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+Project Gutenberg's The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass, by Allen Chapman
+
+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: The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass
+       The Midnight Call for Assistance
+
+Author: Allen Chapman
+
+Release Date: January 1, 2012 [EBook #38453]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "LOOK! OUR AERIAL IS STILL UP"]
+
+
+
+
+_THE RADIO BOYS SERIES_
+
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS
+
+OR
+
+THE MIDNIGHT CALL FOR ASSISTANCE
+
+BY ALLEN CHAPMAN
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+  THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS
+  THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT
+  RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE
+  RALPH THE TRAIN DESPATCHER, ETC.
+
+WITH FORWARD BY
+
+JACK BINNS
+
+_ILLUSTRATED_
+
+NEW YORK
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+PUBLISHERS
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS FOR BOYS
+
+By Allen Chapman
+
+12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
+
+THE RADIO BOYS SERIES
+
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+  THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS
+    Or Winning the Ferberton Prize
+
+  THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT
+    Or The Message that Saved the Ship
+
+  THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION
+    Or Making Good in the Wireless Room
+
+  THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS
+    Or The Midnight Call for Assistance
+
+  THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE
+    Or Solving a Wireless Mystery
+
+THE RAILROAD SERIES
+
+  RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE
+    Or Bound to Become a Railroad Man
+
+  RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER
+    Or Clearing the Track
+
+  RALPH ON THE ENGINE
+    Or The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail
+
+  RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS
+    Or The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer
+
+  RALPH THE TRAIN DESPATCHER
+    Or The Mystery of the Pay Car
+
+  RALPH ON THE ARMY TRAIN
+    Or The Young Railroader's Most Daring Exploit
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
+
+Copyright, 1922, by
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+_The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass_
+
+
+
+
+  FOREWORD
+
+  By Jack Binns
+
+  In the first chapter of this volume there appears a statement
+  by "Bob," one of the Radio Boys, as follows: "Marconi is one
+  of those fellows that can never rest satisfied with what's
+  been done up to date."
+
+  Perhaps no more concise summary of the driving force back of
+  the men responsible for the tremendous development of radio
+  could be made. It is just that refusal to be satisfied with
+  what has been accomplished that has made wireless the greatest
+  wonder development in the history of mankind.
+
+  Although the radio boys in this case are but creatures of the
+  author's imagination, nevertheless they are typical of all the
+  men who have taken part in bringing radio to its present
+  stage. Even Marconi himself likes to take pride in the
+  assertion that he too was at one time an amateur, because he
+  insists that during his early experiments he was only a boy
+  amateur tinkering with a little known subject.
+
+  There is undoubtedly a great deal of truth in his claim,
+  because the experiments that led to his success were made
+  while he was a youth studying at the Bologna University in
+  Italy.
+
+  What is true of Marconi is equally true of all the others. We
+  have only to think of a name prominent in the field of wireless,
+  and then trace back the history of the man who bears it,
+  and you will come to an enthusiastic amateur.
+
+  There is another fascinating thing about wireless, and it is
+  the fact that no matter how much work one may really expend in
+  tinkering with it, and no matter how valuable the results, it
+  does not seem like real work. This is aptly phrased by Joe in
+  the book who says:
+
+  "I'd like to take it up as a regular profession. Think of what
+  it must be for fellows like Armstrong and Edison, and De
+  Forest and Marconi. I'll bet they don't think it's work."
+
+  There is no doubt that Joe wins his bet.
+
+                                                      Jack Binns
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+I--The Bear Pursues
+II--An Exciting Chase
+III--An Amazing Discovery
+IV--The Bully Appears
+V--A Startling Accusation
+VI--The Burned Cottage
+VII--Radio Wonders
+VIII--A Close Shave
+IX--Bucking the Drifts
+X--Convincing a Skeptic
+XI--A Mountain Radio Station
+XII--The Marvelous Science
+XIII--Pressed into Service
+XIV--Scoring a Triumph
+XV--The Snowslide
+XVI--The Modern Miracle
+XVII--Thrashing a Bully
+XVIII--A Nest of Conspirators
+XIX--On Guard
+XX--Broken Wires
+XXI--A Sudden Inspiration
+XXII--Putting It Through
+XXIII--The Midnight Call
+XXIV--A Plot That Went Wrong
+XXV--Solving the Mystery
+
+
+
+
+THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE BEAR PURSUES
+
+
+"Nothing to do till tomorrow!" sang out Bob Layton, as he came out of
+high school at Clintonia on Friday afternoon, his books slung over his
+shoulder, and bounded down the steps three at a time.
+
+"And not much to do then, except just what we want to," chimed in Joe
+Atwood, throwing his cap into the air and catching it deftly as it
+came down.
+
+"You fellows do just love to work, don't you?" put in Herb Fennington,
+with an air of self-righteousness that was belied by the merry twinkle
+in his eyes.
+
+"Oh, we just dote on it," replied Bob.
+
+"Work is our middle name," asserted Joe. "In fact we lie awake nights
+trying to conjure up something to do."
+
+"Regular pair of Work Hard twins--I don't think," declared Jimmy
+Plummer. "Now as for me----"
+
+"Yes?" said Herb, with an assumption of polite interest.
+
+"As for me," repeated Jimmy, not at all daunted by the incredulity in
+Herb's tone, "I've been working like a horse all this season. A little
+more and I'll be only skin and bone."
+
+As Jimmy was by all odds the fattest boy in school, this assertion was
+greeted by a roar of laughter.
+
+"Now I know why you look like a string bean," chuckled Joe.
+
+"That explains why his clothes hang on him so loosely," laughed Bob,
+pointing to Jimmy's trousers which were so filled out that they
+resembled tights. "Jimmy, you may be an unconscious humorist, but
+you're a humorist just the same."
+
+Jimmy glared at his tormentors and tried to look wan and haggard, but
+the attempt was not a pronounced success.
+
+"All the same," he protested, "Doc. Preston has been rushing us like
+the old Harry all this fall, and what with school work and home work
+and radio work----"
+
+"Radio!" interrupted Bob. "You don't call that work, do you? Why it's
+fun, the greatest fun in the world."
+
+"You bet it is," chimed in Joe enthusiastically. "We never knew what
+real fun was until we took it up. Look at the adventures it's brought
+us. If it hadn't been for radio, we wouldn't have won those Ferberton
+prizes; we wouldn't have run down Dan Cassey and made him give back
+the mortgage he was trying to cheat Miss Berwick out of; and we
+wouldn't have got back the money he nearly got away with when he
+knocked out Brandon Harvey."
+
+"Right you are," agreed Bob. "And probably that boat our folks were on
+would have gone down with all on board if it hadn't been for the radio
+message that brought help to it. And see the good it did for Larry and
+the experience we had in sending out from the broadcasting station in
+Newark!"
+
+"I tell you, fellows, there's nothing like radio in the universe!"
+agreed Jimmy.
+
+"I'd like to take it up as a regular profession," said Joe. "Think of
+what it must be for fellows like Armstrong and Edison and De Forest
+and Marconi. I'll bet they don't think it's work. They're eager to get
+at it in the morning and sorry to knock off at night. There's no
+drudgery in a profession like that."
+
+"Speaking of Marconi," remarked Herb, "I see that he's just come over
+to America again on that yacht of his where he thought he heard
+signals that might have been from Mars. I wonder if he's heard any
+more of them."
+
+"I don't know," replied Bob thoughtfully. "Though I've become so used
+to what seem to be almost miracles that I'm prepared for almost
+anything. At any rate, the only thing one can do nowadays is to keep
+an open mind and not say beforehand that anything is impossible. It
+would be great, wouldn't it, if we could get in touch with another
+planet? And if we could with one, there doesn't seem to be any reason
+why we couldn't with all, that is if there's life and intelligence on
+them. But after all, at present that's only speculation. What
+interests me more just now is the discovery that Marconi is said to
+have made by which he is able to send out radio waves in one given
+direction."
+
+"I hadn't heard of that," remarked Joe. "I thought they spread out
+equally in all directions and that anybody who had a receiving set
+could take them."
+
+"So they have up to now," replied Bob. "But Marconi's one of those
+fellows that can never rest satisfied with what's been done up to
+date. That's what makes him great. I'm not exactly clear about this
+new idea of his, but the gist of it is that he throws a radio wave in
+a certain direction, much as a mirror throws a ray of light. He uses a
+reflector apparatus and the wave is caught at the receiving end on a
+horizontal metal standard. With a wave of only three and one half
+meters he has thrown a shaft nearly a hundred miles in just the
+direction he wanted it to go. The article I read said that he had some
+sort of semicircular reflector covered with wires that resembled a
+dish cut in half. When the open side is turned toward the receiving
+station he wants to reach, the signals are heard loud and clear. When
+the open part is turned away, the signals can't be heard. The whole
+idea is concentration. Just what a burning glass does with the rays of
+the sun, his device does with the radio waves. Marconi's a wizard, and
+that's all there is about it. There's no knowing what he may do next.
+But you can be sure that it'll be something new and valuable."
+
+"He's a wonder," agreed Joe heartily. "And if he's the 'father of
+wireless,' we've got to admit that he has a good healthy baby. I'm
+going to try to get on friendly terms with that baby."
+
+"We've already been introduced to it, if we haven't got much further,"
+laughed Bob. "But say, fellows, what's the program for tomorrow?"
+
+"Three square meals," was Jimmy's suggestion.
+
+"Sure," agreed Herb. "Though in your run-down condition you ought to
+have at least six."
+
+"He'll get them, don't worry," chaffed Joe, unmoved by the reproach in
+Jimmy's eyes.
+
+"I was thinking----" Bob began.
+
+"How do you get that way?" inquired Herb composedly.
+
+"You'll never get that way," retorted Bob severely. "As I was saying
+when this lowbrow interrupted me, I was thinking that it might be a
+good idea to go nutting. The trees are full of nuts this year, and
+that frost we had a couple of nights ago will make it easy to get a
+raft of them. What do you say?"
+
+"I say yes with a capital Y," replied Joe.
+
+"Hits me just right," assented Herb.
+
+"It's the cat's high hat," was the inelegant way that Jimmy phrased
+it.
+
+"It's a go then," said Bob. "Come around to my house a little after
+eight tomorrow morning and we'll get an early start. Every fellow
+brings his own lunch, and we'll take some potatoes along to roast in
+the woods."
+
+"Here's hoping it will be a dandy day," said Herb, as the boys parted
+at Bob's gate.
+
+"It looks as though it were going to be," replied Bob, looking at the
+sky. "But after supper I'll tune in and get the weather report by
+radio."
+
+"Anything you don't do by radio?" asked Joe, with a grin.
+
+"Oh, I set my watch by the Arlington signal every night and a few
+other things," laughed Bob. "Fact is, I'm hanging around the receiving
+set every spare minute I have for fear I'll let something get by me.
+Radio has got me, and got me for fair."
+
+The weather report was favorable and Bob slept in peace. And when he
+opened his eyes on the following morning he found that Uncle Sam's
+weather bureau had been right in this particular instance, for a
+lovelier fall morning, to his way of thinking, had never dawned.
+
+He ate breakfast a little more quickly than usual, and had barely
+finished when the other radio boys were at his door loaded with
+lunches and ready to start. Jimmy especially was well furnished in the
+matter of provisions, for he carried two packages while the rest of
+the boys were content with one.
+
+"Aren't you afraid you'll be hunchbacked carrying both those bales of
+goods?" asked Herb, with mock anxiety.
+
+"Not a bit," responded Jimmy cheerfully. "One of them is full of
+doughnuts, and I expect to eat them on the way. You see I was in such
+a hurry that I didn't eat much of a breakfast----"
+
+"What?" exclaimed Bob.
+
+"Can I believe my ears?" asked Herb plaintively.
+
+"Say it again and say it slow," urged Joe.
+
+"I mean," Jimmy hurried to correct himself, "not so much as I might
+have eaten. I had a bit of cereal----"
+
+"Catch on to that 'bit,'" murmured Herb.
+
+"And some bacon and eggs and a slice of cold meat from the roast last
+night and some hot rolls and----"
+
+"Outside of that you didn't have anything to eat," said Joe. "All
+right, Jimmy, old boy, we understand. But shake a leg now and let's
+get under way. This is too fine a day to be spending it in a chinfest,
+and besides we can have plenty of that as we go along."
+
+The air was brisk and stimulating, with just enough warmth imparted by
+the sun to prevent its being cold, and a soft autumnal haze hung over
+the landscape and clothed it in mellow beauty. It was the kind of day
+when Nature is at her best and when it is good just to be alive.
+
+The boys were like so many young colts turned out to pasture, and
+joked and jested as they went along. Laughter came easily to their
+lips and shone through their eyes, while the joy of youth ran through
+their veins and made them tingle to their finger-tips. Life was
+roseate and they had not a care in the world.
+
+A walk of between two and three miles brought them to the woods for
+which they had set out. The forest covered a great many acres and was
+full of noble trees, chestnut, hickory, and many other varieties.
+
+As Bob had said, the year had been an unusually good one for nuts, and
+the trees were loaded with them. The frost of a little time before had
+been just sufficient to make them ready to pick, and the ground was
+already strewn with the half-opened burrs of many that had been shaken
+from the trees. Others still hung to the boughs by so slender and
+brittle a thread that it was only necessary to hurl clubs up into the
+trees to have them come down in showers.
+
+The boys had brought big bags along with them to carry the nuts they
+might gather, and before long these had most of the wrinkles spread
+out of them by the steadily accumulating collection of chestnuts that
+formed the bulk of their treasure, although they had a good many
+hickory nuts as well.
+
+The active work gave them all an appetite, a thing that came to them
+very easily under almost any circumstances, and a little before noon
+they ceased for a while from gathering the nuts and bestirred
+themselves in gathering leaves and brushwood for a fire. Their bags
+were more than half full, and from what they had seen they knew they
+would have little trouble in finishing filling them up to the very
+drawing strings.
+
+They gathered together a little cairn of rocks and built the fire
+inside of it, keeping it fed to such effect that before long the
+stones were at a white heat. Then they drew the fire away and on the
+heated stones roasted their potatoes and a large number of the
+chestnuts they had gathered. They had brought plenty of salt and
+butter along, and when at last the potatoes were done they seasoned
+them and ate them with a relish exceeding anything that would have
+attended the eating of them at a regular meal in their homes. An
+epicure might have complained of the smoky flavor, but to the boys,
+seated on the leaf-carpeted ground flecked with the sunlight that
+sifted through the trees, the food was simply ambrosial.
+
+With the potatoes they dispatched the rest of the food they had
+brought along. Then, with a feeling of absolute content, they
+stretched out luxuriously on the ground and munched the roasted
+chestnuts in beatific indolence.
+
+For an hour or two they rested there, and then Bob rose and stretched
+himself and called his reluctant friends to action.
+
+"It would be a sin and a shame to go out of these woods without having
+our bags crammed to bursting," he said. "Let's get a hustle on, and
+just for variety let's try another part of the woods."
+
+"All right," assented Joe, while Herb and Jimmy, though more slowly,
+roused themselves.
+
+They picked up their bags and moved from place to place, choosing
+those sections where the trees grew thickest and the outlook for nuts
+was most promising.
+
+"Better be a little careful," warned Joe, after they had gone a
+considerable distance. "Part of this wood belongs to Buck Looker's
+father, and perhaps he'd have some objection to our nutting here."
+
+"I don't think any one would kick," responded Bob. "Everybody around
+here regards the woods as common property, as far as nutting is
+concerned. Besides, there's no way of telling, as far as I know, what
+section belongs to him and what to other people."
+
+"There's something that will give us the tip," remarked Herb, pointing
+through the trees to a clearing in which they saw a two-story cottage.
+"That house belongs to Mr. Looker, though nobody has lived in it for a
+long while and I guess he's just letting it go to rack and ruin."
+
+The house did indeed look shaky and dilapidated. Some of the railing
+and boards of the low veranda had been broken in or rotted away, and
+the whole place bore the look of decay that comes to houses that for a
+long time have been destitute of occupants.
+
+"Looks as if it would fall to pieces if you breathed on it," said
+Herb.
+
+"Old enough to have false teeth," commented Jimmy. "I suppose Mr.
+Looker lets it stand simply because it's cheaper than pulling it
+down."
+
+The boys gathered nuts for perhaps two hours longer, and then they had
+to stop because their bags would not hold any more. Jimmy was already
+groaning in anticipation of having to carry his home.
+
+"That'll weigh a ton by the time we get to Clintonia," he grumbled, as
+he eyed it with considerable apprehension.
+
+"Hard to please some people," commented Herb. "You'd be kicking like a
+steer if you didn't have any to carry, and now you're sore because
+you've got enough to last all winter."
+
+"Might as well leave enough for other people," said Jimmy, with a
+spasm of generosity.
+
+"There are more nuts here than will ever be picked," replied Herb.
+"For that matter, some other people are getting them now. I've heard
+them thrashing about in the brush for the last few minutes only a
+little way from here."
+
+"Funny we don't hear voices then," said Joe.
+
+"Perhaps they're deaf mutes," suggested Jimmy, and adroitly ducked the
+pass that Joe made at him.
+
+The noise persisted and seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. There
+was a crashing of bushes, as though some heavy body were being pushed
+through them.
+
+"Seem to be making heavy weather of it," commented Herb. "Don't see
+why any one should make extra work for himself when there are plenty
+of paths through the woods. Now if--Look!"
+
+His voice rose in a shout that startled his comrades.
+
+They turned and looked in the direction of his pointing finger. And
+what they saw froze the blood in their veins.
+
+A great shaggy bear had emerged from the brush into a path not more
+than a hundred feet away and was lumbering rapidly toward them!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+AN EXCITING CHASE
+
+
+For a single instant the boys stood motionless and silent, stupefied
+by the sudden apparition. Then, as though shocked by a galvanic
+battery, they woke to life.
+
+"Quick!" shouted Bob. "To the bungalow! It's our only chance!"
+
+Like a flash he was off, followed by his comrades. Even Jimmy's feet
+seemed winged, and they reached the porch in record time.
+
+Frantically Bob grasped the knob of the front door. The door was
+locked. He threw himself against it, but his weight was not
+sufficient, and although the door groaned it refused to yield. He
+glanced at his comrades, surrounding him in a panting group, and then
+at the bear. The latter was still coming, and seemed to have increased
+his speed.
+
+The roof of the veranda was supported by half a dozen wooden pillars.
+
+"Shin up these!" shouted Bob, throwing his arms and legs about one and
+setting the example.
+
+In a trice they were all climbing desperately. Fortunately they had
+not far to go, for the roof of the veranda was not high. But they felt
+as though they were in a nightmare, and although they were really
+making surprisingly good time, it seemed as though they would never
+get to the top.
+
+Bob reached there first and swung himself over the roof. Not waiting a
+moment to rest, he rushed over to the post that Jimmy had chosen,
+reached over his hand and caught one of Jimmy's wrists. There was a
+mad scramble and then Jimmy lay on the roof, gasping.
+
+Joe and Herb needed no help, as they had reached the roof only a
+second later than Bob.
+
+For the moment at least they were safe, and they sat panting and
+trying to get their breath.
+
+And while with fast-beating hearts they are wondering how they are to
+escape from the monster below them, it may be well, for the benefit of
+those who have not read the preceding volumes of this series, to tell
+who the radio boys were and what had been their adventures up to the
+time this story opens.
+
+Bob Layton was the son of a prosperous chemist who was a leading
+citizen of the town of Clintonia, a wideawake, thriving, little city
+with a population of about ten thousand. The town was located on the
+banks of the Shagary River, and was about seventy-five miles from New
+York. Bob, at the time these incidents occurred, was in his sixteenth
+year. He was tall and well built, of rather dark complexion and frank,
+merry eyes that always looked straight at one. He was good in his
+studies and a leader in athletic sports among boys of his own age. He
+had a firm, decided character, and was always at his best in an
+emergency that demanded cool thinking and quick action.
+
+His closest friend was Joe Atwood, whose father was a physician with a
+large practice. Joe was fair in complexion, while Bob was dark, and
+they differed in more than mere physical qualities. Joe had a fiery
+temper and was apt to speak or act first and think afterward, and Bob
+many times served as a brake on the impulsive temperament of his
+friend.
+
+Herb Fennington was a year younger than Bob and Joe, and of a more
+indolent, easy-going disposition. He was full of fun and jokes and
+nobody could long have the blues when Herb was about.
+
+A fourth member of the group was Jimmy Plummer, whose father was a
+carpenter and contractor and a highly respected citizen of the town.
+Jimmy was fat, red-faced and good-natured, with a special partiality
+for the good things of life. He had gained the nickname of
+"Doughnuts," because of his fondness for that famous product of the
+kitchen, and did his best to deserve the name.
+
+Besides the liking that drew the boys together, there was an added
+link in their interest in radio, which by its wonders had taken a firm
+hold on their youthful imaginations. In delving into the mysteries of
+this new and fascinating science, they had been greatly assisted by
+the kindly help afforded them by the Reverend Doctor Dale, the pastor
+of the Old First Church of Clintonia. His suggestions had been of
+immense value in helping them to master the elements of the science,
+and whenever they got into a quandary they had no hesitation in
+appealing to him for help that was never refused.
+
+What gave the boys an added stimulus was the offer by the member of
+Congress for the district in which Clintonia was situated of prizes
+for the best radio sets made by the boys themselves. The contest was
+open to all the boys residing in the Congressional district, and Bob,
+Joe, and Jimmy entered into it with enthusiasm. Herb, with his natural
+indolence, did not go into the competition and was sorry afterward
+that he had not. The first prize was a hundred dollars, and the
+second, fifty. To the boys this seemed a whole lot of money and well
+worth the winning.
+
+It was hard work though, and made the harder by the obstacles put in
+their way by Buck Looker, the bully of the town, assisted by Carl Lutz
+and Terry Mooney, two of his cronies almost as worthless as himself.
+Buck tried to wreck Bob's aerial and got a richly deserved thrashing
+in consequence. Later on the trio tried to steal Jimmy's set, but the
+radio boys got it back in a way that brought a good deal of
+discomfiture to the Looker crowd.
+
+While the radio sets were in the making, an exciting incident occurred
+in town that drew the boys into a series of adventures. An automobile
+running wild and dashing through the windows of a paint and hardware
+store in the town gave Bob and Joe an opportunity to rescue the
+occupant, a Miss Nellie Berwick, and to learn her story of having been
+swindled out of some property by a rascal. How by the means of radio
+they got on the track of the scoundrel and forced him to make
+restitution, how they overcame all the machinations of their enemies
+and came out ahead in the competition, is told in the first volume of
+this series, entitled: "The Radio Boys' First Wireless; Or, Winning
+the Ferberton Prize."
+
+Shortly after Bob had won the first prize and Joe the second, the
+radio boys went down to Ocean Point on the seacoast to spend the
+summer. A colony had been established there by several of the
+Clintonia families, including those of the radio boys, and they had
+great fun on the beach and in the surf. Here too they made marked
+advances in their knowledge of radio, in which they were greatly
+helped by Brandon Harvey, the wireless operator at the Ocean Point
+sending station. How they repaid this by pursuing and capturing the
+man who had assaulted him and looted the safe at the station, what
+exciting adventures they met with in the pursuit and capture, how
+their knowledge of radio enabled them to send help to a ship in peril
+on which their own families were voyaging, are told in the second
+volume of this series, entitled: "The Radio Boys At Ocean Point; Or,
+The Message that Saved the Ship."
+
+Their summer at Ocean Point was further marked by a gallant rescue of
+two young vaudeville performers who had been run down by reckless
+thieves in a stolen motor boat. How they finally brought these men to
+justice, how they managed to bring congenial employment to a crippled
+friend, and how in doing this they found scope for their own talents
+in the fascinating work of radio broadcasting, are told in the third
+volume of this series entitled: "The Radio Boys At the Sending
+Station; Or, Making Good in the Wireless Room."
+
+And now to return to the boys, who found themselves in the woods on
+the roof of the porch of the cottage where they had taken refuge from
+the pursuit of the bear.
+
+That refuge promised to be only a temporary one and exceedingly
+precarious. The roof was none too strongly built in the first place,
+and had fallen into decay from stress of weather and lack of repairs.
+Already there was an ominous creaking as it sagged crazily under the
+weight of the four boys.
+
+Beneath them was the bear, who looked up at them, his jaws slavering
+and his little red eyes flaming. He was an enormous beast, capable of
+tearing any one of them in pieces if he once got them within his
+clutches.
+
+"If we only had a gun!" groaned Bob, as a terrifying rumbling came
+from the throat of the bear.
+
+"I'd rather have a stick of dynamite to throw at his feet and blow him
+into kingdom come," muttered Joe, as he gingerly shifted his position
+to find a more solid support than the part of the roof that was
+sagging under him.
+
+"'If wishes were horses, beggars might ride,'" remarked Herb. "The
+question is what are we going to do?"
+
+"Seems to me the question is what is the bear going to do?" put in
+Jimmy.
+
+"What he'll do is plenty," said Joe. "He's got us trapped good and
+proper, and the next move is up to him."
+
+The bear himself seemed to be in something of a quandary as to what
+that next move was to be. He paced clumsily up and down before the
+veranda while he was making up his mind. But to the boys' dismay there
+was no sign that he was inclined to relinquish the prey that was so
+nearly within his reach.
+
+Finally he seemed to come to a decision. He moved from one to the
+other of the pillars supporting the veranda roof, sniffing at each as
+if calculating which was the strongest. Then to the horror of the boys
+he threw his paws about one of the pillars and commenced to climb.
+
+"He's coming up!" cried Bob, and even as he spoke they could see the
+shaggy hair of the beast's head come in sight on a level with the
+porch roof. "Up on the other roof, fellows! Maybe he can't follow us
+there."
+
+The roof of the house proper extended over the side and front of the
+second story and there were several protruding points that offered
+support to the feet and hands. In addition there were shutters to the
+windows, the tops of which reached nearly to the roof.
+
+There was a wild scramble for whatever support came nearest to hand.
+How the boys did it they could not for the life of them remember
+afterwards, but somehow, with the spur given to them by the knowledge
+that the bear was close behind, they got up on the roof of the house,
+their clothes torn and their fingers bruised and bleeding.
+
+"Let's go along the roof toward the back of the house," panted Joe.
+"There may be an extension kitchen there on which we can drop and then
+from there to the ground. It may not be so easy for the bear to get
+down after us as it has been to get up."
+
+They followed this suggestion at once and made their way as rapidly as
+possible across the shaky roof. It would have been more prudent of
+them to have left some interval between them, but they were so excited
+that they did not think of that and crowded close on one another's
+heels.
+
+Suddenly a shout rose from Bob.
+
+"Back, fellows!" he cried. "The roof's caving in!"
+
+But the warning came too late. There was an ominous cracking and
+splintering, and then with a roar a section of the roof collapsed,
+carrying the boys down with it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AN AMAZING DISCOVERY
+
+
+There was a chorus of shouts as the boys felt themselves falling,
+followed by a heavy thud as they brought up on the floor of the attic
+in a blinding cloud of dust and plaster.
+
+They had been so close together that they all came down in a heap, in
+a waving confusion of arms and legs.
+
+Fortunately the distance had been only a few feet, but it was enough
+to knock the breath out of them, especially out of Jimmy, who had the
+misfortune of finding himself at the bottom of the heap.
+
+For a minute or two they were too dazed by the suddenness of the fall
+to speak coherently, or in fact to speak at all. Then gradually they
+disentangled themselves and got to their feet.
+
+Their first sensation had been that of alarm and the second of shock.
+But after they had in some measure recovered from these, there came a
+third sensation of immense relief.
+
+For what had seemed at first a disaster revealed itself as a blessing
+in disguise when they realized that at least they had escaped from
+their pursuer. They were inside the house and had a number of ways of
+escape through the doors or windows available to them. The tables had
+been turned, and now it was the bear that was at a disadvantage.
+
+They rubbed their eyes to get the dust out of them, and had barely
+begun to see clearly when they heard a voice calling from outside the
+house. The accents were foreign and they could not catch clearly what
+was said, but the words, whatever they were, were promptly followed by
+a scratching and clawing that seemed to indicate that the bear was
+sliding down one of the pillars of the porch to the ground.
+
+"We must warn him!" cried Bob. "The bear will get him, sure!"
+
+They rushed down the stairs to the ground floor and looked through one
+of the front windows. At a few yards' distance stood a man, short and
+stocky and of a swarthy complexion. A bandana handkerchief was wound
+around his head and earrings dangled from his ears.
+
+As they looked, the great body of the bear dropped from the lower part
+of the pillar to the ground, and the beast turned and rushed toward
+the man.
+
+"He'll be killed!" yelled Joe, in great apprehension. "Killed right
+before our eyes! Why doesn't he run? Can it be that he is blind?"
+
+They all shouted in unison to warn the newcomer of his danger.
+
+Then an amazing thing happened. The man not only stood his ground, but
+advanced toward the bear. The huge brute reared on his hind legs and
+threw his great paws over the man's shoulders. But even while the boys
+shuddered at the nearness of the tragedy that seemed about to be
+enacted, the man laughed joyously and passed his hand caressingly over
+the shaggy head and playfully pulled one of the brute's ears.
+
+The boys looked at each other in amazement. The look gradually changed
+from one of wonderment to one of sheepishness. Then Bob turned the
+lock of the front door, threw it open and stepped out on the porch.
+
+"Hello there!" he called.
+
+The man turned around and looked at him in surprise. It was evident
+that he had not known until that moment that there was anybody in the
+house.
+
+"Hello, you'sel'!" he replied, with a smile that showed a row of
+gleaming white teeth.
+
+"Is that your bear?" inquired Bob, while his comrades, who had also
+come out on the porch, taking care, however, to leave the door open in
+case a quick retreat should seem desirable, clustered about him.
+
+"Sure data mya bear," was the response. "He verra gooda bear. He dance
+an' maka tricks while I sing and we maka lota da mon. Mya name Tony
+Moretto. I coma from da Italy two, nearly tree years ago. I spika da
+Inglis good," he continued, with evident pride in his accomplishments.
+
+"Doesn't he ever get cross and ugly?" asked Bob. "He looks as though
+he could eat you in two mouthfuls."
+
+"What dat?" asked Tony, in a tone of aggrieved surprise. "Bruno get
+ugly? Nevair! He verra tame." And to prove it, he thrust his hand into
+the bear's mouth and took hold of his tongue.
+
+Instead of this evoking any protest, Bruno took it as part of a game,
+and acted just as a big good-natured mastiff might while romping with
+his master.
+
+"You see," said Tony, with evident pride. "He lova me. I show you how
+he minda me."
+
+He gave a word or two of command and began a monotonous chant, to the
+notes of which the bear began to dance with an agility that was
+surprising in so clumsy an animal. Then he lay down and played dead,
+turned somersaults and went through his whole repertoire of tricks for
+the edification of the boys, who looked on with very different
+emotions from those they had felt only a little while before.
+
+"What I tella you?" said Tony complacently. "Bruno verra nice bear."
+
+"What made him chase us then?" asked Joe. "We thought he was going to
+eat us alive."
+
+"He chasa you?" said Tony, in surprise. "No, no. You mus' be mistake.
+He wan' to maka frens--to playa wi' you. Dat' ees it. He tink eet was
+a game."
+
+"I wish we'd known that half an hour ago," murmured Joe to his
+companions. "It would have saved us a whole lot of trouble."
+
+"How did he come to get away from you?" asked Herb.
+
+"I verra tired," answered Tony. "I go sleepa in de woods. When I waka
+up I no finda him. He hunt for grub in da woods. Den he seea you and
+try to maka frens wi' you."
+
+He took a chain from his pocket and fastened it to a collar on the
+bear's neck.
+
+"Coma, Bruno," he said. "We go now."
+
+"Wait," called Bob, and he and his companions emptied their pockets of
+what loose change they had and pressed it on the Italian, who at first
+shook his head.
+
+"No," he said. "Bruno maka you much trubbeel."
+
+"Never mind that," replied Bob. "You've given us a good show, and this
+will buy some grub for Bruno. He's a good old sport, and we don't bear
+him any malice, even if he did give us the scare of our lives."
+
+He was so insistent that Tony finally pocketed the money, and with a
+smile and another flash of his white teeth trudged off through the
+woods with Bruno lumbering along clumsily beside him.
+
+The boys watched the pair until they were out of sight and then turned
+and looked at each other. Then the comical aspect of the whole affair
+appealed to them and they burst into inextinguishable laughter.
+
+"Stung!" cried Bob, when at last he could get his breath. "Stung good
+and plenty."
+
+"Running away like all possessed when the bear was only lonely and
+wanted company," gasped Joe, wiping his eyes.
+
+"He lova us, he wanta maka frens with us," chuckled Herb, and again
+they went into convulsions of mirth.
+
+"Well, fellows," said Bob, when they had regained some degree of
+composure, "there's no doubt but that the joke is on us. But, after
+all, we've nothing to reproach ourselves for, because we're not mind
+readers and couldn't be supposed to know Bruno's intentions when he
+came galloping toward us. There isn't a man on earth who wouldn't have
+done just as we did under the circumstances."
+
+"We can't say we haven't had excitement enough for one day," remarked
+Jimmy. "Gee, I feel as though I'd been drawn through a knothole. When
+you fellows came down on me in the attic, I felt sure that you'd drive
+me through the floor."
+
+"We showed good judgment in letting you fall first," said Joe, with a
+grin. "It was as good as falling on a rubber cushion."
+
+"I guess I was born to be the goat," sighed Jimmy. "I'll bet I'm black
+and blue all over."
+
+"It's a safe bet that we're all pretty tired and sore," said Bob. "And
+that's too bad too, for we've got a lot of work to do before we leave
+this old shebang. And we won't have any more than time to do it, for
+it's getting on pretty late in the afternoon."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Herb. "Seems to me we've worked hard enough
+for one day."
+
+"All the same we've got to fix up that roof before we go," explained
+Bob. "It wouldn't be fair to leave it open to the wind and rain after
+we smashed it in."
+
+"I tell you what!" exclaimed Herb, struck with a bright idea. "Jimmy's
+the one to do that to the queen's taste. He's had a lot of experience
+in his father's carpenter shop, and he could make a far better job of
+it than any of us could. It'll be a real treat to see him go at it."
+
+"Sure," said Jimmy sarcastically. "Just the thing. I told you that I
+was the goat. But all the same don't you try to hold your breath till
+you see me do it."
+
+"We'll all go at it," declared Bob. "And we'll get it done in jig
+time. Probably it won't be done like cabinet work, but we can make it
+reasonably tight and snug just the same. Come along now and let's get
+busy."
+
+They picked themselves up and made their way to the attic and set to
+work. They were hampered at first by lack of tools, but search of the
+house brought to light a couple of rusty hammers and saws, and they
+managed to make a fairly good job of it. At least they had made it
+secure against rain or snow, and that was all they could hope to do
+under the circumstances.
+
+The sun was getting low in the western sky as they were putting in the
+last nails. Suddenly Herb stopped and listened.
+
+"Who's that calling?" he asked.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BULLY APPEARS
+
+
+Joe went to a window in the side of the attic and peered out. Then he
+gave a low whistle.
+
+"What's the game?" inquired Bob curiously.
+
+"It's Buck Looker and his gang," replied his chum. "How in the world
+did they happen to get here just at this minute? Five minutes more and
+we'd have been gone."
+
+"Now I suppose it will all come out about the bear," said Herb
+regretfully. "I was hoping we could keep that to ourselves."
+
+"Perhaps it's just as well," said Bob thoughtfully. "We'd have to
+explain anyhow how we came to fall through the roof, and of course
+we'd tell the truth about it. What we've done now is only a makeshift
+job, and we'll have to get some carpenter to make a perfect thing of
+it at our expense. That's the only fair thing to do."
+
+"Hello, up there!" came a voice from below, which they recognized as
+Buck Looker's. "Who's up there and what are you doing?"
+
+Bob, who had come up to Joe's side, thrust his head out of the window.
+
+"Some of my friends and myself are here," he answered. "We broke
+through the roof of the house and we've just been fixing it up."
+
+"Broke through the roof!" came in a gasp from below. "What business
+did you have on the roof of my house? You're going to get into trouble
+for this."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," replied Bob. "We're not worrying much about it."
+
+"Well, you'd better worry," growled Buck truculently. "You come right
+down and get out of my house as fast as your legs can carry you or
+I'll--I'll----"
+
+"Yes," said Bob quietly, "go right ahead with what you were going to
+say, Buck Looker. You'll do what?"
+
+Buck hesitated, for there was a note in Bob's voice that he did not
+like.
+
+"You'll see what I'll do," he blustered. "You get right out of my
+house."
+
+"Now listen, Buck Looker," replied Bob. "We're going to get out of
+this house for just two reasons. The first is that there's nothing
+especially attractive to keep us here, and the second is that we've
+finished our work and were just about to go anyway. But don't fool
+yourself into thinking that we're going because you tell us to. If
+your father told us to, we'd have to, because it's his property. But
+it isn't yours and what you say doesn't interest us a little bit. Get
+that?"
+
+There was a growling response, of which they did not catch the words,
+and Bob turned to his companions.
+
+"Come along, fellows," he said. "Let's go down and see what this
+terrible man-eater and his cronies are going to do to us."
+
+"I only wish they'd give us an excuse for pitching into them," said
+Joe. "I've been aching to give Buck Looker a licking ever since that
+time Mr. Preston came along and stopped us."
+
+"No chance," laughed Bob. "Buck is prudent enough when any one comes
+face to face with him. As a long distance fighter he's a wonder, but
+he wilts fast enough when a scrap seems coming."
+
+The radio boys brushed off their clothes, restored the tools to their
+places, and went downstairs and out on the front porch, where they
+found the bully and his friends in close conversation.
+
+"It's time you got out of here!" exclaimed Buck. "My father will have
+something to say about this, and maybe he'll have you all arrested for
+burglary."
+
+At this the boys could not help laughing, and Buck's face grew red
+with fury, while a venomous light glowed in his mean eyes.
+
+"You'll laugh out of the other side of your mouths when you find
+yourselves in jail," he shouted.
+
+"Now look here," burst out Joe, taking a step toward him, "you've gone
+quite far enough. You keep a civil tongue in your head, or I'll give
+you what I've owed you ever since Mr. Preston came between us. And
+there's no Mr. Preston here now."
+
+Bob put a restraining hand on his friend's arm.
+
+"Easy, Joe," he counseled.
+
+Then he turned to the bully.
+
+"We don't owe you any explanation, Buck Looker," he said, "but we do
+owe one to your father, and you can tell him what we say. We were
+chased by a bear who had wandered away from his master. We chose this
+house for safety because it was the only place at hand and we couldn't
+do anything else. First we got up on the roof of the porch, but the
+bear came after us there and we had to take to the roof of the house
+itself. While we were going across it, part of it caved in and let us
+down into the attic. Afterward we tried to repair the damage for the
+time, and you can tell your father that we will pay whatever is
+necessary to make the roof as good as it was before."
+
+"Chased by a bear!" repeated Buck, with a sneer. "That's a likely
+story. There hasn't been a bear around these parts for a hundred
+years. Tell that to the marines."
+
+"I suppose that means that I'm telling a falsehood," said Bob, his
+eyes taking on a steely glint.
+
+"I didn't say that," muttered Buck, as he stole a glance at Bob's
+clenched fist. "But you can tell that to my father and see if he
+believes it."
+
+"He can believe it or not as he sees fit," replied Bob. "Come along,
+fellows."
+
+"Just notice that we're going of our own accord," put in Joe, as he
+prepared to follow his friend down the steps. "Don't you want to throw
+us off the porch or any little thing like that?" he inquired politely,
+pausing a moment for an answer.
+
+But the only answer was a snarl, and the radio boys left the bully
+there and went on to the place a little way off where they had dropped
+their bags when the bear came upon them.
+
+Jimmy, who was in the van, suddenly gave a cry of dismay.
+
+"The bags are gone!" he exclaimed. "I dropped mine right here, and now
+there are no signs of it."
+
+"And mine was close by this tree," cried Herb. "That's gone too."
+
+They hunted about for a few minutes, but the search was fruitless.
+
+"Look here!" exclaimed Joe, at last. "Those bags didn't walk away of
+their own accord. Somebody's taken them."
+
+"And after working all day to fill them!" groaned Jimmy.
+
+"Say, fellows," said Bob. "The only ones that have been around here
+have probably been Buck Looker and his gang. There's the answer."
+
+"But they didn't have any bags with them," interposed Herb.
+
+"They could have hidden them, intending to come back after dark and
+get them," replied Bob. "I'm going to question them anyway. Buck
+Looker isn't going to put anything like that over on us."
+
+"They'll only lie out of it," prophesied Jimmy pessimistically.
+
+"We can see from the way they talk and act whether they are lying or
+not," returned Bob. "At any rate I'm going to take a chance."
+
+They all went back rapidly toward the house, and reached there just in
+time to see Buck and his cronies vanishing around the back.
+
+"They've seen us coming and tried to dodge," cried Joe.
+
+"That won't do them any good," replied Bob, quickening his speed. "We
+can beat them running any day."
+
+The truth of his words was quickly demonstrated when they drew up
+abreast of the three, who slowed to a walk when they saw it was no use
+trying to evade their pursuers.
+
+"What are you running away for?" queried Bob, as he stepped in front
+of Buck.
+
+"None of your business," answered Buck snapishly. "I might ask you
+what you are running for."
+
+"And if you did, I'd tell you mighty quick," answered Bob. "I was
+running after you to ask you what you did with the bags of nuts you
+found under the trees."
+
+Buck tried to put on a look of surprise, but the attempt was a
+failure.
+
+"I--I don't know what you're talking about," he stammered.
+
+Every tone and every look betrayed that he was not telling the truth,
+and Bob went straight to the point.
+
+"Yes, you do," he retorted. "You know perfectly well what I'm talking
+about. You found those bags under the trees where we had dropped them
+when the bear chased us, and you've hidden them somewhere intending to
+come back for them later. We've got you dead to rights, and you'd
+better come across and come across quick."
+
+Buck hesitated a moment, but the look in Bob's eyes told him what was
+in store for him if he refused, and again he concluded that discretion
+was the better part of valor.
+
+"Oh, were those yours?" he said, with an affectation of surprise. "We
+did find a few nuts and laid them aside for the owners if they should
+come back for them. I had forgotten all about it."
+
+"It's too bad that your memory is so poor," remarked Bob grimly.
+"Suppose you come along and show us where you laid them aside so
+carefully for their owners."
+
+Again Buck hesitated and seemed inclined to refuse, but the menace in
+Bob's eyes had not lessened, and he reluctantly shuffled back to the
+woods in front of the house and pointed out a hollow tree.
+
+"There you'll find your old nuts," he snarled viciously. "That is, if
+they are yours. Ten to one they belong to somebody else." And with
+this Parthian shot, which the boys disregarded in their eagerness to
+regain their property, he slunk away, followed by Lutz and Mooney, the
+discomfited faces of the three of them as black as thunder clouds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A STARTLING ACCUSATION
+
+
+Elated and triumphant, the radio boys shouldered their bags and set
+out for home.
+
+"This is the end of a perfect day," chanted Joe, as they trudged
+along, tired in body but light in heart.
+
+"For us perhaps, but not for Buck and his crowd," chuckled Herb.
+
+"And those sneak thieves were the fellows who were talking about
+burglars," laughed Jimmy.
+
+The sun had gone down before the radio boys left the woods, and it was
+full night by the time they reached their homes and disburdened
+themselves of their load of nuts.
+
+"I was going to ask you fellows to come around tonight and listen in
+on the broadcasting concert," said Bob, as they reached his gate; "but
+I guess our folks will be so much excited about the bear that they
+can't talk or think of anything else."
+
+"That's bearly possible," chuckled Herb, and grinned at the
+indignation of his companions at the pun.
+
+"But I think there'll be something doing at church tomorrow on the
+subject of radio," continued Bob. "You fellows must be sure to be
+there. I heard Doctor Dale talking about it to father."
+
+"I'll be there if I can wake up in time," said Jimmy. "But just now I
+feel as if I could sleep through the next twenty-four hours straight.
+I'll be like one of the seven sleepers of Pegasus."
+
+"Ephesus, I guess you mean," laughed Bob. "Pegasus was a horse."
+
+"Is that so?" replied Jimmy. "Well, that's a horse on me. Don't hit
+me," he begged, as Bob made a pass at him. "I'm stiff and sore all
+over, without having that big ham of yours land on me."
+
+Bob laughed and went up the steps, while the others made their ways to
+their respective homes not many doors away.
+
+As they had anticipated, the telling of the adventures that they had
+gone through that day was listened to with breathless interest by all
+the members of their families. At places in the story there was
+laughter, but more frequently there were exclamations of alarm mingled
+with great relief that they had come through safely.
+
+"I tell you," said Bob, as he finished telling of the matter to his
+parents. "I felt mighty cheap to think that I had run like mad from a
+bear that, as the Italian said, was simply trying to 'maka frens' with
+me."
+
+"It was rather amusing after it was all over," assented his father,
+with a smile. "But after all you were very wise to act as you did. It
+isn't by any means certain that the bear would have been as friendly
+with you as he was with his master, and resistance of any kind might
+have awakened all his savage instincts. I am very doubtful about the
+bear thinking it was only a game when he was climbing up after you.
+But even if he did, you had no reason to suppose it. For all you knew
+he might have escaped from a circus or menagerie and might have been
+ready to tear you in pieces."
+
+"That was my first thought; that is, as soon as I could think calmly
+about anything," answered Bob. "But, after all, a miss is as good as a
+mile, and he didn't get us. He came mighty near it though."
+
+"The most serious outcome of the whole thing will probably be the
+matter of the broken roof," said Mr. Layton meditatively. "It will
+probably cost considerable to put it in perfect shape again. But,
+after all, that doesn't count for anything as long as you boys weren't
+hurt. I'll see Looker about it on Monday and fix the matter up with
+him."
+
+"And of course the fathers of the other fellows will chip in on the
+expense," said Bob. "I'd like to hear what Buck is telling his father
+about it tonight," he continued, with a grin. "By the time he gets
+through, we'll have pulled the whole house down."
+
+The next morning all the boys were at church in time for the morning
+service, even Jimmy, who walked very stiffly and smelled strongly of
+arnica.
+
+"You fellows needn't sniff as though I had the plague," he protested,
+as his friends lifted their nostrils inquiringly. "I was the fellow
+who was underneath when you fell on me like a thousand of brick. You
+got off easy, while I had all the worst of it. But then I'm used to
+that," he concluded, sighing heavily.
+
+"Cheer up, old boy," said Joe, clapping him on the back, at which poor
+Jimmy winced. "The first hundred years is the worst. After that you
+won't mind it. But now we'd better get in if we want to sit together,
+for there's a bigger congregation here than usual."
+
+Doctor Dale, the friend and counselor of the boys in radio, as in many
+other things, was in the pulpit. He was a very eloquent preacher and
+was always sure of a good congregation. But as Joe had said, the
+church was even fuller than usual that morning, and there was a
+general stir of expectancy, as though something unusual was in
+prospect.
+
+The attention of the boys was attracted at once by a small disk-like
+contrivance right in front of the preacher's desk. It had never been
+there before. They recognized it at once as a microphone, but to the
+majority of the audience its purpose was a complete mystery, and many
+curious glances were fixed upon it.
+
+There were the customary preliminary services, and then Doctor Dale
+came forward to the desk.
+
+"Before beginning my sermon this morning," he said, "I want to explain
+what will seem to some an unusual departure from custom, but which I
+hope will justify itself to such an extent as to become a regular
+feature of our service.
+
+"There is no reason why the benefits of that service should be
+confined to the persons gathered within these four walls. There are
+thousands outside who by the means of radio, that most wonderful
+invention of the present century, can hear every word of this service
+just as readily as you who are seated in the pews. The prayers, the
+hymns, the organ music, the sermon, the benediction--they can hear it
+all. The only thing they will miss will be the privilege of putting
+their money in the collection plate."
+
+He paused for a moment, and a smile rippled over the congregation.
+
+"I have said," he resumed, "that they can hear it. And if they can
+hear it, they ought to hear it--that is if they want to. This is no
+new or untried idea. It is being carried out today in Pittsburgh,
+Washington, and other cities. The pulpit becomes a religious
+broadcasting station, from which the service is carried over an area
+of hundreds of miles. Everybody within that area who has a receiving
+set can hear it if they wish. In some cases it is estimated that more
+than two hundred thousand people are enjoying at the same moment the
+same religious service. You can see at once what that means in
+immeasurably extending the usefulness and influence of the church.
+
+"Now it has occurred to me that we might do here what is being done
+elsewhere on a larger scale. So, after a conference with the officials
+of the church, an adequate sending set has been installed in the loft
+of the building. What is said here is sent from this microphone to the
+loft, where it is flung out into the ether. Arrangements have been
+made with a number of churches in this county, too poor and small to
+have a regular pastor, by which they have installed loud speaker
+receiving sets in their buildings. At this moment there are a dozen
+scattered congregations where the people have gathered to worship, and
+where at this moment they are hearing everything that is said just as
+plainly as you do.
+
+"And in addition to that," he went on, "in hundreds, perhaps thousands
+of homes, people who cannot go to church because of illness or some
+other reason are listening to this service. The sick, the crippled,
+the blind--think of what it means to have the church brought to them
+when they cannot go to the church. You in the pews are the visible
+congregation. But outside these walls there is today an invisible
+congregation many times greater, to whom this service is bringing its
+message of help and healing."
+
+With this prelude, Doctor Dale announced his text and preached his
+sermon, which, if anything, was more eloquent than usual. It seemed as
+if he were inspired by preaching to the greatest audience that he had
+ever had in his whole career, and the audience in the pews also felt a
+thrill as they thought of the invisible listeners miles and miles
+away. It seemed as though the natural were being brought into close
+connection with the supernatural, and the impression produced was most
+powerful.
+
+If the doctor had had any misgivings as to the attitude of his people
+toward this new departure, these were quickly dissipated by the
+cordial congratulations and approval that were expressed after the
+service was over and he moved about among them. It was the universal
+opinion that a great advance had been made and that the innovation had
+come to stay.
+
+The radio boys had been intensely interested in this new application
+of their favorite study, and after the sermon they went up into the
+loft and examined the apparatus that had been used in sending. It was
+a vacuum tube set with two tubes and power enough to send messages out
+over the whole county. It had been set up by Dr. Dale himself, and
+that was proof enough for the boys that it had worked perfectly in
+sending out the morning service.
+
+"What will radio do next?" asked Bob, as the boys were walking
+homeward.
+
+"What won't it do next is the way you ought to put it," suggested Joe.
+"It seems as if there were no limit. There are no such things as space
+and distance any more. Radio has wiped them out completely."
+
+"That's true," chimed in Herb. "The earth used to be a monstrous big
+thing twenty-five thousand miles round. Now it's getting to be no
+bigger than an orange."
+
+"What a fuss they made when it was proved that one could travel around
+the world in eighty days," said Jimmy. "But radio can go round the
+earth more than seven times in a single second. Just about the time it
+takes to strike a match."
+
+"Gee, but I'm glad we weren't born a hundred years ago," remarked Bob.
+"What a lot of things we would have missed. Automobiles, locomotives,
+telegraph, telephone, phonograph, electric light----"
+
+"Yes," interrupted Joe, "and radio would have been the worst miss of
+all."
+
+"They're doing in the colleges now, too, something very like what the
+doctor did in the pulpit this morning," said Bob. "In Union College
+and Tufts and a lot of others the professors are giving their lectures
+by radio. Talk about University Extension courses! Radio will beat
+them all hollow. Think of a professor lecturing to an audience of
+fifty thousand, instead of the hundred or so that are gathered in his
+classroom. And think of the thousands of young fellows who are crazy
+to go to college and haven't the money to do it with. They can keep on
+working and get their college education at home. I tell you what,
+fellows, Mr. Brandon was right the other day when he said that the
+surface of radio had only been scratched so far."
+
+The next day at school the boys found that the story of their
+experience with the bear had had wide circulation, chiefly through the
+activity of Buck Looker, who took care at the same time, however, to
+express his belief that nothing of the kind had happened. There was a
+good deal of good-natured joking, and the boys in self-defense had to
+explain the whole thing in all its details.
+
+At recess their story received unexpected confirmation, for there,
+just outside the school yard, was Tony putting Bruno, the bear,
+through his tricks while a breathlessly interested crowd gathered
+about the pair. Tony grinned at the boys when he saw them and Jimmy
+asserted that Bruno grinned too, but the rest of the radio boys
+thought that that was due to Jimmy's excess of imagination.
+
+A noticeable feature of the school work that day was the scarcity of
+pupils. All the classes were more or less sparsely attended, and the
+teachers were called to a conference with Mr. Preston, the principal.
+
+"What do you suppose the powwow of the teachers was all about?" asked
+Bob, as the boys were going home after the session of the school was
+ended.
+
+"About so many fellows being away," replied Joe, who, as his father
+was the leading physician of the town, was better informed than were
+his friends as to the situation. "Dad says there's an awful lot of
+sickness in the town. He's kept busy day and night, and scarcely has
+time to breathe."
+
+"I wonder what the reason is," remarked Herb.
+
+"Dad thinks the water supply may have something to do with it,"
+answered Joe. "He says there's a regular epidemic of typhoid fever,
+and that usually comes from impure water. He's called the attention of
+the town council and the engineers of the reservoir to the matter, and
+they're going to have an investigation. Dad says it may even be
+necessary to close the schools for a time."
+
+"What's that?" exclaimed Jimmy, with sudden animation.
+
+"Don't tell Jimmy anything like that," mocked Herb. "It would simply
+break his heart. If there's anything he's stuck on it's school."
+
+"You fellows wouldn't be tickled to death either if you thought you
+were going to get a vacation, would you?" retorted Jimmy. "I know you
+birds."
+
+"Say, wouldn't it give us lots of time for radio!" said Bob
+enthusiastically. "I want to get all the new wrinkles in that latest
+set of ours, and we don't have time to do it in the few evenings we
+can spare from our home work."
+
+"You bet," agreed Herb. "I don't want there to be any more sickness,
+but I sure do hope they find it necessary to close the schools. That
+would be just what the doctor ordered--in more senses than one."
+
+"I wouldn't shed any bitter tears myself," admitted Joe. "There's
+going to be a meeting of the Board of Health to consider the subject
+soon, and I'll give you fellows the tip the minute I hear anything
+definite about what they decide to do."
+
+"In the meantime, suppose you fellows drop around this evening for a
+little while," suggested Bob. "I want to try out some long distance
+receiving and listen in on Chicago."
+
+All agreed to be there at about eight o'clock.
+
+The Laytons had barely finished dinner that night when the door bell
+rang. Bob answered the bell.
+
+He was surprised to find that the callers were Mr. Looker and his son
+Buck. Both had dark and angry looks on their faces.
+
+"I want to know," said Mr. Looker abruptly, "what you and your
+companions mean by burning down my cottage!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE BURNED COTTAGE
+
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Bob. "What makes you think we'd do a trick like
+that?"
+
+"Never mind about that!" exclaimed the elder Looker, furiously. "I
+supposed you'd deny it. I want to see your father, young man."
+
+"Here he is," and Mr. Layton, who had been attracted to the door by
+Mr. Looker's loud and angry tones, emerged on to the porch. "What can
+I do for you, Mr. Looker?"
+
+"You can pay me for my house that your boy and his companions burnt
+down," said Mr. Looker in angry tones.
+
+"I rather think you must be mistaken," said Mr. Layton. "What grounds
+have you for making such a serious accusation?"
+
+"My boy caught them red-handed after they'd broken into the house, and
+made them get off my property. It wasn't six hours later that the
+place was burned, and there's no doubt in my mind that your boy and
+his friends set it on fire just to get even. They've always had a
+grudge against Buckley, anyway, and are always doing all they can to
+make life miserable for the poor fellow."
+
+"You know that isn't true, Dad," protested Bob, hotly, "neither about
+the fire, nor about Buck. He's always the one that starts trouble."
+
+"You've got plenty of nerve, Looker, to come here and make an
+accusation like this to me," remarked Mr. Layton, his usually kindly
+face stern and set. "There are many ways that fire could have occurred
+besides being deliberately set, and you know it. Likely enough some
+tramps had decided to spend the night there, and set it on fire by
+accident. You had better get off my property before I am tempted to
+throw you off."
+
+"It might not be so easy as you think," sneered the elder Looker, but
+nevertheless he began edging toward the sidewalk. "If you don't pay,
+I'll see my lawyer and have him bring action in court. See if I
+don't."
+
+"Suit yourself," answered Mr. Layton, shrugging his shoulders. "Your
+lawyer will tell you, though, that you haven't the shadow of a case.
+As for your boy, he looks big enough to take care of himself, and if
+he can't, I don't see what business that is of mine."
+
+"I'll show you," threatened Mr. Looker, as he turned down the walk.
+"Don't worry about that. Maybe somebody will be arrested."
+
+"As you please," said Mr. Layton, with a grim smile.
+
+Mr. Looker and his promising son reached the sidewalk in sullen
+silence, while Bob and his father watched them until they turned the
+corner of the street.
+
+"Young Looker is a young bully, just as you say, and his father would
+like to be," said Mr. Layton, seating himself in a rocking chair. "I
+suppose you and Joe and the others are sure you didn't light a match
+for any purpose while you were there?"
+
+"Absolutely not, Dad," asserted Bob. "We weren't inside that shack
+more than five minutes the first time, and, with that bear outside,
+lighting matches was the last thing we'd have thought of. As soon as
+the bear's owner captured him, we went outside. We worked on the roof
+both from outside and inside, and tried to patch the thing up. We
+struck no matches. We were doing the last few things inside when Buck
+came along."
+
+"Tell me just what happened then," directed Mr. Layton.
+
+"Why, then there was a bit of an argument with Buck," grinned Bob. "We
+knew that the place belonged to his father, and that there was nothing
+for us to do but clear out. We came right home from there, though, and
+you know that we were all here listening to radio that entire
+evening."
+
+"Yes, I remember that," nodded his father. "And I guess that would be
+a pretty convincing alibi if Looker really should carry the case to
+court. My opinion is, though, that he's just bluffing, and we'll never
+hear any more of it."
+
+"I wish I did know who _was_ responsible," speculated Bob. "Do you
+really think tramps were responsible, Dad?"
+
+"Very likely. Several barns have been burned in this neighborhood from
+the same cause, you know. I'm rather sorry that you and your friends
+were around there the same day it happened, because unless the real
+cause is discovered the Lookers will never stop talking about it.
+However, it's a small matter and we'll not think any more about it.
+From what you tell me, the place must have been falling apart,
+anyway."
+
+"I should say so," laughed Bob. "We were a surprised bunch when that
+roof caved in with us. The place was so rickety it's a wonder it
+didn't all come down then."
+
+"I'll bet you were a scared bunch," bantered his father, a twinkle in
+his eyes.
+
+"I'll say we were," admitted Bob, honestly. "If we'd had a gun with
+us, it would have been a different story, though. Tony would have been
+out one large, brown bear."
+
+"It's just as well you didn't," said Mr. Layton, dryly. "We'd have had
+Tony threatening a lawsuit, too, if you had killed his pet bear."
+
+"It would have been a shame to do it," admitted Bob.
+
+For a few minutes they both sat silent, each busy with his own
+thoughts.
+
+"I expect I'll have to be away from home most of next week, Bob," said
+Mr. Layton, at length. Bob looked at him expectantly, and he
+continued. "There is a store at Mountain Pass being offered at a
+bargain, and I'm strongly tempted to buy it and operate it as a
+branch. I'm going to look the ground over, anyway, and if it looks as
+good then as it does now, I think I'll buy."
+
+"That will be fine!" exclaimed Bob. "I've heard a good deal about that
+place lately, and it seems to be getting more popular all the time. If
+you go will you take mother with you?"
+
+Mr. Layton nodded, and waited expectantly for the question that he
+knew was coming. Nor was he wrong.
+
+"How about taking me along, Dad?" said Bob, eagerly. "It will be a
+peach of a trip. They say the scenery through Mountain Pass is the
+best ever."
+
+"Well, I've thought of that, too, because I was pretty sure you'd want
+to come. But I'm afraid they'll have you too busy in the high school
+this term for us to manage it. I may have to be gone two or three
+weeks, and that would be a serious break in your studies."
+
+Bob urged and pleaded, but his father was adamant, and at last Bob was
+forced reluctantly to give up the idea of going.
+
+When he told the other radio boys about the visit of the Lookers, they
+were as indignant as he.
+
+"'Like father, like son,'" quoted Joe. "They're two of a kind, that
+pair. But I guess they didn't get much satisfaction out of your
+father, Bob."
+
+"I should say not!" laughed Bob. "If they had said much more, I think
+we'd have treated ourselves to the pleasure of throwing them into the
+street."
+
+Bob then told them about his father's projected trip to Mountain Pass,
+and his disappointment at not being allowed to accompany his parents.
+
+"That's pretty tough," said Jimmy, sympathetically. "I know how you
+must feel. It would be a swell trip, and they say the meals at the
+Mountain Rest Hotel up at Mountain Pass are about the best ever."
+
+"There you go!" exclaimed Bob, laughing. "It's a lucky thing for the
+hotel that you're not going. They'd lose money on you, sure as
+shooting."
+
+"Well, I'd try to get my money's worth," said Jimmy, complacently.
+
+"You'd get it, too, no fear of that," said Joe, confidently.
+
+When this conversation took place, the boys never dreamed that they
+might all be going to Mountain Pass together in the near future. But
+as events shaped themselves in the next few days, this began to assume
+an aspect of probability.
+
+The epidemic of typhoid increased, and there was something nearly
+approaching a panic in Clintonia. Families began leaving the town
+every day, and Dr. Atwood, as head of the town Board of Health,
+finally issued orders that the schools must close until the epidemic
+had been gotten under control.
+
+When Bob heard this news, he could not, in spite of the seriousness of
+the situation, suppress a feeling of exultation. With school closed,
+the main objection to his accompanying his parents to Mountain Pass
+was removed, and he had little doubt now that he could persuade them
+to take him.
+
+The task was even easier than he had anticipated, for the Laytons,
+like all the other towns-people, were greatly alarmed over the rapid
+spread of the sickness, and when Bob broached the subject to them they
+readily consented to having him go with them.
+
+"It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good," thought Bob, and
+hurried away to seek his friends and tell them the good news.
+
+He found all three of them in a state of excitement equal to his own.
+
+"Dad wants us all to leave town, too," declared Joe. "He says there
+must be something wrong with the water supply, and he wants us all
+away until the trouble has been located and remedied."
+
+"My father says the same thing," said Herb. "The trouble is, that
+we'll have to go to different places, and that breaks up our
+combination for goodness knows how long."
+
+"Maybe we could get our folks to let us all stick together and go to
+Mountain Pass with Bob," ventured Jimmy. "It seems too good to be
+true, though."
+
+"It's an idea, anyway," declared Joe. "You certainly come out strong
+once in a while, Doughnuts. It won't do any harm to try, at any rate."
+
+The others agreed with this, and that night besieged their parents to
+let them go to the mountain resort. They succeeded more easily than
+they had hoped, as the older people were too worried over the
+situation, and too busy packing up, to offer much resistance to the
+impetuous lads.
+
+Early the next morning first Joe, and then Herb and Jimmy, dropped
+into the Layton home, to report their success to Bob.
+
+"Well, that's great!" exclaimed the latter. "Jimmy, you win the
+celluloid frying pan for making that suggestion yesterday."
+
+"Huh! that's about as useful as anything I'll ever get from you
+Indians," snorted Jimmy. "I ought to make you pay in advance for my
+ideas, instead of giving them away so carelessly."
+
+"You'll never get rich that way," remarked Joe. "But let's cut out the
+comedy, fellows, and get down to business. When are your folks going
+to start for Mountain Pass, Bob?"
+
+"The day after tomorrow."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Herb. "That means that we'll have to flash a little
+speed, doesn't it?"
+
+"I sha'n't worry about that," grinned Bob. "I'm all ready to start
+this minute, so I'll sit back and watch you fellows hustle. It will be
+lots of fun."
+
+"You won't be able to see me, on account of the dust I'll raise,"
+announced Jimmy.
+
+"You're going to stay at the Mountain Rest Hotel, aren't you, Bob?"
+asked Joe.
+
+"Sure! It's the best hotel up there. The only one, in fact; though I
+believe some of the natives take a few people into their homes."
+
+"By the way," said Herb. "Who's said anything to Mrs. or Mr. Layton
+about our joining their party? Seems incredible, but maybe they won't
+want us."
+
+"Gee!" gasped Joe. "I never thought of that. But maybe it's so."
+
+"There's mother now," announced Bob. "Let's put it up to her."
+
+This they did, and her son's three friends were assured by Mrs. Layton
+that if their parents were willing they should go she and Mr. Layton
+would be glad to have them in their party.
+
+"That's fixed then," announced Jimmy. "I'm off now, fellows. Next
+stop, Mountain Pass."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+RADIO WONDERS
+
+
+That day and the next were busy ones for the radio boys. The party was
+to go in two big automobiles that Mr. Layton had hired, and the boys
+had secured permission to take a small radio set with them. On the
+morning set for their departure they were ready to the last detail,
+and it was not long before they and their belongings were snugly
+packed into the two automobiles and they were all on their way to the
+mountain resort.
+
+Although it was still only mid-autumn, the air had a keen edge to it,
+the sky was gray and overcast, and there was the indefinable feel of
+snow in the air. The big cars rolled crisply through long drifts of
+dead leaves, going at a lively pace, as it was quite a journey to the
+resort, with many steep grades to be encountered on the way. The boys
+were warmly wrapped, and the keen air only gave zest and added to
+their high spirits.
+
+"These cars ought to be equipped with a radio set," remarked Bob, a
+short time after they had started. "I saw a picture the other day of a
+car that was rigged up that way, with an antenna from the radiator to
+a mast in the rear."
+
+"It's not a bad idea, at that," said Joe. "If a person were going on a
+long tour, he could keep in touch with the weather forecasts, and know
+just what to expect the next day."
+
+"Yes, and when he camped for lunch, he could have music while the
+coffee pot was boiling," said Herb. "Pretty soft, I'll say."
+
+"He'd be out of luck if the static were bad, though," observed Jimmy.
+
+"Oh, it won't be long before they'll get around that static nuisance,"
+said Bob. "Have you heard of the latest method of overcoming it?"
+
+The others had not, and Bob proceeded to explain.
+
+"At Rocky Point, Long Island, they put up twelve radio towers, each
+four hundred and ten feet high, in a row three miles long. Then they
+hitched up a couple of two hundred kilowatt alternators so that they
+run in synchronism. That means four hundred kilowatts on the aerial,
+and I guess that can plough through the worst static that ever
+happened."
+
+"Four hundred kilowatts!" exclaimed Joe. "That's an awful lot of
+juice, Bob."
+
+"You bet it is," agreed Bob, nodding his head. "But it does the work.
+When they tested out this system signals were received in Nauen,
+Germany, of almost maximum strength, in spite of bad weather
+conditions. You know they have a numbered scale, running from nothing
+to ten, which is maximum. Well, the Rocky Point signals were classed
+as number nine, which means they were almost maximum strength."
+
+"It must have been a terrible job to synchronize those two
+alternators," commented Joe.
+
+"No doubt of it," agreed Bob. "This article stated that they had to
+experiment for months before they succeeded. Those machines turn over
+at somewhere around twenty-two thousand revolutions per minute, you
+know."
+
+"About three hundred and sixty-six times a second," said Joe, after a
+short mental calculation. "Nothing slow about that, is there?"
+
+"It's fast enough to do the trick, anyway," agreed Bob. "Wouldn't it
+be great to be in charge of a station like that?"
+
+The others agreed that it would, and for some time they discussed this
+latest marvel of radio. Then their minds were drawn away by the
+wonderful scenery through which they were passing. The leaves still
+left on the trees were tinted in rich reds and browns, and as the big
+cars climbed to higher levels the party had some wonderful views of
+high hills and spreading valleys.
+
+But the sky became continually more leaden and overcast, and the
+drivers put on more speed in an effort to reach their destination
+before the impending storm should start. But they had gone only a
+short distance further when a few white flakes came swirling silently
+down from the leaden sky. Scattered at first, they rapidly increased
+in numbers until the air was filled with swirling sheets of white. The
+snow packed over the windshields and powdered the occupants of the two
+cars, and the drivers were forced to stop and put up the side
+curtains. The snow hissed through the branches of the trees and
+whispered to the dead leaves, making the only sound in a world that
+was rapidly changing from autumn brown to winter white.
+
+With the side curtains adjusted as snugly as possible, the party
+resumed its journey. The fine, dry snow searched out every chink and
+opening between the curtains, penetrating in some mysterious manner
+where rain would have been kept out. In a surprisingly short time it
+had thrown a thick mantle over the road, and the cars began to feel
+the drag of ploughing through it. Another stop had to be made to put
+on tire chains, and by this time it was plainly to be seen that the
+drivers were becoming worried.
+
+They had still about a third of the distance to cover, which included
+some of the worst grades in that part of the country. The road had
+changed from smooth macadam to a rough trail that required careful
+driving even under the most favorable conditions, and now the snow,
+drifting into holes and depressions, hid them from sight, the first
+intimation of their presence being a jolt and slam as the wheels
+dropped into some pit that the driver could easily have avoided
+otherwise. The passengers were shaken about unmercifully, and had to
+hold fast to anything handy to keep from being thrown against the
+roof.
+
+"Good night!" exclaimed Herb, as one particularly heavy jolt threw him
+from the seat and left him floundering on the floor. "We won't have
+any springs left on the cars by the time we reach the hotel, provided
+we ever do. I know people who have driven over this road, and they
+never mentioned its being so bad."
+
+"So have I," said Bob, peering out through the side curtains. "My
+private opinion is, that we've gotten off the main road altogether.
+There was a fork a way back, and I thought then that the drivers
+turned in the wrong direction."
+
+"That hardly seems possible, Bob," said Mr. Layton. "They are both
+experienced drivers, and are supposed to know this road like a book."
+
+"Well, likely enough I'm wrong," said his son. "If they did take the
+wrong fork, though, I suppose they'll soon find it out and turn back."
+
+But Bob was gifted with a keen sense of direction, and it was not long
+before the little party found that he had been correct in his surmise.
+The leading car halted, the other followed suit, and the drivers,
+beating their numbed hands together, held a conference in the road.
+
+After a struggle with the fastenings of the side-curtain, Mr. Layton
+descended and joined them. The boys followed suit, leaving Mrs. Layton
+in sole possession of the two cars.
+
+"We don't rightly know how it happened, sir," said one of the drivers,
+addressing Mr. Layton; "but somehow we've got off the right road in
+this confounded snow, and I guess there's nothing for it but to turn
+and try to get back on it at the place where we branched off."
+
+"Well, let's do it then, as quickly as possible," said Mr. Layton,
+decisively. "The snow is getting deeper every minute, and we can't
+afford to lose any more time. I thought you men knew the road too well
+to make a mistake like that."
+
+One of the drivers muttered something about "snow" and "can't see
+nothin' ten feet ahead," and they climbed into their seats, while the
+others scattered to their places inside.
+
+The driver of the leading car stepped on the electric starter button,
+but instead of the engine starting there was a shock, a sharp snap of
+breaking steel, and the starter motor whirred idly around with no more
+effect on the engine than one of the thickly fallen snowflakes.
+
+The driver uttered a fierce exclamation. "There goes that starter
+spring again!" he exclaimed. "Now I'll have to crank the blamed engine
+every time I want to start for the rest of this trip."
+
+He fished around under the front seat, produced a starting crank, and
+tried to turn the engine over by hand. In his haste, however, he had
+forgotten to retard the spark, and as he lunged down on the crank with
+all his strength, the motor backfired, the crank spun around several
+times, and the driver staggered back, his right arm hanging limp and
+useless.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A CLOSE SHAVE
+
+
+Mrs. Layton uttered a scream, and the others looked at each other a
+second with blank faces. Then they jumped out and surrounded the
+unfortunate driver, who was gazing at his injured arm in a dazed
+fashion. Mr. Layton made a quick examination, and pronounced that the
+wrist was badly sprained. Fortunately, they had a complete medical
+outfit in one of the cars, including splints, and Mr. Layton contrived
+to bind up the injured wrist after a fashion, and then suspended the
+arm in a sling.
+
+"But who's going to drive the car?" asked the uninjured chauffeur,
+after this operation had been completed. "If none of you people knows
+how to drive, we're in a pretty bad fix."
+
+"I'll drive," volunteered Bob. "You lead the way, and I guess I'll
+manage to keep near you."
+
+"Are you sure you can do it, Bob?" questioned his father, anxiously.
+He had great faith in his son's ability, and liked to have the lad
+take a certain amount of responsibility.
+
+"Sure, Dad. Watch and see," was the quick answer.
+
+"I don't know about this," said the chauffeur, with the professional's
+distrust of the amateur. "We could all pack in one car in a pinch, you
+know, and leave the other here."
+
+"But that would so overload one car that we'd have very little chance
+of getting there without a breakdown," argued Bob. "Don't worry about
+my driving. I'll manage somehow."
+
+"I'll bet you will," said Joe. "You'll have to move lively to keep
+from being run over," he told the driver.
+
+"Quit your kiddin'," said the chauffeur, unbelievingly. "We'll have to
+hit the high spots from now on, and it ain't goin' to be an easy job
+holdin' those boilers on the road."
+
+Somewhat against his mother's will, Bob cranked the motor of the car
+he was to drive, but took care to see that the spark was fully
+retarded, in consequence of which he started the engine without any
+trouble. The injured driver occupied the other half of the driver's
+seat, so as to give Bob pointers in handling the car if they were
+needed.
+
+But he soon found that Bob required very little of his advice. It was
+some time since he had driven a car, and at first he was a little slow
+at gear shifting, but soon got the "feel" of that particular car and
+from then on shifted with the ease and deft certainty of an expert. As
+a matter of fact, Bob possessed the knack of handling machinery,
+without which no one can really claim to be a good driver.
+
+The injured driver was not long in recognizing this. Shortly after
+they had reached the main road and were once more headed for their
+destination, they encountered a steep grade, something over a mile in
+length. Both cars were going at a fair speed when they felt the first
+tug of gravity, but so sharp was the grade that they lost way rapidly,
+and it became necessary to shift into a lower speed. Bob did not wait
+until they had slowed down too much. With a quick shove he disengaged
+the clutch, shifted into neutral, and then dropped the clutch into the
+engagement, at the same time accelerating the engine momentarily. This
+causes the idle gears on the jack-shaft to revolve, after which it is
+comparatively easy to mesh the intermediate gear combination. Bob had
+no difficulty in doing this, and with his gears properly engaged, he
+let in the clutch again and stepped on the accelerator. The car surged
+forward, ploughing through the snow and skidding from side to side as
+it fought its way up the steep gradient.
+
+In a few moments they caught up with the leading car, which was in
+difficulties. Its driver had waited too long before attempting to
+shift, and the car had slowed down so much by the time he got into
+intermediate that it would not pick up even in that speed, and he was
+forced to shift into low.
+
+"I'll bet that young feller that's driving Jim's car is stalled
+somewhere at the bottom of this hill," he thought. "Hope I don't have
+to wait too long for him after I reach the top. This road is no place
+for an amateur to drive, anyway. I----"
+
+Honk! Honk! The raucous note of Bob's horn broke in upon his thoughts,
+and he glanced, startled, through the rear windows, to see the other
+car looming through the drifting storm.
+
+Too late he tried frantically to speed up and avoid the humiliation of
+being passed by one whom he condescendingly termed an amateur.
+Resistless as fate the pursuing car drew abreast, and then went on
+past in a cloud of fine snow kicked up by the spinning rear wheels. He
+muttered morosely to himself as he caught a glimpse of grinning faces
+through the dim windows of the storm curtains, but was conscious of a
+feeling of admiration, too, for the daring young driver.
+
+"Say, son, I've got to hand it to you!" exclaimed Jim, the injured
+chauffeur. "You know how to handle a car with the best of 'em."
+
+"Oh, I didn't care so much about passing him, but I didn't want to
+slow down," explained Bob, never for an instant taking his eyes from
+the road. "It's against my principles to put on brakes when I'm going
+up a hill."
+
+"I figure the same way myself," admitted the other. "Now that we're
+ahead, we might as well stay ahead. I'll tell you which way to turn,
+an' I guess between us we'll get through all right."
+
+But many miles still lay between them and their destination, and the
+storm showed no sign of abating. Softly, silently, but implacably the
+white flakes continued to pile up that clinging carpet over the road
+until driving became more a matter of guesswork and instinct than
+anything else. For a time the injured chauffeur gave Bob directions
+and advice, but at length he came to the conclusion that this boy
+behind the wheel was very capable of doing the right thing in the
+right place, and he sat silent, gripping the seat and pressing on
+imaginary pedals when they got in tight places.
+
+They were making good progress, considering the adverse conditions,
+and were within perhaps ten miles of their destination when suddenly,
+through the whirling snow, Bob glimpsed another car swinging into the
+main road not fifteen feet from him. Both cars were going at a fast
+speed, but the drivers caught sight of each other at almost the same
+instant, and both jammed on their brakes. The cars swayed and skidded,
+and the occupants of both started from their seats, believing a
+collision inevitable. Nothing could have averted this had not Bob,
+quick as lightning, wrenched his wheel around, bringing his car into a
+course almost parallel with the other. For a few brief seconds the
+outcome lay in the hand of fate. When the two cars finally came to a
+jarring halt, they were side by side, with not six inches between
+their running boards.
+
+The door of the other car, which was a sedan, burst open, and a small,
+red-faced and white-haired man leaped out and shook a belligerent fist
+at Bob.
+
+"What do you mean by driving that car at such a rate of speed?" he
+shrilled. "You were breaking every speed law there is, young man, and
+I'll make you sorry for it, or my name isn't Gilbert Salper."
+
+"But your car was going faster than ours, and there isn't any damage
+done, anyway," Bob pointed out, as he wriggled from behind the wheel
+and descended to the road.
+
+"No damage done?" echoed the other, waving his hands excitedly. "You
+almost scared my wife and daughters into fits, and yet you have the
+nerve to stand there and tell me there is no damage done. What do you
+mean by it?"
+
+Before Bob could make an indignant reply, a lady wrapped in costly
+furs stepped from the sedan and laid a soothing hand on the irate old
+gentleman's shoulder.
+
+"I'm sure it wasn't the young man's fault, Gilbert," she said, in a
+pleasant voice. "Indeed, I think it was his quick action that
+prevented a collision. Jules was at fault in coming on to the main
+road without slowing down or blowing his horn."
+
+"They were both going too fast, I say!" insisted her husband. "But I
+suppose we ought to be thankful that we are still alive, after
+undertaking such a fool trip. Next time we'll do what I want and stay
+at home."
+
+The gentleman fumed and fussed a little longer, but at length his wife
+and daughters succeeded in enticing him back into his car. The latter
+were both unusually pretty girls, and as they coaxed their father back
+into good humor, Joe, who was in the car driven by Bob, whispered that
+he hoped they were also bound for the Mountain Rest Hotel.
+
+Mr. Salper was a wealthy Wall Street broker, whose pocketbook was much
+longer than his temper. Although irascible and prone to "fly off the
+handle" at the slightest provocation, he was at bottom a kindly man,
+and one who would do anything for those he cared for. Like many
+others, his health had suffered in the process of money making, and
+his physician had ordered him to give up business for a month or two
+and rest.
+
+The broker owned a house not far from the big hotel at Mountain Pass,
+and the family frequently came to the place, both in the winter and
+the summer. They were well known at the hotel itself for they often
+ran over to take meals there and to visit with some of the patrons.
+
+By the time his daughters had succeeded in calming the broker's
+excitement, the second car of the Layton party came up, and it was
+decided that the three cars should keep close together for the rest of
+the journey, in order to render mutual aid if it should be needed. The
+snow had attained a depth of six or eight inches by this time, and it
+was only with the greatest difficulty that they even managed to start
+again. But finally they got straightened out and resumed their bucking
+of the hills and snow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+BUCKING THE DRIFTS
+
+
+It was heartbreaking work, for from that point on the road ascended
+steadily toward the top of the mountain, with hardly a level spot on
+it. A mile ahead lay the Pass, a narrow gorge in which the snow had
+drifted so deep as to make it almost impassable.
+
+The car that Bob was driving was in the lead, and as they neared this
+dangerous place the disabled chauffeur gave him a word of advice.
+
+"Open 'er wide, son," he counseled. "We'll have to buck drifts maybe
+two feet deep or more, and if we once have to stop, it means we'll
+stay there until somebody comes and digs us out. Give 'er all she'll
+take, and hold her on the road if you can."
+
+Bob nodded, and opened the throttle little by little, while the
+chauffeur held his foot on the muffler cut-out pedal, in order to
+relieve the engine of all back pressure. Just before they reached the
+Pass, by some freak of the wind the road had been swept clear of snow
+for several hundred feet, and this gave the car an opportunity to
+gather speed.
+
+Faster and faster it flew, until the speedometer needle registered
+fifty miles an hour. Then through the driving snow the entrance to the
+Pass loomed ahead, and the chauffeur gave an exclamation.
+
+Before them was a snowdrift that looked almost as high as their car,
+stretching solidly across the road and leaving Bob not the shadow of a
+chance to dodge. He set his teeth, opened the throttle to the limit,
+and gripped the wheel with wrists braced strong as steel bars.
+
+The heavy car hurtled into the drift with the force of a projectile
+shot from a big gun, throwing clouds of snow in every direction as it
+bored resistlessly through. The car skidded and twisted in every
+direction, and it was a supreme test of Bob's strength and skill to
+keep the powerful machine on its course. Big rocks lined the road, and
+more than once they shaved past these with only inches to spare.
+
+Resistless with its initial momentum, the big car was nevertheless
+gradually losing speed as it penetrated further into the drift and the
+passive but deadly resistance of the snow began more and more to make
+itself felt. The engine began to labor, and Bob was on the point of
+shifting speeds, when suddenly the car broke through the farther side
+of the drift, seemed to shake the clinging flakes from it, and began
+to pick up speed again.
+
+Those composing the little party never forgot the gruelling battle
+against odds that followed. The blustering wind had piled the snow in
+great drifts in some places, and in others had swept the road so clean
+that the frozen brown earth was visible for some distance.
+
+On these stretches they would pick up speed, and then charge into the
+drifts and repeat the former battle. Over and over they did this, Bob
+driving like a master, with steely blue eyes fastened grimly on the
+road ahead, jaws set, and a face that looked ten years older than it
+really was. Those in the car spoke words of encouragement from time to
+time, but he was too busy and concentrated on his task to answer with
+anything other than a brief nod.
+
+For what seemed like an age they ploughed through one huge drift after
+another, with the high rocky walls of the Pass frowning down at them
+till at last the rugged hills fell back from the road, the air
+lightened, and they were through the Pass, with less than two miles
+between them and the warmth and shelter of the hotel. The road now ran
+along a high ridge, which the wind had swept clear of snow, and Bob
+stopped the car and relaxed with a great sigh.
+
+"Guess we'd better wait for the others to catch up," he said. "We
+broke a path for them, though, and it ought to be a lot easier for
+them than it was for us."
+
+"You must be all in, Bob," said Joe. "You handled this car like an old
+timer, but now it's about time you had a relief. Why not let me take a
+hack at it for the rest of the way?"
+
+But Bob laughed, and shook his head. "I wouldn't have missed that for
+a farm," he said. "It was hard work, but it was the best kind of
+sport, too. Besides, Jim here says that the road runs along this ridge
+almost to the doors of the hotel, and it will be easy sailing the rest
+of the way."
+
+"I wonder what has become of the other cars?" said Mr. Layton, in a
+worried tone. "I hope nothing has happened to them."
+
+He had hardly ceased speaking, when one of the automobiles appeared,
+so covered with snow that it was hard to believe that it was actually
+a car at all. Shortly afterward the Salper car appeared, came to a
+halt when its driver saw the other two at a standstill, and its French
+chauffeur descended and advanced stiffly to where Bob and the driver
+of the second Layton car were standing.
+
+"Pah!" he exclaimed. "In all France there is no road like that which I
+have just traverse. I am hire to drive ze petrol car, not ze snow
+plough. It eez ze so great mystery zat we have arrive so far."
+
+"Mystery is right," agreed Jim, the injured driver. "The only casualty
+up to date is my busted wing, which is a lot better than a busted
+neck. But you'd better get back in your glass house, Frenchy, because
+we're all frozen stiff, and the sooner we land at the hotel, the
+better. My arm feels as though it must be broken in twenty places."
+
+The Frenchman looked doubtfully at Jim when he spoke of an injured
+"wing," but evidently set it down as being one more incomprehensible
+vagary of the English language, for he only shrugged his shoulders and
+returned to his car without comment.
+
+The short day was drawing rapidly into night when the little party at
+last saw the cheerful lights of the hotel shining through the storm.
+Fifteen minutes later the lads were all seated in front of a roaring
+open fire in the big parlor and were telling their experiences to the
+amazed guests.
+
+Bob was the only uncomfortable one in the crowd, as he heard everybody
+speaking in praise of the way he had risen to the emergency and was
+thankful for more reasons than one when dinner was announced.
+
+"Dinner!" exclaimed Jimmy, rapturously. "Bob, I've got to hand it to
+you. Not only do you get us here through a howling blizzard, but you
+land us just in time for a turkey dinner. Oh my, oh my!"
+
+The Mountain Rest Hotel had a reputation for serving generous meals,
+and for this the boys were thankful that night. Through all the long,
+cold day they had eaten nothing but a few sandwiches, and now they
+strove to make up for lost time. Not in vain, either. Even Jimmy had
+to own up that he could not eat another mouthful, which was a
+statement he could seldom truthfully make.
+
+Owing to the sickness in Clintonia, there had been an unprecedented
+rush of visitors to the hotel, and the Layton party discovered that
+they would have to take one of the small cottages adjoining the hotel,
+although they would board in the main establishment.
+
+The cottage was snug and comfortable, however, and they were all
+delighted with it. Indeed, it was better for the radio boys than rooms
+in the hotel, because they could set up their receiving set more
+readily. Of course, it was out of the question to erect an outdoor
+aerial, but they were not bothered by this and decided to use a loop
+aerial instead. They had brought with them a knock-down frame on which
+to wind their antenna, and this frame could be moved around and set
+against the wall when not in use.
+
+The first night at Mountain Pass they had little thought, however,
+even for their beloved radio, and were content to tumble into bed
+shortly after dinner. But the next day they were up early, and after a
+hearty breakfast set to work to put up their set.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+CONVINCING A SKEPTIC
+
+
+It was a simple matter for the boys to wind the loop aerial, for they
+had become expert in the manipulation of wire, tape, and the numerous
+other accessories that go with the art of wireless telephony. After
+the aerial was completed they unpacked their receiving set and quickly
+connected it up. They worked skillfully and efficiently, and before
+the lunch bell rang at noon they were ready to receive signals.
+
+But even their enthusiasm was not proof against the seductive summons
+of the genial looking old darky who rang the bell, and they washed
+hastily and started for the dining room at a pace that would have
+reflected credit on the hungriest boarder who ever lived.
+
+"Gang way, Bob!" panted Jimmy, as they clattered down the last flight
+of stairs and dashed for the entrance to the hotel. "I'm hungry, and,
+therefore, desperate. Get out of the way before I trip over you!"
+
+"Good night!" shouted Bob. "You're getting too fresh to live, Jimmy,"
+and he picked up a handful of snow and dropped it carefully and with
+precision down Jimmy's fat neck.
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed that corpulent youth, stopping short in his wild rush
+and digging snow from under his collar. "I'll get even with you for
+that, Bob, you old hobo. Just you wait!"
+
+"Can't wait a second," grinned Bob. "I don't want to be late and miss
+all the good things, even if you do."
+
+"Come on, Doughnuts, don't stand there all day picking snow off you,"
+entreated Herb. "I can't see where there's any fun in that."
+
+Jimmy reached down, packed a handful of snow, and sent it flying after
+the others. They were close to the door, however, and ducked in
+unscathed, while the snowball spread out in a big patch against the
+door casing.
+
+Jimmy did not allow himself to be delayed very long at any time when
+there was food in prospect, however, and his friends had hardly seated
+themselves at the table when he came in, his collar badly dampened,
+but his appetite in prime condition. He shook his fist surreptitiously
+at the others, but he was incapable of staying angry long, and was
+soon his usual jolly and happy-go-lucky self.
+
+The snowstorm had stopped during the night, the weather had grown
+warmer, and a brilliant sun now shone down on a dazzlingly white
+world. The snow had come ahead of time, as all the "regulars" at the
+Mountain Rest Hotel united in asserting, and now it gave every
+indication of disappearing as fast as it had come.
+
+The boys wanted to get back to their radio set after dinner, but the
+snow looked so inviting that they could not resist the temptation to
+have a snow fight. Some of the men, seeing them hard at it, cast
+dignity to the winds and joined them, until quite a miniature battle
+was raging. Ammunition was plentiful, and there was a good deal of
+shouting and laughter before both sides became tired and agreed to
+call it a draw.
+
+The radio boys were pretty damp with snow water, and their hands were
+stiff with cold, but trifling discomforts such as these did not bother
+them much. They had had a good time, and they knew that there is
+seldom any fun that does not have its own drawbacks. They went to
+their rooms, changed the wettest of their clothing for dry articles,
+and were soon ready to test their set.
+
+They were just making a final inspection of their connections when Mr.
+Layton entered the room, accompanied by two other gentlemen.
+
+Mr. Layton introduced the two latter as the owners of the store he was
+thinking of purchasing.
+
+"Mr. Blackford and Mr. Robins are rather skeptical about radio,"
+explained Mr. Layton, when the introductions had been duly
+accomplished. "I happened to mention it this morning, and as they both
+seemed to think I was exaggerating its possibilities, I asked them
+here to see and hear for themselves."
+
+"It's no trouble to show goods," said Bob, grinning. "We haven't
+tested for signals yet, but the set is all hooked up, and I guess all
+we'll have to do is tune up and get about anything you want."
+
+"You seem pretty confident," remarked one of the two strangers, Mr.
+Robins. "My opinion is, that this radio stuff is mostly bunk. A friend
+of mine bought a set just a little while ago, and he couldn't hear a
+thing with it. Paid fifteen dollars for it, too."
+
+"I shouldn't imagine he could," said Bob, drily. "Mountain Pass must
+be at least a hundred miles from the nearest broadcasting station, and
+that set you speak of could never be expected to catch anything more
+than twenty-five miles away, at the most."
+
+"Well, I'll bet dollars to doughnuts you can't hear anything with that
+outfit you've got there, either," broke in the other of the two
+strangers.
+
+"You'd lose your money, Blackford," said Bob's father. "Go ahead and
+convince these doubting Thomases, Bob."
+
+Bob adjusted a headset over his ears and switched on the current
+through the vacuum bulb filament. Then he manipulated the voltage of
+the "B," or high voltage, dry battery, and also varied the current
+flowing through the filament by means of a rheostat connected in
+series with it. Almost immediately he caught a far-away sound of
+music, and by manipulation of the variometer and condenser knobs
+gradually increased the strength of the sounds.
+
+Meantime Mr. Layton's two acquaintances had watched proceedings with
+open skepticism, and often glanced knowingly at each other. But
+suddenly, as Bob twisted the knob of the variable condenser, the music
+became so loud that all in the room could hear it, even though they
+had no receivers over their ears.
+
+"If either of you two gentlemen will put these receivers on, he'll be
+convinced that radio is no fake," said Bob quietly, at the same time
+removing his headset and holding it out.
+
+After a moment's hesitation Mr. Robins donned the receivers, and a
+startled look came over his face, replacing the incredulous expression
+it had worn heretofore.
+
+"Let's hook up another set of phones, Bob, and let Mr. Blackford
+listen at the same time," suggested Joe.
+
+This was done, and soon both skeptics were listening to their first
+radio concert. Mr. Layton regarded them with an amused smile. Mr.
+Robins extended his hand curiously toward the condenser knob, and
+immediately the music died away. He pulled his hand hastily away, and
+the sounds resumed their former volume.
+
+"Don't be frightened," laughed Mr. Layton. "It won't bite you."
+
+"But what made it fade away in that fashion?" asked Mr. Robins.
+
+"Don't ask me," said Bob's father. "I'm not up on radio the way the
+boys are. I enjoy it, without knowing much of the _modus operandi_."
+
+"That was caused by what is known as 'body capacity,'" explained Bob.
+"Every human being is more or less of a natural condenser, and when
+you get near the regular condenser in that set, it puts more capacity
+into the circuit, and interferes with its balance."
+
+The other nodded, although in reality he understood very little of
+even this simple explanation. He was too much absorbed in listening to
+what was going on in the phones.
+
+As he listened, he heard the latest stock market quotations given out,
+among them being the last minute prices of some shares he happened to
+be interested in. He slapped his knee enthusiastically, and when the
+last quotations had been given, he snatched off the headset and leaped
+to his feet.
+
+"I'm converted!" he fairly shouted. "I'll buy this outfit right as it
+stands for almost any price you fellows want to put on it. What will
+you sell it for?"
+
+The boys were taken aback by this unexpected offer, and all looked at
+Bob expectantly.
+
+"Why, we hadn't even thought of selling the set," he said slowly. "We
+wouldn't sell it right now, at any price, I think. But when we leave
+here to go back home, I suppose we might let you have it. How about
+it, fellows?"
+
+After some argument they agreed to this, but Mr. Robins was so
+determined to have the set that he would not be put off.
+
+"Now look here," he said. "I'm a business man, and I'll make you a
+business proposition. I'll buy that outfit right now, before I leave
+this room, at your own figure. But you fellows can keep it here and
+have the use of it just the same as you have now, only it will be
+understood that I'll have the privilege of coming over here once a day
+in time to hear those market reports. At the same time you can teach
+me something about operating the thing. How does that strike you?" and
+he threw himself back in his chair and waited for his answer.
+
+"We'll have to talk over that offer for a little while," said Bob.
+"Give us ten minutes or so, and we'll give you an answer."
+
+"That's all right," replied Mr. Robins. "While I'm waiting I'll just
+put on those ear pieces again and see what's doing."
+
+The radio boys left the room and held an excited conference
+downstairs. After some discussion they agreed to sell their set, as
+long as they could have the use of it during their stay at the resort,
+but the matter of price proved to be a knotty problem. Bob produced
+pencil and paper, and they figured the actual cost of the set to
+themselves, and then what the same set would have cost if bought ready
+made in a retail store.
+
+"The actual material in that set didn't cost us much over forty
+dollars, but we put a whole lot of time and experience into it," said
+Bob, "It would cost him close to a hundred to get as good a one in a
+store."
+
+"It's a mighty good set, too," said Joe, a note of regret in his
+voice. "We might make another as near like it as possible, and not get
+nearly as good results."
+
+"Oh, don't worry. We're some radio builders by this time," Herb
+reminded him. "Besides, that isn't the only set we've got."
+
+"Let's ask him eighty dollars," ventured Jimmy. "He'll be getting it
+cheaper then than he could buy it retail, and we'll be picking up a
+nice piece of change."
+
+"I think that ought to be about the right figure," agreed Bob. "Does
+that suit this board of directors? Eighty hard, round iron men?"
+
+The others grinned assent, and they returned to the room where the
+older men were still seated about the radio set.
+
+"Well, what's the verdict?" inquired Mr. Robins, glancing keenly from
+one to the other.
+
+"We've decided to sell," replied Bob. "The price will be eighty
+dollars."
+
+Without a word Mr. Robins produced a roll of greenbacks, and counted
+off the specified amount in crisp bills.
+
+"You'll want a receipt, won't you, Robins?" inquired Mr. Layton.
+
+"Not necessary," replied the other. "I've got a hunch that your son
+and his friends are on the level and won't try to cheat an old fellow
+like me. I'll have to be going now, but I'll be around about the same
+time tomorrow morning to get the stock quotations. Coming, Blackford?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A MOUNTAIN RADIO STATION
+
+
+Left to themselves, the boys looked at one another.
+
+"That's what I call quick work," remarked Joe. "I hate to let the old
+set go, but they say you should never mix sentiment with business."
+
+"Maybe this will lessen your grief," said Bob. "Eighty divided by four
+makes twenty, or at least that's what they always taught us in school.
+Take these four five-dollar bills, Joe, and dry your tears with them."
+
+"Oh, boy!" exclaimed Joe.
+
+"Money, how welcome you are!" ejaculated Herb, as he pocketed his
+share. "What I can't do with twenty dollars!"
+
+"That will buy exactly two thousand doughnuts," calculated Jimmy, a
+rapturous expression on his round countenance. "Hot doughnuts, crisp
+brown doughnuts, doughnuts with jelly in them, doughnuts----"
+
+A human avalanche precipitated itself on the corpulent youngster, and
+he found himself writhing on the floor with his three companions
+seated comfortably on different parts of his ample anatomy.
+
+"Hey! Quit, quit!" stuttered Jimmy. "Get off me, you hobos! You'll
+have me flattened out like a dog that's just been run over by a steam
+roller."
+
+"And serve you right, too," retorted Joe. "What do you mean by talking
+about doughnuts when it's almost dinner time, and we're starved to
+death, anyway. Besides, you know there isn't a place at Mountain Pass
+where we can buy them."
+
+"Yes, and if I'd known that before I started, I would probably have
+stayed at home," retorted Jimmy. "Get off me, will you, before I throw
+you off?"
+
+"We'll let you up, but I doubt if you should be trusted with all that
+money," returned Bob, grinning. "You'd better whack it up among us,
+Jimmy. You'll just buy a lot of junk with it and make yourself sick."
+
+"Well, I've got a right to get sick if I want to," said his rotund
+friend, struggling to his feet. "If you get that twenty away from me,
+it will have to be over my dead body."
+
+"It doesn't seem worth while to kill him for just twenty dollars,"
+said Bob, pretending to consider. "That's just a little over six
+dollars apiece."
+
+"No good," said Joe, decisively. "It would cost more than that to bury
+him."
+
+"You're a cold-blooded set of bandits," complained Jimmy, in an
+aggrieved tone. "I'm glad I haven't got a hundred dollars with me. I'd
+be a mighty poor insurance risk then, I suppose."
+
+"I wouldn't give a lead nickel for your chances," said Bob. "But don't
+let that worry you, Jimmy. You'll probably never have that much money
+all at one time as long as you live."
+
+"I won't if I wait for you fellows to give it to me," admitted his
+friend. "But I'm going over to the hotel and see if dinner is served
+yet. I'm not going to be the last one in the dining room at _every_
+meal."
+
+"When you get the hang of this place, you'll always be the first one,"
+said Herb. "After a little while they'll make you up a bunk in a
+corner, and you can even sleep there."
+
+"Oh, go chase yourself!" exclaimed Jimmy. "You never learned how to
+eat, Herb, and that's why you're such a human bean pole," and with
+this parting shot he slammed the door behind him before Herb could
+think of a suitable reply.
+
+"He got you that time, Herb," said Bob, with a grin. "I guess we might
+as well all get ready for dinner. Dad says they hate to have people
+coming in late."
+
+Every day after that Mr. Robins dropped in in time to hear the market
+reports, sometimes alone, and at others accompanied by his partner,
+Mr. Blackford. The latter was not quite so enthusiastic as his
+colleague, but he was nevertheless greatly interested, and was always
+glad to don a head set and hear what was going on.
+
+True to their agreement, the boys instructed the new owner of the set
+how to adjust it and get the best results. He always paid the closest
+attention to what they told him, and in a few days could pick up
+signals and tune the set fairly well.
+
+"Not bad for an old fellow, eh?" he exclaimed delightedly one day,
+when he had accomplished the whole thing without any aid from the
+boys. "If Blackford and I sell out to your father, Bob, I'll have a
+little leisure time, and blame it all if I don't think I'll do some
+experimenting and possibly some building myself."
+
+"You're pretty badly bitten by the radio bug," observed his partner.
+
+"I won't try to deny it," said the other, emphatically. "The more I
+think about it, the more wonderful it seems. Besides, it's got a
+mighty practical side to it. I was holding on to some shares a few
+days ago until I learned by way of the radio that they were starting
+to fall. I sent a telegram to my brokers, they sold out for me just in
+the nick of time, and I made a profit on the deal instead of having to
+take a loss. The bottom dropped clean out of the market that same
+afternoon, and if I'd been holding on to those shares, I would have
+gotten bumped good and hard."
+
+The other nodded. "It's a good investment when you look at it that
+way," he admitted.
+
+"Good investment is right," declared his partner. "I saved a lot more
+in that deal than the whole radio outfit cost me, and I still own the
+set."
+
+"I wonder why the new government wireless station doesn't do something
+of the kind," remarked Mr. Blackford. "They might as well make
+themselves useful as well as ornamental."
+
+"Government station!" exclaimed Bob and Joe at once. "Is there a
+government station at Mountain Pass?"
+
+Mr. Blackford nodded. "I thought you fellows knew about it, or I'd
+have mentioned it before," he said. "It was just opened a few weeks
+ago, and I don't think they've got all their equipment in yet. There's
+been some delay in getting the stuff here, I understand."
+
+"What does the government want of a wireless station away up here?"
+asked Bob.
+
+"This is the highest point in all the surrounding country and makes an
+ideal lookout for forest fires," said his informant. "The station was
+supposed to be ready for use last summer, but, as I say, was delayed a
+good deal. But we expect it to be of great service in the future.
+There have been some disastrous forest fires around here in the last
+few years, as you probably know."
+
+"We ought, to know it," remarked Joe. "The smoke has been so thick as
+far away as Clintonia sometimes that you could cut it with a hatchet.
+It's about time something was done to stop it."
+
+Of course, once they heard about the government station, the boys
+could think of nothing else until they had visited it. Bob proposed
+that they go right after lunch, and this met with the enthusiastic
+approval of his friends. Poor Jimmy was so rushed by his eager friends
+that he was frustrated in his design of asking for a second helping of
+chocolate pudding, and was hurried away protesting vainly against such
+unseemly haste.
+
+"What do you Indians think you're doing?" he grumbled. "Do you all
+want to die of indigestion? Don't you know you're supposed to rest
+after a meal and give your stomach a chance?"
+
+"Oh, dry up," said Joe, heartlessly. "If you didn't eat so much you
+wouldn't want to lie around for two hours after every meal like a
+Brazilian anaconda. You know you didn't want another plate of that
+pudding, anyway."
+
+"Didn't I!" said Jimmy, disconsolately. "That was about the best
+pudding I ever tasted, bar none. You fellows are such radio bugs that
+you can't even pay proper attention to what you're eating."
+
+"You give enough attention to that to make up for the whole gang,"
+said Bob. "Stop your growling and step along lively, old timer."
+
+Jimmy grumbled a little more in spite of this admonition, but regained
+his usual cheery mood when he saw the steel lattice-work towers with
+the familiar antenna sweeping in graceful spans between them, and
+forgot all about the missing plate of pudding.
+
+The station was situated some distance from the Mountain Rest Hotel in
+a clearing cut out of the dense pine woods, and the boys ceased to
+wonder why they had not discovered it on some of their rambles. As
+they drew near they could see that everything was solidly and
+substantially built, as is usually the case with government work.
+
+The station, besides the towers, comprised a large, comfortable
+building, which housed all the sending and receiving equipment, and a
+smaller building, in which the operators slept when off duty, and
+where spare equipment was stored.
+
+The radio boys knocked at the door of the larger building, and after a
+short wait it was opened by a tall, rather frail looking young fellow,
+who eyed them inquiringly.
+
+Bob explained that he and his friends were radio fans, and were
+anxious to look over the station, if it would not cause too much
+inconvenience.
+
+"Not a bit of it," said the young operator, heartily. "To tell you the
+truth, there is not much doing here at this time of year, and company
+is mighty welcome. Step in and I'll be glad to show you around the
+place."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE MARVELOUS SCIENCE
+
+
+Inside of half an hour the boys were on a friendly footing with the
+young operator and felt as though they had known him a long time. He
+was only a few years older than themselves, and had been a
+full-fledged operator for about six months. The Mountain Pass station
+was his first assignment, and he was inordinately proud of the
+complicated apparatus that went to compose it.
+
+"This is some little station that Uncle Sam has rigged up here, and
+while there are plenty of bigger ones, there are very few that are
+more complete and up to date. Look at this three unit generator set,
+for instance. Compact, neat, and efficient, as you can easily see. It
+doesn't take up much room, but it can do a whole lot."
+
+"It does look as though it were built for business," admitted Bob. "I
+suppose that unit in the center is the driving motor, isn't it?"
+
+"Right," said the other. "And the one nearest you is a two thousand
+volt generator for supplying the plate circuit. The one at the other
+end is a double current generator. That supplies direct current at one
+hundred and twenty-five volts and four amps for the exciter circuit,
+and alternating current at eighty-eight volts and ten amps for feeding
+that twelve volt filament heating transformer that you see over there
+in the corner."
+
+"Pretty neat, I'll say," remarked Joe.
+
+"I think so," said the other, and continued to point out the salient
+and interesting features of the equipment. "Over here, you see, is our
+main instrument panel. These dials over here control the variable
+condensers, and the other ones control the variometers. But there!" he
+exclaimed, catching himself up short. "I suppose none of you ever
+heard of such things before, did you?"
+
+The radio boys looked at each other, and could not help laughing.
+
+"We've got a faint idea what they are, anyway," chuckled Bob. "We've
+made enough of them to be on speaking terms, I should say."
+
+"Made them!" exclaimed the other, surprised in his turn.
+
+"Sure thing," grinned Bob. "We've made crystal detector sets and
+vacuum tube sets, and----"
+
+"And other sets that we never knew just how to describe," interrupted
+the irrepressible Herb, with a laugh.
+
+"Yes, that kind too," admitted Bob, with a grin. "But, anyway, we've
+made enough to know the difference between a variometer and a
+condenser."
+
+"Well, I didn't know I was talking to old hands at the game," said the
+operator. "I suppose I might have known that you wouldn't take that
+long walk out here through the snow unless you were pretty well
+interested in radio."
+
+"Yes, we're dyed-in-the-wool fans," admitted Bob, and told the
+operator something of their radio work.
+
+"I'm mighty glad to know that you fellows do understand the subject,"
+said the operator, when Bob had finished. "I'm so enthusiastic about
+it myself, that it is a real pleasure to have somebody to talk to that
+knows what I'm talking about. So many of the people who come here seem
+to be natural born dumb-bells--at least, on the subject of radio."
+
+"Such as you took us for at first, eh?" asked Jimmy, with a grin.
+
+"I apologize for that," said the other, frankly. "Please don't hold it
+against me."
+
+"Personally, I don't blame you a bit," said Bob. "We can't expect you
+to be a mind reader."
+
+"Well, then, that's settled; so let's look at the rest of the
+station," said the operator, whose name was Bert Thompson. "This is
+our transmitter panel over here. It is very compact, as you can see
+for yourselves."
+
+He opened two doors at the front, one at the bottom, and raised the
+cover, thus exposing most of the interior mechanism to view.
+
+"Here are all the fuse blocks down at the bottom, you see," Thompson
+continued. "The various switches are conveniently arranged where you
+can easily get at them while you are sitting in front of the panel.
+Then up here are the microphones, with their coils and wiring where
+you can easily get at them for inspection or repairs. Rather a neat
+lay-out, don't you think?"
+
+"No doubt of it!" exclaimed Bob, admiringly. "We've never made a CW
+transmitting set yet, but we hope to some day. A set like this would
+cost a pile of money, even if you made it yourself."
+
+"Rather so," admitted the young operator. "It takes a rich old fellow
+like Uncle Sam to pony up for a set like that."
+
+"We're more interested in receiving sets just at present," said Joe.
+"Let's take a look at that end of the outfit."
+
+"Anything you like," said Thompson, readily. "That panel is located on
+this side of the room."
+
+"I suppose you use a regenerative circuit, don't you?" asked Bob.
+
+"Oh, yes," answered the other. "That helps out a lot in increasing the
+strength of the incoming sounds."
+
+"I suppose you use a tickler coil in the plate circuit, don't you?"
+ventured Joe.
+
+"No, in this set we use a variometer in the plate circuit instead,"
+said Thompson.
+
+"Speaking of regenerative circuits, have you heard about Armstrong's
+new invention?" asked Bob.
+
+The operator shook his head. "Can't say that I have," he said. "It
+must be something very recent, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, I believe it is," said Bob. "I read about it the other day in
+one of the latest radio magazines."
+
+"Do you remember how it worked?" asked Thompson, eagerly. "I wish
+you'd tell me about it, if you do."
+
+"I'll do my best," promised Bob. "The main idea seems to be to make
+one tube do as much as three tubes did before. Armstrong found that
+the limit of amplification had been reached when the negative charge
+in the tube approaches the positive charge. By experimenting he found
+that it was possible to increase the negative charge temporarily, for
+something like one twenty-thousandth of a second, I think it was. This
+is far above the positive for that tiny fraction of a second, and yet
+the average negative charge is lower. It is this increase that makes
+the enormous amplification possible, and lets the operator discard two
+vacuum tubes."
+
+"Sounds good," said Thompson. "Do you suppose you could draw me a
+rough sketch of the circuit?"
+
+"Let's have a pencil and some paper, and I'll make a try at it," said
+Bob. "I doped it out at the time, but likely I've forgotten it since
+then."
+
+Nevertheless, with the friendly aid of the eraser on the end of the
+pencil, he sketched a circuit that the experienced professional had no
+difficulty in understanding.
+
+"You see," explained Bob, "with this hook up you use the regular
+Armstrong regenerative circuit, with the second tube connected so that
+it acts as an automatic switch, cutting in or out a few turns of the
+secondary coil. The plate circuit of the second tube is connected to
+the plate of the detector tube through both capacity and inductance."
+
+"I get you," nodded the operator. "According to your sketch the plate
+and grid of the second tube are coupled inductively, causing variation
+in the positive resistance of the tuned circuit."
+
+"That's the idea exactly," agreed Bob. "You see, this is done by means
+of the oscillating tube, the grid circuit being connected through the
+tuned circuit of the amplifying tube."
+
+"Say, that looks pretty good to me!" exclaimed Thompson. "I wonder how
+Armstrong ever came to dope that out. I've been trying to get
+something of the kind for a long time, but I never seemed to get quite
+the right combination."
+
+"Well, better luck next time," said Bob, sympathetically. "There are a
+lot of people working at radio problems, and it seems to be a pretty
+close race between the inventors. Something new is being discovered
+almost every day."
+
+"If you fellows are building sets, you're just as likely to make some
+important discovery as anybody else," said Thompson. "That
+super-regenerative circuit is a corker, though. I'm going to keep that
+sketch you made, if you don't mind, and see if I can make a small set
+along those lines. I have lots of spare time just at present."
+
+"It will repay you for your trouble, all right," remarked Joe. "We're
+figuring on doing the same thing when we get back home."
+
+Jimmy had tried faithfully to follow the technicalities of the recent
+conversation, but his was an easy-going nature, disinclined to delve
+deeply into the intricate mysteries of science. Herbert was somewhat
+the same way, and they two wandered about the station, laughing and
+joking, while Bob and Joe and the young wireless man argued the merits
+of different equipments and hook-ups.
+
+"Say!" exclaimed Jimmy, at length, "I hate to break up the party, but
+don't you think it's about time that we thought of getting back to the
+hotel? Remember we've got a long way to go, and it's four-thirty
+already."
+
+"Gee!" said Bob, glancing in surprise at his watch. "I guess Jimmy is
+right for once in his life. We'll have to hustle along now, but we'll
+drop in here often while we are at Mountain Pass--unless you put up a
+'no admittance' sign."
+
+"No danger of that," laughed the other. "The oftener you come, the
+better I'll like it. This is a lonely place, as you can see for
+yourselves."
+
+The radio boys shook hands with Bert Thompson, and after thanking him
+for the trouble he had taken to show them the station, they started
+back for the hotel at a brisk pace.
+
+The days were growing very short, and it was after dark when they
+reached the hotel. Very warm and comfortable it looked as they
+approached it, windows lighted and throwing cheerful beams over the
+white snow outside. A red glow filled the windows of the living room,
+and the boys knew that a big wood fire was roaring and crackling in
+the big fireplace. As they drew close, a tempting aroma of cookery
+reached them, and caused them to hasten their steps.
+
+They had barely time to get freshened up before the dinner bell rang,
+and in a short time they were making havoc with as fine a meal as any
+of them ever tasted.
+
+When they told about their visit to the radio station, Edna and Ruth
+Salper, the daughters of the Wall Street broker they had met in the
+snowstorm, were among the most interested of the listeners.
+
+"We find it so dull over at our house we are glad to come over here
+for meals and to visit," said Ruth Salper.
+
+"I suppose being in the woods in winter is rather dull," returned Joe,
+politely.
+
+"Did you boys really know enough about radio to talk all afternoon
+with the man in charge of the government station?" inquired Edna,
+curiously.
+
+"Why not?" asked Bob. "Don't you think radio is a broad enough subject
+to talk about for an entire afternoon?"
+
+"Oh, I suppose it is," she admitted. "But why don't you share some of
+your fun with us?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+PRESSED INTO SERVICE
+
+
+"Just what do you mean?" asked Bob. "Do you want to talk radio with us
+all tomorrow afternoon?" he went on, with an irritating grin.
+
+"No, of course I don't, stupid," she exclaimed. "But why can't you
+bring your old wireless things into the hotel parlor and let us all
+hear some music? We'd be ever so grateful if you would."
+
+The radio boys looked doubtfully at each other.
+
+"We'd do it, fast enough," said Bob. "But we didn't bring a loud
+speaker with us, and without that nobody could hear much unless he had
+a set of telephone receivers."
+
+"Oh, dear!" she exclaimed. "I just knew you'd make some excuse or
+other."
+
+"A loud speaker is something that looks like an old-fashioned
+phonograph horn, isn't it?" asked Ruth, the younger sister, before any
+of the radio boys could refute the older girl's accusation.
+
+"Well, yes, it looks like that; but the details are different,"
+replied Bob.
+
+"Yes, but if you had a phonograph horn, couldn't you fix it up so that
+the music would be loud enough for us all to hear it?" persisted Ruth.
+
+"Good for you, Ruth!" exclaimed her sister. "I know what you mean.
+You're thinking of that old phonograph they used to have in this
+hotel, before they got the big new cabinet machine."
+
+"If Edna and I get that horn for you, it will be easy for such experts
+as you boys are to make a--a what-you-may-call-it--loud speaker--out
+of it, won't it?" asked Ruth, demurely.
+
+"I think they're kidding us now, Bob," said Joe, grinning. "When a
+girl tells you you're an expert, you can bet she's figuring to wish
+something on you."
+
+"Yes, but it's so unusual that we ought to do something to encourage
+it," laughed Bob. "Let's call their bluff. Probably they'll never be
+able to find a horn, anyway."
+
+"Don't count too much on that," said Edna, with a dangerous smile. "We
+almost always get what we ask for."
+
+"Yes, and you are everlastingly asking for something, it seems to me,"
+grumbled her father, who had joined the little group at that moment.
+
+"Now, Daddy, you know you love to give us things," chided Ruth. "If we
+suddenly had everything we wanted, you'd be dreadfully disappointed."
+
+"There's no danger of that happening," said her father, a smile
+softening his grim face. "But what is it you're after just at
+present?"
+
+"We want that big phonograph horn they used to have here in the
+hotel," said Edna, with a provoking side glance at the radio boys.
+"Will you ask the manager to hunt it up and lend it to us?"
+
+"I'll see what I can do about it," promised Mr. Salper. "I remember
+the horn you mean, but it was probably thrown away long ago."
+
+The radio boys rather wished that this might prove to be the case, but
+they were not destined to get off so easily. The first thing they saw
+when they entered the dining room the next morning was a large wooden
+horn, of a style in universal use in the early years of the
+phonograph, standing prominently near their table.
+
+"There, now!" exclaimed Jimmy, in a low voice. "You see what you've
+let us in for, Bob. Why didn't you tell them that we didn't have time
+to waste building a loud speaker, and settle the thing right then and
+there."
+
+"That's easier said than done," answered Bob. "Why don't you go over
+to the Salper's house and tell the girls that?"
+
+"Yes, go right over and be rough with them," advised Joe. "Tell them
+that you're not afraid of girls, and they can't put anything over on
+you."
+
+"Aw, I would have, last night; but it's too late now," said Jimmy,
+lamely.
+
+"Yes, you would!" jeered Herb. "After all, it won't be so much work.
+You're an expert carpenter, Jimmy, and can make a bang-up job of it."
+
+"That's always the way," complained Jimmy, heaving a dismal sigh. "You
+fellows think up a good, hard job, and then I do the work. I've never
+known it to fail yet."
+
+"Buck up, Doughnuts," said Bob. "Think of how the girls will thank you
+for it. You'll be the most popular fellow in the hotel."
+
+"Like fun I will!" returned the fat boy. "But I'm not going to let it
+interfere with my appetite. I can see where I've got a hard day ahead
+of me."
+
+It proved to be a busy morning for all the radio boys. Immediately
+after breakfast they fell to work on the horn, and after some three
+hours of steady labor they had constructed a passable loud-speaking
+horn, using one telephone receiver clamped securely at the narrow end.
+They mounted the whole thing on a solid wooden pedestal, leaving two
+substantial shelves at the back to hold their radio apparatus.
+
+It did not take them long to mount the receiving outfit in a neat
+manner, and when this was done they all drew a long breath and sat
+down to admire the result of their labors. While still engaged in this
+gratifying occupation, Edna and Ruth Salper entered.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed the former, with a gesture of delight, "doesn't it
+look simply beautiful? I never thought you boys could make it so
+quickly."
+
+"You've got Jimmy to thank for that," said Bob. "I never saw him work
+so hard in his life before. It was easy to see that he was thinking of
+you and Ruth all the time, from the way he put his heart into it."
+
+"I didn't anything of the kind," said the embarrassed Jimmy. "I never
+thought of them once, even."
+
+"What a dreadful thing to say," laughed Ruth. "I didn't know you hated
+girls, Jimmy."
+
+"Who said I hated 'em?" demanded Jimmy, getting as red as a beet.
+"I--I----"
+
+"Love them," Joe finished for him. "Is that what you are trying to
+say, Jimmy?"
+
+"Say, who asked you to butt in?" inquired Jimmy, desperately.
+"Everybody is trying to tell me what I mean, until I don't know which
+is right myself."
+
+"Never mind," said Edna, coming to the rescue of the floundering
+youth. "We are grateful to you for working so hard for us, anyway."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," mumbled Jimmy. "If it works all right, we
+won't worry about the labor we put into it."
+
+"But don't you expect it to work?" asked Edna, teasingly.
+
+"Sure it will work," asserted Bob, before Jimmy could involve himself
+again. "That is, you'll hear music, all right, but it probably won't
+be very loud, even with the help of the horn. We're a long way from
+the broadcasting station, you know. If we were within ten or fifteen
+miles of it, I'd say surely that it would be a success."
+
+"I'll go and get the loop aerial, Bob, and we can test it right now,"
+suggested Joe. "What do you think?"
+
+Bob nodded, and Joe left the room, returning a few minutes later with
+the loop. This was soon connected with the set, and then Bob began
+tuning for signals.
+
+"Mercy! what was that?" exclaimed Edna, while Ruth gave a little
+scream.
+
+From the horn came an ear-piercing howl, followed by whistles and
+weird unearthly shrieks. But the boys only laughed heartily at the
+girls.
+
+"That's nothing but old man static," said Bob. "We'll soon get him off
+the wires."
+
+"Does he live near here?" asked Ruth, innocently.
+
+"Wow!" shouted Herb, and the boys could not help laughing, although
+they stopped as soon as they saw the mystified and somewhat hurt
+expression in the girl's eyes.
+
+"That was just Bob's slangy way of talking," explained Joe, after he
+was sure that he had regained control of his features. "Static is the
+electricity that is always in the air, and gives us radio fans a good
+deal of trouble."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Ruth, and she was a good enough sport to laugh at
+her own mistake.
+
+Meantime Bob had finally got the set tuned to the proper wave length,
+and the little group were all delighted with the clarity and volume of
+the resultant sounds. They were not nearly as loud as an ordinary
+phonograph, but were sufficient to be heard distinctly in a fairly
+large room.
+
+"It's too bad we only have a one-stage amplifier," said Bob. "If we
+only had another transformer and vacuum tube, we'd have a loud speaker
+that you could hear all over the hotel."
+
+"I think this one is plenty good enough," asserted Edna.
+
+Both she and her sister were as excited as children with a new toy,
+and they were both delighted with the music.
+
+"You boys will have to bring this wonderful thing into the parlor
+tonight, and let everybody hear it," coaxed Edna. "I know they will
+all be tickled to death to hear a concert in this new way."
+
+"They might not be as enthusiastic as you think," said Bob,
+doubtfully. "Maybe they'd rather just talk, and wouldn't thank us for
+interrupting them."
+
+"What an idea!" exclaimed Ruth. "Just try it once, just to please us,
+and you'll soon find out whether they like it or not."
+
+"Well, if it's to please you, we'll certainly do that thing!" Bob
+gallantly remarked, and was rewarded by a friendly smile.
+
+"Edna and I will speak to the manager about it this afternoon, and I
+know it will be all right," she said. "We'll tell you what he says at
+supper time."
+
+The radio boys, although they were radio enthusiasts themselves, did
+not actually realize how deeply interested people had become in this
+new and wonderful science. They were somewhat surprised, therefore,
+when the manager sought them out that afternoon and told them that he
+would be more than delighted to have them give a radio concert that
+evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SCORING A TRIUMPH
+
+
+When he had gone the boys grinned at one another.
+
+"We're getting to be popular around this place," remarked Bob.
+
+"We sha'n't be quite so popular tomorrow, if the concert broadcasted
+tonight isn't a good one," said Joe.
+
+"I only wish we could get that loudspeaker to speak just a bit
+louder," said Herb. "It's only fair now, and those people will be
+expecting a lot, I suppose."
+
+"I was thinking the same thing," remarked Bob. "And if we're willing
+to pitch in this afternoon, we can improve the strength of our set a
+lot"
+
+The others looked incredulously at him.
+
+"Explain," said Joe. "You've got us guessing, Bob."
+
+"The way we've got our set hooked up now, we're using a loop antenna,
+aren't we? Well," as the others nodded assent, "why not unwind the
+loop and string a double aerial on the roof? That would give us a lot
+more power, you know."
+
+"Right you are!" exclaimed Joe. "That should make a lot of
+difference."
+
+"But if we do that, we'll have to have a ground, which isn't necessary
+with the loop antenna," objected Herb.
+
+"That's true enough," agreed Bob. "But that's easy, after all. We can
+hook our ground wire to one of the steam radiators."
+
+"Trust Bob to think of everything!" ejaculated Jimmy.
+
+"Bob is thinking that we'd better get busy, then," said that
+individual. "Heave yourself off that nice soft couch, Jimmy, and get
+your hat and overcoat on."
+
+Jimmy emitted a dismal groan.
+
+"Have a heart, Bob," he complained. "You know I worked so hard this
+morning that I'm all in."
+
+"All right, then, you stay there; but we'll tell Edna and Ruth that
+you refused to help," said Joe, cruelly.
+
+This threat had its effect, and Jimmy struggled to his feet and had
+his outer clothing on almost as soon as the others. It was a beautiful
+day outside, and after they once got warmed up, they thoroughly
+enjoyed the work of stringing the aerial on the roof. They brought the
+leading-in wire to one of the windows of the hotel parlor. It was not
+necessary to insulate this with anything heavier than friction tape,
+as this was to be only a temporary installation. Before dark they had
+everything ready, and then they went inside, moved their receiving set
+into the parlor, and connected it up to the leading-in wire. Following
+Bob's suggestion, they attached a ground wire to a radiator, and found
+that everything worked perfectly. As they had anticipated, the signals
+were considerably louder, and the old phonograph horn filled the big
+room with a satisfying volume of sound.
+
+During dinner the boys were so excited that they could hardly eat, and
+immediately afterward they hurried into the parlor. The guests had
+been notified of the impending concert, and soon almost everybody in
+the hotel had crowded into the room.
+
+The hotel manager made a little speech introducing the boys to those
+who had not already become acquainted with them, and mentioning the
+concert that was to come. Then every one waited expectantly for the
+promised entertainment.
+
+It proved unnecessary to do much tuning, as the adjustment they had
+secured that afternoon proved to be very nearly correct still.
+
+When the first clear notes floated into the room many of the audience
+straightened up in their chairs, while looks of astonishment passed
+over their features. At first they were too engrossed with the novelty
+of the thing to pay much attention to the music, but gradually the
+golden notes wove their magic net and held them all enthralled. The
+night was an ideal one for radiophony, cold and still, with hardly any
+static to annoy. One selection after another came in clear and
+distinct, and after each one the audience applauded instinctively,
+hardly conscious of the fact that upward of one hundred miles of bleak
+and snow-covered mountains and valleys lay between them and the
+performers.
+
+At length, to everybody's regret, the last number was played, and the
+receiving set was silent. Not so the audience, however, who
+overwhelmed the boys with thanks, and made them promise to entertain
+them in a similar manner on other evenings.
+
+After most of the audience had drifted out the Salper girls thanked
+the boys prettily for all they had done, and they felt more than
+repaid for the hard work of the day, even Jimmy admitting afterward
+that "it was worth it."
+
+The next day the boys were eager to see Bert Thompson, the radio man,
+and tell him about their successful experiment, so they set out for
+the government station soon after breakfast. It had snowed in the
+early morning, but had now stopped, and the air was cold and bracing.
+
+The four lads relieved the monotony of the long walk with, more than
+one impromptu exchange of snowballs. It seemed that they had hardly
+started before they had traversed the miles of difficult going and
+found themselves in the snug interior of the wireless house.
+
+As they were approaching it, they were astonished to see Mr. Salper
+emerge, a heavy frown on his usually none-too-cheerful countenance. He
+only nodded to the radio boys in passing, and hurried away through the
+snow at a pace of which they would never have believed him capable.
+
+When they entered the station they found Bert Thompson excited and
+angry. When they opened the door he started up, but when he saw who
+his visitors were, sank back in his chair.
+
+"I'm glad it's you fellows!" he exclaimed. "I thought it was that Wall
+Street man coming back. I'm not sure but I'll throw him out if he
+does. I'd like to, anyhow."
+
+"You are all up in the air," said Bob. "Did you have an argument with
+Mr. Salper?"
+
+"Well, he did most of the arguing," said the other, with a faint
+smile. "He's so blamed used to having his own way that if any one
+doesn't do just as he wants, he gets mad.
+
+"I suppose I should make allowances for him, because he has plenty to
+worry him," went on Thompson. "Some of those Wall Street manipulators
+are a ruthless bunch, and when they aren't busy taking money from an
+innocent public, they stage some battles between each other. Mr.
+Salper has an idea that a bunch of them are trying to swing the market
+against him while he's up here, and he seems to think that this is a
+public radio station, with nothing to do but send and receive messages
+for him all day. I'm working for Uncle Sam, not for him."
+
+"Oh, well, don't let him get you all stirred up, anyway," said Bob.
+"He doesn't mean half of what he says. He was real decent last night
+while we were giving our concert."
+
+"What do you mean, concert?" asked the wireless man. "Are you in the
+entertainment game now?"
+
+"Something like that," answered Bob, grinning, and then he told the
+operator about the concert of the previous evening.
+
+"That's fine," said Thompson heartily, when he had finished. "That was
+a good idea, to use a regular aerial instead of the loop. It certainly
+catches a lot more."
+
+"Yes, but the loop is mighty handy, just the same," remarked Joe.
+"Especially in a portable set. You can set it up in no time."
+
+"Oh, it's handy, there's no doubt of that," admitted the young
+wireless man. "I wish I had been there for the concert. I heard most
+of it here, but it must have been fun to watch the faces of the
+audience when you started in."
+
+"It was," laughed Herb. "I think that some of them imagined we had a
+phonograph hidden somewhere because after the concert was over a
+number of them looked all around the set as though they were hunting
+for something suspicious."
+
+"Likely enough," agreed Thompson. "Some people are mighty hard to
+convince."
+
+After some further conversation the boys took their leave, promising
+to come again for a longer visit. On the way back the chief topic of
+discussion was Mr. Salper, and the boys wondered more than once just
+what the nature of the trouble was that caused him to haunt the
+wireless station and besiege the operator with a flood of messages.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE SNOWSLIDE
+
+
+"Well," said Herb, philosophically, "'it is an ill wind that blows
+nobody any good.'"
+
+Bob, who had been shaking a tree for nuts and had shaken down more
+snow than anything else, looked at Herb inquiringly.
+
+"Now what's the poor nut raving about?" he asked slangily of Jimmy and
+Joe, who were also engaged in nut gathering.
+
+"I was just thinking," said Herb, with an attempt at dignity, "how
+sorry I am for all those poor sick people in Clintonia."
+
+"Oh, yes, you were," scoffed Jimmy, who was eating more nuts than he
+saved. "You were thinking how lucky we are to be here picking nuts in
+the woods instead of slaving away in Clintonia High."
+
+"Gee, that fellow must be a mind reader!" exclaimed Herb, grinning,
+and Bob, coming near, made a pass at him.
+
+"Say, get busy, old bluffer," he said. "You're getting slower than
+Doughnuts here. You haven't got half the nuts that I have."
+
+"But I'm having twice as much fun," countered Herb, unmoved "A fellow
+can't work all the time."
+
+"I wish I knew what was worrying Mr. Salper," said Joe, suddenly. "I
+wonder if that Wall Street bunch, is really out after his money."
+
+"Gee, he sure does know how to change the subject," murmured Herb, and
+Bob threw a nut at him, which he successfully ducked.
+
+"He seemed rather cut up about it, anyway," said Bob, in answer to
+Joe.
+
+"I wouldn't trust those Wall Street sharpers out of my sight myself,"
+added Jimmy solemnly.
+
+"Gee, listen to the financier," gibed Herb. "He's lost so many
+millions in Wall Street himself."
+
+"Not yet," said Jimmy, plaintively. "But wait, my boy, my life is all
+before me."
+
+"Say," cried Joe, "if you two fellows don't look out I'll put you in
+my pocket with the other nuts."
+
+"Mr. Salper seems kind of a nut himself," said Joe, continuing with
+his own reflections. "He seems to have a grouch on everything and
+everybody."
+
+"No wonder, with all the worries he's got," said Jimmy, adding
+dolefully: "You see the penalties of extreme wealth."
+
+"One thing you'll never have to worry about," said Herb, and Jimmy
+grinned good-naturedly.
+
+"I'd rather have my sweet disposition," he sighed, "than all of
+Salper's wealth."
+
+"I don't see why you think he's so wealthy," Bob objected. "Everybody
+who trades in Wall Street isn't a millionaire, you know."
+
+"Say, wait a minute!" cried Bob suddenly, with an imperative wave of
+his hand. "Did you hear anything?"
+
+They listened for a moment in breathless silence and it came again,
+the call that Bob's sharp ears had first detected. In the distance it
+was, surely, but a distinct cry for help, nevertheless.
+
+"Come on, fellows! We're needed!" cried Bob, and, dropping his bag of
+nuts in the snow, he started off at a swift pace in the direction of
+the sound.
+
+The rest of the radio boys needed no second invitation. They started
+after Bob, pushing swiftly through the deep snow.
+
+But as the seconds passed and they heard no further outcry, they
+thought that they must have been mistaken or that they had started in
+the wrong direction.
+
+However, as they stopped to consider what to do, the cries began
+again, louder this time, a fact which told them they had been on the
+right track all along.
+
+They hurried on again, sometimes plunging into snowdrifts that reached
+nearly to their waists, but keeping doggedly on to the rescue.
+
+It was enough for the radio boys that some one was in trouble. Even
+roly-poly Jimmy, puffing painfully, but running gallantly along in the
+rear, had but one thought in his head, and that to help whoever needed
+help.
+
+As they came nearer the cries became louder, and they thought they
+could distinguish three voices, and one seemed to be that of a woman.
+
+Another minute they came upon a cleared space and stopped still for a
+moment to stare at the amazing scene which met their eyes.
+
+A woman stood, nearly knee deep in snow, waving her arms wildly, and
+even in that moment of astonishment they recognized her as Mrs.
+Salper. She was gesticulating toward something in front of her and
+calling urgently to the boys to hurry.
+
+Then the lads saw the cause of her distress. At the foot of a steep
+rise of ground, almost a small hill, was all that was to be seen of
+two girls. These latter had their heads above the snow that enveloped
+them and they were trying desperately to work their arms free of the
+icy blanket. From their expressions and from their wild cries for help
+it could be seen they were panic-stricken.
+
+"A snowslide!" Joe, who was standing close to Bob, heard him mutter.
+"Those girls had a narrow escape to keep from being buried entirely!"
+
+The next moment he was dashing off in the direction of the two
+prisoners, shouting encouragement to Mrs. Salper. The others were
+close at his heels.
+
+"We'll get you out all right," he called to the frightened girls, who
+had stopped their struggling and were looking at him hopefully. "Just
+keep still for a moment and save your breath. We'll have you out of
+there in a jiffy.
+
+"Dig, fellows, for all you're worth," he added to the boys, who, as
+usual, looked to him for directions. "These girls must be pretty cold
+by this time."
+
+For answer the boys did dig manfully, the imprisoned girls helping
+them as much as they could with their numb fingers, and before many
+minutes they had the snow cleared away sufficiently to be able to
+struggle through it to a spot where it was not so deep. The girls
+were, of course, Edna and Ruth Salper, the pretty daughters of the
+Wall Street broker.
+
+Edna and Ruth were trembling with cold and with the shock of their
+recent accident, and Mrs. Salper ran to them, putting an arm about
+each of them protectingly and pouring out thanks to the embarrassed
+boys.
+
+"That's all right," said Bob, modestly. "We couldn't very well have
+done anything else, you know. I hope," he added with a glance at the
+shivering girls, "that the girls won't take cold."
+
+"They will if I don't get them home quickly," said Mrs. Salper,
+adding, with a worried frown: "I wish we hadn't come so far from the
+house."
+
+It was then that Joe broke in.
+
+"I tell you what," he said, eagerly. "It isn't far to Mountain
+Rest----"
+
+"And there's sure to be a fire in the grate up there," Bob finished
+for him.
+
+"And it's a fire that will warm you up in a jiffy," added Herb with
+his most friendly smile.
+
+"If we can only make it," sighed Mrs. Salper.
+
+The radio boys knew of a short cut from this spot to Mountain Rest and
+along this they led the others as swiftly as they were able to travel.
+And on the way they learned how it was that the girls had happened to
+be in such a predicament.
+
+"I shouldn't have let them do it." It was Mrs. Salper who told the
+story. The two girls were still too shaken from their adventure to say
+anything. All they could think of was the comforting shelter of a room
+and an open grate fire.
+
+"They wanted to climb up that little hill to see what was on the other
+side of it," the lady went on to explain. "I didn't want them to, for
+I saw that the snow was deep. But they were in wild spirits, wouldn't
+listen to me, said I didn't need to come if I didn't want to--which I
+didn't!--and off they went.
+
+"When they had nearly reached the top Edna started to fall----"
+
+"No, it was Ruth, Mother," corrected the girl, showing the first sign
+of returning interest.
+
+"Well, it doesn't matter," said Mrs. Salper, with a sigh. "The result
+was the same. One of them clutched at the other and they both toppled
+down the hill. Their fall must have loosened a mass of the drifted
+snow and it came down on top of them. Heavens!" she shuddered at the
+memory. "It seemed as if the whole mountain side were falling on top
+of them! I thought they would be completely buried!"
+
+"Well, we were, almost," said Ruth, chafing her cold hands to bring
+the circulation back into them. "Anyway," she added with a stiff
+smile, "I feel almost as frozen as if I had been!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE MODERN MIRACLE
+
+
+"I bet you're cold," said Bob, sympathetically. "Never mind, we'll
+have you warmed up in a jiffy now."
+
+As a matter of fact, the big hotel was even then looming before them,
+and in a moment more they entered its doors, to find to their delight
+that a roaring fire was burning in the grate of the big living room.
+
+The two girls rushed to it joyfully, holding out their chilled hands
+to the blaze, snuggling to its warmth like two half-frozen kittens.
+
+They happened to have the big room all to themselves at that moment,
+and, after having drawn chairs up to the fire for Mrs. Salper and the
+girls, the boys excused themselves and hurried back to the spot where
+they had dropped their bags of nuts when the cry for help had
+interrupted them in their occupation.
+
+"Never do to lose the fruits of our labor," said Herb, grinning, as he
+picked up his own particular bag.
+
+The other boys did likewise, and they were soon hurrying back to the
+hotel again, talking excitedly about the rescue of the Salper girls.
+
+"It's mighty lucky we happened to be near enough to hear the cries for
+help," said Joe, soberly. "It would have been pretty hard for them to
+have forced their way through those drifts alone, half numbed as they
+were."
+
+"Yes," agreed Bob. "It's pretty nice to think of them warm and snug
+before the fire just now."
+
+"Queer," observed Jimmy as they neared the house, "that we should have
+been talking about them just at the time the thing happened."
+
+"Queer," said Herb patronizingly, "but not half so queer, Doughnuts,
+as the modern miracles that happen every day----"
+
+"Take radio, for instance," finished Bob, and they entered the hotel
+laughing.
+
+They found the two girls recovered from their fright and quite a good
+deal happier than they had been a few minutes before. They regarded
+the radio boys with interest, and it was clear that the girls and Mrs.
+Salper had been talking about them during their absence.
+
+"You're often called the 'radio boys,' aren't you?" challenged Edna,
+as the boys drew chairs up to the fire.
+
+"Why, I guess so," said Bob, with a smile. "Lots of folks call us
+that."
+
+"Dad was up at the radio station the other day and the operator there
+was enthusiastic about you," said Ruth Salper, in her direct way.
+"Said that if you kept on the way you were going, you would soon know
+more about radio than he does himself."
+
+"That's mighty nice of him, but I'm afraid he was boosting us too
+high," replied Bob, trying hard not to show how pleased he was.
+
+"That fellow at the station has forgotten more about radio than we
+ever knew," added Joe modestly, but in his heart he was as pleased at
+the praise as Bob was. It is always nice to receive commendation from
+some one who is an authority.
+
+"You're very modest," teased Edna gaily. "But when dad says anything
+nice about anybody he generally means it. He doesn't say nice things
+very often----" She caught a glance of reproof from her mother and bit
+her lip penitently.
+
+"You mustn't say unkind things about your father, Edna," said Mrs.
+Salper, gently. "You know he is worn to death with business worries.
+If we could once succeed in making him forget his responsibilities, he
+would be as jolly and fun-loving as he used to be."
+
+"Yes, dad used to be no end of fun," said Ruth, adding, with a fierce
+little frown and a clenching of her fists; "I just wish I could get
+hold of whoever's worrying him so. I'd give them something to worry
+about for a change."
+
+Then, seeming to realize that the boys might not be interested in her
+personal affairs--though as a matter of fact they were interested,
+extremely so--the girl tactfully turned the conversation to something
+which she thought might interest them.
+
+"Could we see your radio set?" she asked, impulsively. "We'd just love
+to have you tell us about it. As much as we could understand," she
+added, with a smile for the boys.
+
+Mrs. Salper protested feebly, but so eager were the boys to show off
+their set to the girl radio fans that her opposition was overcome
+almost at once.
+
+Then followed a happy hour during which the radio boys talked
+learnedly of condensers and amplifiers and different kinds of
+receivers until the admiration of the girls mounted almost to awe.
+
+"My, but it sounds worse than Greek!" cried Edna Salper once, as she
+bent absorbedly over the apparatus that worked such miracles and bore
+such high-sounding names. "This is the tuning apparatus, isn't it?"
+she asked, gingerly touching the wire coil. "It seems almost
+impossible that you can tune to any wave length with this thing, just
+as the piano tuner can tune the wires of his instrument to the proper
+sound vibration."
+
+"It--the whole thing--seems impossible," added Ruth, while Mrs. Salper
+found herself quite as interested as her daughters.
+
+"Yes, that's the way it seemed to us at first," agreed Bob, his eyes
+shining. "When Doctor Dale told us we could make a set for ourselves
+we could hardly believe him. But it didn't seem a bit hard once we got
+started and learned the hang of it."
+
+"You mean to say that you made this set yourselves?" asked Mrs.
+Salper, with interest.
+
+"Oh, this is nothing. We've made lots of 'em," said Jimmy proudly, at
+which Herb promptly kicked him under the table. The injured Jimmy
+glared at his assailant, but the others were too much interested in
+the subject to notice him.
+
+"You see this is a comparatively small set," Bob explained.
+
+"But we're working on a powerful apparatus now," broke in Joe eagerly.
+"And when we have that in working shape we'll be able to send as well
+as receive."
+
+"Well, I think you're just as smart as father said you were," said
+Ruth, and at this candid compliment the confused boys thought it time
+to change the subject.
+
+"How about listening in a while?" suggested Bob, struck by a sudden
+inspiration. "We ought to be just about in time to catch the afternoon
+concert--if there is one. Would you like to find out?"
+
+"Would we?" cried Edna, enthusiastically. "Indeed we would!"
+
+"Just try us," added Ruth happily.
+
+So the boys showed them how to fit the head-phones, not using the
+loudspeaker they had made from the phonograph horn, and adjusted the
+tuning apparatus to the proper wave length, and the girls answered to
+the thrill of catching music magically from the ether just as the boys
+had done on that never-to-be-forgotten evening when their first
+concert had reached them over the wires of their first receiving set.
+Crude it seemed to them now in the light of later improvements, but an
+instrument of magic it had been to them that night.
+
+No wonder that the boys felt a warm and real friendship for the Salper
+girls--and Mrs. Salper, too--a friendship that would have been
+surprising, considering the shortness of their acquaintance, had it
+not been that they were all radio fans, dyed in the wool.
+
+So quickly did the time fly that Mrs. Salper was amazed and apologetic
+when she found how long they had lingered.
+
+"We must hurry!" she exclaimed, starting toward the door, the girls
+reluctantly following. "Your father will surely think we are all lost
+in a snowdrift."
+
+"Which two of us came very near being," added Edna, with a laugh.
+
+"Don't joke about it," said Ruth, with a shiver. "I must say being
+buried in a snowdrift wasn't very pleasant--while it lasted."
+
+The radio boys insisted upon accompanying the Salpers home, explaining
+that they could show them the shortest path. Gaily they started out
+and before they had reached the Salper place the friendship which had
+begun the evening of the concert with their mutual interest in radio,
+became steadily stronger.
+
+It was plain that, besides being grateful to them for having come to
+the help of the girls, Mrs. Salper liked the boys for their own sakes.
+
+When they reached the house she begged them to come in with her so
+that Mr. Salper might have the opportunity of thanking them for their
+kindness.
+
+The boys skillfully avoided accepting this invitation by pointing out
+that it was getting late and the path would be hard to find in the
+dusk.
+
+"Thanks ever so much for everything," Ruth Salper called after them as
+they started off, and Edna added:
+
+"We're going to frighten dad into getting us a radio set by
+threatening to make one ourselves!"
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if they could make a set, at that," said Bob
+thoughtfully, as they tramped on alone. "They're smart enough."
+
+"For girls," added Herb, condescendingly.
+
+Whereupon Jimmy turned and eyed him scornfully.
+
+"Say, where do you get that stuff?" he jeered. "If those girls
+couldn't make a better radio set than you, I'd sure feel sorry for
+them."
+
+"Ha! I'll wash your face for saying that," was the quick answer, and
+the next instant Jimmy felt some snow on his ear. Then began a snow
+battle between all the boys which lasted until they reached the hotel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THRASHING A BULLY
+
+
+After that the boys saw a good deal of Edna and Ruth Salper. The
+latter were thoroughly good sports and entered into the fun of the
+moment with such enthusiasm that the radio boys declared they were
+lots more fun than a good many of the fellows they knew.
+
+They went nutting together, tramped through the woods, read together
+the latest discoveries in the radio field, until the girls became
+almost as great enthusiasts as the boys.
+
+The boys were often asked to visit the Salper home, but it was seldom
+that they took advantage of these invitations.
+
+"It would be pleasant enough," Herb declared, "if only grouchy Mr.
+Salper were not always around to put a damper on the sport."
+
+As a matter of fact, on the rare occasions when they happened to meet,
+Mr. Salper hardly uttered a word, but it was this very silence of his
+that made the boys uneasy.
+
+"I feel sometimes," Jimmy remarked, "as if I'd like to put a tack on
+his chair, just to see if he'd say 'ouch' when it stuck into him."
+
+"He'd probably say a sight worse than that," Bob replied, with a
+laugh,
+
+However, they were having too good a time to allow Mr. Salper and his
+grouches to interfere much with them.
+
+They became familiar figures at the sending and receiving station, and
+the operator always received them cordially. They often had long and
+interesting discussions which were not only delightful to the boys but
+extremely helpful as well.
+
+"It seems," said Jimmy, with a grin, "as if all the radio inventors
+were running a race with each other to see who can get the greatest
+number of inventions on the market in the shortest space of time."
+
+"You said something that time, boy," the operator replied ruefully.
+"The smart fellows are keeping us dubs on the jump trying to catch up
+with them. Not that I intend to put you in the 'dub' class with
+myself," he added, with a grin.
+
+"I only wish we knew half as much about the game as you do," Bob
+returned heartily. "I think we'd be mighty well satisfied."
+
+One day when the radio boys had left Edna and Ruth Salper and were
+tramping through the woods alone, they spoke of the operator
+admiringly.
+
+"He sure does know a lot about radio," said Joe. "He must stay up all
+night studying."
+
+"Guess that's what's the matter with him," remarked Bob, soberly. "He
+spends too much of his time indoors, boning. He should get out in the
+open more."
+
+"Looks as if a little fresh air might tone him up some," Herb
+admitted. "He looks as if a breath of air might blow him away."
+
+"If I looked as thin as he does, I'd go see a doctor," said Jimmy
+emphatically.
+
+It was a fact that the operator at the station, while looking far from
+strong when the boys had first seen him, had grown thinner and thinner
+and paler and paler until now he seemed to be positively going into a
+decline.
+
+Because they had a sincere regard for Bert Thompson, the boys had
+tried to lure him out into the open, but he had been proof against all
+their blandishments. And after a while the boys had given up trying.
+
+"If he wants to kill himself," Bob had grumbled, "I suppose we'll have
+to let him have his own way about it."
+
+And now at this particular time when the boys were at peace with the
+world, something suddenly happened that gave them a rude jolt.
+
+Talking happily of improvements they expected to apply to their new
+radio outfit, they came suddenly upon--Buck Looker and his crowd.
+
+To say they were surprised would not have half expressed it. They were
+dumbfounded and mad--clear through. So here were these rascals,
+turning up as they always did, just in time to spoil the fun.
+
+That Buck and his cronies had been talking about them was evident from
+the fact that at the appearance of the radio boys they stopped short
+in what they were saying and looked sullenly abashed. And from their
+confusion Bob guessed that the meeting was as much a surprise to the
+"gang" as it was to themselves.
+
+The boys would have gone on without speaking, hoping to avoid trouble
+if it was possible, but Buck hailed them boisterously.
+
+"Say, what are you guys doing here?" he asked, sneeringly, thrusting
+himself almost directly in front of Bob, so that the latter would be
+forced to step aside in order to pass him.
+
+"That's what I'd like to ask you," returned Bob, feeling himself grow
+hot all over. "Get out of my way, Buck. You're cramping the scenery."
+
+"Aw, what's your awful rush?" asked Buck, refusing to move, while Carl
+Lutz and Terry Mooney sidled over to the bully, keeping a wary eye on
+Bob's right fist, nevertheless.
+
+"Say, get out of here, Buck Looker, and get quick!" It was Joe who
+spoke this time, and any one not as stupid as Buck Looker would have
+known it was time to do as he was told.
+
+But because of the fire that had burned to the ground his father's
+disreputable cottage in the woods and which he and his followers had
+blamed upon the radio boys, Buck Looker thought himself safe in
+taunting the latter as much as he wished. He assumed that they would
+not dare resent anything he said or did, for fear he would make public
+the matter of the fire and accuse them openly.
+
+It was a chance of a lifetime for Buck--or so he thought--and he was
+determined not to over-look it. So his manner became more insulting
+than ever and his face took on a wider grin as his glance shifted from
+Bob to Joe.
+
+"So you're in a hurry, too, are you?" he sneered. "Going to set some
+more houses on fire, eh?"
+
+He turned to his cronies with a grin and they piped up together as if
+by a prearranged signal:
+
+"Firebrands!"
+
+This undeserved insult was more than the radio boys could stand, and
+all stepped forward with clenched fists.
+
+"You take that back, Buck Looker!" cried Joe, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Take back nothing!" answered the bully.
+
+"Yes, you will!" broke in Bob, and caught Buck by the arm.
+
+At once the bully aimed a savage blow at Bob's head. But the latter
+ducked, and an instant later his clenched fist landed upon Buck's chin
+with such weight that the bully was sent over backward into the snow.
+
+At the instant when Buck made his attack on Bob, Terry Mooney tried to
+hit Joe with a stick he carried. Joe promptly caught hold of the
+stick, and, putting out his foot, sent Terry backward into a
+snowdrift. Seeing this, Carl Lutz started to run away, but both Herb
+and Jimmy went after him and knocked him flat.
+
+"You let me alone! I didn't do anything!" blubbered Carl, who was a
+thorough coward.
+
+"You can't call me a firebrand," answered Herb, and while fat Jimmy
+sat on the luckless Carl, Herb rammed some snow into his ear and down
+his neck.
+
+While this was going on both Buck and Terry had scrambled to their
+feet, and then began a fierce fight between that pair and Bob and Joe.
+Blows were freely exchanged, but soon the radio boys had the better of
+it, and when Terry's lip was bleeding and swelling rapidly, and Buck
+had received a crack in the left eye and it was also swelling, all
+three of the cronies were only too glad to back away.
+
+"Have you had enough?" demanded Bob, pantingly.
+
+"If you haven't, we'll give you some more," added Joe.
+
+"You just wait! We'll get square with you some other time," muttered
+Buck. And thereupon he and his cronies lost no time in sneaking away
+into the woods.
+
+"Of all the mean fellows that ever lived!" cried Herb.
+
+"I guess they'll leave us alone--for a while, anyway," came from Joe,
+as he felt of his shoulder where he had received a blow.
+
+"I wonder what those fellows are doing around here, anyway," said Bob
+thoughtfully. "Do you suppose they're putting up at the Mountain Rest
+Hotel, too?"
+
+"More than likely," answered Joe, gloomily. "Perhaps they've been
+driven out of Clintonia, too, on account of the epidemic. I heard
+quite a number of the other young folks were getting out. The whole
+town is pretty well scared."
+
+"They are sure trying their best to make trouble for us," added Jimmy.
+
+"That fire in the woods was just nuts for them," said Bob, with a
+frown. "They've been trying for a long time to get something on us,
+and now they think they've got it. They think we're afraid to beat 'em
+up now as they deserve, for fear they'll tell everybody we set that
+old shack on fire."
+
+"It was a funny thing," remarked Joe, musingly, "how that fire
+started, anyway."
+
+"Oh, what's the use of worrying?" added Herb, carelessly. "I reckon
+the memory of that licking will keep Buck quiet for a while. Say, that
+was a fine piece of work you did, Bob! The memory lingers."
+
+Bob grinned.
+
+"How about yourselves?" he asked, adding, with a gleam in his eyes: "I
+didn't notice Terry Mooney and Carl Lutz looking very happy!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A NEST OF CONSPIRATORS
+
+
+The radio boys saw Buck Looker often--all too often--in the days that
+followed. As the boys had feared, Buck and his crowd were staying at
+the Mountain Rest Hotel, and it was almost impossible to help
+encountering them.
+
+Several times there were arguments which almost resulted in blows, but
+Buck always managed to sneak off at the critical moment, leaving the
+boys to fume helplessly.
+
+"Wish we could find out how that shack of theirs caught fire," Joe
+grumbled on one of these occasions. "Then we could stop their mouths
+on that firebrand question once and for all."
+
+"Wouldn't make any difference," remarked Herb gloomily. "If they
+couldn't make trouble for us on that score, they'd think up something
+else."
+
+But about this time something happened that took the minds of the
+radio boys from Buck Looker and his trouble making.
+
+One day, as they were tramping through the woods in the still deep
+snow, they came upon a little decrepit-looking one-room shack,
+standing dejectedly within a circle of skeleton trees.
+
+They had wandered further than usual from camp in exploring the
+surrounding country and had come upon the tiny cabin unexpectedly.
+Jimmy was about to utter a gleeful shout at sight of the
+interesting-looking place when Bob clapped a warning hand over his
+mouth.
+
+"Keep still," he whispered sharply. "I hear voices in there."
+
+"Well, what if you do?" demanded Joe, but he kept his voice cautiously
+lowered just the same. "Probably some harmless dubs----"
+
+"Like ourselves," finished Jimmy, with a grin, "seeking shelter from
+the bitter weather."
+
+"Well, whoever they are, they sure are mad about something," said Bob,
+hardly knowing why he should be so excited.
+
+The voices inside that one-room shack had been raised in altercation,
+but now, as the boys listened, somebody evidently cautioned silence,
+for once more the tones were lowered almost to a whisper.
+
+"There's something mysterious about this," said Bob, his eyes gleaming
+joyfully. "I vote we look into it."
+
+"Right-o," agreed Joe, following the leader as Bob started softly
+toward the shack.
+
+What they expected to find they had no idea. But it was an understood,
+though unspoken, rule with the radio boys never to pass by anything
+that looked in the least mysterious. And certainly this queer little
+shack in the woods bore all the air of mystery.
+
+There was one small window near where they were standing and the four
+boys crowded up to this, jostling each other in the attempt to be the
+first to see through the dingy pane.
+
+"Hey!" whispered Jimmy in anguish, as Joe's foot clamped firmly down
+upon his. "Quit parking on my toe, will you? There's lots of room on
+the ground."
+
+Joe snickered derisively and that small sound came near to proving
+their undoing. For inside the cabin it happened that for a moment
+every one had stopped talking and in the silence Joe's laugh was
+distinctly audible.
+
+"Some one's getting in on this," they heard one of the voices say, as
+though its owner were nervous, yet was trying his best to hide his
+uneasiness. "Let's take a look around, boys. You never can be too
+sure."
+
+The radio boys looked at each other in consternation. There was no
+time to get away, even if they had wanted to. And now that they were
+convinced there was crooked work going on in the shack, they certainly
+did not want to leave.
+
+Bob flattened himself against the wall and motioned to his chums to do
+likewise. If the fellows found them and wanted to put up a fight,
+"well, they'd get their money's worth, anyway."
+
+But it so happened that the lads were not discovered. The door of the
+shack was on the opposite side from them, and either the men were too
+lazy to search carefully or they were too confident of the obscurity
+of their meeting place. At any rate, they went to the door, looked
+around, and, finding no one within sight, evidently decided that they
+had been mistaken in thinking they had heard a suspicious noise and
+reentered the shack without searching further.
+
+"You're crazy, Mohun," the boys heard one of them remark, in an
+irritable voice. "You're letting your imagination--and your
+nerves--run away with you."
+
+"Well, this deal is enough to get on anybody's nerves," was the
+grumbled reply, evidently from the person addressed as Mohun. "If we
+don't put it across pretty quick I'm going to quit. I've told you too
+much delay would be fatal."
+
+The boys glanced at each other, and the relief they had felt at not
+being discovered was closely followed by huge excitement as they
+became more and more certain that they were on the verge of making an
+important discovery.
+
+They crowded closer to the window though, mindful of how close they
+had come to discovery, they were careful to make not the slightest
+sound.
+
+Bob, who was closest to the window, could, by exercising the greatest
+caution, peer into the shadows of the room. He put out his hand as a
+warning to Joe, who was crowding him closely.
+
+"Don't push," he said, in the merest whisper. "I have a notion this is
+going to be good."
+
+So had the other boys, but they were mad clean through at the fate
+that prevented their getting a glimpse into the tumbled-down shanty.
+However, they held back, knowing that if they were too eager they
+would spoil everything. Discovery then would mean that they would
+never hear the secret these men were about to disclose.
+
+The old shack had evidently once been lived in, for it was fitted up
+with furniture of a crude sort. Along one side of the room ran two
+long bunks, one above the other, and on the walls were some old
+dilapidated-looking pictures, evidently cut out of magazines or news
+periodicals.
+
+There was a three-legged, rickety table in the center of the room, and
+about this the conspirators--for such they were--were gathered. Two of
+the men had chairs, patently home-made, for seats, while the third,
+who sat facing Bob, had merely an empty wooden box turned on end.
+
+It was this last fellow who was now speaking and who had been
+addressed by the name of Mohun. He was short and of fair complexion,
+with protruding, horsey teeth that stuck out disagreeably over his
+lip.
+
+Another of the trio was a giant of a fellow, tall, dark and
+heavy-browed, while the third, who sat with his back to Bob, was of
+slighter build, but nearly as tall.
+
+Mohun seemed to be the leader of the party, for now he was leaning
+across the rickety table, talking earnestly and emphasizing his
+remarks with blows of his fist upon it.
+
+"I tell you, Merriweather," he said, addressing the giant, "this is
+our time to act. You are merely pussy-footing when you ask delay. I am
+convinced that delay means suicide."
+
+Jimmy, catching the last word, gasped involuntarily and Bob nudged him
+warningly.
+
+"Keep still," he hissed. "This sure is going to be good!"
+
+The two other men looked uncertain but the fellow called Mohun was
+pushing the point home.
+
+"This is our chance," he cried vehemently. "Salper is out of the way
+for the present, but we never know when he may take the notion to go
+back to the old job. They say he is getting mighty restive already."
+
+At the mention of Mr. Salper's name Bob fell back in his amazement and
+landed on Joe's foot, whereupon the latter emitted a squeak of pain
+that he immediately stifled.
+
+"Did you hear that?" demanded Bob in an excited whisper, without a
+thought for poor Joe's foot. "They're talking about Mr. Salper."
+
+Eagerly he turned back to the window while Herb whispered in an awed
+tone:
+
+"Maybe they're going to murder the old fellow."
+
+"Say, keep still, can't you?" said Bob impatiently, as he strained his
+ears to catch the lowered tones of the three men.
+
+Herb subsided, and the four of them waited with bated breath to find
+out what these three conspirators had to do with Gilbert Salper.
+
+"Maybe you're right, Mohun," the tall man with the craggy brows
+answered reluctantly. "But I can't help thinking that to strike now is
+a poor move."
+
+"In two or three weeks we'll have everything just as we want it,"
+added the man who sat with his back to Bob. "We'll have a sure thing
+then, while now----"
+
+The man called Mohun threw up his hands in a gesture of despair.
+
+"Pussy-footing again!" he cried disgustedly. "What kind of gamblers
+are you, anyway, to wait until you have a sure thing before you test
+your luck? Don't you know that the big deals down on the Street that
+have been successful have been put through because the fellows doing
+it had nerve?"
+
+"Yes, but not many of the deals have been as big or as important as
+this," said the giant quietly.
+
+"All the more reason to strike quickly," argued Mohun, with heat,
+adding in a lowered tone: "I tell you this absence of Salper from Wall
+Street is the chance of a lifetime. It's the thing we've been waiting
+for. With him on the Street we haven't a chance for our lives. With
+him away, we have everything in our own hands. Now it's up to you
+whether we make the most of our luck, or throw it in the rubbish
+heap."
+
+"But Salper is up here for an indefinite length of time," argued the
+man with his back to Bob. "It is said he will stay at least a month,
+maybe two. And a week--two at the outside--is all we need to make sure
+of relieving him of some of his ill-gotten wealth."
+
+The man laughed noisily at this poor attempt at humor, and Mohun
+glanced nervously about him.
+
+"Better look out," he said, peevishly. "You never can tell who's
+listening. They say the trees have ears around this way."
+
+"Your nerves are getting the best of you, I think," cried the big man.
+"Just because you've got cold feet is no reason why we should take the
+chance of losing out on the biggest deal we've had the chance of
+handling for many a day. Get a good sleep, man, and you'll think the
+way we do, tomorrow."
+
+For a moment it seemed as though Mohun were about to spring upon the
+big man and Bob held his breath, expecting a struggle. Mohun's face
+turned a brick red and his lips drew back from his protruding upper
+teeth as though in a snarl. His hands clenched, he took a step toward
+the bigger man who had half risen from his chair.
+
+"Then I'll tell you one thing, you pussy-footers!" he cried furiously.
+"If this deal isn't pulled through by the end of a week and if by that
+time we haven't our hands on a good chunk of Salper's money, then I'm
+through. Do you hear that? I quit!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ON GUARD
+
+
+The radio boys had heard enough. Silently they tiptoed from their
+vantage point, putting off the tremendous desire to exclaim about what
+they had heard until they had put a good distance between themselves
+and the shack.
+
+Then they overflowed with wonder and excitement.
+
+"Say, wait till we spring this news on Mr. Salper!" cried Herb. "The
+man will near go off his head."
+
+"Gosh, you couldn't blame him," said Joe, in an awed tone. "I wouldn't
+like to have those three fellows after my hard-earned cash myself."
+
+"Then he was right when he thought there was somebody after his
+money," said Bob, striding along so swiftly in his excitement that
+poor Jimmy had hard work to keep up with him. "We thought he was kind
+of crazy, but I guess he knew what he was talking about all the time."
+
+"But I say, you got all the best of it, Bob," said Herb. "Why couldn't
+you let the rest of us get a glimpse of some honest-to-goodness
+sharpers?"
+
+"They weren't much to look at," said Bob, with a frown. "That man they
+called Mohun was one of the ugliest scoundrels I've ever seen."
+
+"Was he any worse than Cassey?" asked Jimmy, curiously.
+
+"If he was he must have been going some," added Herb, with conviction.
+
+"I guess nobody could be much worse than Cassey," said Bob, frowning
+at the memory of the stuttering scoundrel's evil acts. "But he's just
+as bad. When he jumped at that big fellow with the bushy eyebrows I
+thought he was going to bite him. He has teeth that stick away out
+over his under lip."
+
+"Must be a beauty," commented Herb.
+
+"I say," said poor Jimmy, fairly running in his effort to keep up with
+the other boys, "you're not going toward the hotel, Bob. May I ask
+where you are going?"
+
+"Why, Doughnuts, you shouldn't have to ask," broke in Joe, before Bob
+could respond. "Don't you know there is only one place where we could
+be going after hearing such rotten news as we've just heard?"
+
+"We're going to the Salpers, of course," finished Herb, with a
+condescending air that irritated the plump and puffing Jimmy.
+
+"Well, you needn't be so fresh about it," he grumbled, rubbing his
+empty stomach ruefully. "It's nearly dark----"
+
+"And it's dinner time," added Joe, with a grin. "How well we know you,
+Doughnuts."
+
+"Well," grumbled Jimmy, grinning reluctantly, "I don't see why the
+Salpers can't wait till we can get something to eat."
+
+"It won't take us long," said Bob, who had been thinking hard as they
+tramped along. "We'll just stop in and tell them what we've heard and
+then go on. I don't suppose there is anything that we can do."
+
+"I guess Mr. Salper will do all that's necessary when he finds his
+money threatened," said Joe significantly.
+
+"I reckon he's had a hunch that something of this kind has been going
+on for a long time--in fact, he as much as told us so," said Bob. "But
+I guess these rascals were so clever he couldn't put his finger on
+them."
+
+"I wonder what kind of deal they were talking about," mused Herb.
+
+"It was a crooked one, anyway," said Bob, decidedly. "All you had to
+do was to look at them to know that."
+
+The little shack in the woods was a long way from the Salper place,
+and so, in spite of their hurry, the boys did not reach it until just
+on the edge of dark.
+
+The entire family was gathered in the living room of the Salper
+cottage, even Mr. Salper himself, and the boys threw their bomb right
+into the midst of them.
+
+Mr. Salper had seemed inclined, as he usually did, to draw apart by
+himself, but at the very beginning of the boys' story, he evinced an
+almost fierce interest.
+
+He questioned them minutely while the girls and Mrs. Salper listened
+wonderingly.
+
+"You said the name of one of the men was Mohun?" he asked, throwing
+away the cigar he had been smoking and bending earnestly toward Bob.
+"What did he look like?"
+
+The disagreeable impression the man had made upon him was still so
+vivid that Bob had no trouble at all in giving a graphic description
+of the fellow.
+
+Mr. Salper's face grew blacker and blacker as he listened and he
+pulled out another cigar, biting off the end of it viciously.
+
+"That's the fellow I've been suspecting all along," he said, finally.
+"Slick fellow, that Mohun. Whenever a man gets too eager to do things
+for you I've learned to suspect him. Yet, closely as I've watched this
+man, I haven't been able to get a thing on him. As far as we could
+find out, he was perfectly square. But, by Jove, this puts an entirely
+new face on things."
+
+He paused for a moment, puffing hard on his cigar while the others all
+watched him anxiously. The ill humor which had been hanging over him
+for so long seemed magically to have vanished. Now that his suspicions
+had been so unexpectedly justified, bringing with them the need for
+action, the broker was a different man, entirely. His brow had cleared
+and there was an eager light in his keen eyes.
+
+"You fellows have done me the greatest of possible services," he said,
+turning to the radio boys--he had forgotten up to that time to thank
+them for what they had done. "If you could know what it means to me to
+have this information----"
+
+He broke off, running his hand excitedly through his hair, his eyes
+gazing unseeingly out of the window.
+
+"I must act and act quickly," he muttered, after a minute. "There is
+surely no time to lose. You said this man Mohun was urging haste?" he
+added, turning to Bob.
+
+The latter nodded. "Said he'd quit if they didn't get a move on, or
+words to that effect," he told his questioner, and Mr. Salper smiled a
+preoccupied smile in response.
+
+"Then Mohun will get what he wants. He has a way of getting what he
+wants," he said, again with that air of speaking to himself. "I'm glad
+to know it's Mohun--very glad!"
+
+Although Bob had given as good a description as was possible of the
+other two men who had been in the shack with Mohun, Mr. Salper did not
+recognize them.
+
+"Probably a couple of dark horses," he said, and dismissed the
+subject. Evidently, to him, Mohun was the most important of the
+rascals and the one it was necessary to deal with at once.
+
+After repeated thanks from Mr. Salper and outspoken gratitude on the
+part of Mrs. Salper and the girls, the boys managed to get away.
+
+They hurried on toward the Mountain Rest Hotel, talking excitedly of
+what had happened.
+
+"That was sure just dumb luck," remarked Joe as he sniffed of the cold
+brisk air and began to realize that he was very hungry. "Our happening
+on that little shack just as we did," he added in response to an
+enquiring look from Bob.
+
+"You bet," agreed Herb. "That was the time our luck was running
+strong. It will do me good if those scoundrels get come up with,
+especially the one with the big teeth."
+
+"Oh, stop talking and hurry up," begged Jimmy, who, in his eagerness
+to get back to the hotel and dinner, was actually leading the others.
+"It seems ten miles to the house when your poor old system is crying
+aloud for grub."
+
+They laughed at him but followed his example just the same, for they
+had been tramping many hours and their appetites were never of the
+uncertain variety.
+
+But just before they reached the welcome lights of the cottage they
+realized to their surprise that it was snowing again. So fast were the
+flakes coming that by the time they reached the door of the hotel they
+were well powdered with them.
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Herb. "We sure are getting our money's worth of snow
+this winter."
+
+"You bet," agreed Bob, adding happily: "And this one looks like a
+'lallapaloosa.'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+BROKEN WIRES
+
+
+True to Bob's prediction, the snowstorm proved to be a fierce one even
+for this season of unusual snows, and when the boys awoke the next
+morning they found that the ground had taken on an extra covering and
+the branches of the trees were weighted down with the heavy fall.
+
+"Say, fellows, look what's here!" cried Joe as he roused his mates,
+sleepy-eyed from their comfortable beds. "Old Jack Frost sure was busy
+last night."
+
+"Guess he thinks it's Thanksgiving," Bob agreed as he hurried into his
+clothes, keeping one eye on the frosty landscape and fairly aching to
+make part of it. "Hurry up, fellows, let's go out and have a snow
+fight."
+
+"You're on," agreed Joe, and then began the race to see who would get
+from their cottage to the hotel and to the breakfast table first.
+
+They arrived there--at the breakfast table, that is--at one and the
+same time and ate as ravenously as though they had not broken their
+fast in a week. Mr. and Mrs. Layton watched them and smiled, wishing
+that they might once more eat with such lusty appetites.
+
+Before the boys had finished breakfast, it had begun to snow again,
+making the landscape appear more than ever blizzardy and bleak.
+Eagerly the boys buttoned up heavy sweaters, prepared to fight the
+storm to a finish.
+
+It seemed that they were not the only ones whom the storm had lured
+forth. There were a number of people gathered in front of the hotel
+and, since they seemed rather excited about something, three of the
+boys joined them to find out what the fuss was all about, Jimmy
+remaining behind for the time being to take a nail from his shoe.
+
+"The telegraph wires are all down," said a man in response to Bob's
+question. "There's a man been raving around here like a crazy man,
+declaring he has to send a telegram. Nobody can seem to make him
+understand that since the wires are all down such a thing is
+impossible."
+
+"He might telephone," Joe suggested, but the man who had been their
+informant took him up quickly.
+
+"They're down too," he said. "We're as marooned here, as far as any
+communication with the outside world is concerned, as though we were
+stranded on an island in the midst of the ocean. This storm has done
+considerable damage."
+
+"I should say so," remarked Joe, as the gentleman turned to some one
+else and the boys started on a tour of the place to look over the
+prospect. "I'll call it some damage to knock down both telephone and
+telegraph wires at one fell swoop."
+
+"That talk about our being just as badly off for communication with
+the outside world as though we were on an island isn't quite correct,"
+observed Herb. "That fellow seemed to forget all about trains."
+
+"I suppose he meant quick communication," said Bob. "We could send a
+message by wire in an hour or less, while it would take two or three
+times that time to send the same message by rail."
+
+"That's so," agreed Herb, staring up at the wires which had fallen
+beneath their weight of snow. "I'd hate to _have_ to get a message
+through for any reason just now. But look," he added, pointing to the
+hotel. "Our aerials are still up anyway."
+
+"I wonder who the fellow was who was so anxious to telegraph," said
+Joe, after a few minutes. "He must think himself in bad luck."
+
+Bob brought his gaze from the damaged wires and stared at the boys,
+and at Jimmy who just then came puffing up.
+
+"Say, I bet that was Mr. Salper," Bob said. "Don't you remember last
+night that he said he must get a message through to his broker first
+thing in the morning?"
+
+"By Jove, the storm knocked it clear out of my head!" exclaimed Joe.
+"Say, I feel sorry for him, all right."
+
+"Wish we could help him some way," said Herb anxiously. "It would
+never do to let that fellow Mohun and his pals get off with the filthy
+lucre just when we thought we'd double-crossed them so nicely."
+
+"I guess that's where Mr. Salper would agree with you," said Jimmy,
+with a grin. "Especially since the filthy lucre belongs to him."
+
+They walked on in silence for a few moments, chagrined at the thought
+that the storm had played so into the hands of Mr. Salper's enemies.
+
+They had learned from Mr. Salper the night before that Mohun of the
+protruding teeth was not the kind of man to let a golden opportunity
+pass. He would rush the "deal" through while Salper was out of town,
+and, from the latter's impatience, they had gathered that the next few
+hours would, in all probability, be the crucial time.
+
+"Burr-r-r!" cried Jimmy suddenly, wrapping his arms as far as they
+would go about his chubby body and shivering with the cold. "This
+weather sure does make a fellow wish for a fur overcoat. The
+thermometer must have gone down twenty degrees over night."
+
+"Hear who's talking!" scoffed Herb. "With all that fat on your bones,
+Doughnuts, you haven't a chance in the world of feeling cold."
+
+"I suppose you know more than I do about it--not being me," retorted
+Jimmy, scathingly. "I'd just like you to feel the way I do; that's
+all."
+
+"Well, it isn't what you might call unpleasantly hot," observed Bob.
+"I must say I'm not sweltering, myself."
+
+"Guess it isn't much colder than this up at the North Pole," agreed
+Joe, as he turned his sweater collar up higher about his ears. "Might
+as well rig up as an Eskimo and be done with it."
+
+"Reminds me of that Norwegian, Amundsen," said Bob. "He sure intends
+to discover the North Pole with all the fancy trimmings, this time."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Herb, with interest.
+
+"Do you mean to say you haven't read about it?" demanded Jimmy,
+indulgently. "Why, he's the fellow who is going to have his ship all
+dressed up with wireless so that when he smashes his ship against the
+North Pole he can let everybody know about it."
+
+"It's a great idea, I call it," said Joe, enthusiastically. "Up to
+this time, explorers haven't had any way of communicating with the
+outside world, and so if they got in trouble they just had to get out
+of it the best way they could or die in the attempt."
+
+"While now," Bob took him up eagerly, "his wireless messages will be
+picked up by hundreds of stations all over the world and in case of
+need ships and teams of huskies and even aeroplanes can be rushed to
+his rescue."
+
+"Exploring de luxe," murmured Herb, with a comical look. "Pretty soon
+there won't be any such thing as adventure because there won't be any
+danger. We'll have radio to watch over us and keep us from all harm."
+
+"It's all right for you to talk that way," said Jimmy. "But I bet if
+you were one of these explorer chaps you'd be mighty glad to have
+something watch over you and help you out of a tight fix."
+
+"Yes, I guess those fellows need all the help they can get," agreed
+Bob, soberly. "It isn't any joke to be away out there with hundreds of
+miles of ice and water between them and civilization."
+
+"They say even the sledges are to be equipped with radio," Joe broke
+in. "So that they can keep in touch with the ship all the time and
+through the medium of the powerful sending set aboard the boat the
+ship itself can be kept in constant touch with the outside world."
+
+"There are planes too, equipped with radio," added Bob. "And they say
+each plane is outfitted with skids so that it can land safely on the
+ice."
+
+"I should think there would be danger in that," remarked Jimmy,
+rubbing his hands vigorously to set the blood circulating again. "They
+say the ice is awfully rough and bumpy and spattered with small hills
+of ice. I should think a pilot would have a jolly time trying to make
+a landing under those conditions."
+
+"They intend to cut out the ice about the ship so as to make landing
+possible," explained Bob. "And in the other places the skids help them
+to make a sure landing. Say, wouldn't I like to make one of that
+expedition!" he added, with enthusiasm.
+
+"I wonder how long they expect this expedition to take," said Herb.
+The idea of exploring the arctic with radio as a companion was a
+fascinating one to him and at that moment he would have made one of
+Amundsen's hardy crew, if such a thing were possible, with the
+greatest joy.
+
+"They expect it will take them five years, maybe six." It was Bob who
+answered the question. "Their idea is to travel as far as possible
+north before the ice gets thick. Then when the floes close in about
+them they will drift with the ice over the pole--or, at least, that's
+what they hope to do."
+
+"What gets me," said Jimmy plaintively, "is how they are going to know
+when they get to the pole anyway."
+
+Herb made a pass at him which the fat boy nimbly avoided.
+
+"Why, you poor fish," said the former witheringly, "you sure will be a
+full-sized nut if you ever live to grow up. I suppose if you got to
+the North Pole you'd expect to see a clothes pole with the clothes
+line wrapped around it, ready for use."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+A SUDDEN INSPIRATION
+
+
+Unconsciously their feet had carried the radio boys in the direction
+of the radio station and now they were surprised to find themselves
+confronted by the building itself.
+
+"We've come some way," Herb began with a chuckle, but Bob cut him
+short excitedly.
+
+"Look!" he cried. "Didn't I tell you that radio was the best ever?
+Just cast your eye on that aerial. You don't see that trailing on the
+ground, do you?"
+
+For a moment the other radio boys failed to grasp the significance of
+his words. Then they let out a great shout of triumph. For what Bob
+had said was true. Where other means of communication with the outside
+world failed, radio stood firm.
+
+The aerial was there, towering as serenely against the slaty sky as
+though there was no such thing as a snowstorm. The great marvel of
+radio! For no wires, other than the antenna, were needed to carry its
+messages to the farthermost parts of the world!
+
+For a moment the boys were awed as the real significance of the modern
+miracle was borne home to them. It was magnificent, it was inspiring
+merely to have the privilege of living in such an age.
+
+"Well, Mr. Salper doesn't need to worry," said Joe, at last. "There's
+always radio on the job if he wants to get a quick message through to
+New York."
+
+"It's queer he didn't think of it," agreed Bob, adding, as the intense
+cold struck still more deeply into his bones: "Come on in, fellows.
+I'd like to see what the operator has to say to all this excitement."
+
+"You bet," said Jimmy, adding fervently: "And it will give us a chance
+to thaw out."
+
+When the boys reached the room which had become so familiar to them,
+they found that here too, the old regime had been interrupted. Several
+men were gathered in the far corner of the room, talking earnestly,
+and the long table where the operator could be seen daily bending
+earnestly over his beloved apparatus was vacant. The operator himself
+was nowhere to be seen.
+
+Sensing something unusual, the boys came forward hesitantly. At sight
+of them one of the men detached himself from the group of his
+companions and came quickly over to them. The boys did not know his
+name, but his face was familiar to them.
+
+"A most unfortunate thing has happened," burst out this man nervously,
+without even an attempt at a preface. "The operator here has been
+taken very ill with a fever and we are at a loss to find any one who
+can take his place in this emergency."
+
+The modesty of the radio boys was such that at that moment no thought
+of the possibility of their being able to take the experienced
+operator's place entered their heads. They were earnestly sorry for
+the misfortune which had overtaken their friend, and they told the man
+so. It seemed to them that the latter was rather disappointed about
+something, and he listened to their words of sympathy absently. After
+a moment he left them and rejoined his companions at the other end of
+the room.
+
+"Say, that's tough luck," said Jimmy, his round face comically long.
+"I knew that fellow would get into trouble if he didn't take more
+exercise."
+
+Bob fumbled with the familiar apparatus on the table, his face
+troubled.
+
+"If he's out of his head with fever, he must be pretty sick," he
+muttered, as though talking to himself. "And that means that he won't
+be able to attend to radio for a good long time to come."
+
+"And with telegraph and telephone wires all down, that's pretty much
+of a calamity," added Joe, his eyes meeting Bob's with a look of
+understanding.
+
+"Say!" cried Herb, suddenly seeing what they were driving at, "that
+knocks out Mr. Salper's last chance of getting even with those
+crooks."
+
+"Yes," said Bob, soberly, "I guess the game's up, as far as he's
+concerned."
+
+"Let's go over to the hotel and inquire for the sick man," Joe
+suggested, adding hopefully, "maybe he isn't as sick as they make
+out."
+
+The operator had a room at the hotel, and the boys had been there once
+or twice to talk over points on radio with him and so they knew
+exactly where to go.
+
+However, if they had treasured any hope that Bert Thompson's sickness
+had been exaggerated, they were promptly undeceived. No one was
+allowed to speak to him, the nurse at the hotel told them, adding, in
+her briskly professional manner, that it would be no use to speak to
+him anyway, since he was delirious and recognized nobody.
+
+But before they went, softened by their real concern, she said, quite
+kindly, that as soon as the patient was able to receive visitors at
+all she would let them know.
+
+They thanked her and went out into the freezing air again. The snow
+had stopped and the wind had died down completely but in the
+atmosphere was a deadly chill, a biting cold that seemed to penetrate
+to their very marrow.
+
+"Suppose we go to the Salpers," Bob suggested. "Mrs. Salper and the
+girls may need help, for I imagine Mr. Salper isn't in a very pleasant
+mood."
+
+"I wonder," said Joe, as with common consent they turned in the
+direction of the Salper home, "if Mr. Salper has heard yet that even
+the radio is out of business."
+
+"Give it up," said Herb, while Jimmy added, with a grin: "I'd hate to
+be the one to break the news to him."
+
+But, as it happened, that was just what they had to do. They saw Mr.
+Salper coming and tried to pretend that they did not, but he would
+have none of it.
+
+He made for them directly, with a scowl on his face as fierce as if
+they had been the cause of all his trouble.
+
+"This is a fine business, isn't it?" he asked, waving his hand in the
+direction of the snow-weighted wires. "No telegraph, no
+telephone--only the radio left. I'm on my way to the station to try to
+get the message through, though that operator is a stubborn young
+donkey and has before this refused to send messages for me."
+
+Herb and Jimmy made frantic motions to Bob to keep quiet, for they saw
+that he was about to tell the news. And Bob did.
+
+"I'm sorry, Mr. Salper," he said quietly. "But the operator at the
+wireless station has become suddenly very ill and there's no one there
+to operate the apparatus."
+
+For a moment Mr. Salper simply glared while the news sank home. Then
+he gazed wildly about him as though to escape from his own worrisome
+thoughts. Then the fierce scowl returned to his face and he made an
+angry motion toward the boys.
+
+"The operator sick!" he muttered. "And not a doctor up here!"
+
+The boys started and looked at him queerly.
+
+"Do you need a doctor?" asked Bob quickly, thinking immediately of
+Mrs. Salper and the girls. "Is some one sick?"
+
+"Yes," snapped Mr. Salper. "My wife is sick, very sick. And if I can't
+get any sort of word through, even by radio----" He paused and his
+mouth looked as though he were grinding his teeth.
+
+He turned back toward his house, and the boys accompanied him with
+some vague idea of at least offering their sympathy, even if they
+could not do anything to help.
+
+They found Edna and Ruth nearly frantic with fright.
+
+"Mother is dreadfully ill," said Edna, between sobs. "Her hands and
+face are burning up and she talks queerly. I'm afraid it's pneumonia,
+and if she doesn't get a doctor pretty quick she'll d-die!" And with a
+sob she fled into the room where the sick woman lay.
+
+The boys felt awkward, and, since there was nothing they could do to
+help, deeply concerned over the trouble of these friends of theirs.
+
+"There's some good in Mr. Salper, anyway," said Joe, as they tramped
+along. "He was so worried over Mrs. Salper that he didn't mention
+those Wall Street scoundrels."
+
+"I reckon it's worrying him just the same," said Jimmy.
+
+"If only there was something we could do----" began Bob, then stopped
+short, a great idea leaping to his eyes. "Say, fellows, what's the
+matter with our sending that message?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+PUTTING IT THROUGH
+
+
+The boys stared at him for a moment as though he had gone suddenly
+crazy. Then the light of adventure dawned in their eyes, and they
+grinned joyously.
+
+"Say, old boy," said Joe in an awed voice, "that sure is some swell
+idea. But do you think we could swing it? We know a lot about
+receiving, but when it comes to sending----"
+
+"We're a bunch of nuts," finished Jimmy, decidedly.
+
+"Maybe," retorted Bob. "But at this time, even a bunch of nuts might
+be better than nothing."
+
+"We've been studying the code," said Joe thoughtfully. "We might be
+able to handle it all right. It isn't the first time, if we're not
+experts. Of course we can do it."
+
+"But not for old Salper," said Herb. "He's so impatient he'd make us
+forget in five minutes everything we ever knew."
+
+"Maybe," said Bob again, adding, stoutly: "But I'm game to make a try
+at it anyway. There's no one else to do it, and Mr. Salper stands to
+lose his wife and a lot of money besides if some one doesn't help him
+out."
+
+"Well, let's make him the proposition," suggested Joe, pausing and
+looking back at the Salper house. "I'm with Bob in this thing."
+
+"So say we all of us," sang Herb cheerily, as they turned back.
+
+"So long as Bob's the goat," finished Jimmy.
+
+They found Mr. Salper in the living room of the bungalow, savagely
+smoking a cigar. He scarcely looked at the boys when the girls let
+them in, and Bob was forced to speak his name before he gave them his
+attention.
+
+"Well, what is it?" he said gruffly, his tone adding plainly: "What
+are you doing here anyway? I wish you'd get out."
+
+The tone made Bob mad, as it did the other boys, and when he spoke his
+own tone was not as pleasant as usual.
+
+"We've decided to try to help you out, if we can, Mr. Salper," he
+said, and the man looked at him with a mixture of surprise and
+incredulity.
+
+"In what way?" he asked, in the same curt tone.
+
+"We know something about sending and receiving messages by radio," Bob
+went on, getting madder and madder. "And we thought maybe we might get
+a message through for you to a doctor and to your brokers, as well. Of
+course," he added, modestly, "we haven't had very much experience----"
+
+Bob was too modest to say anything about how he had once sent messages
+to some ships at sea, (as related in detail in "The Radio Boys at
+Ocean Point,") and how he had tried to send on other occasions.
+
+"Experience be hanged!" cried Mr. Salper, so suddenly that the boys
+jumped. "You mean to tell me you can operate that radio contraption?"
+
+"I think so," said Bob, still modestly. "We haven't done much along
+that end of it----"
+
+"You'll do," cried Mr. Salper, while Edna and Ruth stared at him with
+tear-reddened eyes. "Are you ready to go with me right away to the
+station?"
+
+The boys nodded and the older man shrugged into his great coat,
+reaching quickly for his cap.
+
+"Take care of your mother," he said to the girls. "I'll stop on my way
+over to the hotel and send a nurse over for her. I hear there are two
+of them there. Don't see why the physician there didn't send some one
+to take his place if he had to leave."
+
+In a moment the radio boys found themselves once more in the freezing
+air of the out-of-doors, being hurried along by the erratic Mr.
+Salper.
+
+Poor Jimmy suffered on that forced march. Although he uttered no word
+of protest, his face was purple and his breath came in little puffing
+gasps before they had reached the hotel.
+
+Once there, they had a little respite, however, while Mr. Salper went
+to arrange about having a nurse sent over to his wife. Jimmy waited in
+the hotel lobby in a state nearing collapse while the other boys went
+up to inquire once more about their friend, the operator.
+
+They found him no better--worse, if anything--and their faces were
+very solemn when they rejoined Jimmy in the lobby.
+
+"Guess it will be nip and tuck if he gets through at all," said Bob,
+anxiously. "I don't see why such hard luck had to pick him out for the
+victim."
+
+"I suppose they'll appoint another operator right away," suggested
+Herb.
+
+"I suppose so," agreed Jimmy. "But it will be hard to get any one for
+a week or more on account of the heavy weather."
+
+"And in a week's time without communication with the outside world a
+lot of Mr. Salper's money will probably have gone up in smoke," said
+Joe.
+
+"Yes, it's us on the job all right," said Bob, looking a bit worried.
+"I only hope we can live up to what's expected of us."
+
+"All right, boys," said Mr. Salper, on returning, in his eyes the
+preoccupied look of the man of affairs. "If you can help me out of
+this fix, I will surely be deeply in your debt."
+
+These genial words--almost the first that they had heard from the
+self-absorbed man--warmed the boys' hearts and they resolved to do the
+best they could for him, and, through him, for his daughters.
+
+When they reached the station they found it deserted save for one man
+who sat at a desk, humped over in a dispirited fashion, reading a
+magazine.
+
+At the entrance of Mr. Salper and the boys he looked up, then got up
+and came over to them as though he were glad of their companionship.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Salper?" he said, addressing the older man with
+marked respect. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
+
+"Nothing, unless you can work this contrivance," returned Mr. Salper,
+with a comprehensive wave of his hand toward the cluttered radio
+table.
+
+"I'm sorry," said the other, a frown of anxiety lining his forehead.
+"The operator is sick, and because of the heavy weather it is doubtful
+if we shall be able to secure another one within the week."
+
+"A week!" cried Mr. Salper. "That amount of time, my friend, may very
+easily spell ruin for me. It is necessary that I communicate with New
+York immediately. Are you ready, boys?"
+
+The man looked with surprise, first at the radio boys and then back to
+Mr. Salper.
+
+"Am I to understand----" he began, when Mr. Salper cut him short with
+an imperative wave of the hand.
+
+"These boys," he said, "know something of radio. How much they know I
+am about to find out.
+
+"Are you ready?" he asked, sharply, as the boys still hesitated. "A
+delay of even a few minutes would be regrettable."
+
+The boys looked at each other, and since no one else made a move to
+approach the apparatus, Bob saw that it was up to him. And right there
+he realized the great difference that there is between theory and
+practice. Of course they had had some practice in sending and they
+were fairly familiar with the code, but never before had they been
+called upon to make use of their knowledge in such a matter as this.
+
+Then too, Mr. Salper was not the kind of person to inspire
+self-confidence. He was a driver, and it is hard to do good thinking
+when one is being driven.
+
+However, having gone so far, there was no possibility of backing out
+and with a show of confidence, Bob approached the apparatus. The man
+who had addressed Mr. Salper regarded him with not a little distrust.
+He had heard of the radio boys, as who at Mountain Pass had not, but
+he certainly did not think them competent to send a message of any
+importance.
+
+And at that moment, neither did Bob.
+
+"Will you send your message phone or code?" he asked, looking up at
+Mr. Salper inquiringly. "We can do either here."
+
+Mr. Salper hesitated for a moment, then with a significant glance at
+the other man, who was hovering curiously near, he snapped out,
+"Code."
+
+"Do you know the letters of the station to be called?" asked Bob.
+
+The broker consulted a notebook which he took from his pocket.
+
+"Call HRSA," he returned. "That is our Stock Exchange station," he
+explained. "They ought to be on the job while the Exchange is open.
+They will relay a message to my brokers."
+
+Joe was standing beside Bob and saw that his chum's hand trembled
+somewhat as he took hold of the ticker.
+
+"Don't get rattled, Bob," he whispered. "Take your time and don't let
+him scare you. Remember, it's you that's doing the favor."
+
+Bob grinned, and then began sending out the call. Across the ether
+traveled the letters HRSA and the call was presently caught up in New
+York and then another message was relayed to the office of a
+well-known brokerage firm.
+
+"Hey, Bill," called a well-dressed young man seated at a desk in the
+far end of the office. "Here's WBZA calling us. These are the letters
+of the station at Mountain Pass----"
+
+"Where the Honorable Mr. Gilbert Salper is taking his rest cure,"
+finished another man, flinging away his cigarette and coming to stand
+beside his partner. "Do you suppose it's the old boy himself calling?"
+
+"We'll soon find out," returned the other, and without delay sent in a
+message to the New York sending station. In a few seconds they were
+being radioed into the ether.
+
+Bob's face beamed as he transcribed the dots and dashes into words.
+The message read thus:
+
+             "WBZA heard from. HRSA awaiting message."
+
+Mr. Salper, who had been striding up and down, hurried to Bob's side
+in answer to the lad's hail. The other boys were peering eagerly over
+Bob's shoulder.
+
+"I've reached HRSA and through them H. & D.," explained the young
+operator proudly. "H. & D. are waiting for your message."
+
+"Fine! Fine!" cried Mr. Salper, and his face showed great enthusiasm.
+"Those are my brokers, Hanson and Debbs. Got 'em right off the reel,
+didn't you, boy? Great work! Can you get my message through at once?"
+
+"I don't know of anything to stop me," answered Bob. It seemed too
+good to be true that he had picked up the right station so quickly.
+
+"Send this, then," Mr. Salper directed. And in a firm hand he wrote
+down the following message:
+
+  "Mohun is a crook and plots to ruin me. Find out
+  his scheme and check him.
+
+                                  Gilbert Salper."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE MIDNIGHT CALL
+
+
+Skillfully Bob tapped out the message and in an inconceivably small
+space of time it had been received by the station HRSA and relayed to
+H. & D. The boys would have been interested if they could have known
+the sensation caused by the few words.
+
+"Oh, boy!" cried Hanson, of the firm of Hanson and Debbs. "I've
+suspected this slick fellow Mohun for a long time. Now with Salper's
+authority we can go in and clean him out."
+
+"Salper wouldn't make an accusation of that sort," said Debbs
+thoughtfully, "if there wasn't something in it. He's had some sort of
+inside tip all right."
+
+"Well," returned the other briskly, "we'll let the old man know we're
+on the job, and then get busy."
+
+Accordingly, a few minutes later Bob received and transcribed this
+message:
+
+       "Right. We'll have him inside of twenty-four hours."
+
+At the confidence contained in the message Mr. Salper straightened his
+shoulders as if a great load had been lifted from them and held out a
+friendly hand to Bob.
+
+"I can't tell you what you have done for me," he said, cordially. "Of
+course I'm not safe yet from the crooked work of these men, but at
+least Hanson and Debbs have been warned to look out. And that's
+two-thirds of the battle."
+
+"I'm mighty glad we've been able to help," said Bob, adding earnestly:
+"If there's anything else we can do please call on us. Mrs.
+Salper----"
+
+He paused, for at mention of his wife's name the relief disappeared
+from Mr. Salper's face and in its place was the old worried frown.
+
+"Yes--my wife," he muttered, and, without another word to the boys,
+turned and stalked out of the room. The man, who had all this time
+lingered near them, turned and went out after Mr. Salper and the boys
+were left alone.
+
+"Say, you sure did turn the trick that time," said Herb admiringly.
+"If they succeed in getting those crooks, Mr. Salper will love you all
+the rest of his life."
+
+"It was more luck than anything else," Bob repeated. "Imagine getting
+that station first throw out of the box."
+
+"Never mind," said Joe, adding truthfully: "No one else about this
+place would have been able to do as much."
+
+They lingered for a while, talking over the exciting events of the day
+and tinkering with the complicated apparatus.
+
+"Did you hear the latest prediction of Marconi?" asked Joe. "He says
+that he has positive proof that in the near future a radio set will be
+perfected which will send messages entirely around the world."
+
+"Yes," said Bob eagerly. "He even declares that we'll be able to put a
+sending and receiving set side by side on the same table and receive
+the messages that a moment before we've sent out."
+
+"It only takes a second of time too," said Herb. "Imagine sending
+messages completely around the world at such speed. If Marconi didn't
+say it could be done, I sure wouldn't believe it."
+
+"We'll be talking with Venus or Mars pretty soon," said Bob. "Marconi
+says he has already received messages that don't come from anywhere on
+the earth."
+
+Although they said little about it, the boys were elated at Bob's
+success with the code, and it was surely a pleasant thought that they
+had helped Mr. Salper, if only that they might make Mrs. Salper and
+the girls happy. They had even, despite his usual gruffness, begun to
+feel a sort of liking for Mr. Salper himself.
+
+During the long snow-bound afternoon they thought often of Mrs. Salper
+and wondered if she were better. They wanted to inquire, but they were
+afraid of making themselves a nuisance.
+
+Toward evening they strolled over to the hotel to ask after the
+operator and found to their delight that he was better. The nurse, who
+had become very friendly toward them, said she thought the trouble had
+been checked in time and that the sick man's recovery, though it might
+be slow, was sure.
+
+With hearts lightened on that score they went home. After dinner at
+the hotel they spent some time tinkering with their set. One time they
+noticed that in a vacuum tube was a pale blue glow, and Joe was at a
+loss to know how to account for it.
+
+"We've got too high a voltage on the B battery," said Bob, after a
+moment of study.
+
+"But how would that affect it?" asked Herb, interested.
+
+"Why," answered Bob, thoughtfully, "the high voltage causes a sort of
+electrical breakdown of the gas in the tube and it's apt to affect the
+receiving."
+
+"Say, Bob's getting to be a regular blue stocking," commented Jimmy
+admiringly. "We'll have to get a move on to catch up with him."
+
+"You bet _you_ will," said Herb, with insulting emphasis on the
+pronoun. However, Jimmy was too interested to notice.
+
+"Let's reduce the voltage, Bob," Joe was saying eagerly. "We'll test
+out the theory."
+
+"It isn't a theory," replied Bob, as he reduced the voltage and the
+blue glow disappeared as though by magic. "You can see for yourself
+that it's a fact."
+
+This discussion led to others, and they sat for some time eagerly
+experimenting with their set. It was just as well that they did for
+they had just gone over to their cottage and thus were able to answer
+quickly the imperative summons that came to them a few minutes later.
+
+In response to a knock on the door they found Mr. Salper standing
+outside in the bitter night air looking so white and shaken that they
+were startled.
+
+He came just inside the door and spoke in quick, jerky sentences like
+a man talking in his sleep.
+
+"My wife is dangerously ill," he said. "She seems so much worse
+tonight that there is imperative need of a doctor. There is no doctor
+up here, and in this weather it would take too long to summon one. The
+trained nurse who is with her suggests that we try to get in touch
+with a doctor by radio and ask his advice. The idea is far-fetched,
+but it seems about our only hope. If that fails----" he paused and Joe
+broke in eagerly.
+
+"My father's a doctor, Mr. Salper," he said, and there was pride in
+his voice.
+
+"A doctor, eh?" returned the broker quickly. "Oh, if only he were
+here!"
+
+"I don't see how you are going to get hold of your father," broke in
+Herb. "He's in Clintonia. Even if he got our message, through Doctor
+Dale or somebody else with a receiving set, he couldn't send any
+message here."
+
+"But he isn't in Clintonia!" shouted Joe, eagerly. "He went to Newark,
+New Jersey, to attend some sort of medical convention and see if he
+couldn't find out more about the epidemic that hit Clintonia."
+
+"Newark!" came simultaneously from Joe's chums.
+
+"Why, the big radio sending station is there!" exclaimed Bob.
+
+"Why can't you send a message to that station and ask them to get hold
+of your father?" broke in Jimmy.
+
+"Maybe I could do it," announced Joe. And then he looked at Bob.
+"Perhaps you had better do the sending. You'll probably have to call
+them in code."
+
+Bob was willing, but first he went up to tell his mother and father
+where he and his chums were going and beg them not to worry if they
+did not come back soon.
+
+On the way to the radio station they stopped at the Salper bungalow,
+where the calm-faced nurse was waiting for them. She had left the
+Salper girls in charge of their mother, giving them minute
+instructions as to what to do, and was going with Mr. Salper in the
+hope that they might possibly secure medical advice by radio.
+
+The station was finally reached. It looked deserted and gloomy at that
+hour of the night, and as Bob sent a call for help vibrating through
+the ether he felt a creepy sensation, as though he were, in some way,
+dealing with ghosts.
+
+There was just the slightest chance in the world that they would reach
+Doctor Atwood. Just a chance, but if they did not take that chance
+Mrs. Salper would die.
+
+For a long time they tried while the nurse sat quietly in the shadows
+and Mr. Salper strode up and down, up and down, his face drawn and
+white, his usually elastic step heavy and dragging.
+
+Again and again went out the call for the Newark station. Minute after
+minute passed, and still Mr. Salper walked up and down uneasily.
+
+"I guess you'll have to give it up----" Herb was beginning when
+suddenly Bob motioned for silence. The radio was speaking, and he was
+taking down the message as well as he was able.
+
+"I've got Newark!" the young operator cried excitedly. "Now I'll put
+in a call for your father, Joe. Where is he staying?"
+
+"At the Robert Treat Hotel."
+
+Once more Bob went to work rather excitedly and even a little
+clumsily, yet his message went through. In reply he received another,
+stating that Dr. Atwood had been called by telephone and would be at
+the sending station inside of fifteen minutes.
+
+"And the best of it is, he is to radiophone," added Bob to Joe. "So
+you can talk to him direct."
+
+After that the minutes passed slowly, both for Mr. Salper and the
+boys. They thought the end of the wait would never come. But at last
+the words so eagerly awaited reached them.
+
+There was no mistaking it, even though static interfered and the
+tuning was not good--Dr. Atwood's voice, cheery, reassuring, helpful.
+In his joy at the sound of it, Joe shouted aloud.
+
+"Hello, WBZA," came the voice. "If this is Joe talking, give me the
+high sign, my boy."
+
+During the message Bob had tuned in the right frequency and, with
+static eliminated one might have thought the speaker was in the same
+room.
+
+Then there followed a battle with death that the boys would remember
+as long as they lived. As soon as Doctor Atwood was made to understand
+the nature of the service asked of him, he became immediately his
+brisk, professional self.
+
+The nurse, instantly alert herself, gave him a description of the case
+and it was wonderful as soon as the connection was switched off to
+hear his kindly voice responding, giving full directions for the care
+of the patient. He declared that he would be on call all during the
+night and requested that some one call him every hour--oftener, if it
+became necessary--to report the progress of the patient.
+
+The nurse hurried off, accompanied by Mr. Salper, and for the rest of
+the night the boys kept busy, marking a trail between the Salper
+cottage and the radio station, taking reports from the nurse and
+carrying directions from Doctor Atwood.
+
+It seemed strange and weird, yet wonderful and soul-stirring, this
+tending of a patient by a doctor many miles away. Once, during the
+night, hope almost failed. Mrs. Salper scarcely breathed and lay so
+still that Edna and Ruth were sure the end had come. They clung to
+each other sobbing, while Mr. Salper strode up and down, up and down
+the room as though if he stopped he would die too.
+
+Then came another message from Doctor Atwood. The nurse followed his
+directions and once more hope came back to the Salper home. The
+patient rallied, stirred, and for that time at least, the danger was
+past.
+
+So dawn came at last and Joe and the two younger boys went back to
+their cottage to try to catch a few hours of sleep. Bob remained at
+the station, declaring that he felt not at all tired and as soon as
+the other boys had rested they could come to his relief.
+
+A hard vigil that for Bob. In spite of all he could do, his head would
+nod and his heavy eyelids close, to be jerked open next moment by the
+arrival of some one from the Salper home or a message from Doctor
+Atwood.
+
+News of the struggle had spread all over Mountain Pass, and people
+watched with admiration and interest the brave fight that was being
+made for a woman's life. And sometimes it seemed that, despite all
+their efforts, the struggle must end in failure.
+
+All that day the battle waged and the next night--the boys taking
+turns at the radio board, untiring in their determination not to lose.
+And Doctor Atwood was as determined as they.
+
+And then, on the morning of the second day came news that the patient
+had passed the much-dreaded crisis and, with the most careful nursing,
+was sure to recover.
+
+"She'll be all right now," came Doctor Atwood's cheery voice. "It's
+been a hard pull, but she's past the danger point now. Keep in touch
+with me, boys, so that, in case of a relapse, I can tell you what to
+do."
+
+Joe turned to the boys with the light of pride and affection in his
+eyes.
+
+"That's some dad I've got!" he said.
+
+Later, when the boys walked over to the Salper home to offer
+congratulations, the girls received them with literally open arms.
+
+"You've saved mother's life!" cried Ruth, with a catch in her voice.
+
+"And we love you for it!" added Edna gratefully. "You just wait till
+mother knows!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+A PLOT THAT WENT WRONG
+
+
+"So far, so good," breathed Bob happily, as the boys were discussing
+the news that Mrs. Salper had passed the crisis and was now probably
+on the road to recovery. "That's one thing we can set down to the
+credit of radio."
+
+"And it's not the only thing of the same sort," put in Joe. "Do you
+remember what Mr. Brandon told us of that ship with thirty men and no
+doctor on board, where twenty-four of the men were down with a
+mysterious disease? The captain got a message by wireless to shore
+telling of his plight, and one of the best doctors in New York City
+went to the radio station there and got in touch with the captain. He
+talked to him by radio for hours, had him describe just the symptoms,
+and then told the captain just what to do. A couple of days later the
+captain wirelessed in that he had followed directions and that all of
+the men had recovered and were fit for duty."
+
+"Yes," said Herb, "and about that other case, too, where a man had an
+infected hand and they were afraid he was going to have lockjaw. A
+doctor on land told the captain how to treat it and the man got along
+all right."
+
+"Trust radio, and you won't go wrong," summed up Bob. "On land and sea
+it's right on the job."
+
+"I only hope it will be as effective in saving Mr. Salper's money,"
+observed Joe.
+
+"I think very likely it will," replied Bob. "He's about as keen as
+they make them, and now that he knows what those rascals are plotting
+against him it's dollars to doughnuts that he'll get the best of them.
+Their only chance was in taking him by surprise and putting over that
+deal while his back was turned. And now that he's got in touch with
+his brokers I guess the game is up."
+
+"I wonder how long it will be before we know how it turned out,"
+conjectured Herb.
+
+"Oh, probably not more than two or three days," replied Bob. "Things
+move pretty fast in Wall Street when a fight is on for control."
+
+"I hope he comes out on top," observed Joe. "He's a good deal of a
+crab, and I was mighty sore at him when he landed on us the way he did
+the day we were coming up here. Acted as though he thought we ought to
+be shot at sunrise. But since that time I've seen a good deal about
+him to like and I've come to the conclusion that he's a regular fellow
+after all."
+
+"You can tell by the fondness that the girls have for him that he
+can't be so bad," said Bob. "That's a pretty good sign to go by. They
+know him better than any one else except his wife, and she seems to
+think, too, that the sun rises and sets in him."
+
+"I want him to come out ahead not only for his own sake but because I
+want to see that fellow Mohun downed," put in Jimmy. "I'm sore at him
+right down to the ground. I don't like his eyes, I don't like his
+voice, I don't like his teeth, I don't like his character----"
+
+"Outside of that, though, I suppose he's all right," suggested Joe,
+grinning. "He seems to be just about as popular with you as a
+rattlesnake."
+
+"That's what he reminds me of, anyway," admitted Jimmy.
+
+"Talking of rattlesnakes," put in Herb, "here come three of them now,"
+and he indicated Buck Looker, who, with Lutz and Mooney, was coming
+along the road. For some time now the Looker crowd had kept out of the
+radio boys' way.
+
+"I wonder what trick they're up to now," said Bob, as he saw that the
+bunch had their heads together in earnest conversation.
+
+"No knowing," answered Joe; "but it's a safe bet that it's something
+cheap and low down. Buck would think the day was wasted if he didn't
+have something of the kind on hand."
+
+The groups passed each other without speaking, though Buck darted a
+look at Bob in passing that had in it the usual malignance, mingled
+with a touch of triumph.
+
+"Did you see that look?" queried Herb, with interest. "Seemed as if he
+had something up his sleeve."
+
+"I know what it meant well enough," answered Bob, with a shade of
+soberness. "My dad was telling me that he'd been notified that a suit
+had been started against him and the fathers of you other fellows by
+Mr. Looker to recover the value of the cottage that he said we set on
+fire."
+
+"That's all bunk!" cried Herb indignantly. "He couldn't prove it in a
+hundred years. A lawsuit, eh? Huh!"
+
+"Dad doesn't think Looker has much of a case," replied Bob. "Still, he
+says that you can never tell what a man like Looker and the kind of
+lawyer he would hire may do. Of course we can't get away from the fact
+that we were in the house the day before it burned, and that looks
+bad. We know we didn't set it on fire, but nobody else knows we
+didn't. At any rate, even if Looker loses his case, our folks will
+have to hire lawyers and lose a lot of time in attending court, so
+that all in all it makes a pretty bad mess."
+
+"So that's what Buck was looking so tickled about!" exclaimed Joe.
+"I'd like to wipe that look off his face."
+
+"It might be a little satisfaction," laughed Bob. "But it wouldn't
+help us win the lawsuit."
+
+By this time their walk had taken them near the vicinity of the radio
+station; and as they approached it they caught sight of Mr. Salper
+pacing back and forth in a state of impatience.
+
+"Seems to be stirred up about something," remarked Joe.
+
+"Did you ever see him when he wasn't?" laughed Jimmy.
+
+At this moment Mr. Salper caught sight of the boys and came hastily
+toward them.
+
+"I want some messages sent and taken," he said, in his usual abrupt
+way, though there was none of the sharpness in his voice that had
+usually been in evidence when he spoke to them. "I wonder if you could
+do this for me," and his eyes rested inquiringly upon Bob.
+
+"I'll do my best, Mr. Salper," replied the latter, and the whole group
+went into the wireless room.
+
+"I suppose you have permission to use this plant?" came from Joe.
+
+"Oh, yes. If it hadn't been for that I couldn't have used it as I did
+those other times," answered the broker.
+
+Bob seated himself at the sending key and, following the financier's
+directions, got in touch with the Wall Street house that had figured
+in the previous communications.
+
+For an hour or more there was an interchange of messages that were
+mostly nonunderstandable to Bob and his friends who listened with the
+keenest interest. There was talk of stocks and bonds and of
+consolidations and controls and proxies and a host of other things
+that bore on financial deals.
+
+At the beginning, Mr. Salper sat with furrowed brows and an air of
+intense concentration. But as the answers came in to his various
+inquiries, his brow gradually cleared and he relaxed somewhat in his
+chair.
+
+Finally there came an answer that stirred him mightily. He jumped to
+his feet and slapped his thigh.
+
+"I've got him!" he cried jubilantly. "By Jove, I've got him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+SOLVING THE MYSTERY
+
+
+Just whom Mr. Salper had got the radio boys could not tell with
+certainty, but they had a shrewd suspicion that Mohun was the hapless
+individual.
+
+The financier walked happily and springily about the office, chuckling
+to himself, and Jimmy declared afterward that if they had not been
+there he would have danced a jig.
+
+At last, when he had given sufficient vent to his elation, Mr. Salper
+turned to Bob.
+
+"I'm sure I can't tell you how I thank you," he declared, with a
+cordiality and heartiness that they had never yet seen in him. "This
+matter was one of the most important that has come to me in the whole
+course of my life. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were involved in
+it, and I'd surely have lost out if I hadn't had your services in this
+extremity. And now I'm going to prove my gratitude. A check--"
+
+"No, thank you, Mr. Salper," interrupted Bob hastily. "We don't want
+money for the service we've been to you. It's been exciting and
+interesting work for us, and I, at least, have been more than paid in
+the experience I've got through sending."
+
+"Well then I'm going to get you the finest radio set that money can
+buy," persisted Mr. Salper.
+
+"Not even that, thank you," returned Bob, smiling. "It's awfully good
+of you, and we appreciate it, but we've learned more of radio by
+building our own sets than we possibly could have done in any other
+way. If you want to send a check to the Red Cross or some other
+society of the kind, it would suit us better than anything else."
+
+"You're a stubborn young rascal," said Mr. Salper, with a smile, "and
+I suppose I'll have to let you have your way. But just bear in mind
+that you boys have a friend in me for life, and if I can ever be of
+service to any of you in business or anything else, let me know and
+I'll be only too glad to do it."
+
+He bade them good-by and went off briskly toward his bungalow to tell
+his family of the news that had lifted such a heavy burden from his
+brain and heart.
+
+The third day after the episode at the radio station the radio boys
+had gone further afield than usual and came upon a little shack that
+had evidently been used by workmen as a place for storing their tools.
+It was little more than a shed, and the boys, bestowing on it only a
+casual glance, had come nearly abreast of it when Bob, who was
+slightly in advance, heard a voice that he recognized as that of Buck
+Looker.
+
+He stopped dead in his tracks, and his companions did the same as he
+held up his hand in warning.
+
+"We certainly did put it over on those boobs all right," Buck was
+saying, and the remark was followed by laughs of satisfaction.
+
+"Yes, but we're not yet out of the woods," came the voice of Carl
+Lutz, with a touch of uneasiness in the tone. "Suppose when they put
+us on the stand to testify that we found Bob Layton and the other
+fellows in the cottage the evening before it burned, their lawyer asks
+us if we were in it too?"
+
+"Well, let them ask," replied Buck. "All we'll have to do is to deny
+it. We know they were in it. They don't know we were in it. Who knows
+that we slipped in later and sat there until nearly midnight smoking
+cigarettes?"
+
+With a bound Bob was at the door of the shack.
+
+"I know it!" he cried. "I didn't know it till just this minute, but
+now I know it by your own confession."
+
+"We all heard it," echoed Joe, as he, with Herb and Jimmy, followed
+Bob into the shack.
+
+Consternation and conscious guilt was written on every one of the
+three faces.
+
+Buck was the first of the cronies to recover some measure of
+self-possession.
+
+"Think you've put something over, don't you?" he sneered. "Well,
+you've got another think coming to you. This won't do you a bit of
+good in court. I'll simply swear that I didn't say anything of the
+kind and that you've made up the story out of whole cloth. It'll be
+simply my word against yours, and you'd be interested witnesses trying
+to help your fathers out by cooking up this story. So what are you
+going to do about it?"
+
+"I'll show you what we're going to do about it!" cried Joe, starting
+forward.
+
+But Bob stopped him.
+
+"Wait a minute, Joe," he said. Then he turned to Buck. "Do you mean to
+say," he demanded, "that you'd take a solemn oath in court to tell the
+truth, and then go on the stand and swear to a downright lie?"
+
+The contempt in his tone stung Buck into fury.
+
+"You can put it any way you like," he shouted. "I'm simply not going
+to let you get the best of me. Who cares for the old confession as you
+call it? You can have as many of those as you like and it won't do you
+any good. Here's another one now for good measure. We were in the
+house late that night. We were smoking cigarettes. Probably that's
+what caused the fire to break out later. I tell you these things just
+because it won't do you any good. In court I'll deny that I ever said
+them. You'll say I did. But the court will know that you have as much
+interest in lying as I have, and it'll just be a standoff. You'd have
+to have a disinterested witness, and that you haven't got."
+
+"Oh, yes, they have," came a voice from the doorway, and Mr. Salper
+stepped into the shack.
+
+An exclamation of delight broke from the lips of the radio boys, while
+Buck and his cronies slunk back in terror and confusion.
+
+"I was out taking a stroll," explained Mr. Salper, "and as I heard
+loud voices coming from the shack I stepped up to see what was the
+matter. I was just in time to hear the full confession of this
+estimable young man"--here he turned a withering glance on Buck--"and
+while I'm here, I guess I'll take it down."
+
+He drew from his pocket a notebook and a fountain pen and wrote
+rapidly, while Buck and his companions looked at each other like so
+many trapped animals.
+
+In a few minutes Mr. Salper had finished. Then he read in a clear
+voice just what he had written. It was a complete confession similar
+to that which Buck had made, with date and place affixed. He handed
+this over to Buck with the fountain pen, with a crisp demand that he
+sign it.
+
+Buck hesitated as long as he dared, but with those keen eyes used to
+command fixed upon him from beneath Mr. Salper's beetling brows, he
+finally signed his name, and Lutz and Mooney shamefacedly followed
+suit.
+
+"I guess that will settle the law case," Mr. Salper remarked, with a
+smile, as he handed the precious document to Bob, who folded it
+carefully and put it in his breast pocket. "Now perhaps we would
+better go and leave these worthy young gentlemen to their meditations.
+I don't think they'll be especially pleasant ones."
+
+The radio boys left the shack, followed by the black looks of the
+discomfited conspirators.
+
+"You certainly came along in the nick of time, Mr. Salper," said Bob.
+"We're very grateful to you."
+
+"I'm glad if I've been able to be of service to you," replied Mr.
+Salper. "It's only paying back in small measure what you've done for
+me. The bulk of the obligation is still on my side."
+
+It was a happy group of radio boys that returned to the Mountain Rest
+Hotel that afternoon.
+
+"Adventures have surely crowded in on us lately," remarked Bob.
+
+"More than they ever will again," prophesied Joe.
+
+But that he had not foretold the future correctly will be seen by
+those who read the following volume of this series, entitled: "The
+Radio Boys Trailing a Voice; Or, Solving a Wireless Mystery."
+
+That very night they sent the news of the confession to Dr. Atwood
+with the request that he would communicate the tidings to the fathers
+of the rest of the boys. The lawsuit, of course, was dropped at once,
+and Buck and his cronies slunk home in disgrace.
+
+"Radio is lots of work, but it's also lots of fun," remarked Joe that
+night, as they sat late reviewing the events of the day.
+
+"Radio," repeated Bob. "It's more than fun. It's excitement. It's
+romance. It's adventure. It's life!"
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+_This Isn't All!_
+
+Would you like to know what became of the good friends you have made
+in this book?
+
+Would you like to read other stories continuing their adventures and
+experiences, or other books quite as entertaining by the same author?
+
+On the _reverse side_ of the wrapper which comes with this book, you
+will find a wonderful list of stories which you can buy at the same
+store where you got this book.
+
+_Don't throw away the Wrapper_
+
+_Use it as a handy catalog of the books you want some day to have. But
+in case you do mislay it, write to the Publishers for a complete
+catalog._
+
+
+
+
+THE RADIO BOYS SERIES
+
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+By ALLEN CHAPMAN
+
+Author of the "Railroad Series," Etc.
+
+Individual Colored Wrappers. Illustrated.
+
+Every Volume Complete in Itself.
+
+A new series for boys giving full details of radio work, both in
+sending and receiving--telling how small and large amateur sets can be
+made and operated, and how some boys got a lot of fun and adventure
+out of what they did. Each volume from first to last is so thoroughly
+fascinating, so strictly up-to-date and accurate, we feel sure all
+lads will peruse them with great delight.
+
+Each volume has a Foreword by Jack Binns, the well-known radio expert.
+
+  THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS
+  THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT
+  THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION
+  THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS
+  THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE
+  THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE FOREST RANGERS
+  THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE ICEBERG PATROL
+  THE RADIO BOYS WITH THE FLOOD FIGHTERS
+  THE RADIO BOYS ON SIGNAL ISLAND
+  THE RADIO BOYS IN GOLD VALLEY
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE DON STURDY SERIES
+
+By VICTOR APPLETON
+
+Individual Colored Wrappers and Text Illustrations by
+
+WALTER S. ROGERS
+
+Every Volume Complete in Itself.
+
+In company with his uncles, one a mighty hunter and the other a noted
+scientist, Don Sturdy travels far and wide, gaining much useful
+knowledge and meeting many thrilling adventures.
+
+DON STURDY ON THE DESERT OF MYSTERY;
+
+An engrossing tale of the Sahara Desert, of encounters with wild
+animals and crafty Arabs.
+
+DON STURDY WITH THE BIG SNAKE HUNTERS;
+
+Don's uncle, the hunter, took an order for some of the biggest snakes
+to be found in South America--to be delivered alive!
+
+DON STURDY IN THE TOMBS OF GOLD;
+
+A fascinating tale of exploration and adventure in the Valley of Kings
+in Egypt.
+
+DON STURDY ACROSS THE NORTH POLE;
+
+A great polar blizzard nearly wrecks the airship of the explorers.
+
+DON STURDY IN THE LAND OF VOLCANOES;
+
+An absorbing tale of adventures among the volcanoes of Alaska.
+
+DON STURDY IN THE PORT OF LOST SHIPS;
+
+This story is just full of exciting and fearful experiences on the
+sea.
+
+DON STURDY AMONG THE GORILLAS;
+
+A thrilling story of adventure in darkest Africa. Don is carried over
+a mighty waterfall into the heart of gorilla land.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+THE TOM SWIFT SERIES
+
+By VICTOR APPLETON
+
+Uniform Style of Binding. Individual Colored Wrappers.
+
+Every Volume Complete in Itself.
+
+Every boy possesses some form of inventive genius. Tom Swift is a
+bright, ingenious boy and his inventions and adventures make the most
+interesting kind of reading.
+
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR BOAT
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRSHIP
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RUNABOUT
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE
+  TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS
+  TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFLE
+  TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER
+  TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL
+  TOM SWIFT IN THE LAND OF WONDERS
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS WAR TANK
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR SCOUT
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH
+  TOM SWIFT AMONG THE FIRE FIGHTERS
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING BOAT
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT OIL GUSHER
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS CHEST OF SECRETS
+  TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIRLINE EXPRESS
+
+Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York
+
+
+
+
+THE RIDDLE CLUB BOOKS
+
+By ALICE DALE HARDY
+
+Individual Colored Wrappers. Attractively Illustrated.
+
+Every Volume Complete in Itself.
+
+Here is as ingenious a series of books for little folks as has ever
+appeared since "Alice in Wonderland." The idea of the Riddle books is
+a little group of children--three girls and three boys decide to form
+a riddle club. Each book is full of the adventures and doings of these
+six youngsters, but as an added attraction each book is filled with a
+lot of the best riddles you ever heard.
+
+THE RIDDLE CLUB AT HOME
+
+An absorbing tale that all boys and girls will enjoy reading. How the
+members of the club fixed up a clubroom in the Larue barn, and how
+they, later on, helped solve a most mysterious happening, and how one
+of the members won a valuable prize, is told in a manner to please
+every young reader.
+
+THE RIDDLE CLUB IN CAMP
+
+The club members went into camp on the edge of a beautiful lake. Here
+they had rousing good times swimming, boating and around the campfire.
+They fell in with a mysterious old man known as The Hermit of Triangle
+Island. Nobody knew his real name or where he came from until the
+propounding of a riddle solved these perplexing questions.
+
+THE RIDDLE CLUB THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS
+
+This volume takes in a great number of winter sports, including
+skating and sledding and the building of a huge snowman. It also gives
+the particulars of how the club treasurer lost the dues entrusted to
+his care and what the melting of the great snowman revealed.
+
+THE RIDDLE CLUB AT SUNRISE BEACH
+
+This volume tells how the club journeyed to the seashore and how they
+not only kept up their riddles but likewise had good times on the sand
+and on the water. Once they got lost in a fog and are marooned on an
+island. Here they made a discovery that greatly pleased the folks at
+home.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+FOOTBALL AND BASEBALL STORIES
+
+Durably Bound. Illustrated. Colored Wrappers.
+
+Every Volume Complete in Itself.
+
+The Ralph Henry Barbour Books for Boys
+
+In these up-to-the-minute, spirited genuine stories of boy life there
+is something which will appeal to every boy with the love of
+manliness, cleanness and sportsmanship in his heart.
+
+  LEFT END EDWARDS
+  LEFT TACKLE THAYER
+  LEFT GUARD GILBERT
+  CENTER RUSH ROWLAND
+  FULLBACK FOSTER
+  LEFT HALF HARMON
+  RIGHT END EMERSON
+  RIGHT GUARD GRANT
+  QUARTERBACK BATES
+  RIGHT TACKLE TODD
+  RIGHT HALF HOLLINS
+
+The Christy Mathewson Books for Boys
+
+Every boy wants to know how to play ball in the fairest and squarest
+way. These books about boys and baseball are full of wholesome and
+manly interest and information.
+
+  PITCHER POLLOCK
+  CATCHER CRAIG
+  FIRST BASE FAULKNER
+  SECOND BASE SLOAN
+  PITCHING IN A PINCH
+
+THIRD BASE THATCHER, By Everett Scott
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass, by Allen Chapman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS ***
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