of those cities. I myself rather think he will +go straight through to Boston. He would not venture to try New York +until later because he would be well aware that the authorities there +would be waiting for him. He isn't going to be trapped. So he will try +to do the thing he figures I will not calculate upon." Mr. +Crowninshield rubbed his hands and laughed. "Little does he know we +have him down cold already! And it has all been so quietly and +promptly done. That is the beauty of it. You must have got home from +your walk very soon after the wretch had left. Therefore the loss was +discovered sooner than he had planned. Doubtless he was delayed by +Jerry's being about and had to wait until his accomplice up in +Brockton called him off. I presume they had agreed upon some hour when +they would summon the unsuspecting caretaker to the telephone." As the +scheme of the robbery began to unfold, Walter mirrored his employer's +smile.</p> + +<p>"And if the other chap is in Brockton doesn't that indicate that this +fellow who was here will most likely expect to pass through there and +pick him up?" he ventured, feeling very much of a personage to be thus +taken into Mr. Crowninshield's confidence.</p> + +<p>"Exactly!"</p> + +<p>His Highness glowed with satisfaction. Some of his self-esteem was +returning.</p> + +<p>"Fortunately your brother had the good sense to warn his allies to act +carefully and not alarm the thief, so that the life of the dog might +not be jeopardized. He seems to have thought of everything, this +brother Bob of yours. If we get Lola back it will be largely his +doing—and yours. I sha'n't forget the fact, either."</p> + +<p>Walter flushed under the great man's praise.</p> + +<p>"It was just a happen," murmured he. "I thought I had blundered."</p> + +<p>He saw Mr. Crowninshield color at having his own word hurled back at +him.</p> + +<p>"Some of the most fortunate strokes in our lives are achieved by +chance," replied he, laughing. "See how capable I am of shifting my +philosophy," he added with good humor. "Nevertheless, although this +indiscretion of yours has turned out well I still maintain that, +generally speaking, a silent tongue is a great asset. In nine cases +out of ten keeping still does far less harm than talking. Jerry is a +shining example of my creed. In all the years he has been here he has +never let his tongue outrun his solid judgment. And yet," concluded he +with a twinkle, "had we trusted to Jerry, we should never have heard +of his Brockton telephone communication. So there you are! Which is +the better way? It seems to be a toss up in this case."</p> + +<p>"I guess the better way is never to make a mistake," smiled Walter.</p> + +<p>"Do you know the infallible person who can boast such a record?" came +whimsically from Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"N—o, sir."</p> + +<p>"Nor I."</p> + +<p>A pause fell between them and Walter rose to go.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose you will hear anything more to-night?" questioned he +shyly.</p> + +<p>"There is no telling. We may have news at any moment; or again we may +hear nothing until into the night or till morning."</p> + +<p>"I'm crazy to get tidings, aren't you?" In his earnestness the lad had +forgotten that they were not of an age or quite of the same station.</p> + +<p>The master smiled indulgently.</p> + +<p>"I'm every bit as crazy to hear as you are," said he, quite as if Lola +were their joint possession.</p> + +<p>"Do you think you'll get any message before I go to bed?"</p> + +<p>Once more Mr. Crowninshield regarded him with friendly comradeship.</p> + +<p>"That depends on what time you turn in."</p> + +<p>"At home Ma makes me go at nine o'clock. I've done it pretty much, +too, since I've been here. She wanted I should."</p> + +<p>"You are a sensible fellow. Nine o'clock is late enough for anybody to +sit up, although I will admit," the man chuckled mischievously, "that +in New York we occasionally sit up later than that."</p> + +<p>But Walter ignored the jest.</p> + +<p>"Do you think you will hear by nine?" persisted he.</p> + +<p>"There is no way of knowing, sonny," was the kind answer. "The best +thing for you to do, however, is to go to bed as you usually do. You +are tired out with excitement. I can see that."</p> + +<p>"No I'm not," contradicted the boy, his eyes very wide open.</p> + +<p>"But you are—a deal more fagged than you realize. I am myself. +Now I'll tell you what we'll do. I'll go to bed and you go to bed; and +if any message comes I'll tell them to waken me and then I'll waken +you. I can call you on the wire that goes from the house down to your +quarters. How will that do?"</p> + +<p>"But suppose I shouldn't hear it?" objected the lad.</p> + +<p>"Somebody will. The chauffeurs do not go to sleep as early as you do, +I rather fancy. I will give orders for one of them to tell you if a +call comes."</p> + +<p>"I'd much prefer to sit up, sir. Why couldn't I just sit here on the +piazza? It wouldn't disturb anybody and I should be on the spot."</p> + +<p>"You might sit here all night and catch your death of cold, and no +tidings come until morning, sonny. No, my plan is much the better one. +You trot along to bed. I'll fulfill my part of the contract and go +also. And if there is anything to tell before morning you shall hear +it."</p> + +<p>Reluctantly the lad moved away.</p> + +<p>He was not in the least sleepy. Nevertheless because he had given his +word he dragged himself across the lawn, mounted the stairs to his +room, and began to undress. His spirits were very high. Within an hour +or two—three hours at the very most—the telephone would +ring and Mr. Crowninshield would announce to him the glad tidings that +the thief had been caught. Then some one would motor to Barnstable, +Brockton, or wherever it was, recapture Lola, and bring her back, and +the events of the past few hours would be only a nightmare. And it +would be Bob—he and Bob—who brought about this glorious +climax to a day of catastrophes. And if such a result was accomplished +had not the owner of Surfside promised that he would never forget the +service?</p> + +<p>For his own part Walter wanted nothing. If Lola could only be found +his happiness would be complete. But if only Mr. Crowninshield would +do something wonderful for Bob! Perhaps he might give him a big sum of +money; he could well afford to. Or maybe he would put him in the way +of earning it. There was no telling what Aladdin-like feats he might +perform. Such a man was all powerful. Why, he could send Bob to Europe +if he chose! Or pay the mortgage on the house. He could make Bob's +fortune.</p> + +<p>The younger boy thrilled at the thought.</p> + +<p>With these optimistic and intriguing fancies in mind he slipped into +bed and soon dozed off into dreams wilder and even more extravagant. +He slept soundly and awoke with a bewildered cry when a knock came at +the door.</p> + +<p>"It's I—Wheeler, shaver! The boss wants you on the telephone."</p> + +<p>Up scrambled Walter, his stupor banished by the agitation of the +moment.</p> + +<p>He did not wait to don his clothes but in his pajamas took the stairs +two at a time and soon had his ear to the receiver.</p> + +<p>"Walter?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, we have some news, such as it is." Mr. Crowninshield's voice +sounded dubious and discouraged. "They tracked the car we were after +to Buzzard's Bay and found it there empty; its occupants had +disappeared."</p> + +<p>"Disappeared!" repeated the astounded boy.</p> + +<p>"Yes, they're gone! Vanished in thin air! Not a trace of them is to be +found. The abandoned automobile with its number removed, was +discovered on a side road."</p> + +<p>"The man must be hiding somewhere in the vicinity then."</p> + +<p>"That does not follow, son; I wish it did."</p> + +<p>"What else could he do?"</p> + +<p>"His accomplice from Brockton could meet him with another car, for one +thing."</p> + +<p>"A different car, and throw us off the scent!"</p> + +<p>"Precisely."</p> + +<p>For a second neither of them spoke. Walter was too nonplussed and his +employer too disheartened.</p> + +<p>"Isn't that the limit!" the lad presently gathered indignation enough +to ejaculate.</p> + +<p>"I expected something of the sort," was the reply. "We are up against +professionals, you see, and not amateurs. This gang is being paid big +money and does not intend either to fail in what it has undertaken or +be trapped. We had it too easy at the beginning and were too much +elated by our initial success."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do now?"</p> + +<p>"I've wired New York for detectives. I ought to have followed my first +impulse and done it immediately, and I should have had we not seemed +on the high road to success without help. The plain-clothes men will +probably be miffed at being called in now that we have meddled with +the case and messed it all up."</p> + +<p>"But I don't see how we have done any harm," retorted His Highness, +feeling it a little ungrateful of Mr. Crowninshield to veer so quickly +from commendation to censure.</p> + +<p>"Oh, untrained people never can compete with skilled ones in any +line," was the sharp answer. "I ought to have remembered it. Doubtless +in our zeal we betrayed ourselves somehow and our man became +suspicious and adopted other tactics in consequence."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe so," Walter maintained stoutly. "I'll bet this is +just what he had arranged to do anyway."</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps it was. We cannot tell about that," yawned the man at +the other end of the wire. "The result, however, is the same. Instead +of netting our catch we have allowed it to slip through our fingers."</p> + +<p>There was an edge of exasperation in the tone.</p> + +<p>"Maybe we'll have better luck than you think," ventured the lad, not +knowing what else to say, and unwilling to betray his chagrin.</p> + +<p>"We'll have neither good luck nor bad in future," responded the master +curtly. "After this we keep our hands off and the detectives manage +the affair. There have been blunders enough."</p> + +<p>With this ungracious comment the great man hung up the receiver and +stumbling through the darkness His Highness felt his way upstairs and +dropped into bed.</p> + +<p>Like a house of cards his roseate dreams for the future had suddenly +collapsed. There would be now no wonderful career for Bob, no bag of +gold, no fairy fortune! Instead of being a hero he had again become a +mere duffer, a blunderer, had played the fool.</p> + +<p>Since failure had come in place of the coveted success Mr. +Crowninshield would most likely blame it all to him.</p> + +<p>Fleeting, indeed, was the favor and gratitude of princes!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h3> + +<h4>BOB</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>By late afternoon of the following day the New York detectives arrived +and Wheeler drove their dusty and travel-stained car around to the +garage.</p> + +<p>"Must have speeded up some!" commented he, on viewing the throbbing +machine. "Left New York at midnight," they said. "Some friends of the +master's likely, come to play golf."</p> + +<p>Ever given to frankness it was on the tip of Walter's tongue to +declare the real identity of the strangers, but fortunately he +bethought him in time to halt the words.</p> + +<p>"What did they look like?" inquired he, eager to know and yet anxious +not to appear inquisitive.</p> + +<p>"Look like? Like any other dusty, muddy guys," grumbled Wheeler, +eyeing with disdain the grimy automobile which he knew he would be +expected to clean.</p> + +<p>"Old or young?" persisted His Highness.</p> + +<p>"Old enough to know better than to heat up an engine this way, but +young enough to do it," snapped Wheeler. "Shouldn't think their car +had seen water in years, it's that filthy. A rum job for me!"</p> + +<p>Walter, however, did not reply. He was not in the least interested in +the mud-caked car. It was its occupants that aroused his curiosity. In +all his life he had never seen a genuine detective and he was all +impatience for a peep at persons allied with such an intriguing +profession. While his reason told him they must, of course, look +precisely like other men, nevertheless the hope would persist that +perhaps, after all, they didn't. And even if they did appear like +ordinary mortals were there not their myriad disguises? He hoped with +all his heart they would wear some of these, that the exigencies of +the case would compel it.</p> + +<p>Very great, then, was his surprise and disappointment when on being +summoned to the big house soon after the arrival of these interesting +creatures he was presented to two commonplace beings who, although +charming gentlemen, were not in the least different from anybody else. +Mr. Dacie, the younger of the men, was a pleasant, blond-haired fellow +who instantly ingratiated himself in the boy's affections by asking +him if he collected stamps and bestowing on him two rare ones from +China. In fact he seemed to like everything a boy liked and appeared +to be almost a boy himself.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lyman was older but he, too, when he was not being stern and +business-like, was very jolly. No one could possibly be afraid of +either one of them and then and there His Highness's faith in the +ultimate success of Mr. Crowninshield's cause dwindled and died. They +weren't disguised at all; and if they had pistols they must have had +them well concealed for the only suspicious articles produced from +their pockets were notebooks and pencils. He had expected to be quite +awed by their presence but on the contrary he found, when he started +out to show them the kennels and the place where he had seen the +automobile tracks, that he was chattering away to both of them quite +as if he had known them all his life.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dacie was particularly friendly, and as they walked along he +talked much of sports, dogs, and fishing. Furthermore he was intensely +interested in Bob and listened attentively to all that was told him +about this remarkable big brother. He had a bully brother himself, he +said. In short, before a half hour had passed His Highness had not +only decided to become a detective but to become one exactly like Mr. +Dacie.</p> + +<p>And yet as he thought it over afterward the hero of his sudden +adoration had not uttered one syllable about jails, criminals, +robberies, or crimes of any sort. In fact he had talked really very +little. What he had done had been to smile, nod, and let the other +fellow babble. It had, to be sure, been a delightful experience to +find yourself a lion, and everything you did of interest to your +listener; but you did not learn much about the business of being a +detective, reflected Walter, a bit mortified by his discovery. Well, +the next time he was with Mr. Dacie he would ask him some questions +and let him relate everything about his mysterious calling.</p> + +<p>Strange to say, however, the moment for such disclosures never +appeared to come right. There was always so much else to talk of. Mr. +Dacie wanted most terribly to catch some flounders and wondered if +there were any to be found; and of course as Walter knew of three +secret places where flounders were sure to lurk he eagerly told his +new friend about them. And then he had to talk swimming and +school—and how he hated it! Why, there were endless things to +tell Mr. Dacie. The visit of the two men was, moreover, surprisingly +short. They remained at Surfside only one night and the next morning, +together with Mr. Crowninshield, who led the way in his car, they +disappeared leaving His Highness none the wiser and regretfully +mourning his lost opportunity to be initiated into the gruesome +mysteries of a detective's career.</p> + +<p>The realization that in exchange for telling everything he knew or +ever had thought Mr. Dacie had told him nothing suddenly caused the +lad to speculate as to whether after all both Mr. Dacie and his +associate, Mr. Lyman, were not cleverer than they looked to be.</p> + +<p>It seemed incredible to recall, now that they were gone, that he had +not once asked them what they thought about Lola and whether they had +any idea where the man who had taken her had gone. How much better it +would have been had he made that inquiry instead of chattering about +his own affairs. But somehow when there had been a lull in the +conversation they had always been busy measuring footprints or +automobile ruts, and writing down these unending dimensions. +Moreover, something which he was unable to explain always halted the +questions.</p> + +<p>Well, it was useless to regret his vanished opportunities. The +detectives were now far beyond his reach and probably he would never +see them again. He might as well go about his work and put them, +together with Lola and her baffling disappearance, out of his mind. +This he tried valiantly to do, but in spite of his utmost endeavor his +thought constantly reverted to the missing dog, and when toward dusk +Mr. Crowninshield's car came whirling up the avenue His Highness had +all he could do not to rush out and demand of the master whether he +had secured any further information.</p> + +<p>To remember that he must keep constantly in the background was, in +fact, one of the most difficult aspects of Walter's job. As a +democratic young American who had always mingled in the best society +Lovell's Harbor had to offer he had been free to give a hail to +anybody he desired to greet. But at Surfside everything was different. +He must stifle his natural impulses and curb his tongue, a role very +hard for one who had had no previous experience with class +distinctions. Difficult as it had been he had made up his mind to +being excluded from the gayety that went on about him. It was, to be +sure, no fun to view automobile loads of young people roll out of the +drive bent on a day of pleasure; to look on while motor boats pulled +up anchor and puffed across the blue of the bay. And how he would have +adored to try his hand at a set of tennis on that fine dirt court! +Ah, there were moments when to a normal, healthy boy the world +appeared a very unfair place; and the lot of one who worked for a +living a wretched one.</p> + +<p>And then, when his spirits had reached their lowest ebb, he would +resolutely take himself to task. Was there not his pay envelope to +compensate him? He was not at Surfside to have a good time; he was +there to earn his daily bread and very fortunate was he to have so +good a place. Having read himself this lecture he was wont to turn to +his duties with lighter heart, closing his ears to the laughter and +his eyes to the merriment that made up the days of the idle. But what +he never could get used to was the fact that he must not ask questions +or voice his opinions. In a free country where one man was as good as +another the mandate seemed absurd. But it wasn't done. That was all +there was about it. Jerry said so and so did Tim.</p> + +<p>Instead of piping, "Hi, Mr. Crowninshield, did you find out anything?" +one awaited the information until it was voluntarily imparted.</p> + +<p>In this particular case, as good fortune would have it, His Highness's +impatience had seethed and bubbled only a half hour before who should +come strolling down to the kennels but the very gentleman the lad was +feverish to interrogate.</p> + +<p>Arrayed in a cool Palm Beach suit and a soft hat of white felt he +sauntered up as indifferently as if the boy's curiosity were not at +the boiling point and said, "Good evening," in a perfectly calm, +self-possessed tone.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, sir," Walter replied.</p> + +<p>"Dogs all right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"No more of them missing?"</p> + +<p>"Not on your—no, sir."</p> + +<p>The great man turned away to conceal a smile.</p> + +<p>"I've been seeing your brother to-day," remarked he.</p> + +<p>"<i>Bob?</i>"</p> + +<p>Mr. Crowninshield nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes. We went over to the Seaver Bay wireless station."</p> + +<p>The lad waited.</p> + +<p>"You have a very fine brother, youngster, and one whom you may well be +proud of."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>(What was the use of telling him that? His Highness knew what a corker +Bob was without being told. Much better tell him what had happened at +Seaver Bay, what the detectives said, and whether Lola had been +found!)</p> + +<p>"We had, in fact, quite a talk with your brother."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir." The reply came automatically.</p> + +<p>"He was able to furnish us with much information regarding the man we +are chasing up."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Yes," ruminated Mr. Crowninshield with evident satisfaction, "we have +the thief sketched in quite clearly."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"With the details your brother gave us Dacie and Lyman have a most +encouraging foundation on which to work."</p> + +<p>"Have they found out anything yet, sir?"</p> + +<p>The question would out despite all Walter could do to stop it. He knew +the instant it had left his tongue that he shouldn't have asked it and +he stood there hot and embarrassed at his own audacity.</p> + +<p>Much to his surprise, however, Mr. Crowninshield did not appear to be +in the least offended. On the contrary he seemed pleased by the lad's +eager interest and smiled at him kindly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we've found out something," said he, "but it is not very good +news, I am sorry to say. Dacie and Lyman traced the car that carried +Lola as far as Buzzard's Bay and discovered that there——"</p> + +<p>"Yes?" interrupted Walter, so intent on the story that he was +unconscious of interrupting.</p> + +<p>"There," repeated Mr. Crowninshield, "the thieves embarked on a +private yacht that awaited their coming; steamed through the Canal, +and——"</p> + +<p>"Don't say they are gone, sir!" cried the boy.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid so, sonny."</p> + +<p>"Well, if that isn't the limit!"</p> + +<p>"It is, indeed," rejoined the elder man heartily.</p> + +<p>His Highness had staggered back against the door in consternation. If +Mr. Crowninshield had affirmed that the thieves had taken flight in an +aeroplane he could not have been more astonished than by the turn +affairs had taken.</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose they'll do now?" demanded he.</p> + +<p>"We've no idea. They may make for New York, Boston, or some other port +where they think they will be safe. There is no way of knowing. Or it +may be that the person who hired them to get Lola is on the yacht and +having now secured what he has been in search of he may simply cruise +about and not land at all for months. Anything is possible."</p> + +<p>"Could they get the name of the boat?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she's called the <i>Siren</i>."</p> + +<p>"Then I should think it would be easy enough to track her down, board +her, and bring Lola away," said Walter.</p> + +<p>"It sounds simple, doesn't it?" Mr. Crowninshield returned. "But I am +afraid it is not going to be as easy as that. We have no way of +proving that Lola is aboard the yacht, in the first place. Moreover, +even did we know that she was there, there are a thousand and one +places where she could be hidden and defy discovery. And were the +villains actually cornered nothing would be less difficult than to +wring the puppie's neck and throw her overboard so that nothing would +remain to identify the wretches with their crime."</p> + +<p>"Scott!"</p> + +<p>"You see now that to recover Lola is not such an easy matter."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not, sir," was the dispirited response.</p> + +<p>Mr. Crowninshield glanced at the dejected figure before him.</p> + +<p>"We mustn't give up beaten yet, however," affirmed he, struggling to +be cheerful. "The game isn't up, you know. Dacie and Lyman are clever +men and I have given them a free rein as to money. If there is +anything to be done they ought to be able to accomplish it."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless optimistic as the words were it was plain to see that Mr. +Crowninshield was not really as sanguine as he would have Walter +think. There was a pucker of annoyance about the corners of his mouth, +and his eyes looked dull and discouraged. Say what he might His +Highness knew without being told that deep down in his heart of hearts +Lola's master had resigned himself to never seeing her again.</p> + +<p>For a few seconds the capitalist lingered, musing. Then he broke the +stillness, hurling a bomb into the air with the words:</p> + +<p>"By the by, I have made your brother an offer. I've suggested that he +leave Seaver Bay and come here. I am going to give Dick a radio set +for his birthday and I should like the aid of an expert in rigging it +up. Besides, last season I installed a wireless on my yacht and shall +need some one to operate it. This Bob of yours is precisely the sort +of chap I want."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Crowninshield!" was all Walter could stammer.</p> + +<p>"You'd like having him here then?"</p> + +<p>"You bet your—yes, sir, I would," gasped His Highness, making a +dash after his manners.</p> + +<p>"That's good," remarked the financier, much amused. "I hope he'll +decide to come. You must use your influence to persuade him."</p> + +<p>This time Walter did not forget his etiquette.</p> + +<p>"I will, sir," replied he meekly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h3> + +<h4>THE DECISION</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>That night when his day's duties had been discharged and he was free, +the first thing His Highness did was to pen a much blotted and +somewhat incoherent note to Seaver Bay. Almost every sentence of it +was underlined and some of the persuasive adjectives and verbs were +even emphasized in red pencil. Certainly what the epistle lacked in +neatness and beauty of appearance was compensated for in sincerity and +earnestness. This document mailed and reinforced by an ardent appeal +over the telephone, there was nothing to do but possess one's soul of +patience until Bob decided what it was best for him to do.</p> + +<p>To throw up a government job with practically assured employment for a +private venture which might be of short duration seemed madness and +the young radio man with his level head and sober judgment was not one +to leap at a decision. Carefully he weighed the pros and cons and +while he did so Walter, and even Mr. Crowninshield himself, fidgeted. +His Highness would not have hesitated a moment; and that any one +should do so appeared to him incomprehensible. As for the master of +Surfside who was accustomed to having his business offers snapped up +the instant they were made, the younger man's deliberation piqued his +interest and respect as almost nothing else could have done. He had +thought the terms suggested very generous and had expected them to be +seized with avidity. It was something new to have a penniless youth +waver as to whether to accept or reject them.</p> + +<p>In the meantime while the days passed no tidings came from the New +York detectives and the dwellers at Surfside were compelled to settle +down to their customary routine and put Lola's disappearance out of +their minds. Gardeners toiled, flowers blossomed, Jerry mugged about +with his misty blue eyes following every seed that was planted, every +turn the lawn mower made; they followed, too, what Walter was doing +and saw to it that the dogs were well cared for and that his young +protégé neglected nothing.</p> + +<p>Walter saw little of Dick now, for the house was filled with guests +and the place humming with laughter and the rush of unending sports +and picnics. There were tennis tournaments, golf matches, swimming +races, regattas when small fleets of knockabouts maneuvered in the +bay. In the midst of such a whirl of merriment it taxed all one's +forbearance to be nothing more than the boy who cared for the dogs.</p> + +<p>On one particularly fine, bracing June morning after the lad had +returned from a solitary cross-country tramp with Achilles and the +rest of the pack, his lot seemed to him especially unenviable. There +was evidently to be a ball game. College boys with crimson H's on +their shirts; men with a blue Y; together with a group of +short-sleeved players not yet honored with insignia from their +universities were hurrying out to the lawn with bats, balls, and +catcher's mitts.</p> + +<p>"You must pitch for the Blues, Dabney," called one fellow to another.</p> + +<p>"Who's going to catch for the Crimson team?" piped another.</p> + +<p>"I choose to play for Yale," came shrilly from another man who was +lounging across the grass in immaculate white flannels.</p> + +<p>"Come on and help Harvard along, Cheever," put in a strident voice.</p> + +<p>"Not on your sweet life!" bawled Cheever, with a vehemence that made +everybody laugh. "Goodness knows she needs help; but I'm not going to +be the one to offer it."</p> + +<p>Again there was a good-humored shout from the bustling throng.</p> + +<p>"I'll line up with Yale to beat you though," Cheever added with a +chuckle.</p> + +<p>"You can line up, you shrimp, but we're going to do the beating," +retorted an ardent Harvard supporter.</p> + +<p>So the banter went on while the nines were being organized.</p> + +<p>At length, however, there was a shout of dismay.</p> + +<p>"We're lacking one man," announced the captain of the Crimsons, with +sudden consternation. "Haven't you another chap who can play, Dick?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody, I'm afraid, unless you want to haul in some of the +chauffeurs," Dick answered idly.</p> + +<p>"Jove! That's hard luck. We've got to have a shortstop. What are we +going to do?"</p> + +<p>"Wasn't there a boy around here somewhere this morning with the dogs? +It seems to me I saw somebody—a stocky little chap with a snub +nose."</p> + +<p>The description was not flattering and Walter winced.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that was King, who has charge of the kennels," replied Dick +quickly. "I'm afraid he hasn't come back with the bunch of poodles +yet."</p> + +<p>"Yes, he has. I saw him skulking round the garage just now. Can't we +drum him up?"</p> + +<p>"Sure, if you can find him."</p> + +<p>"There he is!" cried Cheever. "I say, you master of the hounds, come +on over here. We want you."</p> + +<p>Blushing red His Highness approached the noisy group.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever play baseball, kid?" inquired the captain of the Harvard +team.</p> + +<p>"I believe so—once or twice," answered Walter soberly.</p> + +<p>"Want to come in with us as shortstop?"</p> + +<p>"Sure!"</p> + +<p>"I've a glove that will fit him," put in a man called Richardson.</p> + +<p>With scant ceremony His Highness was hustled into it and before he +sensed what he was doing he was yelling with the rest, and head over +ears in as exciting a game of ball as he had ever participated in.</p> + +<p>There were excellent players on both teams and the scoring ran so even +that it was a toss-up who would win. From jest the game dropped into +deadly earnestness.</p> + +<p>"It's your turn at the bat, Stubby," asserted Richardson to Walter +unceremoniously. "Now remember who you're playing for. Don't hand Yale +the game if you can help it."</p> + +<p>"I'll do my best," was the modest reply as the lad gripped the bat, +then rubbed his hands in the dirt to make his hold more certain.</p> + +<p>The pitcher twirled a ball.</p> + +<p>"One strike!" droned the umpire.</p> + +<p>Again the leather disc spun through the air.</p> + +<p>"Two strikes," called the warning voice.</p> + +<p>"Great Scott, Stubbie, look out. Don't waste strokes like that, you +boob. Let the things go by if they don't suit you. You don't <i>have</i> to +hit them."</p> + +<p>Once more the ball spun through the air. A smart crack followed and up +into the blue leaped the ball, defying the pursuit of catcher or +baseman.</p> + +<p>"Beat it into home plate, George!" coached the captain excitedly. +"Move along, you fellows! It's a run for Stubbie! Slide in, Stubbie! +Pick up your heels and sprint! Go it! Go it! Keep out of the way, you +chaps. Hurray! Bully for you, kid! A beauty! <i>Harvard! Harvard! +Harvard!</i> Rah, rah, rah! Rah, rah, rah! Rah, rah, rah, <i>Harvard</i>!" The +familiar cheer echoed loud above the shouting.</p> + +<p>"That lays them out! They're dead men!" cried Richardson +triumphantly. "Where did you learn to play ball, young one?"</p> + +<p>"It's no fair borrowing a professional," the Yale leader objected, +trying to make a joke of his defeat.</p> + +<p>"Jove, but that was a pretty hit!" Dick said quietly to Walter. "A +peach!"</p> + +<p>"You're all right son!" affirmed the Harvard catcher. "Any time you +are out of a job I'll recommend you to the Braves."</p> + +<p>A general laugh went up.</p> + +<p>Altogether the morning was a glorious day of comradeship, nor did it +lessen His Highness's happiness when he returned to his quarters to +see disembarking from Mr. Crowninshield's motor car the familiar form +of Bob.</p> + +<p>"I brought your brother back from Seaver Bay with me," explained the +financier. "It took him so long to make up his mind whether he'd come +here or not that I went over there to-day to find out whether he was +dead or alive."</p> + +<p>Mr. Crowninshield was plainly enjoying Walter's amazement.</p> + +<p>"And you've come to stay?" His Highness, all delight and confusion, +contrived to stammer.</p> + +<p>"So they tell me," Bob laughed.</p> + +<p>He was a tall, handsome fellow with a grave mouth and thoughtful brown +eyes; and when he spoke it was in a voice low and pleasing to the ear.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bob and I have lots of secrets we haven't let you into, little +chap," affirmed the master of Surfside gaily.</p> + +<p>"I never was so surprised!" gasped Walter.</p> + +<p>"We meant you should be. Your brother settled everything up over the +telephone a day or two ago."</p> + +<p>"But, Bob, I don't see how you managed to get away from Seaver Bay so +soon. You said it would probably be weeks before they could act on +your resignation, even should you send it in, and afterward they would +have to find some one to take your place."</p> + +<p>"Luck came my way," Bob replied. "The government was closing the Bell +Reef station and they simply shifted the two men who were there over +to our place."</p> + +<p>"Did you and O'Connel both decide to leave?"</p> + +<p>Bob's eyes twinkled.</p> + +<p>"O'Connel has just answered an advertisement as operator aboard a +private yacht," said he, exchanging a glance with Mr. Crowninshield. +Evidently there was some jest between them that amused them vastly.</p> + +<p>Curiously Walter looked from one to the other.</p> + +<p>"Better tell him, Bob," murmured the New Yorker in a low tone.</p> + +<p>"Why you see, kid, O'Connel had a chance to go as wireless man aboard +the <i>Siren</i>."</p> + +<p>"Not—not the yacht that has Lola on it!"</p> + +<p>"The very same—at least we hope it has Lola."</p> + +<p>"But—but—I don't understand," muttered His Highness as if +dazed.</p> + +<p>"Evidently, so far as we can make it out, the <i>Siren</i> passed through +the Canal and not daring to land, cruised along the coast where she +must have met with rough weather. Of course that is purely surmise on +the detective's part. Anyhow, her radio operator broke his arm and had +to be replaced by another man so they advertised for some one. Luckily +Dacie saw the item in the want column of the New York paper and set +O'Connel on the job. The arrangements have all been by letter through +the general mail delivery of New York so we still have no notion as to +where the <i>Siren</i> is. On Tuesday, however, O'Connel is to go over to +New York, an agent is to meet him, and he is to be told where to go."</p> + +<p>"And I suppose Mr. Dacie or Mr. Lyman will be on hand and go along too +to nail their man!" cried the delighted Walter.</p> + +<p>"Not so fast, son," returned Mr. Crowninshield. "We are not going to +track them down so close and scare them off at the outset. No, we +sha'n't send any one with O'Connel. He'll go and meet the agent and +follow up directions precisely as if he knew nothing about Lola. With +Bob here operating a wireless and O'Connel in constant communication +with him, we will have all the inside information we're after. +O'Connel can soon let us know where the yacht is; whether Lola is +aboard of her; and exactly when and where the owners of the <i>Siren</i> +are proposing to land. They can't make a move which we shall not know +about in a flash. A pretty neat arrangement, I call it!" The New York +magnate rubbed his hands together softly.</p> + +<p>"Gee! Well, Mr. Lyman and Mr. Dacie have sure been busy!" was Walter's +comment.</p> + +<p>"You do not mention that I, too, have been busy," chuckled Mr. +Crowninshield. "While you have been chasing the dogs over the fields +and playing baseball," he winked at Bob, "I have been telephoning to +the city for a radio set—a corking fine one—for Dick's +birthday. Bob, here, is going to install it with the aid of some New +York electricians. It should be all in place inside a few days. Then +if O'Connel has any messages for us we shall be ready for him. In the +meantime Bob is going to break in you youngsters so that you or Dick +can listen in and get any news that may come when he is off duty or +aboard the yacht. If those fellows who bagged Lola think themselves so +all-fired clever they will find they are mistaken. I did not go into +this game to be beaten." Mr. Crowninshield squared his jaw with +bulldog resolution.</p> + +<p>"Now you and Bob trot off and have a visit together. Show him where +his quarters will be. There is a room beside you where Jerry says he +can bunk," continued the master of the estate. "Until the apparatus +arrives from New York there won't be much he can do, so you better +take the chance to go home and see your mother to-night—both of +you. By to-morrow or the next day at the latest the electricians +should be here with their stuff. Then things will hum!"</p> + +<p>With a jaunty wave of his hand Mr. Crowninshield wheeled about and Bob +and Walter were left alone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h3> + +<h4>LESSONS</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>The joy of Mrs. King when she was informed that both her sons were to +be all summer at Surfside cannot be pictured.</p> + +<p>"Why, it is like a dream or an answer to prayer!" ejaculated she. +"Think of having you so near! Now were Bob to be electrocuted, I could +get to him within half an hour."</p> + +<p>The fact evidently caused her profound satisfaction and each of her +sons laughed.</p> + +<p>"I'm not planning to end my days by electrocution," smiled Bob.</p> + +<p>"Few do plan to," was the grim retort. "But anyway, whether or no, it +is wonderful to have you so close at hand. I shall feel as if I had a +great prop behind me."</p> + +<p>"I hope so, Mater," Bob said affectionately.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you'll not have much time to be spending at home, though," +mused the mother presently. "Your work, likely, will keep you busy."</p> + +<p>"I expect it will, especially during the next fortnight," Bob +answered. "There will be all the apparatus to set up and get into +working order; and in addition the equipment aboard the yacht must be +overhauled. I want both wireless outfits in perfect condition for +much depends on their being trim and tight."</p> + +<p>"It isn't probable you'll have much to handle that is important," +declared Mrs. King. "It won't be like dealing with government messages +or wrecks." The two boys exchanged a glance. Much as they wished to +they dared not initiate their mother into the secrets of Surfside.</p> + +<p>"You never can tell what messages you'll catch by wireless," Bob +returned ambiguously. "Besides, Mr. Crowninshield intends to have some +of his business relayed to him from New York."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"I guess I shall find plenty to do," the elder boy remarked.</p> + +<p>"Well, I reckon you will at that rate. But do be careful, won't you? +And don't let Walter go dabbling with those evil wires."</p> + +<p>"I'll look out for him."</p> + +<p>The evasive answer did not, however, satisfy the woman.</p> + +<p>"Surely you don't mean to start Walter in learning about wireless, do +you?"</p> + +<p>"I may give him a few lessons, yes."</p> + +<p>"Now don't you do it," retorted Mrs. King in spirited protest. "He was +always a blunderer and were he to go messing about with electrical +currents I should not have a happy moment. It is bad enough to have +one of you in constant danger without two."</p> + +<p>"But it isn't dangerous," Walter interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Much you know about it," declared his mother, wheeling on him with +scorn. "What experience have you had with radio, pray?"</p> + +<p>Meekly the lad closed his lips.</p> + +<p>"I am going to give some lessons to Mr. Crowninshield's son, Mater, +and it seemed to me it was a good chance for Walter to learn +something, too," Bob responded gently. "Sometime the kid might find it +useful to have such knowledge. You never can tell. Nothing we learn is +ever wasted."</p> + +<p>"No, I suppose not," was the grudging reply. "Well, just stand over +him and see that he doesn't kill himself."</p> + +<p>"I've no desire to have him killed."</p> + +<p>"No more you have. Of course not," Mrs. King smiled. "But you know if +there is any way of crossing the wires he'll do it. He's made that +way. Still, unlucky as he is, I'd not care to lose him."</p> + +<p>Fondly she beamed on the ill-starred Walter.</p> + +<p>"I'll keep at his elbow, Mother," said Bob soothingly.</p> + +<p>"I know you will. You were ever good to your brother." She patted the +big fellow's hand. "And mind the pair of you come to see me when you +can. You'll be busy, I know; but you mustn't forget your mother."</p> + +<p>"We'll not do that," cried the boys in chorus.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless in spite of the promise there were few opportunities +during the next few days for either of them to go a-visiting. The New +York electricians arrived and with them came aerials, generators, +detectors, tuners, insulators, amplifiers, and all the hundred and one +parts necessary for a perfectly equipped radio station. Mr. +Crowninshield had indulged in no cheap outfit. On the contrary he had +purchased the best there was to be had and as the coils of copper +wire, glistening wire rope, and spotless porcelain insulators were +unpacked Bob's eyes sparkled with anticipation. With the touch of a +connoisseur he handled the materials, examining the quality of each. +What was Greek to the others was familiar ground to him.</p> + +<p>A low building adjoining the boathouse had been hurriedly constructed +and it was here, where the new station was to be situated, that an +interested audience congregated daily. Perched on an overturned +packing case Mr. Crowninshield surveyed the installment of the novel +toy which was not only to gratify Dick's birthday longings but also, +he hoped, bring to him the information he coveted concerning Lola.</p> + +<p>Much as he knew about stocks and bonds he was as much of a novice in +the presence of things electrical as were either his son or Walter +King, and therefore to their avalanche of questions he added still +others, gratefully accepting the information Bob offered with the +eagerness of one who is not too superior to learn.</p> + +<p>"What is that thing they are putting in place now?" inquired he. "And +what is it for?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, even I can answer that, Dad!" cried the delighted Dick. "That is +the aerial or antenna and it catches the wireless waves as they travel +through the air. The higher and longer it is the better, so far as +messages are concerned—that is, within certain limits."</p> + +<p>His father's eyes twinkled.</p> + +<p>"Where did you pick up so much knowledge?" chuckled he.</p> + +<p>"Bob told me."</p> + +<p>"I'll be bound he did," sniffed the man. "I wasn't asking about the +antenna, though. Green as I am I recognized that. It was that other +wire that interested me."</p> + +<p>"The lead in?" asked Bob quickly.</p> + +<p>"I guess so, although I never was introduced to it by name before."</p> + +<p>Everybody laughed at the naive reply.</p> + +<p>"The lead in, sir, is the conductor that carries the wireless waves +from the aerial into the house. The idea is not to have it too long. +It must run as directly as possible and be very carefully insulated +from any buildings, trees, or masts because of the current."</p> + +<p>"I see. And that other thing?"</p> + +<p>"That is the lightning arrester. It can be fastened inside or outside +the station, as is most convenient; but it is compulsory to have it to +satisfy the insurance companies. The antenna is secured to it and by +means of a ground wire any electrical discharges will in a great +measure pass off through the earth."</p> + +<p>"Mater should see that," murmured Walter mischievously to Bob.</p> + +<p>The elder brother nodded humorously.</p> + +<p>"The ground helps a lot in radio work," continued he. "In fact were +it not for good old Mother Earth furnishing her aid, we should have no +wireless at all. One side of our circuit passes through the ground and +the other half, which completes it, goes through the air between the +aerials of the different stations. Therefore you can readily see that +it is most important to make sure of a good earth connection. Often +city water pipes are resorted to, the contact being made by soldering +a wire to the water faucet. Down here on the Cape, however, where +there are only wells and windmills we shall have to sink some metal +plates in the ground and connect the wires with these."</p> + +<p>"And that is all that goes outside the building?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. The lead in brings the wires into the station and they are +then connected up with the receiver. Sometimes there are separate +antennæ for sending and receiving messages. Of course the big +stations always have two. But for a place this size and doing such a +small amount of business we can send and receive from the same wire. +With a tuner, which can be tuned to bring you into the same key with +the station you are listening to; a detector to catch the signal after +the persons talking have been brought into tune; and an amplifier that +intensifies or increases the sound you have your receiving outfit. +Batteries you know about without my telling you; and the head 'phones +too, which you have of course seen telephone operators wear hundreds +of times."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I believe I should recognize one of those," laughed Mr. +Crowninshield. "So that is all there is to it, eh?"</p> + +<p>"That is about all there is to receiving, yes."</p> + +<p>"The sending part of the machine is more complicated, is it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. And so is the job," smiled Bob.</p> + +<p>"I mean to learn to transmit as well as receive," put in Dick.</p> + +<p>His Highness grinned derisively.</p> + +<p>"Do you indeed!" said he. "Well, there is nothing like aiming high. +But I guess for the present you'll be pretty well content if you get +so you can take down the Morse code as it comes in."</p> + +<p>"Is it so hard?"</p> + +<p>"That depends on how good you are at memorizing dots and dashes. +French verbs are nothing compared to it."</p> + +<p>"I hadn't thought of learning to read code."</p> + +<p>"You have to, son, if you are going into wireless. With a tutor here +on the spot, it should not be difficult. Besides, that is half the +fun. I want you to learn this thing intelligently and not just make a +plaything of it. I've done my part by buying you the best outfit there +was to be had. The rest is up to you."</p> + +<p>"That's square, Dick," chimed in Walter.</p> + +<p>"Sure it is. I'll go to it and do my darndest, too, Dad," returned the +boy.</p> + +<p>"That's the proper spirit!" exclaimed his father.</p> + +<p>His Highness smiled with ironic satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"If Bob is to tutor you you will study harder than you ever did in +your precious life," whispered he. "I know Bob. He can be stiff as any +college professor. He tutored me in Latin once to pull me through my +exams and I barely lived. I don't envy you, old man."</p> + +<p>"Gee! Will it be that bad?"</p> + +<p>"You will get all the wireless coming to you, that's all. Take it from +me," was the teasing rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I hope he won't bone down as hard as that," wailed Dick +dolefully. "I want to get some sport out of this thing. I wasn't +planning to be turned into a galley slave during hot weather."</p> + +<p>Seeing that he had his victim thoroughly terrified Walter thought it +time to shift the jest.</p> + +<p>"Don't fret. I was only jollying, old chap," declared he. "Bob won't +really stand over you with a whip. He is the best fellow alive. Still, +he will expect you to work if you set out to do so. He is always +terribly in earnest about whatever he undertakes. I suppose that is +why he has got on so well and never failed to make a success of what +he has tried to do. You can count on him to duff into this job with +the same spirit. You'll get your money's worth of instruction, you may +be sure, if he has been hired to give it."</p> + +<p>Dick shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess I can stand it if he is not too rough on me," responded +he. "I do not mind studying so much if it is about a subject I like; +and I am crazy about wireless."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="i004"></a> +<img src="images/004.jpg" width="350" height="530" +alt="" title="" /> +</div><br /> +<h5>"You will get all the wireless coming to you, that's<br /> +all. Take it from me." <i>Page</i> 154.</h5> + +<p>"Oh, it isn't the wireless part I object to," drawled His Highness. +"It is that dot and dash code that gets me. I never could learn it if +I tried ten years; and as for taking twenty words a minute in any +language—well, they could have the whole outfit before I'd do +it."</p> + +<p>"I shall be interested to see what speed I can make," mused Dick.</p> + +<p>"Speed! You won't make any speed at all—at least not at first, +so do not hope or expect to. If you even get the words correctly you +will be going some," sniffed Walter. "Still, I guess you need not +worry for the present about receiving or sending messages for Bob will +give you a lot to think about before that. As for the Morse code, you +may not meet it for weeks."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" Dick inquired.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bob will get right down to brass tacks at the start and find out +what you know about electricity and wireless anyway. That is the way +he did to me when he tutored me in Latin. He wasn't content with just +translating Caesar but must needs splash right into Roman history and +make me hunt up everything I could find about the Goths and the rest +of those heathen tribes. Gee, but he made me sweat! He will do that +with you and your wireless. If you think you are going to begin taking +messages in code you don't know Bob."</p> + +<p>Having delivered himself of these brotherly appreciations His Highness +walked away, leaving Dick to ponder on the joyous prospects they +contained. His sinister prediction Richard Crowninshield soon found to +be true. Thorough was no name for Bob King. Before a week had passed +Dick whimsically remarked to his father that it must be a task to Bob +to swim on the top of the sea without diving down with a spy glass and +examining every particle that was on the ocean's bottom. The fact that +the new tutor never dipped into any subject but instead explored it +greatly delighted Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't mind letting that young chap tutor me a little," observed +he half jestingly to his wife. "I am as vague as a fog when it comes +to this wireless business. I should get a lot of information if I +listened in on Dick's lessons."</p> + +<p>The words, idly spoken, much to the amusement of all became a reality. +After drifting in to the first talk Mr. Crowninshield came to the +second lesson and from then on he became a regular pupil.</p> + +<p>"You needn't be afraid I have come here to criticize," explained he +with appealing simplicity. "I'm green as grass and have come to +learn."</p> + +<p>"It is just that you have not had the time to take up radio, sir," was +Bob's modest answer. "We all have our specialties."</p> + +<p>"That's right," agreed the capitalist. "Sometimes I fall to wondering +whether it is better to know something about everything or everything +about something."</p> + +<p>"To know something about everything would be spreading it pretty thin, +I am afraid," was Bob's characteristic reply.</p> + +<p>"That wouldn't do for you, eh?" remarked Mr. Crowninshield with a +chuckle.</p> + +<p>"It would not satisfy me; no, sir. As it is I cannot begin to master +what there is to be known concerning this one branch of science. Were +my head to be filled with a little of everything I should feel as if +it were a grab bag."</p> + +<p>"Many heads are," was the laughing retort. "Still, with each +successive generation rolling up its accumulation of knowledge the +intellectual snowball is getting to be of ponderous size. History's +remedy for this malady has always been to knock the whole structure to +pieces every now and then and begin again. Perhaps we shall have to +have another period of the Dark Ages and another Renaissance to set us +right."</p> + +<p>Thoughtfully he puffed his cigar.</p> + +<p>"This wireless now—think of the new fields it has opened up. Not +only are our ships equipped so that they can send and receive all +sorts of messages, get their location, be informed concerning harbor +entrances and coast lines; set their compasses and clocks but soon +wireless telephones will be installed in the staterooms of all +passenger steamers so that those crossing the ocean can talk with +their friends ashore any time they may elect to do so. Of course there +are times when such a thing might have its advantages; but for tired +people—doctors and the like—who are trying to get to a +spot where they cannot be reached by business cares it will be a +negative sort of blessing. I, myself, for example, always count on my +stay on shipboard as a sort of vacation, an interval when nobody can +bother me with office matters. But if in future I must have a +wireless telephone at my bedside I shall be no more isolated than I +should have been had I remained at home. Pretty soon there will be no +place under the sun where a man can go and get peace and quiet. The +Maine woods will be full of radio outfits and the tops of distant +mountains in touch with the stock market. Even an aeroplane carries +its wireless. It is hideous to contemplate!" he sighed. "As for city +life, we shall be beset wherever we go. And if the fashion set by some +of our city police of having wires tucked away in uniforms and a +wireless receiver carried in the pocket prevails in due time even when +we walk the streets we shall all be in constant touch with our +particular headquarters."</p> + +<p>At his rueful expression Bob could not but laugh.</p> + +<p>"There certainly is no question that a great day for wireless is +coming," replied he. "Whether we like it or not the thing has come to +stay and as yet we have only half discovered what can be done with it. +It is undoubtedly rough on those who want isolation. But most people +don't. They are glad to feel, for instance, that the ocean is so small +they can talk with their friends while they are crossing it. Besides, +you must not forget how much good ship surgeons and doctors can now do +for those who otherwise would have no aid at hand. Remote lighthouses +and small ships that need medical service often signal the big liners +now and ask advice of the ship's doctor. I heard a little while ago of +a lighthouse keeper whose leg was amputated under the wireless +direction of one of our great surgeons. Had instructions not been +available the man would probably have died of blood poison. And many +times there is sickness aboard small vessels that are out to sea. They +signal the symptoms of their patients and the doctor hundreds of miles +away replies with a remedy. As all boats carry medicine chests the +distant physician can easily designate what dose to give."</p> + +<p>"That is a fine idea!" nodded Mr. Crowninshield. "I hadn't thought of +treating illness by radio. A bit tough on the doctor, though. It must +keep him busy."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid it does. In fact some of the ship's surgeons are +demanding higher pay because of the rush of work put on them. To have +the health of a large ship under one's supervision is task enough +without treating all the people sailing the ocean. They say some +doctors are all in after a trip simply because of the extra calls that +pour in from outside ships and stations. It keeps them hopping day and +night, for of course no decent doctor will ever refuse aid to those +who are suffering."</p> + +<p>"Humph! That is quite a new phase of wireless."</p> + +<p>"It proves it can save life not only at a time of shipwreck but in +other crises as well," Bob responded with enthusiasm. "Now all that +remains is for some clever fellow to come along who shall find a +remedy for the difficulties that baffle the radio man. Then the +science will come into its own. We must get rid of static +interference—our greatest bugbear."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, son! You must not spring any of your technical terms on +me. Remember that while I am old in years I am still young in radio +knowledge. Before you go slipping those phrases jauntily off your +tongue you have got to begin at the very beginning and tell us the +laws on which the radio telephone is based."</p> + +<p>"That is a rather big order, sir," Bob replied modestly. "However, I +am willing to try to fill it. I can at least pass on to you all that I +know myself."</p> + +<p>"That will satisfy me," affirmed the capitalist. "I see no reason, +either, why your young brother cannot arrange his work so that he can +join our class. The more the merrier. I even propose to drag in my +wife and daughter. If in future we are to have wireless apparatus +wherever we go it will be unintelligent not to know something about +it."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid it is going to pursue us pretty much to every corner of +the earth," smiled Bob gravely. "You see, one of its great advantages +is that it can go where the telephone with its myriad wires and poles +cannot. It would be out of the question, for example, to string +telephone wires through densely wooded sections and to the tops of +high mountains, and even if the impossible could be accomplished the +expense of keeping such lines in proper repair would be so great that +no one could afford to shoulder it. Poles rot and wires rust out with +wear and exposure to weather. Then there is the damage from gales, +ice-storms, and falling timber. Even under the best of conditions +linemen would be kept busy all the time repairing the equipment. And +as if these difficulties were not great enough in times of peace think +of the added burden of protecting miles and miles of telephone wires +in time of war. Contrast with this the small district to be protected +when it comes to a wireless station. Instead of having soldiers +scattered through miles of territory the few needed can be +concentrated within easy reach of provisions and reinforcements. And +the same advantages that the radio telephone has on land prevail as +well at sea for transmission of messages by cable is a frightfully +expensive thing. Not only is the laying of such a line difficult, +dangerous, and costly, but to maintain it is expensive and hard as +well. In time of war it is particularly at a disadvantage since the +cable can be cut and all communication with the outside world easily +severed. Wireless, on the other hand, is not dependent on any such +extravagant equipment. It finds its own way through air, water, and +earth with very little help from us; and if it has its defects we must +not forget that the first telephones were far from perfect, and that +both telephone and cable have also their disadvantages."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h3> + +<h4>INFORMATION FROM A NEW SOURCE</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>During the interval when the new radio station was being put in order +and the parts of the outfit assembled Bob King and the two city +electricians toiled early and late. They scarcely stopped to eat, so +feverish was their haste. Mr. Crowninshield had let it be known that +if the wireless apparatus was in condition to send and receive +messages within a week he would add to the regular wages of the +mechanics a generous bonus and this incentive was sufficient to cause +the avaricious workmen to transgress the laws of the labor unions and +forget any fatigue they may have experienced.</p> + +<p>As for Bob he was far too eager to get into touch with O'Connel and +the <i>Siren</i> to covet extra pay for rushing through the installment of +the new service. A private signal had been agreed upon between him and +his former associate and also an hour set when each day the operator +aboard the yacht was to call him. O'Connel was to allow seven days for +the work at Surfside to be finished and then his messages were to +begin and both Mr. Crowninshield and his alert employee meant to be +ready for him.</p> + +<p>Hence Bob whipped on his helpers, using every ray of daylight that +could be turned to the purpose and much of the night. Even after +everything was placed and connected up there would yet remain a great +deal of testing out and tinkering before the set would be in perfect +working condition and it was for this delay he was preparing.</p> + +<p>Much to his surprise, however, the parts went together with +astonishingly little trouble. They had been well made and fitted +perfectly. Everything needed was at hand and in consequence there was +no sending to the city for materials and waiting until they could be +shipped. Therefore as the allotted time sped by the job that +accompanied it moved rapidly to its end.</p> + +<p>"We are going to make it, sir," ejaculated Bob with shining eyes, +beaming enthusiastically on the master of the estate. "She will be all +set up and working by Saturday. That is the day O'Connel was to make +his first try to get into communication with us. I can hardly wait to +hear what he has to say."</p> + +<p>"I am pretty anxious to know myself," returned the elder man. "If he +can get a message through we should then find out where the yacht is +and whether Lola is aboard her."</p> + +<p>"I'm crazy to learn what has become of the villains who pinched the +dog," added Bob. "Do you take it they are still cruising with the +boat?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, they must have been paid off and landed somewhere," was the +answer. "There would be no sense in detaining the thieves on the ship +until now. It would only mean paying them and having them to feed; +besides one does not care to make two rascals members of a house +party."</p> + +<p>"You think they have escaped us then."</p> + +<p>"If by escaping you mean getting to the city yes," nodded Mr. +Crowninshield. "But I do not feel at all sure with Dacie and Lyman on +their track that they will be entirely safe and unmolested in town. +Those detectives are like bloodhounds and will run them down no matter +where they may be hiding. The mere fact that they have got to New York +or Boston will not be much protection."</p> + +<p>"You intend to get them then as well as to recover Lola."</p> + +<p>"I certainly do," retorted Mr. Crowninshield with emphasis. "I am +going to recover my property, jail the thieves, and bring the people +who received the stolen goods to justice."</p> + +<p>"They have a week's start of us," Bob observed doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"But we have not been idle all that time, man, Dacie and Lyman have +been working; O'Connel has been using his eyes and ears—I hope; +and we have this wireless set up."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we have certainly accomplished something," admitted Bob.</p> + +<p>"Accomplished something! I should say we had! Besides, this is not the +sort of case one need hurry on. Nothing is going to be done suddenly," +explained the financier. "Having got the dog the people on the yacht +will move at their leisure. They do not fear that any one is at their +heels chasing them up. Furthermore the sea offers unending +concealment for their crime should they be pursued and trapped. It is +the thieves themselves who are the scapegoats and the ones in danger, +according to their reckoning."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," agreed Bob. "Still, I cannot help wishing we might +have got after them without even these few days intervening."</p> + +<p>"You forget, my son, that our wireless is going to cover space so +quickly that hereafter we shall have our information very quickly and +shall be exactly as well off as most detectives used to be in double +the time."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is so."</p> + +<p>"Once we are in touch with O'Connel we can know every thought they +think aboard the <i>Siren</i> as soon as they have thought it."</p> + +<p>The uncertainties that clouded the younger man's face vanished.</p> + +<p>"That's right," smiled he. "From now on we should be able to checkmate +them pretty neatly."</p> + +<p>Mr. Crowninshield put his finger to his lips significantly. The two +city electricians were approaching.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," began the foreman, "I guess your wireless tests out +pretty near right; we've signalled our home company and got a reply +from New York clear as a bell. With this chap at hand," he motioned to +Bob, "you won't be needing us much longer, I reckon."</p> + +<p>"Have you got to rush back to another job?" questioned the financier.</p> + +<p>"Well, there is always plenty to do," grinned the man good-humoredly.</p> + +<p>"You couldn't remain over a few days and overhaul my yacht, could you? +She is anchored out in the bay close at hand. If you could be +tightening things aboard her and seeing everything is right I would +keep this young man at this shore station."</p> + +<p>"Why—" the mechanic hesitated, fingering the roll of bills that +stuffed his pocket. "Why," repeated he, "I imagine we could fix things +up with the boss and stick round until whatever you wanted done was +completed, sir."</p> + +<p>"Arrange it then. Get the yacht into condition quickly so we can put +to sea any day now that we choose."</p> + +<p>"We'll do that, Mr. Crowninshield," responded the men in chorus. +"Unless there is a lot to do to the outfit—"</p> + +<p>"There isn't. It was all new in the fall; and we have been in Florida +this winter too, so the ship has been in commission and constantly +taken care of."</p> + +<p>"In that case there will probably be little repairing," nodded the +spokesman. "Maybe tightening and oiling, and a few small parts to be +replaced."</p> + +<p>"That is about it."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't I—" Bob began but Mr. Crowninshield held up a +cautioning finger.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather have you on shore," announced he quietly. Then turning to +the electricians he added, "I suppose the radio aboard the yacht does +not differ much from this set. There will be nothing but what you can +handle."</p> + +<p>"Nothing, sir; nothing at all," was the answer. "Besides, we are quite +familiar with shipboard equipment. We do a lot of such work. Just +before we came down here we went down to Long Island and put the +<i>Siren</i>, a very fine steam yacht, into shape."</p> + +<p>"The <i>Siren</i>, eh?" repeated Mr. Crowninshield as indifferently as he +could.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. Perhaps you know the boat, sir."</p> + +<p>"I've never been aboard her," replied the capitalist slowly. "She +belongs to——"</p> + +<p>"To Mr. Daly, sir. As fine a yacht as was ever in the water."</p> + +<p>Daly! At the name both Bob and his employer started. It was the very +man Mr. Crowninshield had suspected.</p> + +<p>"So Daly has a place down on Long Island, has he?" drawled he.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sir. Mr. Daly's place is on an island off the Maine coast. He +had just put in at the Long Island port for some minor repairs. He +said he was going to cruise a while this summer and wanted to be sure +everything was shipshape before going to Maine. The mate told me they +were waiting to pick up some people at Buzzard's Bay."</p> + +<p>"Going to take the yacht through the Canal?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"An interesting trip," observed Mr. Crowninshield slowly. "That Canal +is quite a time saver for New Yorkers." He yawned and started to move +away. Bob held his breath, waiting.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you don't know where Daly was going for his cruise," +inquired he over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"No, sir, I don't," was the response of the workman who seemed +flattered at having aroused this degree of interest in his story. "I +believe, though, that before they started they were to put into +Newport for provisions."</p> + +<p>Newport! Then it was doubtless Newport where O'Connel was to be taken +aboard! Bob dared not raise his eyes lest the excitement that danced +in them be detected.</p> + +<p>"And after provisioning up there Daly was to cruise, eh?" called Mr. +Crowninshield. "Well, the Atlantic is wide and he will have plenty of +room."</p> + +<p>"That's right, sir," chuckled the mechanic, delighted by the +condescension of the great man whom all New Yorkers knew by +reputation. Think of hobnobbing in this pleasant fashion with one of +the big financiers of Wall Street!</p> + +<p>"How simple and kind a gentleman Mr. Crowninshield is!" commented he +patronizingly after the capitalist was out of hearing. "And so +artless!"</p> + +<p>Bob struggled not to smile.</p> + +<p>Kind Mr. Crowninshield might be but hardly simple. Certainly not +artless. What a rare lot of amusing incidents the world contained!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h3> + +<h4>BOB AS PEDAGOGUE</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>The wireless was now in commission and the next morning, after having +waited until the hour designated for O'Connel's signal and received no +message, Bob and his pupils assembled for their first lesson, not in a +stuffy room but on the broad, well-shaded veranda of Surfside. A cool +breeze rippled the water, stirring it into tiny waves and as Dick +dropped into one of the big wicker chairs he fidgeted to be out in the +freshly-painted knockabout that bobbed invitingly at the float.</p> + +<p>His father intercepted his yearning glance and instantly interpreted +it.</p> + +<p>"Come, now!" said he half playfully. "Quit making sheep's eyes at that +boat, son. An hour's wireless lesson isn't going to cut your morning +very short or prevent you from having plenty of time to sail, swim, or +motor. Whether it does or not you've got to endure it. Your summer +holiday is long enough in all conscience. If I had until October with +nothing more arduous to do than put up with an hour's instruction +early each day I should think myself almighty lucky."</p> + +<p>"I am lucky, Dad," conceded Dick quickly, "only——"</p> + +<p>"Lucky! I should say you were! You don't know what work means. Well, +it was you who wanted this radio outfit. You were all for it +and——"</p> + +<p>"I am for it still, Dad," interrupted Dick eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Then go to it and master it," retorted his father. "If you do not +relish the lessons swallow them down for the sake of the fun you are +going to have later; for if you are intelligent enough to handle your +wireless with some brain and understanding you are going to enjoy it a +hundred per cent. more in the end."</p> + +<p>"I know I shall," Dick agreed. "It is only that I am crazy to get at +the thing itself."</p> + +<p>The boy's father shook his head.</p> + +<p>"You are like all your generation," said he severely. "Eager to leap +the preliminaries and land at the top of the ladder with the first +bound. It is an impatient age and the vice extends to the old as well +as the young. Nobody wants to fit himself for anything nowadays. In my +youth men expected to serve apprenticeships and did not hope to +achieve a position until they had learned how to fill it. But now +everybody leaps at the big job and the big salary that goes with it +and blunders along, taking out his ignorance and lack of experience on +the general public. As for you youngsters, you covet at fifteen +everything that those who are fifty have. You want automobiles, boats, +victrolas and radio telephones before you know how to run them, much +less pay for them. Look at Bob, here. He is worth two of you for he +can earn what he has. Often I tell myself I am a fool to indulge you +and Nancy as I do. I ought by rights to make you do without what you +want until you can foot the bill for it." Mr. Crowninshield took a few +hasty paces across the piazza. "Still," added he, his voice softening, +"I fancy that scheme would be a sight harder on me than on you, for I +like nothing better than to get you what you want."</p> + +<p>For a moment he paused, looking fondly at his son. Then as if afraid +of himself he bristled and continued: "But to return to this +wireless—remember that if you do not learn something about it +and how to use it I shall take it away. I mean it, mind!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Dad," was the timid answer.</p> + +<p>With this awful alternative looming like a specter in his path was it +to be wondered at that Dick resolutely turned his gaze from the +allurements of the harbor and settled himself in the big chair with +all his attention focussed on Bob King's radio lesson. Moreover, human +nature is selfish enough to like company in its misery and were not +his mother, Nancy and Walter consigned to the same fate as himself?</p> + +<p>Therefore the initial lesson began gayly.</p> + +<p>At first Bob, seated in the chair of state facing his class, was shy +and embarrassed; but soon he forgot himself in his subject and losing +his hesitancy he spoke with the authority of one who has mastered his +art.</p> + +<p>"I am going to begin," said he, "just as they began with me at the +radio station for I think if you get the principles of wireless at the +outset you will find it much easier to understand it. And to do this +we shall not start with wires, generators, detectors, or anything of +that sort; instead we must go back of them all to the earth and the +air, and learn how it is possible for sound to travel without the aid +of human devices. For in reality there is something that takes the +place of man-made wires. This is the ether. Surrounding the earth +moves the air we breathe; and as we go higher this air becomes thinner +and thinner until, by and by, a height is reached where the air gives +place to ether, a sort of radiant energy that bridges the zone between +the air space that encircles the earth and the sun, and brings to us +its heat. This great sea of ether is made up of particles that are +never still and which are so small that they get between every +substance they encounter, thereby becoming a universal medium for +transmitting light, heat, color and many other things to our earth. +Without this body of ether, there would be no agency to pass on to us +(as well as to the many other planets of our solar system and those +outside it) the energy the sun generates, which is the thing that +keeps us alive."</p> + +<p>Bob waited a moment to make sure that his point was clear and then +proceeded:</p> + +<p>"Now this energy as it moves through the ether takes the form of +waves; and these waves go out not in a single train but since the +ether is continually disturbed by the sun, in series of wave trains +that vary in frequency. Such waves are electromagnetic in character, +and light, heat, sound, and the waves carrying wireless messages are +all of a similar type, differing only in their relative rates of +vibration. If unobstructed, and moving through free ether, all of them +travel at practically the same velocity, that is about one hundred +eighty-six thousand miles a second. When, however, they encounter +other substances, as they are continually bound to do, this rate of +velocity changes. The waves of sound, for example, sent out by the +wireless telephone are very slow compared with the high-rate +vibrations that produce waves resulting in light."</p> + +<p>Again the youthful teacher paused.</p> + +<p>"Now this constant turmoil in the ether which creates the magnetic +area explains why the magnetized needle of a compass unfailingly +points north and south. This one simple fact is a certain proof of its +existence. And once granting a magnetic field to be there it is less +difficult to understand how wireless waves are produced in this +congenial medium and find their way through it, following in their +journey the curve of the earth's surface."</p> + +<p>Bob smiled at his audience encouragingly.</p> + +<p>"If you can once get this wave law through your heads the rest is not +hard," asserted he, "for the whole wireless system is based on wave +motion."</p> + +<p>"With an ocean spread out before us we ought to be able to understand +waves," interpolated Nancy.</p> + +<p>"We ought," nodded Bob. "And yet better than using the ocean as an +illustration imagine a small pond. Think, instead, of a nice quiet +little round pond if you can. Now when you chuck a stick or a pebble +into that still water you know how the ripples will at once go out. +There will be rings of them, and the bigger they get the fainter they +will be. In other words, as the area widens the strength of the waves +decreases; and as this same principle applies to radio you can see +that it takes a lot of energy from a wireless station to reach a +receiver a great distance away."</p> + +<p>"I've got that!" cried Dick with such spontaneity that every one +laughed.</p> + +<p>"Wave lengths, however, have nothing to do with actual distance," went +on Bob quickly. "Of course we think of the wave length as the distance +between one ridge of water and another. There is, though, no law that +would make it possible to translate these spaces into our scale of +miles, for sometimes they are near together, sometimes far apart. +Distance, therefore, depends on the speed with which the wave travels +and the frequency with which the water is disturbed. If you keep +tossing things in quick succession into the water you will get a +correspondingly quick succession of waves. The law governing wireless +waves is exactly the same. Their length depends on the velocity of the +wave and the frequency of the oscillations that cause it. Or to put it +another way, in order to reckon a wave length you must determine its +velocity (which is not impossible when you remember that sound travels +about one thousand one hundred and twenty feet every second) and the +number of vibrations the particular note causing the wave is making +per second. Now science has been able to compute just how many +complete vibrations a certain note, key, or pitch as you may please to +call it, makes each second, or how many times the particles of air +vibrate back and forth when that especial note is sent out.</p> + +<p>"Suppose, for example, a note makes 240 complete vibrations a second +while traveling 1,120 feet; if we divide 1,120 by 240 we shall get +4.66 as the wave length of this note. So it is the pitch to which a +note is keyed that helps determine its distance; and the force +employed to start the note sent out through the magnetic field. That +is why a message projected into the ether from a high-power station +carries a greater distance than one sent from a station where the +power is weaker. It is by power and pitch, then, not by length that we +gauge wireless waves. Do you see that?"</p> + +<p>A chorus of assent greeted the question.</p> + +<p>"That's bully!" Bob announced boyishly; then blushed at the +undignified ejaculation.</p> + +<p>"Don't you be fussed, young man," smiled Mr. Crowninshield. "We're all +of an age here."</p> + +<p>"I quite forgot," apologized the tutor.</p> + +<p>"That is exactly what I want you to do," returned the master of +Surfside. "Ignore us old people. We are only listening in, anyway, and +have no earthly right to be here."</p> + +<p>"Still, I wish to treat you with——"</p> + +<p>"It's all right, Bob. We understand," put in Mrs. Crowninshield +reassuringly.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, if you will excuse me I'm off again," replied the boy. +"And now that we've got wave lengths settled to our satisfaction we +must remember some other things. One is that sound travels not only +through the air but through the water. In fact, sounds are louder +under water than they are above it. Water is not only a better medium +for carrying sound but also, since it contains fewer obstructions, +sound waves travel farther through it. Another thing which we must not +forget is that our ears do not hear all the sounds that go on about +us. The merciful Lord has arranged that when there are less than +twenty-four vibrations a second, or more than forty thousand they +escape us. But a wireless instrument, on the contrary is spared +nothing, having attached to it a detector that catches every sound and +an amplifier that magnifies it and makes it discernible to our ears. +When you listen in on a wireless telephone you will be uncontestably +conscious of this. Also you must take into consideration that the +waves sent out by a radio transmitter are not choppy, irregular ones +such as you get when a stone is tossed into the water; wireless waves +go out in regular, well-formed relays that neither overlap nor obscure +one another. Were this not so the signals made would be jumbled +together and utterly unintelligible."</p> + +<p>"Sure they would!" Bob's young brother nodded.</p> + +<p>"Now to insure these several results we are compelled to resort to the +help of scientific apparatus. Therefore at every receiving station we +have devices that will intercept the waves as they come in; +retransform them into electrical oscillations; and catching the weak +oscillations make them strong enough to be read. Hence we use some +type of induction coil by means of which a battery current of such low +pressure and diffused flow as scarcely to be felt will be transformed +or concentrated into a pressure that is very powerful. In order to +form wireless waves we must have a frequency of at least one hundred +thousand vibrations a second; and as it is out of the question to +produce these by mechanical means we employ a group of Leyden jars. +Such jars you have of course seen. They have in them two pieces of +tinfoil separated by glass, which is a nonconductor of electric +currents, and various other acids and minerals. When you connect a +number of these small jars together you have a battery as powerful as +that of a large single jar."</p> + +<p>"I never saw jars like those," objected Dick.</p> + +<p>Bob beamed at the intelligence of the demurrer.</p> + +<p>"When I say jar," explained he, "it does not necessarily mean that +these jars are of the round, cylindrical shape that comes to mind when +you mention the word; on the contrary Leyden jars are often flat +because such a form makes them more compact. That is also why we use +several little ones instead of one big one. But whatever their shape +the principle involved is always the same. When the terminals are +connected with a current the jar will not only receive but will retain +a charge equal in pressure to that of the device sending the current. +And when you go even farther and bring the terminals near together, +the quick discharge that takes place creates an electric spark which +is in reality a series of alternating flashes that come so fast as to +be blurred into what appears to be one. Could we separate these +flashes we should find that each of them lasts less than a thousandth +part of a second. The frequency of such oscillations is regulated by +what is technically termed capacity, that is the size of the Leyden +jar. The smaller the capacity the greater the frequency of the +flashes.</p> + +<p>"Now this spark, or oscillatory discharge emitted from the Leyden jar, +does not result from a single traveling of the current all in one +direction; instead the electricity moves back and forth, or +alternates, and the space where the discharge takes place (and which, +by the way, can be lengthened or decreased as pleases the operator) is +known as the spark gap."</p> + +<p>"But I should think this explosion of the spark would make a noise," +commented Walter.</p> + +<p>"Bully for you, little brother!" returned Bob, smiling at His +Highness. "You are quite an electrician. If the current is strong, or, +in other words, if the discharge is a high frequency one, it does. +Hence something has to be used to deaden the sound just as a muffler +is used on a motor boat. It is important, however, that this muffler +should not prevent the operator from watching the condition of his +spark for otherwise he could not keep track of his battery or know +whether it was on the job or not. So you will find little peepholes +of mica or glass in the sides of the muffler."</p> + +<p>"Windows," murmured Nancy grasping the idea and translating it into +the vernacular.</p> + +<p>"Exactly," Bob agreed. Evidently his audience were understanding what +he was trying to make clear to them.</p> + +<p>"Now we have our high frequency oscillations occurring in the spark +discharged from the Leyden jar and jumping the spark gap; nevertheless +they would not do us any good were there not some way to use and +regulate them. This brings us to the induction coil of which I spoke a +second ago."</p> + +<p>"It sounds very terrible," smiled Mrs. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"It isn't, though," answered Bob, returning the smile. "In fact it is +a very simple device—nothing more than a dozen or so twists of +copper wire reeled about a wooden frame exactly as strands of thread +might be wound round a spool. One end of the inductance is connected +permanently with the ground and from the other end two movable wires +go out, one of which can be connected with the spark gap and the other +with the antenna that goes into the air and catches the sound waves. +There isn't anything very terrible about that, you see."</p> + +<p>"Antenna is what butterflies have," suggested Nancy vaguely.</p> + +<p>"Quite right!" assented the wireless man. "Only radio antennæ +are not to feel with—at least not in the same way. Nevertheless +they do reach out and capture the sound. On all wireless stations you +will notice the masts that support them. Sometimes there is one wire, +sometimes a group. It is the wires themselves, remember, not the +masts, which are the antennæ. Nowadays, however, you will +occasionally see an indoor aerial used in connection with small, +low-power outfits. It does away with the masts and outside equipment +and frequently serves the same purpose quite satisfactorily. But most +persons prefer the older method and for long-distance work it has, up +to date proved to be indispensable. Now the antenna has both +electrical capacity and inductance, and when connected up with the +apparatus a wireless operator can at will cause it to disturb the +magnetic fields surrounding the earth."</p> + +<p>"You didn't say how high these masts had to be, Bob," put in Mr. +Crowninshield. "Are they always the same length?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, indeed, sir," was the prompt response. "Their length varies +according to the type of service required of them. I'm glad you asked +the question. Sometimes the masts are about two hundred feet high; +again they may approximate four hundred and eighteen feet. And +sometimes in emergencies you will discover no masts at all, the wires +being fastened instead to captive balloons or kites which hold them in +place long enough to send or receive hasty messages. This latter +method is usually resorted to in wartime or during army or navy +maneuvers. There are also compact radio sets to be had that can be +carried on mule-back and set up and taken down on a hurried army +march. On shipboard the ordinary masts of the vessel serve, of +course, to support the antenna."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Bob. That is exactly what I wanted to know," said Mr. +Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad, sir. Now you'd think by this time we had everything +necessary to produce our wireless waves and yet we haven't. There is +still one thing almost more important than all the rest that we have +not yet spoken of."</p> + +<p>"What's that, Bob?" piped Walter.</p> + +<p>"The tuner. You recall that at the beginning I mentioned the pitch, +note, or key of the sound produced or received?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," returned the class in chorus.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is in that tune or pitch, or whatever you prefer to call it, +that a large measure of the secret of wireless lies. To be successful +in getting and sending messages we must tune the oscillations, or key +the signals caused by the discharge of the battery in our Leyden jar, +so that they will be in harmony (or at precisely the same pitch) with +the antenna circuit. That is, the parts of the instrument must +synchronize, just as two persons who would talk together must speak in +the same language. This adjustment is made in the inductance coil +because although both the Leyden jar where the spark is generated that +causes the oscillations and the antenna can be regulated independently +of each other a few turns of the inductance coil affects each circuit. +After the two circuits have been adjusted to the same frequency they +are said to synchronize. Often to reach this result a device is used +that states precisely the wave length, and after the frequency of one +circuit has been ascertained the other can easily be adjusted to +correspond with it. The length of the wave is, you see, dependent on +the largeness of the antenna and the capacity, or strength of current, +of the Leyden jar. Just as a child uses a big stone to produce the +largest splash and greatest waves so we must have a powerful force +behind our wave lengths to make them carry most successfully. In +accordance with this law, generally speaking, we find short wave +lengths used for low power, short-distance outfits; and long wave +lengths for high-power circuits whose aim is to traverse continents +and oceans."</p> + +<p>Bob pushed back his chair.</p> + +<p>"I think," said he, "we have now come to a good stopping place and we +will call the lesson off for to-day. If you digest all I have told +you, you will have had an ample radio starter."</p> + +<p>"You haven't said much about sending messages," complained Dick.</p> + +<p>"That is quite another story," smiled the boy's tutor, "and such a +long one that were I to tell it to you now it would mean you would get +no sailing or swimming to-day."</p> + +<p>Instantly Dick was on his feet, Leyden jars and inductance coils +forgotten.</p> + +<p>"We'll cut it out then," he laughed. "Who is for a swim? I'll race any +man to the bath-house!" And off he went at top speed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h3> + +<h4>TIDINGS</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>Two days later O'Connel's first signal came.</p> + +<p>Bob was at his early morning task of oiling and tightening up his +apparatus and cleaning it, and both Dick and Walter were hovering +near, watching him and learning all they could concerning the proper +care of the equipment. Having made everything shipshape the young +radio operator slipped the double head receiver over his forehead and +prepared to listen in for his customary interval. Suddenly the boys +saw him start excitedly and motion them to stop talking. With face +alight he was leaning forward eagerly. Then came the sharp click of +the Morse code and after an interval with radiant face the elder lad +wriggled out of his trappings.</p> + +<p>"What is it? What is it?" cried his two companions, hardly able to +contain their curiosity.</p> + +<p>"It was O'Connel."</p> + +<p>"What did he say? Is the dog there? Where was the yacht?"</p> + +<p>Breathlessly the questions tumbled one over the other.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Siren</i> is anchored off Gloucester and bound north, probably to +Bar Harbor. A dog they call Trixie, but which O'Connel thinks is +Lola, is aboard the boat. The description we gave him seems to fit +her. He says she isn't very well—won't eat and seems either +homesick or seasick. Mr. Daly is quite worried about her."</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake don't tell Dad or Mother that. They'll have a +fit," Dick cried. "Should Lola die I believe my father would shoot +Daly down."</p> + +<p>"But I've got to give him the message."</p> + +<p>"You needn't repeat all of it, need you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I think you ought to tell them," Walter put in. "They would +rather know, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>"Dad will storm fit to raise the dead."</p> + +<p>"We can't help it," answered His Highness.</p> + +<p>"I am of the kid's opinion," Bob replied slowly. "I think we should +tell your father and mother the whole truth just as O'Connel has sent +it."</p> + +<p>"Prepare for a nice, pleasant tornado, then," said Dick, "for you will +get it all right."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could have talked with O'Connel," declared Bob thoughtfully. +"I did all I dared. You see, until our license comes I am not expected +to transmit messages from this station. We have to get from the +government both an operator's license and a permit for the station; +and although I put in the application promptly there is so much red +tape about it that it seems as if the inspector would never show up. +If I had been caught sending a message this morning without these +blooming papers there would have been the deuce of a row. However, I +took a chance because I felt the emergency demanded it, and because +being one of Uncle Sam's own men he couldn't very well put up the kick +that I was not competent to handle a wireless outfit. Still, I shan't +dare do it again."</p> + +<p>"Isn't there anything we can do to hustle up the inspector?" inquired +Dick.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not, son. Government inspectors are not a hurrying race," +was Bob's whimsical reply. "However, I telephoned our local man +yesterday and something may happen to-day. He and I used to be on +quite good terms when he occasionally dropped in at Seaver Bay. I told +him that if I could not get a station license pretty soon our whole +outfit would be no good to us this season. He promised he would take +up the matter at once. With that I had to be satisfied. Whether he +does anything or not remains to be seen."</p> + +<p>"I suppose O'Connel understands this difficulty, doesn't he?" mused +Dick.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he knows, all right, why I can't answer him. I've assured him +that his tidings have come through and that is all he wants to know," +Bob answered. "He has dealt with the government himself and is +familiar with its deliberate habits. Besides, there really isn't much +we can say."</p> + +<p>"Maybe you think that," grinned Dick, "but wait until you tell Dad +that Lola is sick and hear him sputter. You will believe then that +there is quite a bit that can be said. And if you get my mother to add +her comments you will have plenty to relay over the wire."</p> + +<p>The prophecy was indeed true, as Bob King proved after he had raced +across the grass and overtaken Mr. and Mrs. Crowninshield on a tour of +inspection to the rose gardens.</p> + +<p>"News, Bob?" questioned the capitalist, wheeling about to meet the +flying figure. "What is it? Let us have it quickly."</p> + +<p>Carefully the message was repeated.</p> + +<p>"Off Gloucester, eh, and bound north? Humph! And they've re-christened +the poor little pupsie Trixie! Hang them! O'Connel thinks she isn't +well? Of course she isn't seasick. Lola has been out on our yacht a +hundred times. The reason she won't eat is because she is +lonesome—misses her home and family. The wretches! I wish I had +Daly here! I'd wring his neck," blustered Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"Isn't there anything we can do, Archibald? We simply must get that +dog back before she dies. Poor little Lola! She was such a dependent +little creature. It is terrible, terrible!"</p> + +<p>"There, there, my dear! Don't go all to pieces over it. Aren't we +doing all we can? Do you want Daly to smell a rat and toss his stolen +property into the sea? Dacie says to give him rope enough and in time +he will hang himself, and I am inclined to think the advice wise. +Still, that does not prevent me from wishing I could lay hands on +Daly. I'd like nothing better than to thrash the life out of him."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you will telephone the detective the news we've received," +suggested Bob, in order to quell the rising storm and divert Mr. +Crowninshield's attention.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll get New York on the wire right away. It is as well Lyman +and his pal should know Lola is sick and that they can't dally round +forever."</p> + +<p>"Shall you be back for the wireless lesson?" called Bob, uncertain +whether to ask the question or not.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sure! It won't help matters for us to sit around and wail the +whole morning. We'll be on deck for your radio talk at the usual +time."</p> + +<p>"All right, sir."</p> + +<p>True to their agreement, at the appointed hour both Mr. and Mrs. +Crowninshield made their appearance on the piazza and joined the group +of young people who awaited their coming. They had, as Bob expressed +it, cooled off a bit and were no longer in such an agitated frame of +mind; nevertheless anxiety had left its mark by keying the master's +voice to a sharper note, and shadowing the lady's brow with a frown of +annoyance.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you let out on O'Connel, didn't you, after he got through +talking this morning?" was the first remark of the owner of Surfside.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't say more than a word. Our license hasn't come yet, you +know."</p> + +<p>"That's so, darn it! I never saw anything in all my born life with so +many rules attached to it as this wireless business. It is one tangle +of rules, rules, rules! You might as well be tied up in a net," +fretted the man.</p> + +<p>"There do seem to be a good many rules at first glance," returned Bob +pleasantly. "However, when you examine them most of them are both +necessary and wise. And after all when each radio operator knows in +black and white what he can do and what he can't it is far simpler."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," grumbled Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"Besides, there are always slackers at every job," continued Bob. +"Rules help to keep such persons up to the mark and prevent +carelessness and accidents."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I fancy that is so," came more graciously from the still irate +gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Then all stations are not alike. That compass station at Bell Reef, +for example, that you were asking me about yesterday; the government +lays out specific duties and makes special rules for such a station, +as in fact it does for all radio stations. Some of these rules relate +to the care of the place and the cleaning and general overhauling of +apparatus at stated intervals. There are, you see, certain instruments +which must be cleaned and readjusted every day; certain others every +week, others every month, and some every six months. It simply means +making sure that your outfit is in the pink of condition with every +part functioning as it should. There are, of course, operators who +would see that this was done anyway, rules or no rules; but like every +other profession there might be men who, off on an isolated spot with +no one to keep them up to the mark, would grow careless and slovenly. +Too much depends on wireless stations to run the risk of errors +through imperfections in the equipment."</p> + +<p>"I can understand all that; but aren't there a score of other +regulations?"</p> + +<p>"You mean about what they shall and shall not do?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"There certainly are. There have to be because we have several +different types of land stations. Just as the shipboard stations have +their special kinds of work so do those on shore. For example, there +are two different classes of radio compass stations,—those that +operate independently and are located with a view to giving good +cross-bearings to vessels that are from fifty to a hundred miles out +to sea; and those known as harbor stations which are governed by a +central control station and designed to inform ships within thirty +miles of the entrance to outer channels of their position. The +function of each of these stations is, as you can see, quite different +and therefore each of them is obliged to have its own set of rules."</p> + +<p>"I never knew anything about radio compass stations before," announced +Dick.</p> + +<p>"That is because you never sailed the seas and had to call on one for +aid," smiled Bob. "If you did you would be very thankful, I guess, +that the government has so carefully provided some one to answer just +the sort of question you wished answered. I try to remember this when +I get hot under the collar because the license for our station does +not arrive. Uncle Sam can't help it if his men are slow. The plan at +the top is all right. There must be rules to govern wireless stations, +be they governmental, commercial, or private; rules to regulate the +wave lengths each may use; rules to make sure the operators who have +charge of them know their job; and inspectors to make sure that every +such rule is obeyed."</p> + +<p>"Who has the big chore of following up all these people and making +certain that they are conforming to the law?" questioned Mr. +Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"The Department of Commerce issues the licenses for all private and +commercial stations and sends its inspectors to keep an eye on +whatever comes under their control. It is this department that will +have jurisdiction over Surfside if the license is granted. Government +radio stations on the other hand, not only the high-power class but +the coastal stations and everything that pertains to their relations +with commercial stations afloat or ashore, whether in the United +States or in foreign lands are entirely under the control of the +Director of Naval Communications of the Navy Department."</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd tell us something more about compass stations," Dick +said. "Were you ever stationed at one?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, for a little while I was on an island off the coast," replied +Bob. "But I did not like it very well and applied for a transfer."</p> + +<p>"It must have been lonely as the dickens on an island; worse, even, +than being at Seaver Bay. Why in goodness did they build the station +there?"</p> + +<p>"Why, you see, a compass station that operates independently as that +one did is usually situated on a lightship or an island because that +location is best suited to the sort of work it has to do."</p> + +<p>"And that is?"</p> + +<p>"To give ships their positions when they sing out to ask exactly where +they are," replied Bob. "Since the station is fairly well out to sea +itself, it is able to furnish excellent cross-bearings and set the +vessel on her course in case she is off it. Ships have been known to +miss their way, you know, especially in a fog; and if they have not +missed it they are often very grateful to be assured they have not and +that their own calculations were correct. So the rule is that an +operator must always be listening in for at least three minutes at +ten, twenty-five, forty, and fifty-five minutes past the hour and be +ready to answer a Q T E when he hears it."</p> + +<p>"What's a Q T E?" inquired both Dick and Walter simultaneously.</p> + +<p>"Those particular letters mean: <i>What is my true bearing?</i> It takes +less time to send the letters than to spell out the entire sentence +and therefore a simple code which means the same in all languages is +used. When such a call is received the operator replies: Q T S +(meaning: Your true bearing is) and then follows it with the number of +degrees from his radio post stated in words, and also the name of the +station responding to the message. It is a general rule, by-the-by, +that all numerals used in any wireless communication must be spelled +out to make sure of their being perfectly understood."</p> + +<p>"What a bother!" ejaculated Walter.</p> + +<p>"It prevents mistakes, brother; and if it does that it is certainly +worth the trouble."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," answered His Highness a trifle crestfallen.</p> + +<p>"Then what do you say next?" interrupted Dick, who was much interested +in the subject in hand.</p> + +<p>"Well, after you have given the true bearing the ship wires: Q T F."</p> + +<p>"And that means?"</p> + +<p>"<i>What is my position?</i>"</p> + +<p>"And you have to repeat those words before giving it just as you did +before?" asked Dick.</p> + +<p>"Always," nodded Bob. "Every question asked is always repeated by the +operator answering it to make sure that each party fully understands +what is being talked about. You can't risk having a ship complain: +'Oh, I thought those figures you sent me were so-and-so.' No, indeed. +Everything must be so explicit that there will be no room for +blunders. So after you have repeated the question you send the +latitude and longitude <i>in words</i>."</p> + +<p>"I guess there is sense in the rules after all," smiled Mrs. +Crowninshield. "Thus far we have not discovered any which, on being +examined, were not both reasonable and wise."</p> + +<p>"That's the way I feel," Bob rejoined. "After being in radio work and +seeing the opportunities there are for mistakes I have decided +operators cannot be too careful. You see it is not like talking with +a person face to face. Those you are communicating with are usually +miles and miles away. Such stations as I have been telling you about +are on the lookout for any six-hundred-meter calls and they answer in +this tune. After communication with a ship is established, however, +the tune shifts to seven hundred and fifty-six meters if a Navy vessel +should be talking; if not, the six-hundred-meter wave length assigned +is used. This leaves the shorter range waves to commercial vessels and +greatly simplifies matters."</p> + +<p>"That is a good rule, too," chimed in Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"And now about the harbor stations," suggested Dick.</p> + +<p>The young tutor smiled.</p> + +<p>"I had not intended to give you all this stuff this morning," +protested he, "but since you are interested in it we may as well go on +with the subject. The task of the harbor stations, then, is to listen +both on a six-hundred-meter range, and one of nine hundred and +fifty-two—the first wave length for commercial and the latter +for Navy ship's calls. Then in response to inquiry the operator +directs the vessel how to enter that particular harbor, stating just +where the entrance buoys are and where the channel lies. If the man at +the wheel is new to the port this aid is invaluable."</p> + +<p>"Not much like the navigation of the old days, is it?" mused Mr. +Crowninshield. "I should think such stations would put pilots out of +business."</p> + +<p>"They do to some extent," was the reply. "There are, however, always +ships that cannot make a landing under their own steam, ships that +have to be towed. So the pilots still find something to do."</p> + +<p>"And are these harbor stations on islands too?" questioned Nancy.</p> + +<p>"Many of them are. A small proportion of them, though, are in +lighthouses. It all depends on which place has the more favorable +location."</p> + +<p>"But do not the land stations that send messages sometimes interfere +with these stations?" queried Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"There are rules to prevent <i>that</i>," laughed Bob. "Of course the +difference in wave length to which the various types of stations are +limited solves a part of this difficulty. As I told you commercial +stations have their own particular wave length and must stick to it; +and private stations such as this one here have their range of two +hundred meters in which to operate and are confined to not more than +one kilowatt for sending messages. You cannot use more than this +without special permission from the Secretary of Labor. Should you do +so you are liable to a fine of one hundred dollars if your offense is +deliberate; if, however, it is proved that your apparatus was out of +adjustment and overreached itself you may get off with a +twenty-five-dollar fine. In that case you must see at once that your +radio error is corrected and your outfit set right."</p> + +<p>"But sometimes along the coast aren't there big government stations +belonging to the army or navy? I should think these, with their press +of business, would butt in on the smaller ones and raise havoc with +them," ventured Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"Where there are such mix-ups and private or commercial stations +interfere with important government outfits the smaller ones are not +allowed to send messages during the first fifteen minutes of each +hour, such time being reserved for government business. The +government, on the other hand, must respect the rights of the littler +chap and use this particular interval for transmitting. In fact, when +licenses are issued this condition is made with private owners and the +station is so listed. Of course, however, should an S O S call come, +all rules go by the boards and the distress call has the right of way +in every case."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Crowninshield, smiling mischievously, rose from her chair.</p> + +<p>"There is an S O S coming in right now for a lemonade," said she, +fanning herself with her filmy handkerchief. "Who will join me?"</p> + +<p>A chorus of "I!" "I!" greeted the question.</p> + +<p>She touched a bell.</p> + +<p>"Bring lemonade for six, Emelie," said she. "Put in some slices of +orange, some strawberries, and plenty of cracked ice. What a warm day +it is! I am glad I am not out on some hot, sun-baked island answering +radio calls."</p> + +<p>"You probably would not be hot if you were on an island out to sea, my +dear," her husband returned playfully. "However, I'll agree that this +veranda is good enough for me on a July day."</p> + +<p>The tinkling of ice cut short the conversation. Far away through the +house its distant cadence sounded.</p> + +<p>"The first and tallest lemonade must be for Bob," Nancy announced. "He +has certainly earned it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h3> + +<h4>MIRACLES</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>Although throughout the day Mr. Crowninshield did not wander far from +the telephone no word came from the New York detectives and evening +saw him quite discouraged.</p> + +<p>"I cannot imagine what those fellows are up to," fretted he. "Now that +they know where the yacht is and have had all day to do something +about it, it is beyond my comprehension why they haven't. Lola will be +dead before they get round to moving on Daly."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe they are sitting idle," Bob declared in an effort to +cheer his patron. "Probably there will be news to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Maybe," sighed the financier. "But if something does not happen by +to-morrow, I shall start myself in my own yacht to chase up Daly."</p> + +<p>"I doubt if that would do any good, sir," protested Bob. "It might +simply, as you said yourself, precipitate a crisis."</p> + +<p>"Well, a crisis is better than having nothing done," fumed the man +irritably.</p> + +<p>"You must not forget there is O'Connel."</p> + +<p>"Much good he is doing. We have only heard from him once and as we +have no license you can't talk to him."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, he is on the job at his end of the line," Bob answered. +"He has a lot of common sense, too. You can trust him to keep tabs on +how things are moving."</p> + +<p>"Maybe I can. I hope so," was the dismal retort.</p> + +<p>Evening, however, saw no improvement in Mr. Crowninshield's mood. "Not +a yip of any sort from those chaps in New York. One would think they +were dead," he growled. "Well, I'll give them one more day and then if +they haven't something to show I will send them to blazes and take up +the case myself. I almost wish I had done it in the first place. Here +I am paying a small fortune and getting no results."</p> + +<p>Again Bob struggled to soothe the perturbed mind and raise the +capitalist's spirits.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll hear something to-morrow, I guess," said he with an +optimism he did not altogether feel. "Maybe my license will come; or +the inspector may appear; or O'Connel may send tidings; or news may +come from New York. Something is sure to happen. Why don't we all go +over to the station and listen in on the broadcasting to-night. We are +sure to get something that will be interesting and now that the 'loud +speaker' is in position we shall be able to hear without using +individual receivers. You haven't any of you really heard what our +wireless can do."</p> + +<p>"I know it," acknowledged the gentleman. "You see, just about every +night during broadcasting hours we have either had company or I have +been busy."</p> + +<p>"But are you to be busy to-night?" inquired Bob.</p> + +<p>"No, I fancy we're not. Mrs. Crowninshield said there was nothing on."</p> + +<p>"Then why don't we light up the boathouse, and all of us listen to +what is going on in the world," Bob suggested. "I wish, too, Jerry +might come. He has not had a chance to see the outfit at all, much +less hear it. If it would not annoy you and the ladies just to let him +sit at the back of the room he could hear everything now that the horn +is on." Bob hesitated. "He has been so kind about helping +us——"</p> + +<p>"Sure! Ask him by all means," Mr. Crowninshield assented heartily. "Or +better yet, I will ask him myself. I am glad you reminded me of it. +Jerry is my right-hand man and I like to give him pleasure when I can. +What time will your show begin?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, from seven o'clock on there is usually something doing, sir. But +the most interesting part of the program begins at eight."</p> + +<p>"We'll be on hand, then."</p> + +<p>This promise won Bob imparted the tidings to Dick and Walter and the +two assistants, as they dubbed themselves, hastened to prepare the new +radio building for the reception of guests. Comfortable chairs and gay +cushions were brought from the house and in his enthusiasm Dick even +went so far as to drape a flag over the entrance of the low room.</p> + +<p>"We might have hung out bunting if we'd known sooner they were +coming," said he.</p> + +<p>"I guess they won't care about the bunting once they are inside the +place," Walter asserted in a comforting tone.</p> + +<p>"Don't you hope the outfit will show up well? I do," declared Dick. +"It would be just our luck to have something act up so we couldn't +hear anything. Then Dad, who is feeling pretty much on edge anyway, +would announce that a wireless was simply money thrown in a hole."</p> + +<p>"We're not responsible for the conditions," laughed Bob. "If static is +bothersome it is not our fault."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, Dad wouldn't understand that. He would just think we +did not know how to operate the thing."</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll pray for moderate quiet," smiled Bob. "Of course I'd like +the apparatus to show off at its best. But like a child, it probably +won't. We shall have to take our luck; and if we do not get +satisfactory results to-night why the audience will have to come again +to-morrow or some other time."</p> + +<p>"Maybe it won't—at least maybe Dad won't," Dick answered +incoherently. "If he starts off in the yacht to-morrow——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he won't set off to chase Daly to-morrow, don't you fret," put in +His Highness. "He was only sputtering. What good could he do? He +wouldn't have any right to search the <i>Siren</i> even if he overtook her; +nor could he arrest the criminals aboard her. Daly would pitch Lola +over the side of the boat before he would stand by and let your father +board his yacht and he knows it."</p> + +<p>"Maybe he does," admitted Dick. "Still, he was tremendously in earnest +this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"He has calmed down some now," His Highness replied.</p> + +<p>"I hope he'll stay calmed," Dick smiled. "Perhaps, unless our show +goes wrong and he gets irate at the radio company, he will."</p> + +<p>In fact had the three young wireless operators been willing to admit +it they were far more perturbed when they heard the invited company +approaching than they would have been willing to confess. In the heart +of each of them was the same thought: the new radiophone must justify +itself and prove that it was worth all the money that had been +expended upon it.</p> + +<p>"Well, here we are! And here's Jerry, too. He said he couldn't +possibly come—tried to make me believe he was too busy, the +rascal. But I labored with him and finally got him here," announced +the master triumphantly.</p> + +<p>Very hot and very uncomfortable under the general banter Jerry +blushed.</p> + +<p>"Now where do you wish to put us, Dick?" inquired the boy's mother. +"We are under your orders to-night—yours and Bob's."</p> + +<p>"I think you will be able to hear in any of these chairs—that +is, if we hear at all," Dick responded nervously.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by <i>able to hear at all</i>?" put in his father +sharply.</p> + +<p>"Why—eh—sometimes conditions vary," was the ambiguous +answer. "One does not always hear equally well." It seemed wiser to +prepare his father's mind for possible disappointment.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Bob was tinkering with the plugs.</p> + +<p>"Everybody ready?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"All on deck!" came from Mr. Crowninshield whose depression, it was +plain to be seen, had momentarily vanished.</p> + +<p>"Then here goes!" cried Bob.</p> + +<p>Instantly the quiet of the room was transformed into a chaos of sound. +There was a shrill piping as of a singing wind, and a wail that echoed +hauntingly through the air as the tuner revolved.</p> + +<p>"What in the name of goodness——?" began Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"Hush, Dad! It is always like that," explained Dick hastily.</p> + +<p>"But it's horrible."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know. But wait."</p> + +<p>"Isn't something out of order?"</p> + +<p>"No." Dick smiled patronizingly.</p> + +<p>"My soul and body," whispered Jerry from his corner, "did anybody ever +hear such a sound? Ain't it the wind outside. Seems as if a gale must +have come up—a hurricane, tornado, or something. If a storm's +coming I can't sit round here. I'll have to be seeing to the awnings +or they'll be ripped to pieces." He half rose from his chair.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, Jerry; everything's all right outside," interrupted +Walter reassuringly.</p> + +<p>"You mean to say it's just in here?" murmured the bewildered Jerry. +Enjoying the old man's confusion, Walter nodded.</p> + +<p>"What you hear is the rise of our pitch," explained Dick.</p> + +<p>"I should think it was the rise of something," grumbled Mr. +Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"We are running up our meters in order to catch the higher tuned +waves," Bob added. "That is part of the bedlam."</p> + +<p>"And the rest?"</p> + +<p>"It is static interference."</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, static is the big bugbear of radio," answered Bob, pausing a +moment in regulating his tuner and detector. "It is caused by stray +waves moving in various directions through the atmosphere, and by +electrical conditions. It is the defect all wireless people have to +fight. Sometimes it is worse than others and unfortunately to-night it +promises to be pretty bad. You see it has been a close, heavy day and +no doubt thunderstorms are in the air. A thunderstorm will kick up no +end of a rumpus with wireless."</p> + +<p>"But we haven't had any thunderstorm," Nancy called above the hubbub.</p> + +<p>"No, but somebody else's thunderstorm would bother us almost as +much," Bob explained good-humoredly.</p> + +<p>"Never mind the thunderstorms now," put in Mr. Crowninshield. "Aren't +we going to hear anything but this whistling and groaning? Whee! There +it goes again. It is for all the world like a chorus of cats."</p> + +<p>"It is more like a siren horn tooting up and down," laughed Nancy.</p> + +<p>A spluttering crackle blotted out the wail.</p> + +<p>"You would think they were frying doughnuts," grinned Dick, "wouldn't +you?"</p> + +<p>"And you really believe a thunderstorm would cause a noise like this?" +queried Mrs. Crowninshield incredulously.</p> + +<p>"It might. We have no way of knowing exactly what is raising the +trouble."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say that a storm that wasn't round here at all +could——" burst out Jerry, then stopped embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"Indeed it could," replied Bob, answering the unfinished question. +"You see thunderstorms cause powerful electrical waves that affect +apparatus miles and miles distant. Of course such waves vary in length +but nevertheless they act on all aerials to a greater or less degree. +Then, too, the atmospheric conditions are never quite identical, +changing with the hour of the day, the season of the year, and local +weather disturbances. Fortunately, since the air is positively +electrified and the earth negatively, certain of these differences are +remedied by the aerial that connects the two, the current discharges +partially seeping off through the ground. Sometimes, however, in spite +of every device used, such currents are strong enough to cause a roar +in the receiver. In addition there is the interference from other +radio stations which are busy transmitting messages, and although +there are rules that aim to reduce this annoyance, it is, to a certain +extent, always to be reckoned with."</p> + +<p>"I should think somebody ought to invent something to prevent such +troubles," declared Nancy.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you, Sis?" asked Dick wickedly.</p> + +<p>"But it is terrible to have the air so full of noise," continued the +girl, as she made a little face at her brother. "I've always thought +of the air as being still."</p> + +<p>"It is still in a general sense," smiled Bob. "It is only when the +amplifier of the wireless magnifies the sounds that we realize how +many of them our ears fail to hear."</p> + +<p>"It's a downright mercy they do!" exclaimed Jerry.</p> + +<p>"You're right there, Jerry!" agreed Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"But how do messages come through such a chaos?" Dick inquired.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes they don't," laughed Bob. "But nine cases out of ten they +do because there are ways of combating static interference. You can, +for instance, tune your apparatus to a higher or lower pitch and +thereby escape from the zone where the noise is. That whine you hear +is produced by my turning the tuning knob and increasing our range of +meters. Already with the higher vibration you will notice the hubbub +has lessened."</p> + +<p>"Yes, things are ever so much clearer," agreed a chorus of voices.</p> + +<p>"That is one way, then, out of the difficulty. There are, in addition, +other mechanical means that can be resorted to when you learn more +about handling the outfit. Suffice it to say that in a general way +whatever tends toward inertia, or a lack of electrical activity, +decreases static interference."</p> + +<p>There was a pause in which above the crackling and the wailing of the +instrument a faint sound became audible.</p> + +<p>"Gee! Did you hear that?" cried Walter.</p> + +<p>"Hush!"</p> + +<p>"But I heard a voice quite distinctly."</p> + +<p>"Keep still, can't you?" Dick remarked unceremoniously.</p> + +<p>Then plainly into the room came the words:</p> + +<p>"Station (WGI) Amrad Medford Hillside, Mass. 360 meters. Stand by for +Boston Police reports."</p> + +<p>"That is the police news," whispered Dick to Nancy. "Among other +things it gives the automobiles that are lost, their numbers, and a +description of each."</p> + +<p>"Want to hear it?" asked Bob of his audience.</p> + +<p>"Not unless they can tell us they have found Lola," responded Mr. +Crowninshield promptly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," his wife hastened to add, "let's not listen to a long +string of crimes. Goodness knows there are enough of them to read in +the papers."</p> + +<p>She shook her head warningly at Bob and motioned toward her husband.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather hear some music," put in Nancy. "Can't we?"</p> + +<p>There was an ascending wail from the tuner.</p> + +<p>"Ain't that a band?" cried Jerry excitedly.</p> + +<p>"It's an orchestra!" Nancy ejaculated in the same breath.</p> + +<p>"It's gone!"</p> + +<p>"We'll get it again," was Bob's confident answer as he twirled the +knobs of both tuner and detector.</p> + +<p>"There it is!" burst out Jerry. "It's a brass band, as I live!"</p> + +<p>"Where do you suppose it is?" speculated Mrs. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"Pittsburgh or Chicago; or perhaps Newark."</p> + +<p>"Not Chicago—out West! You're fooling," observed Jerry with +scorn.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I'm not. Wait and you'll hear in a few moments exactly who it +was."</p> + +<p>"I'll not believe it unless I do," the old man announced, with a zest +that provoked a general laugh.</p> + +<p>"What time is it? Can any one tell?" asked Bob.</p> + +<p>"What difference does that make," Walter inquired.</p> + +<p>"It will give us a cue as to who it is," was the explanation. "All +these broadcasting stations have certain hours for their programs."</p> + +<p>"I've seen those lists published in the papers, but I never took any +stock in them," growled Jerry.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to now, Jerry," said Nancy mischievously.</p> + +<p>She saw him scratch his head.</p> + +<p>"Well, I dunno," was his laconic reply. "The whole thing beats me. If +that band was in Chicago——"</p> + +<p>"Hush!"</p> + +<p>The crash of instruments had come to an end and over the wire in +accents unmistakably distinct came the words:</p> + +<p>"Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company KYW Chicago, +Illinois. Stand by fifteen minutes for——" but the rest of +the sentence was lost, for with a mighty slap of his knees Jerry +roared:</p> + +<p>"It was in Chicago—that band! Well, I'll be buttered!"</p> + +<p>Overwhelmed the Cape Codder had risen to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Chicago! Pittsburgh! Medford! My eye, but this will do me to talk +about until the day of my death. It don't seem possible; I'm beat if +it does."</p> + +<p>Helplessly he dropped back into his chair again, silenced by very +wonder.</p> + +<p>In the meantime out of the wailing and whining and piping the sharp, +clear-cut click of a telegraph instrument could be discerned.</p> + +<p>"That's the Morse code," explained Bob. "Some commercial station is +sending a message. It seems to be about a shipment of lumber and +isn't particularly interesting."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you can read it," said Dick enviously.</p> + +<p>"Naturally. That is part of my job, you know."</p> + +<p>"What is a commercial station?" inquired the still bewildered Jerry.</p> + +<p>"A station that sends only messages for the general public. Probably +this load of lumber started out of port without the captain of the +ship having the least idea in the world where he was to market it. In +the interval since it left, however, the company's shore agents have +secured a customer for it, perhaps in New Bedford, Boston, Providence, +or some other coast city and they are now notifying the ship where to +deliver it. Such an arrangement is quite common nowadays. Were the +captain obliged to hold his cargo in port until he had a purchaser, as +was the usual rule in the past, he would be wasting much precious +time. By this method he can set forth the moment the vessel is loaded +and during his voyage let his managers search for buyers. In all +probability by the time he nears New England harbors his wares will be +sold and orders sent him where to deposit them."</p> + +<p>"That's a neat little scheme!" observed Walter.</p> + +<p>But poor Jerry was too much overcome by the marvels he had witnessed +to comment on this added miracle. All he could do was to reiterate +feebly: "It beats me—hanged if it don't!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h3> + +<h4>THE LAWS OF THE AIR</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>Morning found Mr. Crowninshield in no more tractable a mood. Even +before Bob could reach his post at the wireless station and adjust his +double head receiver to his ears his employer came briskly across the +grass with his after-breakfast cigar between his lips.</p> + +<p>"Well," began he, when he was within calling distance, "any news yet?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not yet, sir. It is still early."</p> + +<p>The great man took out his watch.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it almost time for O'Connel to signal?"</p> + +<p>"It is nearing the time."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if he will have any tidings for us?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly hope so." The wish was uttered with deep sincerity. A +speculation was forming in the young operator's mind as to how he was +going to pacify the irascible gentleman before him should no tidings +come.</p> + +<p>"Since I'm here I believe I'll drop down and wait until you get into +touch with the <i>Siren</i>."</p> + +<p>"It is liable to be quite a little while. Sometimes there is delay."</p> + +<p>"No matter. I've nothing especial to do to-day."</p> + +<p>With sinking heart Bob turned away and began to fuss with his oil can +and a bit of cotton waste.</p> + +<p>"As you will, sir," was all he said.</p> + +<p>"You think, don't you, that we will hear something definite this +morning?"</p> + +<p>"There is no telling."</p> + +<p>"No, of course not. Nevertheless O'Connel can at least let us know +whether Lola is worse or better."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we ought to ascertain that."</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't be such an idiot as to stand by and see the dog die, +would he?"</p> + +<p>"One never can predict just what another person will do. However, I +feel sure you can trust O'Connel. I never knew him to bungle anything +yet."</p> + +<p>With that comfort Mr. Crowninshield was obliged to content himself.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding it, however, he began to pace nervously back and +forth, and every time there was a sound in the room he would whisk +about with the quick remark:</p> + +<p>"Didn't you hear something?"</p> + +<p>But although he fretted and fumed, strolled out the door and in again, +no amount of impatience appeared to hurry matters.</p> + +<p>Even Bob began to lose his poise and fear no message was coming when +suddenly the well-known signal came and the familiar clockwork began +to be clicked off.</p> + +<p>"Is it he?" demanded Mr. Crowninshield in a tense whisper.</p> + +<p>Bob nodded.</p> + +<p>On clicked the code. Then suddenly it stopped and the man who was +watching saw the operator raise the discs of rubber from his ears and +shake himself free of his metal trappings.</p> + +<p>"Well?" inquired Mr. Crowninshield in quick staccato.</p> + +<p>"It was O'Connel. All he said was: <i>Wait developments.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Not a word about Lola?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir."</p> + +<p>"Not a reference of any sort?"</p> + +<p>"That was all."</p> + +<p>"But that is no kind of a message," announced the exasperated owner of +Surfside. "Why, it might mean almost anything."</p> + +<p>"It sounds hopeful to me."</p> + +<p>"I don't see any hope in it," was the despondent answer.</p> + +<p>"It least it gives us to understand that something is brewing."</p> + +<p>"But why couldn't he have told us more?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he did not dare to. They may have begun to suspect he was +sending private messages."</p> + +<p>"Humph! I had not thought of that."</p> + +<p>"Or possibly he may have been in a rush. He sent the letters at a +tremendous pace—so fast that I had to race him. It seemed as if +he was afraid he might not be able to get the message through."</p> + +<p>"You didn't answer anything, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Only my signal to let him know I was listening."</p> + +<p>"Then you think there is nothing more to be done at present but sit +right here and see what happens?"</p> + +<p>"I do not see how we can do anything else."</p> + +<p>"It's frightfully annoying."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Nevertheless it is our only course."</p> + +<p>"You've no inkling whether the developments he mentioned are to be +soon or not?"</p> + +<p>"Not the ghost of an idea."</p> + +<p>"Then there is nothing for it but to hold on right here a while +longer, I'm afraid. And since we are all to be tied to the spot you +may as well come up to the house later and give Dick his usual radio +lesson."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir."</p> + +<p>With a curt nod the financier went out the door and after seeing that +everything was right Bob locked up the building and followed him.</p> + +<p>He found the little group assembled in the lee of the awnings waiting +for him. Mr. Crowninshield was there, too, gnawing fiercely at a fresh +cigar.</p> + +<p>"I hear you have had a message, Bob," Mrs. Crowninshield said as he +approached.</p> + +<p>"Yes; a rather hopeful one, I think."</p> + +<p>"I'm so excited! We all are. What do you suppose is in the wind?"</p> + +<p>"I've no idea. Something good, I hope."</p> + +<p>"Is that Morse code hard to learn?" inquired Nancy.</p> + +<p>"The Morse Continental? That depends on what you consider hard," +smiled Bob. "If your memory is good and you are quick at catching +sounds it ought not to be very awful. Numberless persons do learn it."</p> + +<p>"Of course sending messages after you have the code learned cannot be +so bad, for you can take your own time," Dick put in. "It is receiving +them that would fuss me."</p> + +<p>"We'll fix you up with a buzzer and let you and Walter practice later +if you want a try."</p> + +<p>"Could you?" asked Dick eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Sure! Moreover, there are phonograph records made on purpose to be +used by beginners. Perhaps your father will get you some of those. It +is a fine way to learn, training your ear to the sounds and giving you +lots of practice."</p> + +<p>"What a bully scheme!"</p> + +<p>"It is a good proof of how one science can help another, isn't it?" +observed Mrs. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"I suppose transmitting is a great deal harder than receiving anyhow, +isn't it?" pursued Dick.</p> + +<p>"Well, of course there is more to it. In the rough it is merely the +reverse of receiving; but in reality to project a message through the +air requires a more elaborate outfit."</p> + +<p>"But you said our wireless would send as well as receive."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it will. It was made with both ends of the service in view. Your +apparatus would first have to be adjusted and tuned until it was at +the same frequency as the station with which you were talking. That +you have to do anyhow, whether you are sending or receiving. And I +told you, you remember, how to regulate that. Your antenna is +connected through an adjustable induction coil, and moreover you have +a small condenser which together with it forms a closed circuit. It is +simple enough when you understand the principle to adjust the +vibratory motion in the antenna by moving the connection. The +frequency of the closed circuit can be adjusted, too. Tuning is +nothing more than putting these two circuits into accord with the +waves you receive. Your detector does a good part of the work for you, +for it responds to every oscillation set up in the receiver. When, +however, you are transmitting a message, you must take care to cut out +your receiver by turning on the switch. Never forget that. You won't +be likely to, either, when you are told why. You see it requires power +to send out transmission waves and therefore to do it you have to +employ a high-pressure current. Receiving, on the other hand, demands +delicately adjusted instruments which are equipped to catch every +faint, incoming wave. Should you let the strong charge of electricity +used for transmission pass through your fragile receiving apparatus +you would ruin it in no time."</p> + +<p>"I can see that," replied Dick.</p> + +<p>"Grasp that notion and you have one big principle of the difference +between sending messages and receiving them," said Bob. "Skill in +learning to take messages either in code or cipher comes with +practice. The more you work at it the faster you can go. You have a +keyboard all installed and the only thing standing between you and an +expert operator is patience. Speed comes sooner than you think, too, +if you practice persistently every day. As for the Morse code you +press the key lever down quickly and instantly release it to make a +dot. A dash is equal to three dots; the space between the parts of the +same letters is equal to a dot; that between two letters to three +dots; and between two words to five dots. You must train your ear +until the span of these intervals becomes unmistakable. When you get +some skill and are ready to try out what you can do, you will find +that there are several ways of getting wider practice. There are, for +example, local clubs that broadcast in code and send messages limited +in speed to an amateur's capacity. Such centers are considerate enough +to transmit at the rate of not more than five or ten words to the +minute. It is persistence and a willingness to go slowly and carefully +that win out in the end. A moderately delivered message that is +without errors is worth a dozen fast, inaccurate ones; for when you +blunder and have to go back and repeat, you not only waste your time +and that of the man at the other end of the line but you annoy and +usually confuse him. You will never gain anything if you are content +with being a sloppy operator since above everything else radio +messages must be correct. That is their chief value. Therefore, if +after trying with all your might you find you cannot qualify as a +topnotch, high-speed man be content to drop into the class below and +be an accurate, slower operator. There are always certain things we +do better than others. Speed may not be one of your gifts. That is no +sign you have not other talents, however. Face the fact and go into +the class where you belong. You won't get so nervous and fussed up, +and by and by you may surprise yourself by finding that with time and +experience the desired speed will come."</p> + +<p>"I am not aiming to be a crackerjack like you," grinned Dick. "If I +can take down and send any messages at all I shall feel pretty cocky."</p> + +<p>"You think that now," returned Bob, ignoring the flattery contained in +the observation. "But by and by you will find yourself discontented +and as crazy to make time as you are in an automobile. There is a +fascination about it."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't the Morse Continental bother you a bit?" inquired Mr. +Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"Not a particle. In fact, it has come to be almost as easy reading as +straight English," answered Bob. "The thing that does fuss me +sometimes though is to send and receive in cipher."</p> + +<p>"Mercy! Do they do that too?" gasped Mrs. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"Certainly. Often both in time of war and times of peace confidential +messages which it is not desirable all the world should know have to +be transmitted. Sometimes these are government communications; +sometimes business or personal ones. At any rate, their senders wish +them kept private and hence they are sent in cipher. Many of them are +queer enough, too, when they come in."</p> + +<p>"Can you understand them yourself?" asked Nancy.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not. It is not intended that any one except the person for +whom they are intended shall know what they mean."</p> + +<p>"But I should think since they make no sense you would wonder whether +you had them right," commented Dick.</p> + +<p>"I do wonder sometimes," admitted Bob honestly. "When you get a +sequence of queer words or combinations of letters you cannot help +wondering. However, there is not much chance for a mistake, either in +the transmission or in the delivery of such messages, for the operator +is always obliged to send them slower than he does ordinary stuff, +spacing the letters or groups of letters with unusual care. +Furthermore, code words are always repeated once. This gives the man +receiving them a chance to print the letters by hand rather than write +them, a precaution that does much to prevent mistakes. The address and +signature must also be very carefully transmitted. With such +watchfulness at each end of the line it would be only a colossally +stupid person who would blunder."</p> + +<p>"But suppose the operator who is transmitting went faster than you +could?" murmured Walter.</p> + +<p>"He doesn't as a general rule. It isn't wireless ethics. And even +should he be a more skillful radio man he knows he would gain nothing +by hustling the chap at the other end for he would only lose time by +having to go back and repeat."</p> + +<p>"Is all the general transmission of messages given such care?" +inquired Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"Of course cipher communications are fussier," Bob said. "Nevertheless +the rules are pretty strict for all messages. And since accuracy is +the keynote of radio and to get it your outfit must be in A1 +condition, every care must be taken to have strong, clear, and +effective sending and receiving power. That means you must constantly +clean your apparatus and tighten it up; test out your detector by the +buzzer intended for the purpose and make sure that it is in sensitive +condition; and assure yourself that every part of your set is OK. +Moreover, an operator who is on duty listening in is expected to wear +the double head receiver all the time, so no sound, however faint, may +get by him. He must also see that his detector is adjusted to its +greatest degree of sensibility and his tuner to the proper wave +length. If your station happens to be near another, or if you are one +of a group of ships and other vessels near yours are sending, you must +watch out and either weaken the coupling of your detector or open your +switch and cut it out altogether when those around you are using +powerful currents for transmission; else you will wreck this delicate +part of your instrument."</p> + +<p>"Gee, but there are things to remember!" ejaculated Dick.</p> + +<p>"Not so many, really, if you use ordinary brains," Bob returned. "You +just have to think, that is all. A few big principles hold throughout. +The other <i>don'ts</i> are simply to make your own work and the other +fellow's smoother; prevent mistakes; do away with as much interference +as possible; and protect your outfit. For example, I found I could +often lessen the interference by loosening the coupling of my +receiving set after I had heard a call and reduce the sound to a point +where it was just readable. You get your message all right but you do +not get so much else with it. Then you can save wear and tear if you +only run your generator while you are sending messages. That you +cannot transmit at the hours reserved for naval radio stations to send +out the time signals by which navigators set their chronometers, or +when operators are broadcasting, goes without saying. Any dunce would +know that."</p> + +<p>"I had no idea there were hours for sending out the time," confessed +Dick.</p> + +<p>"Indeed there are. It is very important, too, that ships know the +correct time to prevent disasters. There are shore stations whose sole +duty it is to supply to ships the time and their location. Don't you +recall my mentioning such coastal stations?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; I guess I do remember now," returned Dick, a trifle +confused.</p> + +<p>"What happens if you call a station and nobody answers?" interrogated +Nancy. "I have been meaning to ask. Do you just keep on calling as you +do at the telephone?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," was the instant reply. "Should you do that you would +cause no end of interference and make yourself a nuisance to +everybody. The rule is that after you have called a station three +times at two-minute intervals you must stop for a quarter of an hour +before you call again. If you happened to be calling a fleet of ships +it is desirable to alter your tune rather than keep repeating the +summons in the same key. It saves time. Merchant ships and coast +stations must, however, be called in the wave length definitely +specified for their use."</p> + +<p>"Shipboard stations seem to have more rules than the others," +commented Dick.</p> + +<p>"Not more rules but different ones," Bob said. "You see their nearness +to other ships makes this imperative. Each ship has to take care not +to knock out the apparatus of its neighbor by inconsiderate use of a +high-power current; also it must not cause undue interference. In +other words, a bevy of ships, like a group of persons, must be +courteous to one another. If a ship within a ten-mile radius of +another is receiving signals that are so faint that they are difficult +to distinguish, a neighboring vessel should not complicate matters by +trying to transmit a message until the other ship has received what +was coming in. This rule makes for ordinary politeness, that is all."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't the ship waiting to talk send a message in a different wave +length?" inquired Dick.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; that would be quite possible, if the tune varied enough to +make it perfectly distinct."</p> + +<p>"But what about high-power stations?" demanded Walter. "They handle +important stuff and of course cannot keep stopping for other people +to talk. Don't their powerful currents damage the receiving sets in +stations near them? I should think they might even injure their own."</p> + +<p>"High-power, or long-distance stations have still another problem to +meet and they meet it in a different way," responded Bob. "In order +that the currents they are obliged to use shall not destroy detectors +and other delicate receiving apparatus they carry on what are known as +duplex operations. That is, the receiving station is constructed +at some distance from the sending station—often several +miles away—and the two parts of the service are performed +independently by different antennæ. In this way sending and +receiving can be carried on at the same time in slightly varying wave +lengths."</p> + +<p>"But how can they talk and act as one station if they are so far +apart?" questioned His Highness much puzzled.</p> + +<p>"It is not as impossible as it seems. The operator at the sending +station has a small sending key connected by electricity with a relay +at the receiving station. By means of a lever and certain complex +paraphernalia this key can be used as the sending key for the main +apparatus. Thus the station operated by distant control carries on a +duplex system of transmission so that both sending and receiving +stations are kept in touch with one another."</p> + +<p>"That is clever!" interrupted Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"A high-power station has to be ingeniously equipped," responded Bob, +"for it does a great deal of business, rapid business and business +that is important. In some stations so fast do the messages come in +and so long are they that an automatic tape not unlike that seen at +the stock exchange is used to make perforated records of the dots and +dashes. Later this punctured slip can be run through a Morse writer +and the message taken down at leisure by the operator. Or sometimes +photographic or phonographic records are resorted to and these like +the others can be reproduced at a slower rate of speed and interpreted +by the operator."</p> + +<p>"I should like that and then I wouldn't have to hurry," murmured +Nancy.</p> + +<p>"It must be jolly to be an operator in a long-distance station," mused +Dick, "where real things are going on."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is," was Bob's nonchalant answer. "I fancy, though, that +very vital government messages go in cipher. Uncle Sam isn't risking +having his secrets published far and wide over the face of the whole +earth. Although for that matter all radio messages are secret."</p> + +<p>"But how can they be if any and everybody can listen in?"</p> + +<p>"Well, on a high-power wave length probably ordinary persons would not +be able to listen in. Their apparatus would not be equipped for it. +Should a station be able to, however, during critical periods, such as +times of war, the government takes no chances and orders all but +certain specified stations dismantled. That puts an end to intruders +unless a spy has a hidden wireless somewhere; and if he has he takes +an almighty risk with his neck, that is all I can say," concluded Bob +with a grin.</p> + +<p>"But operators have tongues and can talk," Mrs. Crowninshield +suggested. "Don't they sometimes?"</p> + +<p>"Usually they do not know what the message passing through their hands +means," Bob answered. "But even should they contrive to study it out +they would not dare repeat it because of the penalty entailed."</p> + +<p>"Penalty?"</p> + +<p>The young operator nodded.</p> + +<p>"You would not have to concern yourself much about blabbers if you +heard what happens to them," piped Walter, who suddenly found himself +on ground which previous instruction had rendered familiar. "It's off +with their heads!"</p> + +<p>"Not really!" gasped the horrified Nancy.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he does not mean literally," the elder brother explained. "But it +is away with their license which is almost as disastrous a fate to a +man who has planned to make his living by wireless. Nor is the loss of +the license all that happens. In addition one is liable to a +two-hundred-and-fifty-dollar fine or three years' imprisonment."</p> + +<p>"Jove! They do come down on you!" Dick averred.</p> + +<p>"Ra-<i>ther</i>! You know, of course, that if you violate any clause of +your radio agreement you may be fined one hundred dollars; and should +an operator fake a distress call the fine is twenty-five hundred +dollars, or five years in prison and perhaps both. Even the smallest +fine one can get off with for such an offense is two years behind the +bars. It makes you think twice before playing that little joke. The +government is wise, too, to spread it on thick, for to fake an S O S +which is given the right of way over every other signal would be a +contemptible trick. Mild punishments like fines and imprisonments +would be too good for the wretch who would so deliberately mislead +people. Moreover a few such offenses would cause the importance of the +call to be discredited so that in time nobody would be in a rush to +pay attention to it."</p> + +<p>"I didn't realize an S O S so invariably had the right of way," +meditated Dick. "Of course I knew it was the distress signal at sea."</p> + +<p>"S O S in the International Morse Code is the universal distress call +adopted by the common consent of our civilized nations at the wireless +convention held at Berlin in 1906. Every radio station ashore or +afloat is obliged to give it first place and do everything possible to +further its demands. When a distress call is heard all ships and +stations everywhere that hear it are in honor bound to stop whatever +they may be doing and listen; nor must they try to talk with the ship +herself unless she asks them to. Instead, after she has sent out her +call for attention, which is equivalent to our <i>Hello</i> of the +telephone, she gives her name; the name of the station or ship she +wishes to talk with; states what the matter is; and defines as nearly +as she is able her position. This done she sends out a general call +and if the station or ship she has asked aid from has not caught the +signal and fails to answer her, any operator within hearing may do so. +The instant he begins to talk with her, however, all the others +listening in must remain silent. At last, when the message is +delivered or the necessary conversation at an end, then the ship's +radio man sends out a broadcast to let everybody know that he has +finished so that all stations may resume their regular routine."</p> + +<p>"Some system!" breathed Dick.</p> + +<p>"I guess you would think there was some system if you were to see a +book of radio rules," returned Bob. "I'll show you mine some day. All +the various shore stations have their many regulations, as I have told +you before; shipboard stations have theirs; and even the amateurs are +protected so that every class may get fair play and not bother his +neighbor. Wireless stations, you see, are not mere toys. They have +work to do and must be able to do it unhampered."</p> + +<p>"I'd like a glimpse of that manual," suggested Dick.</p> + +<p>"I'll bring it round to-morrow," Bob answered, glancing at his watch +and rising.</p> + +<p>The others rose too.</p> + +<p>"I suppose it would be no use to listen in for O'Connel again," +remarked Mr. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"I will if you like," Bob responded. "I doubt, though, if it would do +any good."</p> + +<p>"No, I guess it wouldn't. We shall just have to wait," sighed the +man.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h3> + +<h4>THE NET TIGHTENS</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>When on the morrow no call of any kind came from O'Connel Mr. +Crowninshield was, as his son expressed it, "fit to be tied."</p> + +<p>"I can't see why we do not hear something to-day," fumed he. "He can't +expect us to <i>wait developments</i> forever. Are you sure you did not +miss the signal, Bob."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how I could have missed it," replied the operator +patiently.</p> + +<p>"But he always does call, doesn't he?"</p> + +<p>"He has for the last few days."</p> + +<p>"Then why not to-day?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot imagine. Perhaps he couldn't."</p> + +<p>"You don't suppose anything has happened to Lola, do you?"</p> + +<p>"Who can tell?"</p> + +<p>"You are right; it was a foolish question," admitted the financier, +accepting the rebuke gracefully. "Still, I cannot help being anxious +and wondering."</p> + +<p>"Of course not."</p> + +<p>"If only that miserable inspector would turn up and you could get your +license! It is absurd that you cannot send a message, a man of your +experience!"</p> + +<p>"I am as sorry about the delay as you are," Bob answered. "Perhaps I +am more so. Nevertheless I am not going to break the rules. Besides, +were we to call O'Connel, it might arouse suspicion and get him into +trouble. It is far better to leave the calling to him."</p> + +<p>"But he hasn't called."</p> + +<p>"Then there is some good reason, I'll be bound. He knows what he is +about when he says to await developments."</p> + +<p>"Maybe he does," sighed the elder man. "However, I am not much used to +waiting. When I want a thing done, I want it done."</p> + +<p>Bob smiled at the characteristic remark.</p> + +<p>"You cannot whisk everything off like that," observed he. "Sometimes +it is necessary——"</p> + +<p>"To wait? Yes, I suppose so," put in Mr. Crowninshield. "Well, I will +hold my horses for one more day. But I warn you to-morrow I shall do +something. I can't be hanging around like this—not knowing +anything or hearing anything."</p> + +<p>"It is hard," Bob returned sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"It is hard for one born in New York and accustomed to seeing things +hum," asserted the owner of Surfside with a wry smile. "Well, we must +try to forget it, that's all. Come, get your books and let us go on +with our radio lesson from the point where we left it yesterday. The +rest of them are waiting and there seems to be nothing better that we +can do."</p> + +<p>Fortunately Bob was not sensitive enough to be hurt by the thrust.</p> + +<p>"I'll be right along," agreed he, "as soon as I have locked up here."</p> + +<p>On reaching the veranda he found his class assembled and the first +comment to reach his ears was:</p> + +<p>"No news from O'Connel, eh?"</p> + +<p>"No, Dick."</p> + +<p>"What in thunder do you suppose has become of him?"</p> + +<p>Bob put his finger to his lips and taking the hint the boy abandoned +the subject, inquiring instead:</p> + +<p>"Isn't it a bore to have to listen in at just such a time every day +whether it is convenient or not—I mean when you are in charge of +a station."</p> + +<p>"Sometimes it is," Bob responded. "Still, it is your job and you +expect to put it first and fit your own affairs in around it. Besides, +you get used to the regularity of the hours and soon do not notice the +monotony of the rules. You can readily understand why, at all official +radio stations, somebody must always be on the watch for S O S calls. +On shipboard there are three classes of wireless stations: those +having continual service with an operator who always has his ear to +the receiver while the ship is in motion; those where the office is +open only at stated hours and an operator listening merely for a +limited time; and those whose operators have no fixed time beyond +listening in the first ten minutes of each hour."</p> + +<p>"The ship decides which kind of station it will have, I suppose," +Nancy remarked.</p> + +<p>"Indeed it doesn't," Bob contradicted, with a shake of his head. "The +government saves the vessel that trouble. It defines exactly the sort +of station when it issues the license. Uncle Sam also bestows on each +of these stations a name or combination of letters by which it shall +be known and under which it is officially listed. Each country has a +prescribed number of such letters allotted for its use at the +International Convention at Berne, and our nation is authorized to use +groups beginning with N and W; also triple groups of KIA to KZZ. You +will find all these call letters in a book that contains the wireless +telegraph stations of the world, a volume issued by the international +publication office at Berne."</p> + +<p>"Can any one get one?" inquired Walter.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, if he has the price," smiled the older brother. "I guess +you do not need one, though. A local call book would answer most +purposes. It would hardly be necessary for you to call any foreign +offices, and I even doubt if you would need to summon Sayville, +Tuckerton, New Brunswick, Marion, or Annapolis."</p> + +<p>"Those are our trans-Atlantic stations, aren't they?" asked Dick.</p> + +<p>"Some of them," Bob said. "We have others, though, that can talk with +Europe. There is one at San Diego; Pearl Harbor in Hawaii; and Cavite +in the Philippines. There are also Marconi stations at Kahuka and +Bolinas. In addition to these, the government has a number of +high-power stations scattered throughout the country. Arlington, +Virginia——"</p> + +<p>"Sends out the time," put in Walter with disconcerting promptness.</p> + +<p>"It sure does, sonny."</p> + +<p>"How many foreign countries can talk with us?" inquired Nancy.</p> + +<p>"A short time ago there were eight that could talk direct. One is at +Funabashi, Japan; one at Carnarvon, Wales; two in France, one at +Nantes and one at Lyons; Rome, Italy, has one; Germany has one at +Nauen and one at Eilvese, Hanover; and Norway has one at Stavanger. +Then in Canada there are two transatlantic stations."</p> + +<p>"Glace Bay!" piped the incorrigible Walter.</p> + +<p>Bob patted his head with a mock fatherly gesture.</p> + +<p>"Very good, son," said he, at which everybody laughed.</p> + +<p>"These stations," he went on, "are all equipped with very high power, +varying in wave length anywhere from 17,600 to 6,000 meters. Most of +our stations are pretty powerful, anyway. Pearl Harbor, for instance, +has a 13,000 wave length; Cavite 12,000; Sayville, 11,600; Tuckerton, +owned by a French company, about 8,700; New Brunswick, New Jersey, +13,600; Marion, Massachusetts, 14,400; and Annapolis, 17,600. Only a +few foreign stations can match these in range. Carnarvon has two wave +lengths: 14,000 and 11,500; Lyons, 15,500; Nantes, 10,000; Rome, +11,500; Nauen, 12,550; Eilvese (Hanover), 15,000 and 9,600; and +Stavanger, Norway, 9,600. There are many, however, that vary from +7,000 to 4,000 and can transmit messages by relaying them."</p> + +<p>"I wish my set could send farther," Dick murmured regretfully.</p> + +<p>"It sends as far as the law allows. We must therefore abide by Uncle +Sam's judgment and be content. The scale is very carefully planned and +the classifications made most intelligently, I think. Amateurs are +limited to about a 200-meter wave length; low-power stations come next +and are grouped under 1,600 meters. Of these the 750 wave is reserved +for government stations such as radio compass stations, etc.; 600 +meters is the commercial tune for large merchant ships; 476 that of +submarines, aircraft, and small war vessels; and 300 meters is the +commercial tune for small vessels. After that we pass into the higher +group, all of which come under the head of medium-power stations. +These range from 4,000 to 1,800 meters and first on the list are the +government ships which have continuous waves and a length of from +3,000 to 4,000 meters. Following them come the experimental and +miscellaneous stations with a 3,000 to 2,000-meter range; and after +them the 1,800-meter class which is the commercial tune for continuous +waves."</p> + +<p>"And the high-power stations are the last, I suppose," put in Dick.</p> + +<p>"Yes, those designed for trans-oceanic service. These range from +20,000 to 6,000 meters. The distinctions are, you see, quite +positively made and everybody must keep within his assigned +pigeon-hole."</p> + +<p>"I reckon I'll keep in mine," announced Dick.</p> + +<p>"I should advise it if you want smooth sailing," retorted Bob. "You +will hardly——" but the sentence was never finished for a +maid approached Mr. Crowninshield at the moment and whispered:</p> + +<p>"The telephone, sir; New York is speaking."</p> + +<p>"New York, Dad!" exclaimed Dick excitedly. "It may be Lyman or Dacie."</p> + +<p>"More likely it is the office," replied his mother.</p> + +<p>"Some business matter, I fancy," said Mr. Crowninshield as he rose. +"I'm sorry to interrupt the lesson."</p> + +<p>"I was just about through, sir."</p> + +<p>"I'll be back in a moment probably."</p> + +<p>"Poor father always has telephone calls," lamented Nancy +sympathetically. "If he ever starts out to play golf somebody is sure +to want him. Sometimes I wish that New York office was in the bottom +of the sea."</p> + +<p>"I guess you'd have precious little bread and butter if it was," +announced Dick with brotherly sarcasm.</p> + +<p>"Certainly you wouldn't be able to provide me with any," Nancy flashed +back with a teasing laugh.</p> + +<p>"Children!" interposed Mrs. Crowninshield.</p> + +<p>"Here's Dad! Well, Pater, what was it?" asked Dick. Then on observing +his father was unwontedly excited he repeated, "What's up, Dad?"</p> + +<p>"It was Lyman," Mr. Crowninshield answered. "The New York police have +run down two men and Mr. Lyman wants Bob to come over and see if he +can identify either of them as the one who kidnapped Lola."</p> + +<p>"You could identify him, couldn't you, Bob?" Walter put in.</p> + +<p>"Of course I could. Didn't the chap come into the station to get water +for his machine?" was the instant reply. "I talked with him quite a +bit while he was fixing up his engine. He seemed in a powerful rush to +be off and wasn't overgracious."</p> + +<p>"But could Bob leave now, Archibald?" questioned his wife. "Isn't +there the possibility of news from Mr. O'Connel?"</p> + +<p>"Jove! I had forgotten that."</p> + +<p>"Maybe O'Connel won't call; he didn't to-day, you know," Nancy said.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me Bob ought to go and land those chaps if there is a +chance of doing it," Dick declared. "He would not need to be gone more +than one night, would he?"</p> + +<p>"No. Nevertheless, he would miss the morning wireless," returned Mr. +Crowninshield. "Should there be important news we should not get it."</p> + +<p>"It is a pity you boys can't take a message," Nancy remarked, turning +toward her brother and Walter. "If you only had your Morse code +learned you might be quite some good to us now."</p> + +<p>"I wish I had whooped up on it faster," bewailed Dick, with engaging +candor. "I'm an awful rotter—plain lazy, I guess."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know but we'd better let Bob go, all things +considered," observed Mr. Crowninshield, who had been quietly thinking +the matter over.</p> + +<p>"I say Bob goes, too," reiterated Dick. "It is worth something to put +such fellows as those dog thieves behind the bars."</p> + +<p>"You can connect with the Fall River boat or one passing through the +Canal and be in New York in the morning, Bob," the elder man asserted. +"Lyman will meet you, hustle things along, and send you home on the +noon train. With Dick's racing car to pick you up somewhere along the +line there is no reason why we should not have you back here before +another morning. You've no time to spare, though, for lingering and +discussing wireless and its wonders. Trot along and pack up your duds +and get some luncheon. I'll call up Wheeler and have him ready to +carry you to the train. Do not bother your head about connections; I +will look up everything and tell you exactly what to do."</p> + +<p>In a flurry of anticipation off hastened Bob.</p> + +<p>"Gee! Isn't it the limit that we haven't brains enough to get +O'Connel?" murmured Dick to Walter in a disgusted whisper. "I ought to +have duffed in harder on the blamed code. But I thought there was no +hurry. We seemed to have all summer to learn it."</p> + +<p>"Maybe he won't call," His Highness suggested hopefully.</p> + +<p>"I hope to blazes he doesn't," was the retort. "I'd feel cheap as dirt +to have that ticker go clicking out a message and I not be able to get +a word of it."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h3> + +<h4>WALTER STEPS INTO THE BREACH</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>With Bob gone and radio lessons suspended the following morning seemed +to both Dick and Walter an unwontedly quiet one. Moreover with a +scorching sun high in the heaven, no breeze, and a dead low tide most +of the activities to which the boys might have resorted were out of +the question.</p> + +<p>"Think of the sailing breeze we've seen blowing lots of mornings when +we couldn't go out," grumbled Dick. "Isn't it infernal luck?"</p> + +<p>"Why don't you take your car and go for a spin," Nancy suggested.</p> + +<p>"Wheeler has it, silly. He's meeting Bob."</p> + +<p>"I couldn't go motoring anyway," put in Walter. "I've got the dogs to +chase round."</p> + +<p>"You're not going out with them now," objected Dick.</p> + +<p>"Not quite yet. I had them out before breakfast."</p> + +<p>"What do you say we go over and fool round with the radio a while?" +Dick yawned. "We've nothing better to do."</p> + +<p>"All right. We can at least listen in for a spell. We've got that +far."</p> + +<p>"You boys better not go getting that wireless all out of order while +Bob is away," cautioned Nancy. "He'd be ripping mad to get home and +find it out of commission. Father wouldn't like it, either."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we're not going to hurt the precious radio," sniffed Dick. "Don't +you think we know anything?"</p> + +<p>"Not much," fluted Nancy as she flounced away.</p> + +<p>"At least she does not flatter us," grinned His Highness, quite +unruffled by the girl's frankness.</p> + +<p>"Oh, sisters never think a fellow knows anything, especially when +they're older," Dick grumbled, as he unlocked the door of the low +building and met the blast of close, stifling air that came out. +"Scott! The place is like an oven, isn't it? Open a window, can't +you?" he continued.</p> + +<p>"Sure! There is some heat, I'll say. Just as well we dropped round if +only to air the place out," Walter replied.</p> + +<p>Together they switched on the current, regulated amplifier, detector, +and tuner, and each with a head receiver tight to his ears sat down.</p> + +<p>"Whee, but it is thick, to-day!" shouted Dick. "Run the tune up, kid, +and see if we get anything."</p> + +<p>"It is always bad a day like this," called Walter. "Besides, everybody +seems to be butting in in the morning. Infernal, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Let her go up to O'Connel's pitch. It can't do any harm."</p> + +<p>"It isn't time for him to call, is it?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty near."</p> + +<p>"But what good would it do even if we did get his signal?"</p> + +<p>"We should at least know he had something to say to us."</p> + +<p>"I should consider that a negative satisfaction," Walter replied. "It +would just be an aggravation. However, here she goes! As you say, it +can harm nobody to get the right meter."</p> + +<p>"There's that old commercial station up the Cape," announced Dick, +presently. "That fellow is always on the job at this hour."</p> + +<p>"Probably he has to be, poor soul," Walter returned. "We'll get rid of +him in a minute. <i>What was that?</i>"</p> + +<p>"It is some one on our line. That's the <i>Siren's</i> call. It's O'Connel! +Jove! What are you doing, man? What are you going to do?" asked Dick +excitedly as he saw Walter's hand go out.</p> + +<p>"Paper! Pencil! Hurry, can't you?" gasped Walter.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean——"</p> + +<p>"Let's both take it down in dots and dashes. Between us we may be able +to make some sense out of it afterward. Quick!"</p> + +<p>Clearly and evenly the message ticked itself off. Then there was +silence.</p> + +<p>"Get any of it?" Walter demanded, breathlessly tossing the receiver +aside and shutting off the current.</p> + +<p>"About two words. He went so fast——Did you get anything?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've got something; but whether it will make any sense remains to +be seen," said His Highness eagerly. "Where is the key! Toss it +over."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"><a name="i005"></a> +<img src="images/005.jpg" width="350" height="529" +alt="" title="" /> +</div><br /> +<h5>Clearly and evenly the message ticked itself off.<br /> +Then there was silence. <i>Page</i> 240</h5> + +<p>"Here we go. Dot, dash,——"</p> + +<p>"That's the letter A, you squarehead! I know what that first part is; +it is always the same and we needn't fuss to translate it. <i>Aboard +yacht Siren.</i> I don't care, either, where she is. What we want to get +at is what she wants to say."</p> + +<p>"But how can we tell where all that stuff leaves off?"</p> + +<p>"I mean to tell," declared Walter with determination.</p> + +<p>"But there is punctuation and other rubbish mixed in with the +letters."</p> + +<p>"No matter. Have a little patience, man!"</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, in spite of all the patience and perseverance the boys +could muster the magic message remained an enigma and at the end of an +hour both were obliged to admit themselves beaten.</p> + +<p>"It is worse than getting no message at all," lamented Walter.</p> + +<p>"It certainly does not do us much good," assented Dick.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose your father knows anything about the Morse code?"</p> + +<p>"Dad? Good heavens, no! Still we might take the thing up to the house +and show it to him."</p> + +<p>"I don't imagine it is right, do you?" speculated Walter. "No doubt we +missed some of it or made mistakes. Still, what we contrived to write +agrees fairly well, so some of it must be correct. Let's take it to +your father. What do you say?"</p> + +<p>"I feel like such a boob not to be able to make it out," Dick +answered with evident reluctance at confessing himself floored.</p> + +<p>"But we'll have to tell him O'Connel called. We've got to do that +anyhow; so he may as well know the rest of it," Walter persisted.</p> + +<p>"All right. We'll hunt him up. I warn you, though, that he will josh +us most unmercifully. He'll pitch into me, too, and ask me why I +haven't learned my Morse International before this. See if he +doesn't."</p> + +<p>"It is one thing to learn the code out of a book and quite another to +be smart enough to read it or take it down," Walter maintained +stoutly. "Nobody ought to expect you to be able to get a message the +way Bob does. Why, he has been at the job years!"</p> + +<p>"I know he has," Dick responded, slightly comforted. "Still, Dad will +rag me, just the same. See if he doesn't!"</p> + +<p>Locking the door and pausing to gain courage they set out over the +lawn. Then suddenly, midway across the grass, His Highness came to a +stop.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Burns!" he cried, wheeling round. "Why didn't I think of him +before?"</p> + +<p>"What on earth are you talking about?" asked Dick, astounded by his +companion's strange conduct.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Burns!" repeated Walter. "Come along. Can't one of the chauffeurs +take us down there?"</p> + +<p>"For mercy's sake who is Mr. Burns, and why do you want to go and see +him hot off the bat?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Burns, the telegraph operator," Walter contrived to stammer. "He +must know Morse International. He has to know both the Morse American +which telegraph operators use on land, and the other code, I'm pretty +sure."</p> + +<p>"But maybe what we've got down doesn't make sense," objected Dick. +"You've a husky nerve to go toting that scrawl of ours to a +professional."</p> + +<p>"I don't care," grinned Walter. "I'm not afraid of Mr. Burns. He's +driven me out of the station too many times when I was a kid. I will +own, however, that I have more respect for him since I've learned what +it means to run a telegraph."</p> + +<p>"He may drive you out of the station this time," Dick ventured with a +grimace.</p> + +<p>"I'll bet he won't," was the sanguine response. "We've made it up +since then. I've even helped old Burnsie shovel his snow now and then. +He'll do a good turn for me, I'll bet."</p> + +<p>"Come on then, if you are so sure of it," Dick answered, striding +toward the garage.</p> + +<p>"You're sure your father won't mind our taking the car?"</p> + +<p>"He doesn't want it this morning. He is going to hang round and see if +Bob calls him from New York. Besides, he said it was too hot to motor. +Will Burns be at the station now?"</p> + +<p>"He will if a train is due," announced Walter. "If the office is +locked we can chase him to his house."</p> + +<p>"All right! This is your party, remember," Dick said a trifle +wickedly. It was evident he had no faith in the expedition. +Notwithstanding his skepticisms, however, he ordered out the car and +he and Walter sped away on their errand.</p> + +<p>"It is time for a train," announced Walter in an undertone, as they +neared the station. "See, there are people waiting. It is the noon +train from Boston."</p> + +<p>"Burns will be too busy then to bother his head over fake messages, I +guess," sniffed Dick.</p> + +<p>"Maybe not. At least we can try him," was His Highness's optimistic +assertion. "Hi, Mr. Burns!" The lad was out of the car and hastening +along in the wake of a much sunburned station agent in blue denim +overalls.</p> + +<p>"Wal, if it ain't Walter King! What you after, young one? I hear +you've become the proprietor of Surfside—bought out the whole +darn place for yourself."</p> + +<p>"I did buy it but I'm going to sell it again. It's too small. I can't +get room enough to stretch up there," came impishly from the lad on +the platform.</p> + +<p>"Show! You don't say!" drawled Mr. Burns with obvious relish of the +joke. "Well, it ain't wise to be cramped. Maybe you wouldn't get your +growth if you were."</p> + +<p>He cast a glance toward the short, thick-set figure behind him.</p> + +<p>"I say, Mr. Burns," burst out Walter, "are you terribly busy? I've got +something I want to show you."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" demanded the man, halting and holding suspended in his +hand a cerulean blue egg case.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what it is—that's just the trouble," answered +Walter mysteriously.</p> + +<p>"What you up to anyhow?" demanded Mr. Burns suspiciously.</p> + +<p>Walter thrust forth the sheet of paper he had drawn from his pocket.</p> + +<p>In his rough, grimy hand the telegraph operator took it.</p> + +<p>"Where did you get this?" demanded he, glancing sharply over the top +of his spectacles.</p> + +<p>"Why, we have a wireless up at Surfside and this thing—or +something like it that we didn't know enough to write down, came this +morning."</p> + +<p>"But I heard your brother Bob was up there."</p> + +<p>"He had to go to New York yesterday."</p> + +<p>"And left you to tend the tape, did he?" grinned the old man.</p> + +<p>"Not much. He knows I'd be a duffer at the job," affirmed Walter.</p> + +<p>"Mebbe you ain't as much of a duffer as you think. You managed to get +this down on paper."</p> + +<p>"We managed to together—Dick and I," explained Walter. "I don't +suppose, though, we got it anywhere near straight. Does it make any +sense at all?"</p> + +<p>"Sure it makes sense!" announced Mr. Burns with a vim that quite took +Walter's breath away. "There's queer spots in it here and +there—a few letters that ain't needed, perhaps. Still, you can +omit 'em since they serve no particular purpose."</p> + +<p>"But what is the message? What does it say?" clamored Walter all +impatience.</p> + +<p>"Well, it ain't so thrillin' you need to go into a thousand pieces +over it," commented the Cape Codder dryly. "Some friend of Mr. +Crowninshield's 'pears to be comin' down here on the afternoon train +bringin' with him his wife—either his wife or daughter."</p> + +<p>"What!" Walter ejaculated weakly.</p> + +<p>"That's what he says," continued Mr. Burns, calmly rereading the +document he held. "Evidently some relation—or at least a person +who feels he has the right to boss, for he says he wants to be met at +the train."</p> + +<p>"Did I get the name?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's here. I may's well read you the whole thing with the +exception of the extra touches you've added."</p> + +<p>"I wish to goodness you would."</p> + +<p>"'Tain't nothin' interestin', as I said before," insisted Mr. Burns, +readjusting his spectacles. "'<i>Coming on afternoon train and bringing +Lola. Meet me, O'Con——</i>' Where in thunder you goin'?" The +operator gazed in amazement as a pair of chubby legs vanished up the +platform.</p> + +<p>"That's all right, Mr. Burns! I don't want the paper back. You can +keep it to remember me by. Thanks!" Then to Dick he shouted as he +sprang into the car:</p> + +<p>"We're off for home fast as we can make it, old man! Such news! Your +father will be crazy! Whee! Hurrah!"</p> + +<p>"If it is all the same to you," observed Dick with scorching sarcasm, +"it would be pleasant to know the import of the message I took down."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> took down—well I like that! <i>You</i> took down! Why, man, +you could not even read it yourself! It is the message <i>I</i> took down, +my son."</p> + +<p>"<i>We</i> took down," corrected Dick.</p> + +<p>They both laughed.</p> + +<p>"O'Connel's coming this afternoon! What do you say to that?"</p> + +<p>"Great Scott! But what——"</p> + +<p>"He's bringing his wife or daughter," continued Walter with a wicked +twinkle in his eye.</p> + +<p>"What?" exclaimed his bewildered listener.</p> + +<p>"Oh, this is rich! Rich!" continued His Highness with a paroxysm of +laughter. "Wait until we tell your father! My soul and body! I'm sick +laughing!"</p> + +<p>"You might tell me the joke."</p> + +<p>"I can't—I can't!" roared the boy. "It is too good!"</p> + +<p>"And—and what about Lola?" stammered Dick.</p> + +<p>"Why, you see Burns thought—my, but it's rich! Ha, ha! Burns +understood that—oh, it's a scream!" and with that Dick was +forced to be content.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> <h3><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h3> + +<h4>THE RETURN OF THE WANDERERS</h4> <span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">Top</a></span> + +<p>When Walter and Dick returned to Surfside with their tidings Mr. +Crowninshield's satisfaction and delight could hardly be expressed. +How he laughed at Burns's interpretation of O'Connel's message! And +how Dick laughed when at last the joke was imparted to him!</p> + +<p>"Well, you two boys have been almighty clever between you," commented +the elder man. "I would not have credited either of you with so many +brains. To think of your getting that radio call! It is marvelous. And +then to take it to Burns! That was a master stroke. The idea would +never have entered my head. But what puzzles me is the message itself. +Do you suppose O'Connel has kidnapped Lola; or how has he got +possession of her? And how has he contrived to escape from the yacht +without being held up? I don't understand it at all. It isn't likely +Daly has let him walk off unmolested with the dog. The thing is more +than I can fathom."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Mr. Daly has relented and is sending Lola back," suggested +Walter.</p> + +<p>"Not on your life, youngster! You don't know Daly," was the instant +reply. "He would never admit himself beaten and give up that pup. +Moreover the affair has cost him too much money, risk and trouble for +him to abandon his scheme. If he wanted Lola bad enough to hire +somebody to steal her he still wants her, mark my word! No, there is +something behind all this that we haven't reached. O'Connel has made +off with the dog somehow. Just how I am at a loss to tell. We shall +have to wait until he himself comes and enlightens us."</p> + +<p>"Anything heard from Bob?" questioned Walter.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've had a wire. They've got the men they were after all right +and he will be back to-night."</p> + +<p>"What did he say about it?" asked Dick eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Nothing. You cannot tell an entire story in a telegram, you know. But +he has accomplished what he went for. I fancy he always does," added +the master of the estate with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Generally, sir," nodded Walter proudly.</p> + +<p>Mr. Crowninshield took a turn or two across the room.</p> + +<p>"I mean to keep Bob with us this winter if I can prevail upon him to +stay," remarked the financier presently. "He is too able a chap to +lose sight of. I can find a big paying berth for him in New York and +if he will take it, your mother won't have to worry any further about +money affairs. And if you, sonny, make good and do as well as your +brother"—he patted Walter's shoulder, "I'll do the same for you +some day. You have done well this summer. Finish up your school work +and then we'll see."</p> + +<p>"You are very kind, Mr. Crowninshield," the boy stammered.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit. We all ought to give the chap who is willing to climb a +hand up the ladder. What are we in the world for?"</p> + +<p>"I know my mother will be——"</p> + +<p>"There, there!" interrupted the great man. "Your mother has two fine +sons that she may well be proud of. She has had a little hard sledding +to get them on their feet, that's all. Now it is their turn to lift +the burden and repay her. I am simply going to see that they get the +chance to do it. The rest I feel certain I can leave to them."</p> + +<p>"We do want to help mother," Walter replied with sincerity.</p> + +<p>"I know you do; both of you have proved it this summer. From now on I +intend your mother shall have no anxiety about her finances. We'll put +her where she will be perfectly independent of those uncles of yours, +and of summer boarders as well."</p> + +<p>The lip of His Highness trembled and he could not speak.</p> + +<p>"Some day I expect Dick and Nancy will be looking out for their mother +and me just this way," continued Mr. Crowninshield half humorously. +"There will be Lola to support, too."</p> + +<p>Dick burst into a peal of laughter.</p> + +<p>"You will have to cut out indulging in so many detectives if I'm to +pay the bills, Dad," answered he.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you must not deprive me of my little luxuries," returned his +father. "One must have some amusement, remember."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you will have to choose a cheaper one then."</p> + +<p>"I'll think it over. If, however, I discover you cannot maintain me +and my trifling pleasures I may abandon you and turn to Walter to +support me in my old age."</p> + +<p>Lighting a cigar he strolled away.</p> + +<p>The boys ambled toward the boathouse. There was still three hours +before the Boston train, bringing O'Connel, would arrive. In the +meantime they indulged in a swim; took the dogs for a run; had +luncheon; paddled round the bay in Dick's canoe; and did everything +they could think of to hurry the moments along.</p> + +<p>And when the car bearing Mr. Crowninshield and O'Connel did actually +roll into the drive what a state of excitement they were in!</p> + +<p>Yes, there was Lola—there was no contesting that! She was a +weak, wretched little dog but it was she.</p> + +<p>"However did you manage it, Mr. O'Connel?" cried Mrs. Crowninshield +who had come racing down the steps and gathered her favorite into her +arms.</p> + +<p>Breathlessly the group clustered about the wee puppy.</p> + +<p>"Well, the first thing I did was to convince myself the dog aboard +the yacht was really the one we were after. One day when the party +went ashore I hunted up the supposed Trixie and called her by her real +name. You should have seen her prick up her ears, poor little mite! I +had her licking my hand inside a minute. From that instant I began to +scheme. I found I couldn't send you many radio calls because +they watched me too closely. I think the mate suspected +something—just what, I could not make out, for I don't think he +was in the secret of the dog's capture. Anyway, I decided to steer +clear of the wireless and trust to luck. At last my chance came. Some +equipment was needed and it was decided I was to be put ashore and get +it. By this time Lola, who for the last few days had refused to eat, +had begun to show decidedly alarming symptoms. I diagnosed the case as +plain homesickness and privately resolved to get her off the yacht if +it was a possible thing; but Mr. Daly thought she had distemper or +something and was mightily cut up. He didn't want the animal to die on +his hands after all he had gone through to get her. Altogether he +began to be pretty uneasy and you may be sure I did my part to make +him so. Every chance I got I would remark how sick his dog seemed. Of +course I wasn't supposed to know it wasn't one he had had for years. I +kept harping on the puppie's health until I had him fussed to death. +At last he said: 'I don't know but what you are right about Trixie, +O'Connel. If they are going to put you ashore at Boston to buy +supplies, why wouldn't it be a good plan for you to take the dog to +the animal hospital there? You could leave her and later we could go +back and get her. She does seem ailing, and I haven't the ghost of an +idea what to do with a sick dog. Besides, she is a nuisance on the +yacht if she must be catered to all the time.' Well, as you can +imagine, I jumped at the chance although I took every pains not to let +him suspect I did. I told him that of course if he wanted me to take +the dog I should be glad to do it. I liked animals and also I wished +to accommodate him. There was no denying, however, that to carry Lola +with me would delay me in town. Still, if he desired it I would do my +best to see that she was taken <i>where she would get well</i>."</p> + +<p>The big fellow paused and laughed heartily.</p> + +<p>"I've kept that promise, too," grinned he. "I have sent a note back to +the <i>Siren</i> recalling the phrase to Mr. Daly, and telling him that +having decided Lola would recover more completely if placed under the +protection of her rightful owners I was taking her back there."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to see his face when he gets that letter!" said Mr. +Crowninshield, rubbing his hands.</p> + +<p>"So should I," roared O'Connel, his broad shoulders shaking.</p> + +<p>"But won't he——" Mrs. Crowninshield looked anxious.</p> + +<p>"Won't he what, my dear?" inquired her husband.</p> + +<p>"Aren't you afraid he will be angry and——" she held the +wee dog closer in her arms.</p> + +<p>"He will be angry all right," agreed O'Connel. "But you need have no +fears that he will do anything more, ma'am. He is on too dangerous +ground. In the first place he cannot accuse me of appropriating his +dog for I can answer him that it was stolen in the first place. And he +cannot say I deserted his ship for all is fair in love and war, you +know. No, Daly is a good sport and he will instantly understand that +he has been beaten. We have been one too many for him, that is all. +Moreover, he won't be feeling any too comfortable for he is still +uncertain as to what Mr. Crowninshield may be planning to do with him. +Oh, Daly won't stir up trouble. You can trust him for that. On the +contrary he probably will clear out of reach of any possible storm. It +is his only course and he will be canny enough to take it."</p> + +<p>"But you are not going to let him go scott free, are you Dad?" +demanded Dick.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. What's the use of fighting a skunk like that? We +have our dog back and Daly must acknowledge that he has been beaten. +That is about all I want. He won't try anything more for I have a +whiplash over him as he is well aware. Any time I can prosecute him +for receiving stolen goods and being an accomplice in a robbery. With +the evidence I have such a case would go overwhelmingly against him +should it reach the courts. He is not for bringing that issue to a +head, you may rest assured of that."</p> + +<p>"But you do mean to jail the men who actually took Lola, Father," put +in Nancy. "If you do that, won't the whole affair have to be aired and +Mr. Daly dragged into the trial?"</p> + +<p>Her father did not answer immediately and before he had framed his +reply wheels were heard and Wheeler, driving Dick's racing car, drew +up at the steps.</p> + +<p>"It's Bob, as I live!" shouted Walter. "Hello, Bobbie! Hello, old +chap!"</p> + +<p>"Welcome home, Bob!" called Mr. Crowninshield going forward to meet +the lad.</p> + +<p>"We have a surprise for you, Bob!" called Nancy. "Guess who's here?"</p> + +<p>"I can't," smiled the wireless man coming up to the piazza and shaking +hands all round. Then his eye lighted on O'Connel.</p> + +<p>"My word! How did you get here, old top? Fired from your job?"</p> + +<p>For answer Mrs. Crowninshield held up Lola.</p> + +<p>"The pup herself! Well, well! What's been happening in my absence, +anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder you want to know," cried Nancy above the general +clamor.</p> + +<p>"Hush! Do stop everybody. You are making a far worse noise than ever +came through that radiophone."</p> + +<p>"First let's have Bob's story. We haven't heard that yet," Mr. +Crowninshield said. "Tell us what happened to you in New York, my +boy."</p> + +<p>Bob dropped into a chair.</p> + +<p>"Well, as I wired you, Dacie and Lyman have landed your men. I +recognized the fellow who came to Seaver Bay for water the instant I +set eyes on him. He recognized me, too, and knew the game was up. It +seems, though, that he and his pal are wanted in California on a prior +charge. A big burglary, I think it is. Anyway, they have got to be +taken out there and tried first. In the meantime our complaint can be +lodged against them and——"</p> + +<p>"Aren't we to have the fun of jailing them after all?" asked Dick in +dismay.</p> + +<p>"They will be jailed, never fear," returned Bob. "They will get a +stiff sentence, too, I imagine."</p> + +<p>Mr. Crowninshield was silent and his wife now glanced toward him.</p> + +<p>"Are you disappointed, Archibald?" inquired she.</p> + +<p>"I guess," responded he slowly, "that is a good way out of our +dilemma. The villains will be carried far away from this vicinity and +will without doubt get all that's coming to them. What more can we +ask? We've won the game—taken every trick and made a clean sweep +of the whole business. Now that I've got Lola home I don't much care +about the rest of it. What do you say we let well enough alone and +drop it?"</p> + +<p>"I should say that with every day of your life you were growing wiser, +my dear," answered his wife softly.</p> + + +<h5>FINIS.</h5> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 94px;"> +<img src="images/logo.png" width="94" height="133" +alt="logo" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h6><i>The first volume in "The Invention Series"</i></h6> + +<h2>PAUL AND THE<br /> +PRINTING PRESS</h2> + +<h5><i>By</i> SARA WARE BASSETT</h5> + +<h6>With illustrations by A. O. Scott</h6> + +<h6><i>12mo. Cloth. 218 pages.</i></h6> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>Paul Cameron, president of the class of 1920 in the Burmingham High +School, conceives the idea of establishing a school paper, to the +honor and glory of his class. So <i>The March Hare</i> comes into +existence, and Paul and his schoolfellows bend all their energies to +making it a success. They have their difficulties and Paul in +particular bears the brunt of their troubles, but <i>The March Hare</i> +lives up to its reputation for life and liveliness and becomes not +only a class success, but a town institution. This is the first volume +in "The Invention Series."</p> + +<p>"It is the sort of story that boys of fourteen years and upward +will enjoy and ought to enjoy, a combination that is rarely +achieved."—<i>Boston Post.</i></p> + +<p>"A welcome volume which will appeal to boys who want a good story that +will give some information as well."—<i>New York Evening Post.</i></p> + +<p>"'Paul and the Printing Press' not only has a keen story interest, but +has the advantage of carrying much valuable information for all young +folks for whom the mysterious and all-powerful printing press has an +attraction."—<i>Boston Herald.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<h5>LITTLE, BROWN & CO., <span class="smcap">Publishers</span></h5> + +<h6>34 <span class="smcap">Beacon Street, Boston</span></h6> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Walter and the Wireless, by Sara Ware Bassett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WALTER AND THE WIRELESS *** + +***** This file should be named 23728-h.htm or 23728-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/7/2/23728/ + +Produced by Sigal Alon, David T. Jones, La Monte H.P. +Yarroll and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + + </body> +</html> diff --git a/23728-h/images/002.jpg b/23728-h/images/002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b09c37 --- /dev/null +++ b/23728-h/images/002.jpg diff --git a/23728-h/images/003.jpg b/23728-h/images/003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a66dcf3 --- /dev/null +++ b/23728-h/images/003.jpg diff --git a/23728-h/images/004.jpg b/23728-h/images/004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7ee692 --- /dev/null +++ b/23728-h/images/004.jpg diff --git a/23728-h/images/005.jpg b/23728-h/images/005.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..40cc373 --- /dev/null +++ b/23728-h/images/005.jpg diff --git a/23728-h/images/logo.png b/23728-h/images/logo.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..132b8a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/23728-h/images/logo.png |
