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+Project Gutenberg's The Radio Boys' First Wireless, 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' First Wireless
+       Or Winning the Ferberton Prize
+
+Author: Allen Chapman
+
+Posting Date: August 16, 2012 [EBook #7899]
+Release Date: April, 2005
+First Posted: May 31, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stan Goodman, Earle Beach, Tonya Allen and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "THERE IT IS!" CRIED JOE, AS THE MUSIC SUDDENLY
+BURST UPON THEIR EARS]
+
+
+
+
+THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS
+
+OR WINNING THE FERBERTON PRIZE
+
+
+
+BY ALLEN CHAPMAN
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+BY JACK BINNS
+
+It is very appropriate at this moment when radio has taken the
+country by storm, and aroused an enthusiasm never before equaled,
+that the possibilities for boys in this art should be brought out
+in the interesting and readable manner shown in the first book of
+this series.
+
+Radio is still a young science, and some of the most remarkable
+advances in it have been contributed by amateurs--that is, by boy
+experimenters. It is never too late to start in the fascinating game,
+and the reward for the successful experimenter is rich both in honor
+and recompense.
+
+Just take the case of E. H. Armstrong, one of the most famous of
+all the amateurs in this country. He started in as a boy at home,
+in Yonkers, experimenting with home-made apparatus, and discovered
+the circuit that has revolutionized radio transmission and reception.
+His circuit has made it possible to broadcast music, and speech, and
+it has brought him world-wide fame.
+
+He had no elaborate laboratory in which to experiment, but he
+persevered and won out. Like the Radio Boys in this story, he was
+confronted with all kinds of odds, but with true American spirit
+he stuck to his task and triumphed.
+
+The attitude of the government toward the wireless amateur is well
+illustrated by the expressions of Secretary of Commerce Herbert
+Hoover, and is summed up in his declaration, "I am for the American
+boy."
+
+No other country in the world offers such opportunities to boy
+experimenters in the radio field. The government realizes that there
+is always a possibility of other important discoveries being made
+by the boy experimenters, and that is the reason it encourages the
+amateur.
+
+Don't be discouraged because Edison came before you. There is still
+plenty of opportunity for you to become a new Edison, and no science
+offers the possibilities in this respect as does radio communication.
+
+Jack Binns
+March 30th 1922
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+I. THE AUTO CRASH
+II. TAKING CHANCES
+III. WONDERS OF WIRELESS
+IV. MYSTERIOUS FORCES
+V. CROOKED WORK
+VI. A PRACTICAL OBJECT LESSON
+VII. IN THE DARK
+VIII. GETTING A START
+IX. WORK AND FUN
+X. A STEALTHY RASCAL
+XI. CLEVER THINKING
+XII. FORGING AHEAD
+XIII. THRASHING A BULLY
+XIV. ON THE VERGE
+XV. THE FINISHING TOUCH
+XVI. SWEETS OF VICTORY
+XVII. THE FERBERTON PRIZE
+XVIII. FRIENDLY RIVALS
+XIX. A SPLENDID INSPIRATION
+XX. THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES
+XXI. THE VOICE THAT STUTTERED
+XXII. THE STOLEN SET
+XXIII. BATTERING IN THE DOOR
+XXIV. ON THE TRAIL
+XXV. THE PRIZE
+
+
+
+
+THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE AUTO CRASH
+
+
+"How about it, Joe?" asked Bob Layton of his chum, Joe Atwood, as
+they came out of school one afternoon, swinging their books by straps
+over their shoulders. "Going up to Dr. Dale's house to-night?"
+
+"You bet I am," replied Joe enthusiastically. "I wouldn't miss it
+for a farm. I'm keen to know more about this wireless business, and
+I'm sure the doctor can tell us more about it than any one else."
+
+"He sure does get a fellow interested," agreed Bob. "He isn't a
+bit preachy about it, either. Just talks to you in words you can
+understand. But all the time you know he's got a lot back of it and
+could tell you ten times as much about it if you asked him. Makes you
+feel safe when you listen to him. Not a bit of guesswork or anything
+like that."
+
+"What are you fellows chinning about?" asked Jimmy Plummer, one of
+their schoolmates, who came up to them at that moment. "You seem all
+worked up about something."
+
+"It's about that talk Dr. Dale is going to give us to-night on the
+wireless telephone," answered Bob, as he edged over a little to give
+Jimmy room to walk beside them. "You're going, aren't you? The doctor
+said he wanted all the boys to come who could."
+
+"Do you suppose there'll be any eats?" asked Jimmy, who was round
+and fat, and who went by the nickname of "Doughnuts" among his mates
+because of his fondness for that special delicacy.
+
+"Always thinking of that precious stomach of yours!" laughed Bob.
+"Jimmy, I'm ashamed of you. You're getting so fat now that pretty
+soon you won't have to walk to school. You can just roll there like
+a barrel."
+
+"You string beans are only jealous because I get more fun out of
+eating than you do," declared Jimmy, with a grin. "But eats or no
+eats, I'm going to hear what the doctor has to say. I got a letter
+the other day from a cousin of mine out in Michigan, and he told me
+all about a set that he'd made and put up himself. Said he was just
+crazy about it. Wanted me to go into it so that he and I might talk
+together. Of course, though, I guess he was just kidding me about
+that. Michigan's a long way off, and it takes more than a day to
+get there on a train."
+
+"Distance doesn't make much difference," declared Bob. "Already
+they've talked across the Atlantic Ocean."
+
+"Not amateurs?" objected Joe incredulously.
+
+"Yes, even amateurs," affirmed Bob. "My dad was reading in the papers
+the other night about a man in New Jersey who was talking to a friend
+near by and told him that he was going to play a phonograph record
+for him. A man over in Scotland, over three thousand miles away, heard
+every word he said and heard the music of the phonograph too. A ship
+two thousand miles out on the Atlantic heard the same record, and so
+did another ship in a harbor in Central America. Of course, the paper
+said, that was only a freak, and amateur sets couldn't do that once
+in a million times. But it did it that time, all right. I tell you,
+fellows, that wireless telephone is a wonder. Talk about the stories
+of the Arabian Nights! They aren't in it."
+
+There was a loud guffaw behind the lads, accompanied by snickers,
+and the friends turned around to see three boys following them.
+
+One of them, who was apparently the leader of the trio, was a big,
+unwieldy boy of sixteen, a year older and considerably larger than
+Bob and Joe. His eyes were close together, and he had a look of
+coarseness and arrogance that denoted the bully. Buck Looker, as
+he was called--his first name was Buckley--was generally unpopular
+among the boys, but as he was the son of one of the richest men of
+the town he usually had one or two cronies who hung about him for what
+they could get. One of these, Carl Lutz, an unwholesome looking boy,
+somewhat younger than Buck, was walking beside him, and on the side
+nearer the curb was Terry Mooney, the youngest of the three, a boy
+whose, furtive eyes carried in them a suggestion of treachery and
+sneakiness.
+
+"What's the joke, Buck?" asked Bob coldly, as he looked from one
+to the other of the sniggering faces.
+
+"You're the joke," answered Buck insolently; "that is, if you believe
+all that stuff I heard you pulling off just now. You must be easy if
+you fall for that."
+
+"I wasn't talking to you," replied Bob, restraining himself with some
+difficulty. "But since you've butted in, perhaps you'll tell me just
+what it is that's so funny about the wireless telephone."
+
+"The whole thing is bunk, if you ask me," replied Buck with the
+confidence that so often goes with ignorance. "Telephoning without
+wires! You might as well talk of walking without legs."
+
+This argument seemed to him so overpowering that he swelled out his
+chest and looked triumphantly at his two companions, whose faces
+instantly took on the same expression.
+
+"You made a ten strike that time, Buck," declared Lutz, clapping him
+on the shoulder.
+
+"Hit the target right in the bull's-eye," chimed in Terry, with
+a smirk.
+
+Bob and Joe and Jimmy looked at each other, and, despite their
+resentment, had all they could do to keep from breaking into laughter.
+
+Buck noticed their amused expression, and his coarse face grew red
+and mottled.
+
+"Well," he demanded, "what have you got to say to that? Am I right
+or ain't I?"
+
+"You're wrong," replied Joe promptly. "Dead wrong. You're so far
+from the truth that you couldn't see it with a telescope. You're
+talking like a ham sandwich."
+
+"Look out what you're saying, Joe Atwood, or I'll make you sorry
+for it," threatened Buck, as he clinched his fist, an ugly look
+coming into his eyes.
+
+"I apologize," said Joe. "That is, I apologize to the ham
+sandwich."
+
+Bob laid a restraining hand on his friend's arm.
+
+"Easy, Joe," he counseled. "Listen, Buck," he went on. "Did you ever
+hear of Marconi?"
+
+"Sure, I did," replied Buck. "He's the fellow that had the fight
+with Julius Caesar. The one that Cleopatra was dippy about."
+
+"No," said Bob patiently. "You're thinking of Mark Antony. He's been
+dead for more than eighteen hundred years. The man I mean is a very
+live one. He's the inventor of wireless telegraphy."
+
+"Never heard of him," muttered Buck sullenly.
+
+"Well, since you never heard of him, we'll mention some one else,"
+continued Bob. "I was only going to say that he's a pretty brainy
+fellow, and he believes in the wireless telephone. Then there's
+Edison. Perhaps you've heard of him?"
+
+"Of course I have," blurted Buck furiously. "Say, what are you trying
+to do? Make a fool of me?"
+
+"Nature's done that already," Joe put in, but Bob checked him.
+
+"I'm simply trying to show," Bob explained, "that if we're 'easy,'
+as you call it, in 'falling for that stuff,' there are a lot of able
+men in the United States who are in the same boat with us. In fact
+there isn't a man of brains and education in the country who doesn't
+believe in it."
+
+"Do you mean to say that I haven't any brains?" cried Buck in a fury.
+
+"Not exactly that," replied Bob. "But perhaps you don't use what
+brains you have. That happens sometimes, you know."
+
+"I guess a fellow's got a right to his own opinions," blustered Carl
+Lutz, coming to the rescue of his discomfited leader.
+
+"Of course he has," retorted Joe. "But when it's that kind of opinion
+he ought to put on the soft pedal. Any one has a right to have a club
+foot or a hunched back or cross eyes, but he doesn't usually go round
+boasting of them."
+
+"You're a wise bunch, I'll tell the world," sneered Buck in lieu of
+a more stinging retort.
+
+"Not at all," replied Joe. "It's you that claim to be wiser than
+Edison and the rest of them. But you mustn't think because you have
+water on the brain that you're the whole ocean."
+
+The air was full of electricity and matters were tense between the two
+groups when a diversion came in the form of a halloo from the other
+side of the street, and Herb Fennington, a special friend of Bob
+and Joe, came running over to greet them. They stopped for a moment,
+and Buck and his cronies passed on, favoring Bob, Joe and Jimmy with
+malignant scowls as they did so.
+
+"Hello, Herb!" called Bob, as the latter came up to them, a little
+breathless from running.
+
+"Hello, fellows!" returned Herb, as he looked after Buck and his
+companions. "What's up with Buck and his gang? Looked as if there
+was going to be a fight about something."
+
+"Not so bad as that, I guess," replied Bob, with a laugh, "though
+Buck did look as though he'd like to take a swing at us."
+
+"I only wish he had," grunted Joe. "That fellow certainly gets me mad,
+and I wouldn't mind at all having some excuse for pitching into him."
+
+"What was it all about?" asked Herb, with lively curiosity.
+
+"He heard us talking about the wireless telephone and butted in,"
+explained Bob. "Practically told us we were fools for believing
+that there is such a thing."
+
+Herb laughed outright.
+
+"Sounds like Buck," he commented. "What he doesn't know would fill
+a book."
+
+"A whole library you mean," corrected Joe.
+
+"A library then," agreed Herb, as the boys resumed their walk, which
+had now brought them close to the business part of the town. "But say,
+fellows, forget about Buck and listen to this. It's a good one that
+I heard yesterday. Why is--"
+
+He was interrupted by a shout from Bob.
+
+"Look," he cried, "look at that auto! It's running wild!"
+
+Their startled eyes followed the direction of Bob's pointing finger.
+
+An automobile was describing curious antics in the middle of the
+street. It made short dashes here and there, hesitated, zigzagged.
+Then it turned suddenly toward the curb, dashed on the sidewalk
+and amid a crash of broken glass plunged through the plate glass
+windows of a store.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+TAKING CHANCES
+
+
+There was a moment of stupefaction on the part of the boys at the
+suddenness of what promised to be a tragedy. Then in a flash they
+came to life.
+
+"There was a girl in that auto!" cried Bob, as he dashed toward the
+store, the others following close on his heels. "Hurry up, fellows.
+She may be badly hurt."
+
+"More likely killed," muttered Joe. "Don't see how any one could
+live through that."
+
+The store through whose windows the car had dashed was the largest
+paint and hardware store in the town. The crash had resounded far
+and near, and people were rushing toward it from all directions. The
+boys reached the place first, however. They opened the door and raced
+in, only to be greeted with a heavy volume of smoke, through which
+flickered tongues of fire.
+
+In the midst of a mass of debris was standing the wrecked auto.
+The gasoline tank had been smashed by the impact, and the contents,
+luckily a small amount, had been scattered over the place and come
+in contact with a stove. The flames had spread to a large part of
+the paints and oils and other inflammable materials that the store
+contained. One of the clerks in the place had been hit and stunned
+by the car, while two others, together with the proprietor and a
+customer, were making desperate attempts to beat out the flames.
+
+Bob's quick eye caught sight of a case of hand grenades standing near
+the entrance, and his qualities of leadership came into play at once.
+
+"Grab those grenades, you, Herb, and, you, Jimmy," he cried, "and
+throw them where they're most needed. Come with me, Joe, and get
+that girl out of the car. Quick!"
+
+In a twinkling, Herb and Jimmy were hurling the grenades at the points
+where the fire seemed to have gained most headway, while Bob and Joe
+worked their way over the mass of boxes and wrecked fixtures to the
+place where the runaway automobile had ended its mad rush.
+
+The plate glass windows had reached almost to the ground, so that
+the automobile with its great momentum had easily surmounted the
+sills and reached nearly the middle of the store. One wheel had
+been torn off, the windshield was shattered into fragments, and
+the front of the machine had been crushed in.
+
+In the driver's seat, still with her hand on the wheel, was the figure
+of a girl. No sound came from her, and from the way her body drooped
+forward, limp and motionless, it was evident that she was either
+unconscious or dead. The boys feared the worst, especially when they
+saw a stream of blood trickling down from a wound near her temple.
+
+They worked at top speed, trying to reach her and draw her out from
+the driver's seat. But the bent and tangled mass of wreckage held her
+captive, and it was only after other willing hands had come to their
+assistance that they were able to lift her from the car.
+
+They bore her to a point just outside the door, and laid her on some
+boxes that were hurriedly placed side by side. Her eyes were closed
+and she was deadly pale, the whiteness of her face being accentuated
+by the blood that dripped from her wound. She was a young girl,
+apparently no more than twenty, and was quietly though tastefully
+dressed. It was evident that she still breathed, and a slight
+fluttering of the eyelids indicated that she was returning to
+consciousness. Directly across the street was the Sterling House,
+named after its proprietor, and Mrs. Sterling, a motherly looking
+woman, who was among those who crowded around to look and help,
+recognized the girl at once.
+
+"Why, she's one of our guests!" she exclaimed. "Her name is Berwick--Miss
+Nellie Berwick--and she's been staying with us for the last three
+days. Some of you bring her across to her room, and some one else
+hurry and get a doctor. Oh, there's Dr. Ellis now!" she exclaimed
+with great relief, as she descried a tall figure in the crowd
+hurrying to the side of the injured girl.
+
+Under the doctor's directions, Bob and Joe, assisted by two others,
+lifted the girl and carried her across to the hotel. And while they
+are engaged in this work of helpfulness, it may be well for a better
+understanding of our story to sketch briefly the careers of Bob and
+Joe and their friends and the surroundings in which they had been
+brought up.
+
+Bob Layton was the son of Henry Layton, the leading druggist and
+chemist of the town. Bob had been born and brought up in Clintonia,
+which was a thriving town of about ten thousand inhabitants in
+an Eastern state, about seventy-five miles from New York City. It
+was located on the Shagary river, a stream that afforded abundant
+opportunities for boating, fishing, and swimming, and was a source
+of endless pastime and recreation for the boys.
+
+Bob, at the time this story opens, was fifteen years old, of rather
+dark complexion, and was tall and well-developed for his age. He was
+vigorous and athletic and a lover of outdoor sports. His magnetism and
+vitality made him a "live wire," and he was the natural leader among
+the boys with whom he associated. His nature was frank and friendly,
+and he was extremely popular with all those who were worth while. With
+that he had a quick temper, which he had learned, however, to keep
+under control. He never looked for trouble, but at the same time he
+never side-stepped it, and any one who tried to bulldoze and impose
+on him speedily found that he had picked out the wrong person.
+
+Joe Atwood, Bob's special chum, was a boy of about the same age and
+was the son of Dr. Atwood, a prominent and respected physician of
+the town. Between him and Bob a warm friendship existed, and where
+one was found the other was certain to be not very far off. He had a
+fair complexion with merry blue eyes, that, however, could flash fire
+on occasion. As has already been seen in his interchanges with Buck
+Looker, he had a "quick trigger" tongue, and was likely to say a thing
+first and regret it afterward, because he had gone perhaps too far.
+Bob, as the more self controlled of the chums, served as a sort of
+check on the impulsiveness of his friend, and had many times kept him
+out of trouble. Joe shared Bob's fondness for athletic sports, and,
+like him, was a leading spirit in the baseball and football teams
+of the town.
+
+Another thing that drew the boys together was their keen interest in
+anything pertaining to science. Each had marked mechanical ability,
+and would at any time rather put a contrivance together by their
+own efforts than to have it bought for them ready made. It was this
+quality that had made them enthusiastic regarding the wonders of the
+wireless telephone.
+
+Herbert Fennington was a year younger than the others and the son
+of one of the principal merchants of Clintonia. He was lively, full
+of fun and jokes and an all-around "good fellow."
+
+Jimmy Plummer was fourteen, round, fat, lazy, and good-natured, and
+a great lover of the good things of life. His father was a carpenter,
+thrifty, respected and a good citizen.
+
+As the boys all lived on West Main Street, a pleasant, shaded street
+about a quarter of a mile from the business center of the town,
+and within a few doors of each other, they were naturally thrown
+much together both in the daytime and when in the evenings they
+foregathered at each other's homes to study together the lessons for
+the next day or to indulge in a few hours of fun and recreation.
+
+The boys reached the hotel with their helpless burden and carried
+the girl upstairs to her room, where Mrs. Sterling had everything
+in readiness for her reception. Then the doctor took her in hand and
+the boys withdrew to the lobby of the hotel, where they planned to
+wait for a few minutes until the results of the doctor's examination
+could become known.
+
+Now for the first time since the excitement began they had time to
+think of themselves, and when they looked at each other they could
+hardly forbear from laughing outright at the picture they presented.
+They were begrimed with smoke and grease, their clothes were rumpled
+and soiled, and Bob's sleeve had been split from shoulder to elbow,
+where it had been caught by a jagged strip of the material of the
+wrecked car.
+
+"You look like a stoker from the hold of an ocean steamer," gibed
+Joe, as he looked at the unkempt figure of his friend.
+
+"It's dollars to doughnuts that you look just as bad," responded Bob,
+with a grin, as he made a break for the washroom, followed by his
+chum. In the work of washing themselves, they found that it was not
+only their clothes and appearance that had suffered. Each had a number
+of scratches and blisters that they had not felt during the stirring
+period of rescue but that now made their presence known. But these,
+after all, were trifles, and they took them as simply a part of
+the day's work.
+
+They had only a few minutes to wait before the tall figure of the
+doctor emerged from the sick room and descended the stairs. The
+expression on his face reassured them, as they hurried forward to
+hear his verdict.
+
+"There's no danger," he declared, as soon as he came within speaking
+distance, "though how she got off as easily as she did is almost a
+miracle. The crushed front and top of the machine acted as a sort of
+protection for her. The cut on the side of the face must have been
+made by a splinter of flying glass from the windshield. What she is
+suffering principally from is shock, and that's no wonder. Even one
+of you rough and ready youngsters," he added with a smile, "would
+find it a shock to go flying through a plate glass window."
+
+"Sure thing," said Bob in reply. "I'm mighty glad to know that things
+aren't any worse with her. I didn't think when we rushed in that we'd
+find her alive at all."
+
+"You boys deserve great credit for the quickness and decision with
+which you acted," the doctor said gravely. "The fire might have
+reached her in a few seconds more. I'm told that the auto caught
+fire just after you got her out.
+
+"By the way," he added, as he started to leave the hotel, "she has
+been told of the way you rescued her, and she is very grateful. She
+wanted me to let you come in so that she could thank you in person,
+but in her present weakened state I didn't think it advisable. I told
+her, though, that I would speak to you about it, and that if you so
+desired you could call on her tomorrow."
+
+"We'll be glad to," answered Bob, and Joe nodded his assent as the
+doctor with a wave of the hand went down the steps.
+
+The boys followed him a moment later and went across the street to
+view the scene of the wreck. The fire had been put out, and the local
+fire company, which had been summoned to the scene, was rolling up
+the hose and getting ready to depart. The proprietor and clerks of
+the store, with the aid of volunteers, had drawn the wreck of the
+partly burned automobile from the store, and it stood in the street,
+a melancholy ruin. It was clear that as an auto its day of usefulness
+was over.
+
+A large crowd still lingered about the spot, discussing the accident,
+which by its unique features had thoroughly stirred up the town. It
+was not often that an auto took a flying leap into a store and the
+story of why and how it happened was sure to furnish a topic of
+discussion for many days to come.
+
+Bob and Joe, as two of the principal figures in the event, were
+surrounded at once and besieged with questions. Many were the
+commendations also that were showered upon them for their courage
+and presence of mind.
+
+"Oh, that wasn't much," protested Bob. "We just happened to be close
+at hand when the auto went crazy. Anybody else would have done the
+same."
+
+"Of course they would," broke in Buck Looker, who with his cronies
+was standing close by. "People are making an awful fuss about a
+little thing, it seems to me. How about the work we did in helping
+to put out the fire?"
+
+"Did you?" asked Jimmy Plummer. "That's news to me. Look at your
+hands and clothes. They haven't got a mark on them. I saw you
+standing around outside, and you didn't lift a finger."
+
+"You keep your mouth shut or I'll shut it for you," cried Buck
+angrily. "You're getting altogether too fresh."
+
+Jimmy was about to retort, but just then there came an interruption.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WONDERS OF WIRELESS
+
+
+"How are you, boys?" asked a pleasant voice, and the lads looked
+up to see Dr. Amory Dale, the pastor of the "Old First Church" of
+Clintonia, standing beside them.
+
+Most of them responded cordially, for they liked and respected him.
+There was no stiffness or professionalism about him to make them feel
+that they were being held at a distance. He was comparatively young,
+somewhere in the early thirties, and had the frame and bearing of
+an athlete. There were rumors that he had been a star pitcher on his
+college baseball nine and a quarterback on a football eleven whose
+exploits were still cherished in the memory of his institution. He was
+a lover of the out-of-doors and there was a breeziness and vitality
+that radiated from him and made him welcome wherever he went. He kept
+in touch with modern science, and it was said that he would have
+embraced a scientific career if he had not felt it his duty to enter
+the pulpit.
+
+"You boys seem to have had a strenuous time of it," he said, as he
+looked with an amused smile at the torn and soiled clothes of Bob
+and Joe as well as the scratches and blisters that marked them. "I
+hear that you covered yourself with glory. Tell me more about it."
+
+They went into all the details they knew, passing over as rapidly
+as possible their own part in the affair, and Dr. Dale listened
+attentively.
+
+"Good work," he commented. "The occasion came and you were equal to
+it, and that's all that can be asked of anybody. I think I'll step
+over to the Sterling House now and see if I can be of any help to
+the poor girl who has had such a trying experience. By the way, boys,
+I hope you won't forget about that wireless talk up at my house
+to-night. I'm looking for you all to come if possible, and I'll do
+my best to see that you have a good time."
+
+"We're sure of that," replied Bob, with a smile. "And we haven't been
+thinking of much else since you first asked us to come. In fact, we
+were talking about it just before the accident."
+
+"That's good," replied the doctor. "You coming too, Buckley?" he
+asked, turning to Buck, who with his cronies was standing grouchily
+a little apart from the others.
+
+Buck stammered something which could be hardly understood, but which
+was interpreted by the doctor as a negative. The minister did not
+press the matter, but with a pleasant wave of the hand that included
+them all he went across the street.
+
+"He's a brick, isn't he?" remarked Bob, as he looked after him.
+
+"You bet he is," agreed Joe emphatically.
+
+"All wool and a yard wide," was Herb's tribute, as the boys, having
+gathered up their books, which in the excitement had been thrown
+wherever they happened to fall, resumed their walk toward their
+homes, leaving Buck and his mates glowering after them.
+
+There was no lack of animated conversation around their supper tables
+that night. Bob's parents made no secret of the fact that they were
+proud of their son's part in the day's work. Joe, too, found himself
+made much of in the family circle, not only by his father and mother,
+but by his sister Rose, who hovered about him forestalling his wants
+and showing him a deference that would have been highly flattering
+if it had not been also somewhat embarrassing. Rose, a year or so
+younger than Joe, was all aflutter with the romantic possibilities
+of the affair. A young girl in distress! Joe to the rescue! What
+could be more interesting?
+
+"Was she pretty, Joe?" she asked.
+
+"Blest if I know," her brother answered briefly. "Pass me some more
+of that roast veal, Sis. It goes right to the spot."
+
+With a sigh, Rose complied. Joe was so practical!
+
+Herb and Jimmy came in for a modified share of applause because of
+the help they had rendered by their prompt and efficient handling
+of the fire grenades, which had held the flames under control until
+the fire department could get to the place and complete the job.
+
+The minister's house adjoined the big stone church, which was on West
+Main Street and divided the business from the residential part of
+the street. It was a roomy, capacious structure, and at about eight
+o'clock that night it became a place of pilgrimage for a large number
+of the boys of the town. Buck Looker and his cronies were conspicuous
+by their absence, but this was a relief rather than a privation.
+
+Bob and his friends were among the first comers. They were warmly
+greeted by Dr. Dale and ushered into the large living room of the
+parsonage. The portieres had been drawn back between the front and
+back rooms so that nearly the whole ground floor was thrown into
+one big room. Extra chairs had been brought in so that there were
+accommodations for a large number. There were no grown people in
+the gathering, for the doctor had especially confined his invitation
+to the boys, who, he knew, would feel more at ease in the absence
+of their elders.
+
+"There's Talley's wagon," remarked Jimmy, as he noted the presence
+at the curb of a vehicle bearing the name of the leading caterer
+of the town. "I'll bet we're going to have some eats."
+
+"And you've just come from the supper table!" exclaimed Bob.
+
+"He's like a trolley car," chaffed Joe. "You can always crowd more
+into it."
+
+"Don't you know the doctor's going to give you a feast of reason?"
+asked Herb with mock gravity.
+
+"Reason's all right," admitted Jimmy, "but there isn't much
+nourishment in it."
+
+"How about a flow of soul?" asked Bob.
+
+"Nothing against it," Jimmy answered, "but a flow of lemonade has
+its good points too."
+
+From the time the boys entered the room their eyes were fixed on
+a box-like contrivance that was placed on a table close up against
+the wall of the further room. It had a number of polished knobs and
+dials and several groups of wires that seemed to lead in or out of
+the instrument. Connected with it was a horn such as was common enough
+in the early days of the phonograph. There were also several pairs
+of what looked like telephone ear pieces lying on the table.
+
+They eyed it with intense curiosity, not unmixed with awe. They had
+already heard and read enough of the wireless telephone to realize
+that it was one of the greatest marvels of modern times. It seemed
+almost like something magical, something which, like the lamp of
+Aladdin, could summon genii who would be obedient to the call.
+
+The rooms were comfortably filled when Dr. Dale, with a genial smile,
+rose and took up his stand near the table.
+
+"Now, boys," he said, "I've asked you to come here to-night so that we
+can talk together and get a little better idea of some of the wonders
+of the world we are living in. One of those wonders and perhaps the
+most wonderful of all is the wireless telephone," and here he laid
+his hand on the box beside him. "Most of you have heard of it and want
+to learn more about it. I'm going to try to explain it to you just
+as simply as I possibly can. And I'm not going to do all the talking
+either, for I want you to feel free to ask any questions you like.
+And before I do any talking worth mentioning, I'm going to give you
+a little idea of what the wireless telephone can do."
+
+The boys watched him breathlessly as he handled two of the knobs at
+the side of the box. A moment later they heard the clear, vibrant
+notes of a violin playing a beautiful selection from one of the
+operas. The music rose and swelled in wonderful sweetness until it
+filled the room, with the delicious melody and held all the hearers
+entranced under its spell. It was evident that only the hand of
+a master could draw such exquisite music from the instrument.
+
+The doctor waited until the last notes had died away, and smiled with
+gratification as he saw the rapt look on the faces of his visitors.
+
+"Sounds as if it were in the next room, doesn't it?" he asked.
+"But that music came from Newark, New Jersey."
+
+"Gee," whispered Jimmy to Bob, alongside whom he was sitting,
+"that's nearly a hundred miles from here."
+
+"But there's no need of confining ourselves to any place as near
+as that," continued the doctor. "What do you say to listening in
+on Pittsburg? That's only a trifle of four hundred miles or so
+from here."
+
+"He calls four hundred miles a trifle!" breathed Jimmy. "Pinch me,
+somebody. I must be dreaming."
+
+Joe on his other side pinched him so sharply that Jimmy almost
+jumped from his chair.
+
+"Lay off there," he murmured indignantly.
+
+"S-sh," cautioned Bob, for by this time the doctor had made another
+adjustment.
+
+Then into the room burst the stirring strains of the "Stars and
+Stripes Forever" played by a band that had a national reputation.
+The rhythm and dash and fire of the performance were such that
+the boys had all they could do to keep their seats, and, as it was,
+their feet half unconsciously beat time to the music.
+
+"Hit you hard, did it?" smiled Dr. Dale, who, to tell the truth, had
+been keeping time himself. "Well, I don't wonder. I'd hate to see
+the time when music like that wouldn't shake you up. But now we'll
+go a few hundred miles farther and see what Detroit has to give us."
+
+Jimmy was past speech by this time and could only look at his comrades
+in helpless wonder. Then the twang of a banjo sounded through the
+rooms and to the thrumming of the strings came a voice in rich negro
+dialect
+
+  "It rained all night the day I left,
+    The next day it was dry,
+  The sun so hot I froze to death
+    Susanna, don't you cry."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MYSTERIOUS FORCES
+
+
+The boys broke out in roars of laughter in which the doctor joined
+heartily.
+
+"You see how it is," he said, as the song came to an end. "There's
+hardly anything you can think of that you can't hear over the wireless
+telephone. It takes you anywhere you want to go in a fraction of a
+second. In the last few minutes, we've covered quite a section of the
+United States, and with a still stronger instrument we could go right
+out to the Pacific coast and hear the barking of the sea lions at the
+Golden Gate."
+
+"Wonder if we could hear the barking of the hot dogs at Coney Island,"
+whispered the irrepressible Herb, who would have his joke.
+
+Bob nudged him sharply and Herb subsided.
+
+"And you can pick out any kind of entertainment you want," the doctor
+went on. "The great stations from which this music was sent out have
+programs which are published every day, together with the exact time
+that the selections will be given. At a given minute you can make your
+adjustment and listen to a violin solo, a band concert, a political
+speech, a sermon, or anything else that you want. If it doesn't please
+you, you can shut it off at once, which is much easier and pleasanter
+than getting up and going out from an audience.
+
+"We'll have some more selections later on in the evening," he
+continued, "but now I want to explain to you how this thing is done.
+I can't hope to do much more than touch the surface of the subject
+to-night, for I don't want to tire you out, and there'll be plenty of
+other nights and days when I hope you boys will call upon me for any
+information that you want and I can give.
+
+"Of course the whole thing is based on electricity, the most wonderful
+thing that perhaps there is in the whole physical world. Nobody knows
+what electricity is--Mr. Edison himself doesn't know. We only know
+that it is a wonderful fluid and that the ether is full of it. But
+though we don't know what it is, scientific men have learned how to
+develop and use its energy, and among other things they have harnessed
+it in the service of the wireless telephone.
+
+"Take for instance a quiet lake. It may seem absolutely still, but
+if you throw a stone in it you start a number of ripples that keep
+spreading further and further out until they break on the shore. So
+if you hit a drum with a stick, sound waves are stirred up that keep
+spreading out very much like the ripples on the lake.
+
+"Now electricity is something like that. It doesn't begin to act until
+you do something to it. The impulse to ripple is in the quiet lake all
+the time, but it doesn't ripple until you throw the stone in it. The
+sound quality is in the drum, but you don't hear it until you hit the
+drum with a stick. So you've got to put into the ether something that
+disturbs the electricity in it, something that stirs it up, and then
+this disturbance makes waves that travel on, just as the waves on the
+lake follow one another and just as the sound waves from the drum keep
+pushing each other along.
+
+"A man named Hertz discovered a way of stirring up this energy,
+snapping it, you might say, as a man snaps a whip. It was found that
+these waves could be made long enough and strong enough to go all
+the way across the Atlantic Ocean, in fact to go around the world.
+
+"Around the world!" murmured Jimmy, and again he was tempted to ask
+somebody to pinch him, but remembered his previous experience and
+stopped just in time.
+
+"Now," continued the doctor, "you may ask what this has to do with
+the voice, for it is with the voice that one talks over the 'phone.
+The whole principle of the wireless telephone is based on the fact
+that sound can be transformed into electricity and then can be
+transformed back into sound again. I know," he said, with a smile,
+"that that sounds very much like saying that you can make eggs into
+an omelet and then get the omelet back into separate eggs again"--here
+there was an audible snicker from the boys--"but that is very
+much like what is done by the wireless, although it doesn't exactly
+fit the case.
+
+"Now see what a wonderful increase in power you get the moment the
+sound waves are changed into electric waves. Sound goes at the rate
+of one thousand and ninety feet a second. Electrical energy travels
+at the rate of one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second.
+In other words it could go around the world more than seven times
+in a single second.
+
+"When you speak into a telephone, unless you are greatly excited,
+you don't use more than a fiftieth part of the power of your voice.
+But by the time that sound has been caught up and churned, as it
+were, into electrical energy it is more than a hundred thousand
+times as loud and strong.
+
+"Suppose now, just as an illustration, that you were going to
+telephone to Europe. You'd pick up the 'phone and give your message.
+That sound would go in the form of a tiny electrical impulse into one
+of the great sending stations on the Atlantic Coast, we'll say, and
+there it would be caught up by a powerful lot of electrical machines,
+amplifiers, alternators, and others, that would keep making it
+stronger and stronger until finally it was flung out into space from
+the ends of the great wires or antennae. Out and out it would go until
+it struck a lot of wires on the other side of the ocean. Then it would
+go through another process that would gradually change the electrical
+impulse back into sound again, and the man at the other end of the
+telephone would hear your voice, just as one does now when you 'phone
+to any one in this town."
+
+He paused for a moment, and there was a long drawn breath on the part
+of his auditors that testified to the rapt attention with which they
+had followed him into this fairyland of science.
+
+"So much for the theory and principle of the wireless," resumed the
+doctor. "Of course I've only scratched the surface, and if I talked
+to you all night there'd be still lots left to say. But we only need
+to know a little about it to put it to practical use. And it is the
+practical use of the wireless telephone that I'm especially interested
+in for the sake of you boys. I'm satisfied that there's hardly
+anything that could give you more pleasure or more benefit than for
+each of you to have one of these contrivances in your own home. It's
+a wonderful educator, it helps to develop your interest in science,
+and what will perhaps appeal to you most of all, you can have more
+fun with it than anything else I know of."
+
+Here Bob put in a question that was in the minds of many of
+the others.
+
+"Does it cost very much, Doctor?" he asked.
+
+"Not very much," the doctor replied. "Of course, some of the more
+powerful ones with vacuum tubes and other high class improvements run
+into the hundreds of dollars. But some very good receiving sets--and
+that's all you could use at the start, for it takes considerable time
+and you have to get a license before you are permitted to transmit--cans
+be bought for from twenty-five to seventy-five dollars."
+
+There was a little gasp at this, some of which was due to a feeling of
+disappointment. It seemed beyond the range of what they could save up
+from their pocket money, and while the parents of some of them were
+well to do, others came from simple and frugal homes where every
+dollar had to be carefully counted.
+
+The doctor was quick to note the expression on many faces, and took
+pains at once to remove any feeling of discouragement.
+
+"But don't let that bother you at all," he said, "for with a little
+thought and planning any one of you will be able to build a telephone
+receiving set for himself at hardly any cost at all. In fact, I'd much
+rather have you build one than buy one, for in that way you'll get an
+understanding of the whole thing that otherwise you might not get at
+all. You'd be surprised perhaps if I told you that this set here was
+built by me and I wouldn't exchange the experience I've had in putting
+it together for a good deal of money."
+
+"But you knew how to do it," put in Joe, "while we don't know the
+first thing about it. We wouldn't know how to start, even, let alone
+finish one."
+
+"I was coming to that," returned Dr. Dale, smiling. "As some of you
+know, I've fitted up a workshop in the barn behind this house where
+I do a good deal of tinkering in my spare hours. Now I'm going to ask
+you boys to come out there next Saturday and see me build a wireless
+receiving set from A to Z. You'll be surprised to see how much can be
+done with a few things that cost very little money and with a lot of
+things that don't cost any money at all. How about it, boys?"
+
+It was almost with a whoop that the invitation was accepted by his
+eager hearers, and the minister smiled with gratification at their
+enthusiasm.
+
+"Now that's all the talking I'm going to do tonight," he said. "And
+as talking's rather dry work, I'm going to have a little refreshment.
+Will you boys join me?"
+
+Would they join him? They would and they did, and the havoc they
+wrought on the sandwiches and cake and ice-cream that were brought in
+and passed around was something to be remembered. Jimmy in particular
+ate until his eyes bulged and fully sustained his previous reputation.
+And while they ate, the doctor turned on one lively selection after
+another, finishing with a selection from a jazz band that sent them
+into a frenzy of laughter.
+
+They were still tingling with it as they finally said good-night
+to the doctor and started on their way home.
+
+"Oh, you wireless telephone!" exclaimed Herb.
+
+"Isn't it a wonder?" ejaculated Joe.
+
+"Wonder!" repeated Bob. "It's a miracle!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CROOKED WORK
+
+
+"We've got to get busy right away and rig up wireless telephones of
+our own," continued Bob. "Of course they won't be anything like the
+doctor's, but they ought to be good enough for us to get a lot of fun
+out of them."
+
+"You bet we will," agreed Joe. "Gee, I can't wait to get at it! If
+it wasn't so late I believe I'd start in figuring on it to-night."
+
+"Count me in on it too," chimed in Jimmy. "In a week or so we'll be
+sending messages everywhere. I'll be talking maybe to that cousin of
+mine in Michigan."
+
+"Come out of your trance, Jimmy," laughed Bob, clapping him on the
+shoulder. "Things don't move so fast as that. It'll be a good long
+time before you'll be sending any messages. You'll have to learn all
+about receiving them first; and believe me there's a good deal to
+learn about that. Then before you can send any messages you have to
+pass an examination and get a license. But for quite a time we'll have
+our hands full and our ears full with attending to the receiving end
+of the game. One step at a time is the rule in radio, as well as in
+anything else that's worth while."
+
+"I didn't know that," replied Jimmy, somewhat dashed by the
+information. "I had an idea that we could send just as soon as
+we got our sets made."
+
+"How about you, Herb?" asked Bob. "You're in it with the rest of us
+too, aren't you?"
+
+"With both feet," replied Herb. "I think that the wireless is the
+greatest thing that ever happened. But I don't know about making one
+for myself. I'm all thumbs when it comes to doing any mechanical work.
+You fellows are handy with tools, but I have all I can do to keep out
+of my own way. I guess I'll ask my dad to buy me a set and let it go
+at that."
+
+"That's what you think now," replied Joe, "but I'll bet when you see
+the rest of us getting busy, you'll pitch in too and make your own
+machine. Besides, from what the doctor says, it doesn't take a genius
+to put the thing together."
+
+They separated for the night with their heads still full of the
+wonders they had heard and seen, and the enthusiasm, was still
+with them when they woke the next morning.
+
+At the breakfast tables the conversation was divided between their
+experience of the night before and the newspaper account of the auto
+accident. A good deal of space was devoted to the latter, and it was
+gratifying to learn that although the damage to the store had been
+considerable the loss was covered by insurance and that the young
+lady whose automobile had crashed into the store had not been
+seriously injured and was expected to be around again in a few days.
+The coolness and courage with which Bob and Joe had acted and the part
+played by Herb and Jimmy in checking the spread of the flames were not
+overlooked. The comment that went with it was warm and appreciative,
+so much so in fact that, while the boys were not wholly displeased
+with it, they felt, as Joe expressed it, that the reporter was
+"spreading it on too thick" and feared that they would have to
+undergo no end of "joshing" from their mates.
+
+Their lessons in school that day did not receive all the attention
+that was due them, for their minds were taken up pretty fully by the
+events of the last twenty-four hours. But three o'clock came at last,
+and with it came the reminder that they were to call on their way home
+at the Sterling House, in order to see Miss Berwick, in accordance
+with her request of the day before.
+
+Bustling, motherly Mrs. Sterling greeted Bob and Joe with a smile,
+as they made known their errand.
+
+"So here are the young heroes that the paper has been making so much
+fuss about," she said mischievously, and Bob and Joe blushed to their
+ears. "Just wait a minute until I run up and see if Nellie is ready
+to receive you."
+
+"If it's too late, we can wait until another day," said Bob.
+
+"Oh, no," replied Mrs. Sterling. "She's been looking forward to your
+coming all day and has spoken about it a number of times. She is very
+anxious to thank you both, and I'm sure it will do her good to see
+you. The doctor was here this morning and said it would be all right.
+Of course, it won't do to stay too long, for the poor lamb is still
+rather nervous after her accident, and no wonder. Just wait here a
+minute."
+
+She disappeared, but a moment later was at the head of the stairs
+motioning to them to come up.
+
+They were ushered into a bright, sunny room, where they found Miss
+Berwick resting in an easy chair, propped up with pillows.
+
+She was a pretty girl with blue eyes and brown hair and regular
+features. Her age appeared to be about twenty. Her face was pale,
+as was natural under the circumstances, but it lighted up with a
+friendly and grateful smile as the party, entered.
+
+She extended her hand to the boys in turn, as Mrs. Sterling
+introduced them.
+
+"You must excuse my not rising," she said, "but I've had a rather
+nerve-racking experience, as no one knows better than yourselves.
+I want to thank you with all my heart for the way you came to my
+help when I was unable to help myself."
+
+"Oh, you make too much of it, Miss Berwick," Bob replied, and Joe
+assented with a nod of his head. "We just had the good luck to be
+close at hand, and if we hadn't done it, somebody else would."
+
+"That doesn't change the fact that you did it," replied the girl.
+"And you took a chance of losing your lives. The gasoline tank might
+have exploded and killed us all."
+
+"We're mighty glad that you came out of it as well as you did,"
+said Bob warmly.
+
+"It's almost a miracle that you weren't killed," added Joe.
+
+"I suppose I deserve a severe scolding for having caused all this
+excitement and damage," was the response. "I don't know what on earth
+caused the accident. There seemed to be something the matter with
+the steering gear. Then I got excited and dizzy and tried to stop
+the machine. What I think happened was that I put my foot on the
+accelerator when I meant to put it on the brake. Then when I saw
+that the car was plunging toward the window, I either fainted or was
+made unconscious later from the shock. After the first awful crash
+I didn't know anything more until I woke in this room and found
+the doctor bending over me."
+
+"You're a stranger to this town, aren't you?" asked Bob, with an idea
+of getting her mind off the subject, which he could see was beginning
+to excite her. "Mrs. Sterling was telling us that you had only been
+here for a few days."
+
+"Yes," responded the girl. "I live in the town of Lisburn, about ten
+miles from here. I'm all alone in the world"--here a shade of sadness
+passed over her expressive face. "My father and mother are dead and
+I live with an aunt of mine. I never had any brothers or sisters.
+My father died some months ago and left me some property, and it was
+in connection with that matter that I came to Clintonia. This is the
+county seat, you know, and I wanted to consult the records in the
+office of the County Clerk. There seems to be a terrible tangle about
+the whole thing. Perhaps it was because I became so nervous over the
+matter that things went wrong yesterday."
+
+"I'm sorry, that you've had so much trouble," said Bob
+sympathetically, "and I hope that it will all come out right
+in a little while."
+
+"If it were just a little confusion or mistake, it probably would,"
+replied Miss Berwick, with a touch of despondency in her manner.
+"But there's dishonesty involved. I know there is, but I don't see
+how I'm going to prove it."
+
+"Do you mean that somebody's trying to cheat you out of your
+property?" asked Bob, with quickened interest.
+
+"It must be the meanest kind of a rascal that would swindle an
+orphan," put in Joe indignantly.
+
+"I'm afraid there are only too many of that kind in the world,"
+replied the girl, with a faint smile in which there was no trace
+of mirth. "You see I've never had the least bit of business training
+and I suppose I would be easy prey. But I'm afraid I'm boring you
+with my troubles," she added, catching herself up suddenly.
+
+"Not at all," replied Bob, as Joe also made a gesture of dissent.
+"In fact I hope you'll go right ahead and tell us all about it. Of
+course we don't know much about law, but our fathers have lived in
+this town for years and know almost everybody in the county, and they
+may be able to be of some service to you. Who is the rascal that you
+think is trying to cheat you out of your property?"
+
+"I don't suppose you know him," replied the girl, visibly cheered
+by the sympathy and interest of the boys. "His name is Cassey--Dan
+Cassey, and he lives in the town of Elwood, only a few miles from
+Lisburn. He held a mortgage of four thousand dollars on my father's
+house. When father was taken with his last illness he was very anxious
+that the mortgage should be paid so that he could leave the house to
+me free and clear. He had enough money in the bank to pay it and he
+had me draw it out and keep it in the house. He intended to settle
+the matter himself, but death came to him before he could attend
+to it.
+
+"I knew what his wishes were, and as soon as the funeral was over I
+went to see Cassey and told him that I wanted to pay off the mortgage.
+I saw his eyes glisten when I told him that I had the money at home
+to do it with. Of course, I realize now that I ought to have had a
+lawyer attend to the business for me, but, as I say, I have never
+had any experience in business and I had a general idea that most men
+were honest and that there'd be no trouble about it. Cassey made an
+appointment for me to come to his office the next day with the money.
+When I went there he was alone. He usually has a stenographer, but
+I suppose he had sent her away so that there would be no witnesses.
+I gave him the money in bills."
+
+"Then of course you got a receipt for it," interrupted Bob.
+
+"No, I didn't," replied the young girl, her face flushing. "Oh,
+don't think that I didn't have sense enough to ask for one," she said,
+as she saw the boys look at each other in surprise. "I did ask him
+for one, but he said that the mortgage itself would be a sufficient
+receipt and he would go over to the bank where he kept it in his
+safety deposit box and get it for me. Then he looked at his watch,
+and seemed surprised when he saw that it was past banking hours and
+too late to get it that day. He said he was awfully sorry, but that
+he would get it for me the next day and made an appointment for me to
+call and get it at his office. He seemed so sorry that he wasn't able
+to give it to me on the spot that I took it for granted that it would
+be all right and agreed to come the next day and get it.
+
+"I did go about noon the following day, but he wasn't there. His
+stenographer said that he had been suddenly called away to Chicago by
+a telegram. I asked her when he would be back, and she said that she
+didn't know. Then I asked her if he had left any word or any papers
+for me and she said he hadn't. I told her of my having been there the
+previous day and of having paid him the money, and she looked at me
+in surprise and said she didn't know a thing about it. Then--"
+
+Just at that moment Mrs. Sterling came in, and behind her was the
+tall form of Dr. Ellis.
+
+"Time's up, boys," the physician said, with a genial smile. "This
+young patient of mine can't have company very long at a time just
+at present. It will be all right though to drop in some other time,
+if Miss Berwick so desires."
+
+"Indeed I do," said the young girl, as the boys, in compliance with
+the doctor's suggestion, arose to go.
+
+"And we surely will be glad to come," responded Bob for himself
+and his friend. "We are keen to hear the rest of that story."
+
+They said good-bye and went downstairs and out into the street.
+
+"Why didn't the doctor wait just five minutes more?" grumbled Joe.
+"He couldn't have picked out a worse minute to butt in. I'm just
+crazy to know how the thing came out."
+
+"So am I," agreed Bob. "But I've heard enough already to feel sure
+that that fellow Cassey is a double-dyed crook. He simply saw that he
+had an inexperienced girl to deal with and he made the most of it."
+
+"I'd like to punch his nose for him," growled Joe savagely, making
+a swing in the air at an imaginary opponent.
+
+"Same here," agreed Bob, "but that wouldn't get back her four
+thousand. To think of a man turning a trick like that at the expense
+of a young girl who had just lost her father! It doesn't seem as
+though there could be such a mean fellow in the world!"
+
+"Well, however it may seem, there is evidently one who is mean
+enough."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A PRACTICAL OBJECT LESSON
+
+
+The chums were joined outside the hotel by Herb and Jimmy, who had
+waited for them during their interview. To them they narrated what
+they had learned of Miss Berwick's story. Their friends shared their
+own indignation and were quite as keen as themselves to hear the end
+of the story.
+
+"What did you say the fellow's name was?" asked Herb, as the quartette
+walked along Main Street.
+
+"Cassey, she said it was--Dan Cassey," replied Bob. "Ever hear of
+any one by that name?"
+
+"It sounds rather familiar," replied Herb, knitting his brows as he
+tried to remember.
+
+"Wait!" he said suddenly. "I've almost got it--Cassey! Cassey! Does
+the man stutter, do you know?"
+
+"She didn't say anything about that," replied Joe. "Why do you ask
+that question?"
+
+"Because," answered Herb, "I remember a man of that name a few weeks
+ago calling at dad's store to get a bill of goods. The reason I
+remember was the way he stuttered when dad was making out the bill.
+He tried and tried to say something, and his eyes bulged out and his
+cheeks got all puffed and red while he was trying to get it out. Then
+he stopped and whistled, and that seemed to help him, for then he went
+right on talking, only stopping once in a while to whistle again and
+get a fresh start. I had to get out of the store to keep from bursting
+out laughing. I remember I felt rather sorry for the fellow at the
+time, but if he's the fellow who's trying to do Miss Berwick out of
+her money, nothing's too bad for him."
+
+"Suppose you ask your father what he knows about him," suggested Bob
+eagerly. "He may know something that may prove of some help to the
+girl, either in getting her money back or putting the fellow in jail."
+
+"I'll do it," agreed Herb. "By the way, fellows, I dropped into Dave
+Slocum's place yesterday afternoon and found out that he had a whole
+stock of material for making wireless telephone sets. Said a salesman
+from New York talked him into it, and he was wondering how he was
+going to get rid of them. Thought he'd been stocked up with more than
+he could sell, all through the salesman's slick tongue. I told him
+not to worry, that the boys would be standing in line before long and
+would clean him out of stock. He seemed to think I was kidding him,
+but he brightened up just the same."
+
+"Dave's got a pleasant surprise coming to him," grinned Joe. "Just
+our bunch alone will make quite a hole in his stock."
+
+"You bet," agreed Bob, as, having reached his gate, he said good-bye
+to his mates and went in. "Don't forget to ask your dad about that
+Cassey fellow," he called out after Herb.
+
+That Herb did not forget was proved when he overtook his friends
+the next morning on the way to school.
+
+"I asked dad about Cassey," were his first words, after greetings had
+been exchanged. "He said he thought very likely the man was the one
+you had in mind, for this stuttering fellow came from Elwood and his
+first name was Daniel. It's hardly likely there'd be two men of the
+same name in that little town."
+
+"Did your father know anything about what kind of fellow he was?"
+asked Joe.
+
+"Dad said that he had the reputation of being tricky and hard-fisted,"
+answered Herb. "But as far as he knew he hadn't been caught in
+anything yet that could put him in jail. He went up in the air when
+I told him about Miss Berwick, and said he'd like to get hold of the
+fellow and break his neck. He thinks Miss Berwick ought to get a good
+lawyer and bring the rascal into court. But at the same time he thinks
+she may have a hard time proving her case, as she hasn't any receipt
+or any witnesses. She could simply say she'd paid him and he could
+say she hadn't. All he'd have to do would be to stand pat and put it
+up to her to prove her case. And how is she going to do it?"
+
+"Do you mean to say that he could get away with a thing as raw as
+that?" asked Joe, in a white heat.
+
+"He might," declared Bob. "Things just as rank have been pulled off
+again and again. But at any rate she ought to get after him right
+away. She's a dead loser as things stand, and if she can only get
+the rascal in court she may have a chance. Perhaps he hasn't covered
+his trail as well as he thinks he has, and when a good lawyer gets
+to questioning him the truth may come out. In any case it's the only
+way that will give her a ghost of a chance."
+
+The days passed by swiftly until Saturday came and with it the
+opportunity the boys had looked forward to of going to Dr. Dale's
+workshop and getting a few practical points on the making of a
+wireless telephone set.
+
+They found the doctor at a bench that he had rigged up in his barn.
+On the wall was arranged a large variety of tools and on the bench
+were strewn several coils of wire and a number of objects the name
+and use of which the boys did not know.
+
+The doctor, who was in his shirt sleeves, extended a hearty welcome
+to the boys, who ranged themselves about him, and whose numbers were
+constantly augmented by newcomers until the barn was well filled.
+
+"What I want to do to-day, boys," he said, "is to show you how easy
+and simple it is to put up a wireless telephone receiving set without
+having to spend very much money.
+
+"Now the first thing you have to get and put up is the aerial," he
+remarked, as he unwound a large coil of copper wire. "You want about
+a hundred or a hundred and twenty feet of that. You can extend it
+horizontally for about fifty feet, say, for instance, from the side
+or back of your house to the barn or the garage, and then have it go
+up as high as it can go. The upper end doesn't have to be in the outer
+air, for the sound will come along it if it's in the attic. Still it's
+better to have it outside if possible. The lower end of the wire has
+to be connected with the ground in some way, and you can fix that
+by attaching it to a water pipe or any other pipe that runs into the
+ground. A good way is to let it down the side of the house and put
+it through the cellar window and fasten it to a pipe.
+
+"After you have your aerial you want to get the rest of the apparatus
+together. The first thing to do is to get a baseboard which will serve
+as the bottom of the receiving box. Something like this," and he put
+his hand on a board about eighteen inches long, twelve inches wide,
+and about an inch thick. "This is the platform, as it were, on which
+the different parts of the apparatus are to rest.
+
+"Now since your ear alone can't detect the waves that are coming to
+and along your aerial, you have to have a sort of electrical ear that
+will do this for you. Here it is," and he picked up a piece of crystal
+and a wire of phosphor bronze. "When this wire comes in contact with
+this bit of crystal the mysterious waves become audible vibrations.
+
+"But this isn't enough. You've got to get in tune with the sending
+station in order to understand the sounds you hear. When your
+vibration frequency is the same as that from which the message is
+sent, you can hear as clearly as though the voice or instrument were
+in the next room. Now here's a piece of a curtain pole that's about
+a foot and a half long. You see that I've wound around its entire
+length, except for about a half inch at either end, a coil of wire.
+This is called the inductance coil. You will notice that the wire is
+covered with cotton except for this little strip of wire extending
+lengthwise where I've scraped the cotton off with sandpaper so as to
+accommodate the sliding contacts. These sliding contacts can be made
+from curtain rings with holes punched in them, through which are
+passed copper rivets. These rivets press against the bare path of
+the coil and can be moved to and fro until you find the exact point
+where your set is in tune with the sending station."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+IN THE DARK
+
+
+"Now," continued Dr. Dale, as he glanced round the circle of eager
+faces, alight with interest in the subject, "we're getting pretty
+close to the time when one picks up the receiver and begins to listen
+in.
+
+"But as the electric vibrations, if left alone, would have a good deal
+of trouble in passing through the telephone receiver, we must have a
+condenser to help them out. This is very easily made by gluing a piece
+of tinfoil about one and a half inches square to each side of a sheet
+of mica. Then you must have two strips of tinfoil, one extending from
+each side of the mica. If you haven't any mica, a sheet of ordinary
+writing paper will do, though the mica is better.
+
+"The telephone receiver you will have to buy, as a satisfactory one
+can't very well be made by an amateur. The receiver ought to have a
+high resistance to get the best results.
+
+"There," he said, as he laid the telephone receiver on the bench,
+"those are the essential things you have to have in order to make
+a set of your own. With these things only, it will of course be a
+simple set and have a limited range. There are a hundred improvements
+of one kind or another that you'll learn about as you get more expert,
+and these can be added from time to time. But the special thing I
+wanted to prove to you to-day was that it would take only a very small
+expenditure of money to get this material together. You see how many
+things I've used that any one of you can find about the house, such
+as tinfoil, curtain poles, curtain rings, wood for the box, and so on.
+The wire needed for your tuning coil and your aerial can be obtained
+for less than a dollar. The detector, including the crystal, can be
+got for another dollar. An excellent receiver can be bought for two
+dollars. A few minor things will be needed at perhaps five or ten
+cents each. Altogether the cost of the set can be brought within
+five dollars."
+
+This was good news to the boys, many of whom began at once a mental
+calculation as to the amount of their pocket money, while others began
+to figure on odd jobs that might bring them in the required amount,
+in the event that their parents would not supply the money.
+
+With a few deft movements the doctor attached the various parts of
+the apparatus to their proper places on the baseboard. There was
+not time that day to put up the aerial, but he gave them practical
+illustrations of how to use the detector by pressing the point of the
+wire firmly against the crystal, how to slide the rings back and forth
+until they found the point of greatest loudness and clearness, and all
+other points essential to using the set successfully. Not all the boys
+caught on to all that was involved, but to the majority it was made
+reasonably clear. To Bob and Joe, who had followed every point of
+the demonstration with the keenest attention, the operation of the
+receiving set was made as clear as crystal, and they had no doubt
+of their ability to construct a set for themselves. Herb's attention
+had wandered somewhat, because in the back of his mind there still
+lurked the idea of buying a set ready made. Jimmy had been somewhat
+distracted by looking about in various parts of the barn to see if he
+could detect the presence of any "eats," and his ideas were somewhat
+hazy in consequence.
+
+"Well, boys," at last said the doctor, with a smile, "I guess we'll
+call it a day. But remember that if at any time you are puzzled and
+want more information all you have to do is to come and ask me. I'll
+gladly lay aside my work any time to help you youngsters out."
+
+The boys thoroughly appreciated the doctor's cordiality and the
+demonstration that he had given them, and most of them took occasion
+to tell him so as they said good-bye to him and filed out of the
+extemporized workshop.
+
+"He certainly does make things clear," said Bob enthusiastically,
+as he and his friends made their way toward their homes.
+
+"Not only that, but he makes you want to do them," said Joe. "After
+seeing and hearing him this afternoon, I'd ten times rather make
+a set than buy one."
+
+Jimmy agreed with them, and even Herb seemed ready to reconsider the
+idea of getting one ready made, though he was not yet quite prepared
+to surrender.
+
+"All of you come over to my house to-night," said Bob, as they neared
+their homes. "We haven't got the materials yet, but we can go over
+again what the doctor told us to-day and make sure that we've got it
+all straight in our minds. What one forgets, the other may remember.
+Then when we do get the stuff we can put a little snap and speed into
+making the set."
+
+"That will be bully," replied Joe, and the others agreed with him.
+"For my part," Joe continued, "I count every day lost that we have
+to go without it. I sure am becoming a radio fan."
+
+It turned out that Herb was prevented from coming by unexpected
+company but the others were there. Their talk that night was animated
+and enthusiastic, so much so in fact that the time passed more quickly
+than they imagined, and they were surprised when the clock struck
+eleven.
+
+"By the way," said Jimmy, as he was preparing to leave with the rest,
+"I had a run in with Buck Looker when I was coming here to-night,
+and he said he was going to lay for me and do me up."
+
+"He did, did he?" asked Bob. "What was he sore about?"
+
+"Oh, he's had a grouch ever since the day of the fire," replied Jimmy.
+"You remember that when he spoke of the work he'd been doing to help
+put out the fire, I spoke up and said that he hadn't done a thing.
+He's had it in for me ever since. He bumped against me on purpose
+to-night just as I was coming in the gate, and when I called him down
+for it he said he was going to lay for me and change my face."
+
+"The big bully!" exclaimed Bob. "Just wait here a minute while I go
+into the next room."
+
+The adjoining room was dark and commanded a view of the street in
+front, while Bob himself could look out of the window without being
+seen. Some large shade trees were on the other side of the street,
+and as Bob's eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he could dimly
+descry three forms lurking in the shadows. One of them he felt sure
+was Buck, and he felt reasonably certain that the others were Carl
+Lutz and Terrence Mooney, Buck's boon companions.
+
+"I guess Buck and his gang are hanging around all right," he
+announced, as he returned to the other room and reported his
+discovery. "But he's going to get a little surprise party. I tell you
+what we'll do. You go out of the front door alone, Jimmy. Joe and I
+will stand there in the light from the hall lamp and say good-night.
+Then we'll close the door, and you stand on the stoop a minute,
+buttoning your coat, and then go slowly down the walk. That will give
+Joe and me a chance to slip around through the back in the darkness
+and get behind the bushes near the gate. Leave the rest to us."
+
+"And what we'll do will be a plenty," added Joe.
+
+Jimmy thought well of this plan, and agreed to do his part.
+
+They followed out this program to the letter. As Jimmy came down the
+walk, the lurking figures across the street came out from the shadow
+of the trees and over toward him.
+
+"I've got you now, Jimmy Plummer," snarled the voice of Buck Looker.
+"I told you I was going to take some of the freshness out of you,
+and now I'm going to tan your hide."
+
+"Does it take three of you to do it?" asked Jimmy.
+
+"None of your lip now," growled Buck, as he clenched his fist.
+"I'm going to have the fun of doing it myself."
+
+With one spring Bob vaulted over the low fence.
+
+"You've got another guess coming, Buck Looker," he said coolly.
+
+The bully started back in surprise and consternation, which was not
+diminished when Joe followed his friend's example and stood at his
+side.
+
+"What are you butting in for?" Buck snapped, as soon as he recovered
+his breath.
+
+"Because I choose to," answered Bob. "Because I won't stand by and see
+you hit a fellow half your size. If it's fighting you're looking for,
+I'll give you all the fighting you want right here and now. If your
+gang want to mix in, Joe will take care of Lutz and Jimmy can look
+after Mooney. But I'll take you on myself. How about it? Is it a go?"
+
+He advanced on Buck, and before his flashing eyes those of the bully
+wavered and fell.
+
+"I--I'll settle with you some other time," he stammered, retreating
+toward the middle of the street.
+
+"No time like the present," challenged Bob, but as Buck, muttering
+threats, still continued to retreat, while his cronies slunk away
+with him, Bob gave a little laugh and came back to his friends.
+
+"All right, Jimmy," he chuckled. "I guess your face won't be changed
+to-night. Buck seems to have changed his mind."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GETTING A START
+
+
+The idea of having their own radio outfit and being able to hear all
+the wonderful things going on in the air about them so fascinated the
+boys that they could talk or think of little else. Even Jimmy Plummer
+became so excited that his mother declared he was actually forgetting
+to eat, a statement that his father flatly refused to believe at
+first, until he escorted his rotund son to the nearest scale and
+discovered the astonishing fact that he had really lost two pounds.
+
+"You see how it is, Dad," said Jimmy, mournfully. "If you don't give
+me the money to get some wireless stuff I'll just pine away and die."
+
+"It wouldn't hurt you to pine away about twenty pounds, anyway," said
+his father, with a twinkle in his eye. "But I suppose if you've set
+your heart on it I might as well come across now as later and save
+myself from being pestered to death. How much do you suppose you'll
+need to get started?"
+
+"The other fellows are figuring that about five dollars apiece will
+buy most of the things we'll need--at first, anyway," he added, with
+a careful eye to the future.
+
+"All right, here it is," said Mr. Plummer. "And I suppose the next
+thing we know you'll be breaking your neck falling off the roof
+while you're trying to put up aerials, or whatever it is they call
+the contraptions."
+
+"Leave that to me," said Jimmy. "And I'll bet you'll get lots of fun
+out of this too, Dad, when we get it going."
+
+"Well, maybe so," said his father. "But I don't take much stock in
+the whole business. Some wonderful things happen these days, though,
+and you may be able to change my mind."
+
+"I'm sure I will," said Jimmy, with conviction. "And if you had heard
+what I did at Doctor Dale's house, I'll bet you'd want a radio outfit
+as much as I do."
+
+"Well, go ahead and see what you can do, Son. If you can really get
+the thing working, so much the better."
+
+The next day Jimmy lost no time in hunting up his friends and telling
+them of his good fortune. He found that the others had not been far
+behind him in procuring the necessary cash. That afternoon they all
+descended on the hardware store, whose proprietor had laid in a stock
+of the materials that would be likely to be needed in the construction
+of simple radio outfits. The hardware merchant was glad to see them,
+but somewhat surprised also.
+
+"Gosh!" he exclaimed, when he learned what the boys had come for.
+"When that salesman from New York talked me into stocking up with
+all that stuff, I never thought I'd get a sale for it in the next
+ten years. And now here's all you youngsters coming in here after
+it with money in your fists."
+
+"Yes, and you'd better lay in a whole lot more of it, Dave," said
+Bob Layton. "It won't be long before everybody in this town will be
+wanting a wireless radio outfit."
+
+"Well, I guess I've got enough in the store now to start you fellows
+on your way," said Dave Slocum, the proprietor. "Now, what all do you
+need?"
+
+There followed a time of much consultation and anxious questioning
+before all the enthusiastic young experimenters were satisfied that
+they were getting the most useful things their limited amount of
+capital would buy. Dave Slocum sold more feet of copper wire in that
+one afternoon than he had in the previous five years, not to mention
+insulators, resistance wire, detectors, head sets, and all the other
+paraphernalia necessary to the beginner. At last all the various
+purchases were tied into neat bundles, and the excited boys swarmed
+out into the street.
+
+"Let's go to my house and get started right away," proposed Bob.
+"It will be quite a job to get the aerial strung, and the sooner
+we do it the better it will suit me."
+
+The others were of the same mind, and they made the distance to the
+Layton home "on the jump" with Jimmy puffing valiantly in the rear
+in a desperate endeavor to keep up with his more active comrades.
+
+"Gee!" he exclaimed, staggering up the steps to the cool veranda,
+"you fellows must think I'm a candidate for Marathon runner at the
+next Olympic games, the way you hit it up coming here."
+
+"I don't know about the Marathon race," said Joe, "but I do think
+we could enter you in the long distance pie-eating contest, without
+having any doubts of your winning away out in front of the field."
+
+"Well, I don't want to boast, but I think I could do myself proud,"
+admitted Jimmy. "I don't think I ever really got enough pie to satisfy
+me yet."
+
+"Never mind about pies now," said Herb. "The question before the house
+is to get an aerial strung from Bob's house to the barn. What's the
+best way to get up on the roof, Bob?"
+
+"There's a trap door in the roof not far from the chimney," replied
+Bob. "I was thinking that we could make a mast and lash it to the
+chimney. That would give us one secure anchorage for the aerial,
+and the other we can fasten to the roof of the barn easily enough."
+
+"What are we going to make the mast out of?" inquired Joe.
+
+"There's a nice piece of four by four lumber out in the barn," replied
+Bob. "I was thinking that we could leave it square at the bottom and
+plane it off round at the top, so as to look better. I don't see why
+that won't fill the bill all right."
+
+"Sounds all right," said Herb, and, with Bob leading, all four
+boys piled out to the big barn back of the house. Bob produced his
+scantling and hunted up a big plane. Then the boys set to with a
+will, and in a short time had the rough timber nicely smoothed off,
+with a slight taper toward the top. Then they screwed in a large
+hook, bought for the purpose, and after providing themselves with
+a generous length of rope, repaired to the roof of the house.
+
+As Bob had told them, there was a large scuttle leading from the
+attic onto the roof, and one after another they clambered out through
+this. The roof sloped gently at this point, and while they found
+it necessary to be careful, they had little difficulty in reaching
+the chimney. Before erecting the mast they fastened one end of
+the aerial over the hook in it. The aerial consisted of a single,
+number fourteen, hard drawn copper wire, insulated at each end by an
+earthenware insulator having two hooks embedded in it. One of these
+hooks went over the hook in the mast, while the other had the end of
+the wire attached to it. A similar insulator was provided at the other
+end of the wire, thus preventing its becoming grounded to the house
+or barn.
+
+Having hooked up one end of their aerial, the boys erected the mast
+against the chimney, and lashed it firmly in position with the rope
+they had brought up.
+
+"There!" exclaimed Bob, when everything was fixed to his liking, "that
+mast looks as though it might stay put a while. Now let's rig up one
+on the barn, and we'll have the first part of our job done, anyway."
+
+Clambering back to the scuttle, the boys dropped through to the attic
+floor and hurried downstairs. It was beginning to get dark, and as
+they wanted to get the aerial up while daylight lasted, everything
+went with a rush. Poor Jimmy thought more than once of his father's
+prophecy that he would lose weight in such strenuous activities, but
+he was as anxious to receive the first radio signals as any of the
+others, so he followed the headlong pace the others set without
+a murmur.
+
+Of course there was no convenient chimney on the barn to act as a
+support for the mast, but they finally rigged up a mast at one end of
+the barn, nailing it securely to the siding boards. Then they drew the
+copper wire through the hook in the insulator until there was just a
+little slack, cut off the wire, and wound it securely. Then they all
+gazed with pride at their handiwork, and had the comfortable feeling
+that comes of work well done.
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Jimmy. "That's what I call a good job, and it
+didn't take us such a long time, either."
+
+"Yes, but that's only the beginning," said Joe. "I only wish we had
+more time to-night. I feel as though I'd like to keep right on now
+and not stop until we're actually receiving."
+
+"You'd be pretty hungry if you tried to do it," remarked Jimmy. "To
+hear you talk, you'd think making a receiving set was about as hard
+as taking a run around the block."
+
+"It isn't much harder than for you to take a run around the block,"
+laughed Herb. "You were puffing like a steam engine while we were
+coming up from the store this afternoon. If you don't cut down on
+the eats, Doughnuts, you'll have to get around in a wheel chair.
+You won't even be able to walk, let alone run."
+
+"There you go," complained Jimmy, in an aggrieved tone. "Just because
+I'm not as skinny as you fellows, you think that I eat more than you
+do. Nobody could eat more than you do, Herb, and live to tell the
+story."
+
+"I don't have to tell any stories along that line," retorted Herb,
+with a laugh. "My friends do that for me."
+
+"I'll bet they do," grumbled Jimmy. "I get some result out of what
+I eat, anyway, and that's more than you can say."
+
+"Oh, I can say it, all right, but probably nobody would believe me,"
+admitted Herb.
+
+"Right you are, Herb, old boy!"
+
+"When you two fellows are all through arguing, maybe we can go up and
+hook on our leading-in wire to the aerial," said Joe, impatiently.
+"We ought to get that much done before dark, anyway."
+
+"I don't know about that, Joe," objected Bob. "It's almost dark now,
+and we could do it better and easier in the daylight. What do you
+say if you all come around after supper and we'll dope out a wiring
+diagram and maybe make a start on building the tuning coil."
+
+Joe reluctantly consented to this, and the four companions separated
+for the time being, after promising to return to Bob's house that
+evening. And true to their promise, the boys had all returned to
+the Layton home by eight o'clock that evening, full of enthusiasm
+for the task that lay before them. Mr. Layton was mildly interested
+in the radiophone project, but after a few questions he retired to
+the library with the evening paper, leaving the boys to their own
+devices.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WORK AND FUN
+
+
+"Well, fellows," said Bob, "here we are, all set for a busy evening.
+What shall we do first?"
+
+"What I'd suggest," said Jimmy, "would be for everybody to have a
+little milk chocolate, just to start things off right," and he
+produced a huge bar of that toothsome confection and passed it
+around, with an earnest invitation to everybody to "help himself."
+
+"It isn't such a bad idea, at that," admitted Bob, breaking off a
+chunk that made Jimmy gasp. The others imitated his example, and by
+the time the bar of chocolate got back to Jimmy it had shrunken so
+greatly that the last named individual gazed at it mournfully.
+
+"Gee whillikins!" he exclaimed, "you fellows certainly do like
+chocolate, though, don't you?"
+
+"I do, anyway," said Herb, laughing at the rueful expression on his
+friend's face. "Have you got any more when that's gone, Doughnuts?"
+
+"No, I haven't. But if I had you can bet I'd hold on to it," said
+Jimmy. "How do you expect me to work if I don't have anything to
+keep my strength up?"
+
+"Who said we expected you to work?" demanded Joe. "I'm sure we
+wouldn't be so foolish, would we, fellows?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," retorted Jimmy. "You're foolish enough for
+anything else, so why not that?"
+
+"Well, if you say so, I suppose that settles it," said Joe. "But,
+anyway, as long as Jimmy was so careless as not to bring more candy
+along, I suppose we'd better get to work."
+
+"Shall we get the tuning coil started?" suggested Bob. "It will
+take us quite some time to do that, but we might get the core wound
+to-night, anyway."
+
+As there was no objection to this, they all went down to the cellar,
+where Bob had rigged up a work bench and had a pretty complete stock
+of tools. Jimmy's father had made them a wooden form on which to wind
+the wire. This core was nothing but a plain cylinder of wood, about
+three inches in diameter and ten inches long. For Christmas, the year
+before, Mr. Layton had given Bob a small but accurately made bench
+lathe, operated by a foot pedal, and Bob mounted the roller between
+the lathe centers, holding one end in the chuck jaws. Then he produced
+a narrow roll of stout wrapping paper, such as is used for winding
+around automobile tires, and a bottle of shellac, together with a
+small, fine-haired brush.
+
+"First thing," he said, "we want to wind a few layers of shellacked
+paper on this core. Suppose I turn the core, you let the paper unwind
+onto it, Joe, and you can shellac the paper as it unrolls, Herb."
+
+"That leaves me with nothing to do but boss the job," said Jimmy,
+"and I don't see why I can't do that as well lying down as standing
+up, so here goes," and he stretched out luxuriously on an old sofa.
+"This must have been put here just for me, I guess," he continued,
+with a sigh of perfect contentment. "Get busy, you laborers, and
+flash a little speed."
+
+"We haven't got time to come and throw you off that sofa just now,"
+said Bob. "But as soon as we get through with this job you'll vacate
+pretty quick. Are you fellows ready to start now?"
+
+"I've been ready for the last half hour," said Joe. "Start that jigger
+of yours going, and let's see what happens."
+
+Bob put a dab of shellac on one end of the paper to get it started,
+stuck the end on the wooden core, and then started winding the paper
+onto it at a slow speed. Joe moved the roll of paper back and forth
+to wind it smoothly and evenly, while Herb shellacked for all he was
+worth, giving himself almost as liberal a dose of the sticky gum as
+he gave the paper. It was not long before the core was neatly wrapped,
+and Bob stopped his lathe.
+
+"That looks fine," he said, eyeing the job critically. "Now, while
+that shellac is drying out a bit, let's see if we can't coax Doughnuts
+to get up off that couch."
+
+All three boys made a dive for their luckless companion, but he was up
+and off before they could reach him, with a nimbleness that would not
+have disgraced a jack rabbit.
+
+"No, you don't!" he exclaimed. "I beat you to it. I suppose it makes
+you feel jealous to see me resting once in a while, instead of slaving
+my head off as usual. If you Indians had your way I'd be worn to a
+shadow in no time."
+
+"It's easy to see we don't have our way much, then," laughed Herb.
+"You've got a long way to go before you get in the shadow class, Jim."
+
+"It can't be too far to suit me," responded that youth. "But what I
+want to know is, is that tuning coil wound yet? Seems to me you take
+a lot of time to do a simple thing like that."
+
+"You'd better sing small, or first thing you know you'll find yourself
+in the coal bin," threatened Joe. "How about throwing him in just for
+luck, fellows?"
+
+"You've got a funny idea of what luck is," said Jimmy. "I never did
+care much for coal bins. Thank you just the same."
+
+"You're welcome," retorted Joe. Then to Bob: "Do you think we can
+wind the wire on now, Bob?"
+
+"Why, I guess so," said Bob, testing the shellac with his finger.
+"It's getting pretty tacky now; so if we wind the wire on right away
+the shellac will help to hold it in place when it dries."
+
+"Well, start up the old coffee mill, then," said Herb. "If we can get
+the wire on as slick as we did the paper, it won't be half bad."
+
+But the wire was a more difficult thing to work, as they soon found.
+It required the greatest care to get the wire to lie smooth and close
+without any space between coils. More than once they had to unwind
+several coils and rewind them before they finally got the whole core
+wound in a satisfactory manner. But at last it was finished, all coils
+wound smooth and close, and the boys gazed at it with pardonable
+pride.
+
+"That doesn't look as bad as it might, does it?" said Bob.
+
+"I should say not!" exclaimed Joe. "The last time I was in New York
+I saw a coil like that in an electrical store window. I didn't know
+then what it was for, but as far as I can remember, it didn't look
+much better than this one."
+
+"We probably couldn't have made as good a job of it if Bob hadn't
+had that lathe," said Herb.
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Bob. "It would have taken us longer, but
+I think we could have done it about as well in the end. Now that
+we've got the core wound, we'll have to mount it with a couple of
+sliding contacts, but I guess we'd better not try to do anything more
+to-night. It's getting pretty late. And, besides, mother said she'd
+leave an apple pie and some milk in the ice box, and I'm beginning
+to feel as though that would taste pretty good."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A STEALTHY RASCAL
+
+
+"Did you really say pie, Bob?" asked Jimmy in a rapturous voice.
+"And apple pie at that? Or was it all only a beautiful dream?"
+
+"There's only one way to find out, and that's to go and see," said
+Bob. "Last man up gets the smallest piece," and he made a dash for
+the stairs, closely followed by the others. Poor Jimmy, in spite of
+a surprising burst of speed on his part, was the last one up, and
+arrived out of breath, but ready to argue against Bob's dictum.
+
+"Don't you know that if there's a small piece it's up to the host to
+take it?" he asked Bob, who by that time had secured the pie and was
+cutting it. "If you were really polite you wouldn't eat any of that
+pie at all. You'd give all your time to seeing that we had plenty."
+
+"Yes, but I'm not that polite," said Bob. "I think I deserve credit
+for not waiting till you had all gone home and then eating the whole
+thing myself. That's probably what you'd do, Doughnuts, if you were
+in my place."
+
+"I wouldn't either," disclaimed Jimmy indignantly.
+
+"Of course he wouldn't eat it after we'd gone," grinned Herb.
+"And if you coax me real hard, I'll tell you why."
+
+"All right, I'll bite," said Joe. "Why wouldn't Doughnuts eat the pie
+after we'd gone home?"
+
+"Because he would have eaten it all before we even got here," replied
+Herb, with a shout of laughter. "Ask me a harder one next time."
+
+"I suppose you think that's real smart, don't you?" remarked Jimmy
+sarcastically. "But I don't care what you say, as long as there is
+pie like this in the world," and he bit off a huge mouthful with an
+expression of perfect ecstasy on his round countenance.
+
+"It is pretty easy to take," admitted Herb, as he proceeded to dispose
+of his share in a workmanlike manner. "This is regular angel's food,
+Bob."
+
+"Yes, it was made especially for me," said Bob, trying to look like
+an angel, but falling considerably short of the mark. It is hard for
+any one to look very angelic with a big piece of apple pie in one
+hand and a glass of milk in the other.
+
+"Suppose you cut out the angel business and hand me over another piece
+of that pie," suggested Jimmy. "If you're an angel, Bob, I hope to die
+a horrible death from slow starvation, and I can't say any more than
+that, can I?"
+
+"You'd better speak nicely to me, or you won't get another piece,"
+threatened Bob, holding a wedge of pie temptingly in Jimmy's
+direction. "Am I an angel, Doughnuts, or not? Yes--pie. No--no pie."
+
+"Of course you are, Bob, and you know I always loved you." Bob passed
+him the pie, and Jimmy clutched it securely.
+
+"Thanks, you big hobo," he grinned.
+
+"There's gratitude for you," said Bob, appealing to the others. "He
+knows the pie is all gone now, so he thinks he can insult me and get
+away with it."
+
+"So I can," said Jimmy complacently. "You know you could never get
+along without my advice and help, Bob. You need somebody around you
+with brains, to make up for Joe and Herb."
+
+"That pie must have gone to your head," said Joe. "We'd better try
+to get him home where they can take care of him, Herb. He'll probably
+be telling us he's Napoleon, if we let him get a little crazier."
+
+"I'm going right away, anyway," said Jimmy, hunting back of the door
+for his cap. "I worked so hard making that tuning coil that I'm all
+in. I'll need a good night's sleep to set me on my feet again.
+So long, fellows," and he went away whistling.
+
+The others followed soon after, after agreeing to meet the next
+afternoon to mount the tuning coil.
+
+As Bob and Joe were on their way home from school the following day
+they caught sight of Miss Berwick sitting on the porch of the hotel,
+enjoying the bright spring sunshine. She nodded to them brightly and
+invited them to come up on the porch. They were quick to accept the
+invitation, and as they dropped into seats beside her they were glad
+to note that there was more color in her cheeks than when they had
+seen her last.
+
+"No need of asking whether you are feeling better," remarked Bob.
+"One can tell that by just looking at you."
+
+"Oh yes," replied Miss Berwick with a smile. "I'll soon be as well
+as ever, thanks to the good doctoring and nursing I've had."
+
+"It was too bad that the doctor came in just when he did the other
+day," said Joe. "We were keen to hear the rest of your story about
+that fellow Cassey. Has anything turned up to tell you where he is
+and what he is doing?"
+
+"Not a thing," replied the girl, with a tinge of sadness in her tone.
+"From the moment I paid him that money, I've never laid eyes on him.
+For some days after he was said to have left for Chicago, I haunted
+his office, hoping that with every mail there might be a letter
+either to me or his stenographer explaining the matter and setting
+it right. I tried to get his Chicago address, but his stenographer
+said she didn't know it, and I think it likely enough she was telling
+the truth. I've looked through the records here to see if he had
+transferred the mortgage, but it still stands in his name, as far as
+the records go. I have clung to the hope that possibly he had written
+to me and that the letter had gone astray. But I guess I'm just
+fooling myself. I'm going to put the whole thing in the hands of a
+lawyer and have Cassey brought to justice if I can. But I'm afraid
+it'll be a case of locking the stable door after the horse is stolen."
+
+"Don't get downhearted," urged Bob. "I have an idea that you'll get
+your money or the mortgage. Slicker rascals than he have been caught,
+no matter how carefully they covered their tracks. There's usually
+one little thing they've forgotten that leads to their getting nabbed
+at last."
+
+"Let's hope so," replied Miss Berwick, but none too confidently.
+"But now tell me something about yourselves. It isn't fair that
+my troubles should take up all the conversation."
+
+The boys told her of their radio experiments, and she listened with
+the keenest interest.
+
+"That reminds me," she said. "I noticed a radio telephone set in this
+man Cassey's office. His stenographer told me that that was his one
+recreation."
+
+"You find them everywhere," replied Bob. "They'll soon be a feature
+in almost every home and business office. But we'll have to go now,"
+he said, as he rose to his feet, while Joe followed his example.
+"Good afternoon. And don't forget what I said. I feel you'll get
+your money or you'll get your mortgage."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+CLEVER THINKING
+
+
+The radio boys were at Bob's house on the dot, all but Jimmy, who to
+his great disgust had to do some work for his father, and so could not
+come.
+
+"I suppose we'll have to try to get along someway without his valuable
+assistance," said Herb. "When he told me he couldn't get here this
+afternoon he certainly felt sore about it."
+
+"I guess I know how he feels, all right," said Joe. "It would pretty
+near break his heart not to be able to work on this radio stuff now.
+I'm crazy for the time to come when we can pick our first message or
+music out of the air."
+
+"I guess you're no more anxious for that to happen than we are," said
+Bob. "Let's go downstairs and see what we can do."
+
+They all made their way to Bob's workroom in the basement, where they
+found the core well dried and the wire as firmly set on it as the most
+particular workman could desire.
+
+"Good enough!" exclaimed Bob, examining the core with loving pride.
+"We'll get this set up in a jiffy, and then we can make the
+condenser."
+
+Working together, the boys soon had two square blocks sawn out as end
+pieces, and they centered the core on these and screwed it fast. Then
+they drilled holes in the two upper corners of the square end pieces
+to fit two brass rods they had bought at the hardware store. These
+rods carried each a small sliding spring, or contact, which rubbed
+along the length of the tuning coil, one on each side. After they had
+bolted the brass rods securely in place, the coil was ready for use,
+except that the boys had first to scrape off the insulating enamel in
+the path of the sliding contacts, so that they could reach the copper
+coils. A sharp pen knife soon effected this, and the boys found
+themselves possessed of a neat, substantial tuning coil, at a cost
+of only a fraction of what it would have been if they had had to buy
+a coil already made. And in addition they had the satisfaction that
+comes of a good job well done, which more than compensated them for
+the labor involved.
+
+"That begins to look like business," exulted Joe. "We'll be putting
+Mr. Edison out of business pretty soon."
+
+"Yes, it's lucky he can't see that tuning coil," laughed Bob, "he'd
+be looking up the want ads in the papers, sure."
+
+"Oh, that coil won't be a patch on the condenser we're going to make,"
+declared Herb.
+
+"I know we've got to have a condenser, but I'm blessed if I really
+understand what it is for," said Joe. "I know the doctor told us
+about it, but I guess I didn't get a very clear idea of what it was
+all about."
+
+"I'm not very clear on it either," admitted Bob. "But from what he
+said and what I've read, it seems to be a sort of equalizer, for the
+electric current, storing it up when it's strong and giving it out
+when it's weak. It prevents the current getting too strong at times
+and burning something out."
+
+"That's the way I understood it, too," said Herb. "And Dr. Dale
+said that in the larger sets they have what they call a variable
+condenser, so that they can get more or less damping action according
+to the strength of the incoming current waves."
+
+"I guess I get the idea," said Joe. "But it's a pretty complicated
+thing when you first tackle it, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, but it's just like almost anything else, probably--it's easy
+when you know how," said Bob.
+
+"It tells here how to make the condenser," said Herb, who had been
+looking over an instruction book that the boys had bought. "But it
+says the best thing to use for the plates is tinfoil. Now, where are
+we going to get the tinfoil from, I'd like to know!"
+
+"If you want to know real badly, I'll tell you," said Bob. "Right out
+of that box over in the corner. Just wait a minute and I'll show you."
+
+Bob stepped swiftly over to the box in question and produced a big
+ball of tinfoil, composed of separate sheets tightly packed together.
+
+"When I was a kid I used to collect this stuff and sell it to the
+junkman," he said. "This ball never got big enough for that, and I
+forgot all about it until a few days ago when I happened to come
+across it and thought that it would be just the thing for us to use
+now. We can easily peel off all the sheets we need, I guess. Some of
+them are damaged, but there are enough whole ones to do our trick."
+
+"Gee, that's fine!" said Joe. "Pry off some, Bob, and let's see if
+it will serve."
+
+With his knife Bob pried away at likely looking places, and soon had
+several large sheets off. These, when smoothed out, looked good enough
+for any purpose.
+
+"How many does the book say we'll need, Herb?" asked Bob.
+
+"It says eight or ten, each one about four inches square," answered
+Herb. "And it says they have to be separated by paraffined paper.
+How are we going to get hold of some of that?"
+
+"Paraffine wax is what they use to seal fruit jars," said Joe.
+"We ought to be able to get some of that easy enough."
+
+"Mother had a big cake of it last summer!" cried Bob. "Maybe she has
+some of it left. Wait here and I'll ask her," and he dashed up the
+stairs three steps at a time.
+
+In a few minutes he returned, having obtained not only the wax but
+a small sauce pan in which to melt it.
+
+"I thought I'd bring this along, so as to have it," he said; "but
+it's so near supper time that I don't think we'll have a chance to
+do much more--right now, anyway. What do you say if we knock off
+now and do some more work this evening after supper?"
+
+"Gee, I never thought it was that late," said Herb. "If Jimmy had
+been here, I suppose he would have been talking about supper for
+the last hour or so, and we'd have known what time it was."
+
+"Well, I'll be here for one," said Joe, "and I'll stop at Jimmy's
+house on the way home and tell him to get around, too."
+
+"I'll come too," said Herb. "And, Joe, while you're about it, tell
+Jimmy to be sure and bring another chunk of chocolate, only bigger
+than the one he had last night."
+
+"I'll be sure to mention that," grinned Joe. "But I don't think
+he'll do it, just the same."
+
+Bob went upstairs with them, and Herb and Joe went away together,
+after promising to come back as soon after supper as possible. After
+they had gone, Bob could not resist the temptation to go down and gaze
+with an approving eye on the shiny new tuner they had made, and dream
+of the many wonderful sounds that would soon come drifting in through
+that gleaming bit of mechanism.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+FORGING AHEAD
+
+
+The Laytons had hardly finished supper that evening before Jimmy's
+cheery whistle was heard outside, and Bob jumped up to let him in.
+
+"Come in, old timer," Bob called to him. "Where's the rest of
+the bunch?"
+
+"Oh, I guess they'll be along pretty soon," said Jimmy. "I guess I'm
+a bit early, but I was so anxious to get around that I couldn't wait
+to come at a respectable time. I suppose I should be boning down for
+to-morrow's lessons, but I'd never be able to get my mind on them
+until we get our outfit going."
+
+"I feel the same way," said Bob. "But at the rate we're going now
+it won't be very long."
+
+"Joe told me you finished the tuning coil this afternoon," said
+Jimmy. "I don't understand how you ever did it without my being here
+to tell you how, though."
+
+"Oh, we managed to patch it up some way," laughed Bob. "Come on down
+and look at it, and see if it's good enough to suit you."
+
+"Lead me to it," said Jimmy, and the two boys went downstairs.
+
+"Say, that's a pippin," said Jimmy, as Bob switched on the light and
+he caught sight of the finished tuner. "I couldn't have done it better
+myself. You've certainly made a first class job of it."
+
+"We thought it wasn't so bad," admitted Bob modestly. "Especially
+when one stops to think that you weren't here to give us the benefit
+of your advice."
+
+"That's the most surprising thing about it," said Jimmy. "But now
+that I'm here to-night, why, we can go right ahead and get a lot done.
+Seems to me it must be about time for Joe and Herb to show up."
+
+As though in answer to this thought, they heard a tuneful duet,
+and a moment later came a vigorous ring on the doorbell.
+
+"You go up and let them in, will you, Doughnuts?" said Bob. "I want
+to melt this paraffine and get things started right away."
+
+"Sure I will!" And Jimmy hastened off, returning a few minutes later
+with the missing members of the quartette.
+
+"It's about time you got here," said Jimmy. "Bob and I were wondering
+if we'd have to do all the work by our lonesome, as usual."
+
+"Gee, you don't know what work means," returned Joe scornfully.
+"Last evening you pretty near wore a hole in that old couch resting
+on it, and this afternoon you were enjoying yourself, helping your
+father instead of coming here and doing a little honest work for a
+change."
+
+"Oh, yes, I enjoyed myself a lot!" exclaimed Jimmy. "I sawed enough
+one inch planks this afternoon to make either one of you loafers cry
+for help! And then you talk about my having enjoyed myself!"
+
+"Well, if you worked so hard, maybe your dad gave you enough money
+for it to buy a respectable piece of chocolate with instead of that
+measly little sample you brought around last night," said Herb.
+
+"You're right he did, and here it is," said Jimmy. And from under his
+coat he produced an immense slab of delicious looking chocolate that
+must have weighed all of a pound.
+
+The shout that went up from his three friends might well have startled
+the family upstairs.
+
+"Jimmy, we've got to hand it to you; you're a good sport," cried Bob,
+laughing. "I never really thought you'd ever bring any more, after
+the way we ate what you had last night."
+
+"I'm glad that you admit that you ate more than your share," said
+Jimmy, severely. "But I thought I'd bring enough around to-night,
+hoping there might be a little piece left over for me."
+
+"I think that since he's so generous we ought to let him have a real
+big piece," said Joe.
+
+"Yes," grinned Herb. "But remember that chocolate candy is about the
+worst thing a fat person can eat. It might be better for Doughnuts,
+after all, if we took this away from him right away. I'd rather get
+sick myself eating it than see him get any fatter."
+
+"Say, how do you get that way?" demanded Jimmy in an aggrieved tone.
+"I've never been able yet to get hold of enough candy to make me too
+fat, and if I should, I'm the one that ought to worry about it."
+
+"It looks to me as though there's enough there for all of us for a
+week," said Bob. "Let's break it up and put it in this box over here,
+and then anybody who wants any can help himself."
+
+"That's fair enough," said Jimmy. "But I'll bet anything it won't last
+this bunch any week. If you were all like me it might, but I suppose
+that's too much to ask."
+
+"I don't think that's asking very much, do you, fellows?" said Joe,
+with an exasperating grin.
+
+"Wow!" exclaimed Herb, laughing. "That has all the appearance of a
+dirty dig, Joe. If I were you I wouldn't let him have a scrap of that
+chocolate, Jimmy."
+
+"I suppose I shouldn't. I ought to let him chew on a piece of that
+paraffine that Bob's melting. He's so foolish sometimes that I don't
+think he'd ever know the difference."
+
+"Well, we can't all of us be wise," said Joe. "But I've got a hunch
+that I'd rather have the chocolate, so here goes," and he helped
+himself to a generous piece. "When are you going to have that wax
+cooked good and tender, Bob?"
+
+"Suppose you leave the wax to me, and you get busy cutting out some
+squares of tinfoil and paper," suggested Bob. "This wax will be done
+a long time before you're ready for it."
+
+"All right, I'll do it," said Joe. "I don't suppose there's anybody
+in the world can beat me at cutting out squares of paper. There may
+be some things I can't do, but I sure shine at that."
+
+"Yes, I guess you can do that all right," admitted Bob. "But I can't
+be real sure until you give us a demonstration."
+
+"Here goes, then," replied Joe. "How big do they want to be?"
+
+"Four inches square, the book says, and I suppose the man that wrote
+it knew what he was talking about," said Bob. "That will do to start
+on, anyway."
+
+Joe carefully measured a square of paper to the required dimensions,
+and then used it as a pattern in cutting out the others. He soon had
+a number of neat squares ready, which he handed to Bob, who immersed
+them in the melted wax.
+
+While the paper was soaking this up, Joe cut out a corresponding
+number of tinfoil squares, leaving a projecting tongue on each one
+to serve as a terminal.
+
+"You're an expert at carpenter work, Doughnuts," said Bob. "If you
+feel as ambitious as usual you can cut a couple of squares out of
+that oak plank over in the corner. We'll need them for end pieces
+to this condenser."
+
+"Oh, that will be lots of fun," said Jimmy, who had been casting
+longing glances toward the old sofa. "I'd a good deal rather saw
+some more wood than take it easy. How big shall I make them?"
+
+"About five inches each way, I should say," answered Bob,
+reflectively. "That will give us room to drill holes in each corner
+to put the clamping bolts through. In that drawer under the table
+you'll find some drills. I think a three-sixteenth drill ought to be
+all right. There are four brass bolts in that bag on the table, and
+you can measure them and see what size drill you'll need. I bought
+them for three-sixteenth, anyway."
+
+"You go ahead and cut out the pieces, Jimmy," said Herb. "I'll do the
+real hard work, like measuring the bolts and picking out the drill.
+Then when you get the end pieces cut out, the drill will be all ready
+for you to put the holes through."
+
+Jimmy gave him a withering glance, but rolled up his sleeves and set
+to work. Once started he made the sawdust fly, and before very long
+had two stout looking pieces of solid oak cut out.
+
+"Where's your drill, Herb?" he inquired then. "Don't tell me you
+haven't got that ready yet!"
+
+"All ready and waiting," was the reply, and Herb handed over the
+required tool. "Go to it, and see that you make a first class job
+of it."
+
+Clamping both pieces of wood in the vise, Jimmy ran the sharp hand
+drill through in a workmanlike manner, and then viewed his work with
+pardonable pride.
+
+"There you are," he said. "If this condenser doesn't condense, it
+won't be because it hasn't got two good end pieces, anyway."
+
+"It's funny that you should have to condense electricity," said Herb,
+with a twinkle in his eye. "It's just the same as milk, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, it isn't," said Bob. "Another wise remark like that, and you'll
+find yourself out in the wide, wide world, young fellow."
+
+"I should say so," said Joe. "That was a fierce one, Herb."
+
+"Well, I'll promise to be good," returned Herb. "But I still think
+that was a pretty fine joke, only you fellows haven't got enough
+sense of humor to appreciate it."
+
+"We've got sense enough not to appreciate it, anyway," said Jimmy.
+"It's weakened me so that I'll have to have another piece of chocolate
+to brace me up," and he suited the action to the word.
+
+"When you've all had all the candy you want, we can go ahead and make
+this condenser," said Bob. "Don't let me hurry you, though."
+
+"No chance of your hurrying me," replied Jimmy. "I'm so all in now
+I can hardly move. But Herb and Joe will do anything you want them
+to. They've been taking it easy, right along, so they shouldn't mind
+working a little now."
+
+"Jimmy has done more work to-night than I've seen him do altogether in
+the last six months," said Joe. "So we'd better let him rest himself
+awhile now. He's apt to get sick if we don't."
+
+"Well, I guess this paper has soaked up all the wax it's going to, so
+we can go ahead with the rest of it," said Bob, as he started fishing
+squares of impregnated paper out of the saucepan.
+
+He laid one sheet on one of the blocks that Jimmy had cut out, and
+on top of that laid a sheet of tinfoil, then another sheet of paper
+and one of tinfoil, alternating in this way until he had a number
+of sheets lined up. The little tabs or projections on each sheet of
+tinfoil he arranged in opposite directions, so that half of them could
+be attached to a wire on one side of the condenser and half to a wire
+on the other side. Then he placed the other wooden block on top of
+the whole thing, passed the four screws through, one at each corner,
+and tightened them up evenly. This squeezed all superfluous paraffine
+from between the plates, and held the whole assembly very securely
+and neatly.
+
+"That looks fine so far," said Jimmy, critically. "But how do you
+mean to connect up all those tabs on the plates?"
+
+"I guess about the only way will be to solder them," replied Bob.
+"I used to have a soldering iron around here somewhere." He rummaged
+in the big drawer under the bench and soon produced the iron, which
+he then proceeded to heat over a gas flame.
+
+"While that iron's heating, I might as well follow Jimmy's example
+and rest," said Bob, throwing himself down on the sofa. "I've been
+thinking we haven't heard much lately of Buck Looker or any of his
+gang. Has anybody heard what he's up to now?"
+
+"I saw him only this afternoon," said Joe. "He had Lutz and Mooney
+with him, of course, and they all looked at me as though they'd like
+nothing better than to heave a brick at me when I wasn't looking.
+Buck asked me how the wireless 'phone was coming along, and when I
+told him that we had our aerial up and expected to be receiving stuff
+within a few days, he seemed surprised."
+
+"What did he say?" asked Herb.
+
+"Oh, he just predicted that we'd never get it working, and as I didn't
+feel like arguing with him, I started on. I hadn't gone far though
+when that little sneak, Terry, yelled after me: 'Hey, Atwood, don't
+forget that all that goes up must come down.' The others snickered,
+and I had half a mind to go back and make him tell me what he meant.
+But then I thought he wasn't worth bothering with, and I went on home.
+What do you suppose he meant, anyway?"
+
+Bob thought a moment before replying.
+
+"You say you told him that we had our aerial up?" he asked,
+at length.
+
+"Yes, I did tell him that."
+
+"Well, it would be just like them to try to pull down our wires, if
+they thought they could get away with it. Maybe that's what Terry
+meant about 'all that goes up must come down.' What do you think?"
+
+"Say!" exclaimed Joe, leaping to his feet, "I'll bet that was just
+what he meant, the little sneak. But he'd never have nerve enough
+to try anything like that himself."
+
+"Maybe not. But I think Buck Looker might," said Bob. "If he does,
+I only hope I'll have the luck to catch him at it."
+
+"Those fellows need a good licking, and it's up to us to give it to
+them," said Herb indignantly. "I'm game to do my share any time."
+
+"Oh, well, it may have been just some nonsense of Terry's. But
+we'd better be on our guard, anyway," said Bob, rising to get the
+soldering iron. "Whew! but this is hot now, all right. I'll let it
+cool a bit, and get the condenser ready for soldering."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THRASHING A BULLY
+
+
+Stripping a length of copper wire, Bob nipped off two short lengths
+with his pliers and fastened them to opposite sides of the condenser
+with small staples. Then he brought all the tinfoil plate terminals
+on each side in contact with the wire on that side, and connected the
+terminals with their respective wires with a small drop of solder on
+each. Then he produced a roll of ordinary bicycle tire tape and wound
+the whole thing neatly in this, leaving only the ends of the two
+copper wires projecting a distance of perhaps a quarter of an inch.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed, "we can solder our other wires up to them when
+we come to connect up the set. It isn't very fancy, but it ought to
+do the work."
+
+"Gee, Bob, you must have been studying up on this," said Jimmy. "To
+look at your work, any one would think you'd been doing this all your
+life."
+
+"I did look it up after you fellows went home last night," admitted
+Bob. "This condenser isn't made just the way they say, but the
+principle is the same, and I guess that is the main thing."
+
+"We won't worry about how it's made if it only works," said Joe,
+"and I guess it will do that all right."
+
+"We'll hope so, anyway," said Bob. "But there's only one way to find
+out, and that's to hook our set up and see if we get signals through.
+And if we do--oh boy!"
+
+"I'll bet it will work like a charm," said Jimmy enthusiastically.
+"We haven't got to make much more now, have we?"
+
+"We've got to make a panel and mount all these inventions on it,"
+said Herbert.
+
+"That won't take very long," said Bob. "Of course, we can't do it
+to-night, but to-morrow's Saturday, and if we get started early we
+may be able to fix things up so that we can hear something to-morrow
+night. Saturday night is the time they usually send out the biggest
+number of musical selections, and if we have luck we may be able to
+listen in on them."
+
+"Wow!" exclaimed Herb. "Won't that be the greatest thing that ever
+happened? You can't start too early to suit me."
+
+"Nine o'clock's early enough," said Bob. "Everybody come around here
+then and we'll make things hum. There's still plenty to do, but we
+ought to get it finished before that."
+
+The boys were so excited at the prospect of actually operating their
+set the following evening that they could hardly sit still two minutes
+at a time. They laughed and joked and speculated on what would be the
+first thing they would hear through the air, and finally Bob's guests
+started home in an hilarious mood.
+
+Bob himself cleaned up his bench a bit after the others had gone, and
+then went upstairs to his bedroom, which had a window in the rear of
+the house. He had just started to undress when he thought he heard a
+peculiar noise outside. At once the thought of what Joe had said about
+his encounter with Buck Looker and his companions leaped into his
+mind, and he crossed swiftly to the window and looked out.
+
+It had been cloudy all the evening, but now, the clouds were beginning
+to break away, allowing bursts of moonlight to shine through at
+intervals. When Bob first looked out of the window, the moon was
+obscured by a ragged patch of cloud and he could barely make out the
+dim outline of the barn. But as the cloud passed on and the moon began
+to shine through the thinning fringe of vapor, Bob saw an indistinct
+figure on the roof, and as the moon came out more strongly he could
+see that the figure was tinkering with the end of the aerial that was
+fastened to the barn.
+
+Bob had no difficulty in recognizing Buck Looker, and without more ado
+he made for the back stairs leading down to the kitchen. Hot rage was
+in his heart and a resolve to have it out with the bully once and for
+all. Noiselessly he unfastened the kitchen door and passed out into
+the night, approaching the barn with as little noise as an Indian.
+
+Buck Looker was entirely unconscious of his approach, and was still
+fussing with the aerial when Bob's voice reached him, pleasant enough,
+but with a steely note in it that almost made the bully lose his hold
+on the roof.
+
+"Hello, Buck!" said Bob. "What are you doing up there?"
+
+For a few moments the shock of hearing Bob's voice so unexpectedly
+unnerved Buck completely, and he could do nothing but peer down at
+Bob with an expression of guilt and dismay on his coarse face.
+
+"Why--why--" he gasped at last, making an effort to pull himself
+together. "Why, you see, Bob, I--I just thought I'd like to see how
+you fastened this thing up. Lutz and I were thinking of putting one
+up ourselves, and we wanted to find out how to do it," he went on,
+glibly.
+
+"Come on down off that roof and take your medicine," said Bob,
+ignoring this flimsy excuse. "You've had a licking coming to you
+for a long time, and now you're going to get it."
+
+"Maybe you'll be sorry when I do come down," blustered Buck. "You
+let me alone though, and I won't hurt you."
+
+"Shut up and come down," said Bob grimly. "You've got to come down
+sooner or later, and you can bet I'll be waiting here for you when
+you arrive."
+
+The bully hesitated for a time, but his position on the roof was
+precarious, and he saw that Bob was in earnest and meant to wait for
+him. He summoned up what little courage he could, therefore, and came
+slowly down a ladder that he had reared against the side of the barn
+furthest from the house.
+
+Bob waited until Looker was fairly on the ground before making a
+move. While descending the ladder Buck had made up his mind to run
+for it as soon as he reached the ground, for he had little liking for
+an encounter with Bob, although many times he had talked big about
+what he was going to do to him some day. But Bob had no intention of
+letting him escape so easily, and as Buck put his foot on the ground
+and turned with the intention of running, Bob was on him with the fury
+of a wildcat. Buck was prepared for this too, and when he saw that he
+was fairly cornered started to fight back.
+
+Looker was bigger and heavier than Bob, and for a time held his own,
+but Bob had the memory of more than one wrong to avenge, and a gallant
+spirit that took no heed of blows received so long as he could punish
+his enemy.
+
+For many minutes they fought back and forth, giving and taking in
+fierce fashion. Buck landed one or two heavy blows, but Bob only shook
+his head and bored in more fiercely than ever. He rained blows on the
+retreating bully, who was soon getting enough and more than enough.
+At length Bob saw an opening, and quick as a flash a fist shot up and
+caught Looker square under the jaw. The bully's head rocked back, his
+knees sagged under him, and he dropped limply to the ground. Panting,
+Bob stood over him, waiting for Looker to get to his feet again, but
+when after a few seconds the bully opened his eyes, there was no sign
+of fight left in them.
+
+"Get up, you big blowhard!" panted Bob. "I'm not through with
+you yet."
+
+But Buck Looker was through, abjectly and entirely through.
+
+"Have a heart, Bob," he whined. "I don't want to fight any more.
+My jaw feels as though it was broken."
+
+"I hope it is!" said Bob. "You big bully! What do you mean by climbing
+up on my barn and trying to wreck my aerial?"
+
+"I won't ever try to monkey with it again, honest I won't!"
+whined Buck.
+
+"You'd better not," advised Bob grimly. "And when you see your
+friends, tell them I'll do the same to them that I've done to you
+if they come around here. They'd better keep off these premises
+unless they're looking for trouble."
+
+"I'll tell them to keep hands off," promised Buck, nursing his
+injured jaw. "Will you promise not to hit me if I get up?"
+
+"Yes, get up and get out of here," said Bob, disgustedly, and he
+turned his back contemptuously on the bully and started for the house.
+As he turned his back, Buck scrambled to his feet with a look of
+malignant hatred on his face and looked about him, apparently in
+search of some object he could use as a weapon. Fortunately there was
+nothing handy that he could use as such, and after stealthily shaking
+his fist at Bob he sneaked off toward town, one hand still holding
+his injured jaw.
+
+After washing his face in cold water, Bob saw that he had received
+only a few minor scratches and bruises.
+
+"I guess I taught that big bully a lesson that he won't forget in a
+hurry," he reflected. "It will be a long time before he or any of his
+sneaking friends will come tampering with our wireless again. He's had
+that licking coming to him for a long time, and I'm glad I was lucky
+enough to be the one to give it to him."
+
+Tired out by the encounter, Bob turned in and slept soundly until
+awakened by the morning sun streaming in through the open window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ON THE VERGE
+
+
+Bob felt sore and stiff as a result of the moonlight battle, but he
+showed little visible sign of it, although there was enough to excite
+questioning at the breakfast table. Bob narrated what had taken place,
+and the family was very indignant over Buck's invasion of their
+property.
+
+"If you hadn't given young Looker such a sound trouncing I would
+make a complaint to his father," said Mr. Layton. "But under the
+circumstances I guess there is no need to say anything further about
+it. His misdeeds seem to have brought their own punishment somewhat
+sooner than is usual," he added, with a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Yes, I don't think he'll come bothering around here in a hurry,
+Dad," said Bob. "I always thought he had a streak of yellow in him,
+and now I'm sure of it."
+
+"Most bullies have," observed Mr. Layton, as he rose to go down to
+the store. "I'm glad you caught him at it before he had a chance to
+do any damage, because I'm getting interested in that radio business
+myself. If you boys really get it going with the apparatus that
+you've made yourselves you'll deserve a lot of credit."
+
+"Well, we'll soon know whether it works or not," said Bob. "We hope
+to have it in shape to test out to-night."
+
+"So soon?" said Mr. Layton, surprised. "That will be fine! I hope you
+won't be disappointed," and he went out on his way down to the store.
+
+He had been gone hardly half an hour when Bob heard a cheerful chorus
+of whistles outside, and knew that his friends had arrived bright and
+early, as they had promised.
+
+"Here we are, right on the job," said Jimmy, as Bob opened the door
+for them. "But say, what's happened to you? You look as though you'd
+been in a fight."
+
+"There's nothing surprising about that, because I have been in
+a fight," replied Bob, grinning.
+
+"With whom?" they all asked at once.
+
+"An old friend of ours--dear old Buck Looker," responded Bob.
+
+"Well, what--what--when did you see him to fight with him?"
+stuttered Jimmy.
+
+"It all happened last night after you fellows had gone home," said
+Bob, and then gave them an account of how he had surprised the bully
+and the fight that had followed.
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Joe, drawing a long breath when Bob had finished,
+"I'm glad you gave him a good licking, Bob. I envy you because you
+had the chance first. I'd like to get a look at Buck now."
+
+"I imagine he'll keep out of sight for a few days," returned Bob.
+"I don't think I improved his beauty any."
+
+"I wonder if he had time to damage the aerial any," said Herb. "Have
+you taken a look at it yet, Bob?"
+
+"No, I haven't been up," said Bob. "We might do that now, I suppose."
+
+Accordingly the four boys climbed up on the barn, using the same
+ladder that Buck Looker had used the night before. They found that
+Buck, with his customary lack of brains, had failed to provide himself
+with a pair of wire cutters, with which he could have easily clipped
+the aerial, but instead had tried to unwind the wire from the
+insulator eyelet with his fingers. He had succeeded in getting it
+partially unfastened before Bob had interrupted him, but it took the
+boys only a few moments with a pair of pliers to rewind it, leaving
+everything as strong as before.
+
+"That just shows how little brain power that fellow has," said Joe.
+"What good would it have done him if he had got the aerial down?
+It wouldn't have taken us long to put it up again."
+
+"Just for the satisfaction of boasting about it, I suppose," said
+Herb. "But I guess he won't say much, about this affair. He'll calm
+down for some time to come, anyway."
+
+"We'd never have heard the last of it from that bunch if they had
+been able to put something over on us," said Bob. "But never mind
+that crowd now. Let's get to work on our panel and see if we can't
+get things hitched up in time for the Saturday evening concert.
+I'm crazy to get the thing actually finished now."
+
+"No more than I am," said Joe. "Let's go!" His three chums all felt
+very much at home in Bob's workroom, and knew where to find the
+various tools almost as well as Bob did himself. Jimmy was given the
+job of sawing a panel board out of an oak plank, while the others
+busied themselves with stripping the insulation from lengths of wire
+and scraping the bared ends to be sure of a good, clean connection.
+Bob also cleaned and tinned his soldering iron, in preparation for
+the numerous soldered joints that it would be necessary to make.
+
+"It seems to me you rest an awful lot in between strokes, Doughnuts,"
+said Herbert to that perspiring individual. "Why don't you keep right
+on sawing until you get through? It seems to me that would be a lot
+better than the way you're doing it."
+
+"If you don't like the way I'm doing this, just come and do it
+yourself," was the indignant reply. "I'd like to see you saw through
+twenty inches of seven-eighths oak without stopping. You always seem
+to get all the soft jobs, anyhow. Whenever there's anything real hard
+to do, like this job, for instance, it gets wished on me."
+
+"That's because we know you like hard work," said Bob, laughing.
+
+"Well, I get it whether I like it or not," complained Jimmy. "But
+it's almost done now, so I'll finish it quickly and prevent any of
+you fellows having to do some real work."
+
+"Jimmy's certainly good at that, you have to admit it," said Joe.
+"I could just stand here all day and admire the way he does it."
+
+But for once the fat boy refused to rise to the bait, and kept
+doggedly on until at last he had a neat twenty inch square cut
+out of the big plank.
+
+"There you are, Bob," said Jimmy, panting. "Now see if you can't
+find some heavy job for these two Indians here."
+
+"I'd like to, first rate," laughed Bob, "but I guess you've about
+finished up the last of the hard jobs. Of course, we've still got to
+drill a lot of holes in that piece of wood, but that's easy enough."
+
+"If you give me your word it's easy, I'll tackle it," said Herb.
+"Where do we want the holes, Bob?"
+
+"I don't know yet," said Bob. "We've got to arrange the different
+parts on the panel first, and find out just where we want them before
+we drill a single hole. I don't want to have to change things around
+after we put holes in the board and spoil the appearance of it."
+
+He laid the board on the bench, and arranged the tuning coil, the
+crystal detector, the condenser, and the terminals for the head phone
+plugs in what he thought should be their proper positions, and then
+called for advice on this layout.
+
+"If anybody can think of a better way to set these things up, let him
+speak now or forever hold his peace," said he.
+
+"That looks all right to me," returned Joe, eyeing the outfit
+critically. "But we'll have to raise the panel up an inch or two so
+as to give room underneath for wires and connections, shan't we?"
+
+"Right you are!" exclaimed Bob. "There's another job for you, Jimmy.
+We'll have to have two cleats to go underneath and raise the whole
+business up."
+
+"I thought it was about time for something else to come along for me,"
+grumbled Jimmy. "Just when I was thinking of lying down and resting,
+too."
+
+"Oh, that's nothing," laughed Herb. "There never is a time when you're
+not thinking of lying down and resting, so don't let that worry you."
+
+"Of course there are other times," said Joe, while Jimmy was still
+struggling to find a crushing answer to Herb's attack. "I'm surprised
+at you, Herb! How about all the times he's thinking of getting up and
+eating!"
+
+"Gosh, that was a bad mistake," said Herb, with mock seriousness.
+"I did you an injustice, Doughnuts, and I apologize."
+
+"You two will never get to be old," said Jimmy, picking up his trusty
+saw. "You're altogether too smart to live, I'm afraid."
+
+"Oh, I don't think there's any need to worry about that," said Bob,
+casually, coming to Jimmy's aid. "I think myself they'll probably
+live to be a hundred."
+
+"Wow!" exclaimed Joe. "That was a wicked wallop, Bob."
+
+"It's no more than you deserve," said Jimmy. "A good wallop with the
+business end of a gas pipe would be about the best thing that could
+happen to some people."
+
+"I'm glad he doesn't mean us, Joe," said Herb, with a wink at his
+friend.
+
+"Never mind whom I mean," said Jimmy.
+
+"Here are your cleats, so you can get busy and screw them on to the
+back of that panel. I'll lie down on the couch and watch you to see
+that you don't make any mistakes."
+
+"No danger of that," said Herb. "I couldn't make a mistake if I tried.
+Wait till I get hold of a screw driver and watch my speed."
+
+"You'll probably make a mistake without trying," said Jimmy, "but I
+suppose there's no use trying to give you good advice, so go ahead."
+
+However, Herb justified his modest estimate of himself this time, for
+he soon had the cleats strongly fastened to the back of the panel,
+raising it two inches, which gave plenty of clearance for wires and
+screw heads underneath.
+
+"That will make a better job of it, anyway," said Bob. "I was figuring
+on running the wires on the top side, but if we put them underneath
+it will look neater, although it will take longer to do it."
+
+"We might as well do it up brown now that we've got this far," said
+Joe, and the others were of the same opinion.
+
+The boys arranged the various pieces of apparatus to their
+satisfaction, and then drilled holes through and bolted them securely
+to the back. This also took a little more time than merely to screw
+them to the face of the panel, but made a more secure and lasting
+piece of work.
+
+They were still drilling holes and clamping down nuts when Mrs. Layton
+called down to tell them that lunch was ready.
+
+"Gosh! is it lunch time already?" exclaimed Joe. "It seems as though
+we had hardly got started yet."
+
+"I guess it is, just the same," said Bob. "Let's wash our hands,
+and eat."
+
+"This seems like rubbing it in, though," protested Herb. "We've almost
+been living here at your house lately, Bob, and now we're putting your
+mother to the trouble of getting lunch for us. I think we ought to go
+home and come around later."
+
+"Oh, nonsense," said Bob. "Mother's got everything all ready now, and
+she'd feel bad if you didn't stay. Come on up," and he set the example
+by making for the stairs.
+
+"Oh, well, if you insist," said Herb. "But I bet when Mrs. Layton sees
+what we do to the eats, she'll never ask us again."
+
+"Oh, she's used to seeing them disappear pretty fast," said Bob, "and
+I don't think anything will surprise her now."
+
+Mrs. Layton made the outside boys welcome with a few cheery words,
+and all sat down to a lunch in which fresh sliced ham, hot biscuits,
+and honey played a conspicuous part. Mrs. Layton was famous as a good
+cook, and it is certain that the present patrons of her art did not
+lack in appreciation. Before they got through, the table was swept
+almost clear of eatables, and even the insatiable Jimmy appeared
+satisfied, so much so that he appeared to have difficulty in rising
+with the others.
+
+"I guess we don't have to tell you how much we enjoyed everything,
+Mrs. Layton," said Herb. "Actions speak louder than words, you know."
+
+"I'm glad you liked it," she said. "I guess you'll all be able to get
+along till supper time now," she added, with a smile.
+
+"Let's go out on the grass awhile," proposed Jimmy. "I've got to lie
+down and rest a bit before I can do anything else. You slaves can work
+if you want to, but not for little Jimmy."
+
+It must be confessed that the others felt about the same way, so they
+all went out and lay on the soft grass under a big apple tree that
+grew near the kitchen door.
+
+"Ah, this is the life!" sighed Jimmy, as he stretched out luxuriously
+on his back and gazed up at the cloud-flecked sky.
+
+"It isn't so bad," admitted Bob, biting on tender blades of young
+grass. "But I'd enjoy it more if we had our outfit together and
+working."
+
+"It won't take long to finish it now, do you think?" asked Joe.
+
+"Not unless we strike a snag somewhere," said Bob. "After we get
+everything assembled, we've still got to run our leading-in wire
+down to my bedroom. But I don't think that will take us very long."
+
+"By ginger, I just can't loaf around until we do get it working!"
+exclaimed Joe, springing to his feet. "Come on, fellows, let's get
+busy. We can take it easy after we have everything fixed up."
+
+"I'm with you," said Bob. "I feel the same way myself."
+
+Herb jumped up too, but the only sound from Jimmy was a raucous
+snore ending in a gurgle.
+
+"Poor old Jimmy!" said Bob. "We've had him working hard the last
+few days, and I suppose he's tired out. Let him sleep awhile."
+
+So Jimmy was left to blissful slumber, and the others returned
+to their fascinating task.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE FINISHING TOUCH
+
+
+The three chums set to work with a will, cutting, stripping, and
+soldering wires, and while the afternoon was still young they made
+their last connection and found themselves possessed of a real
+honest-to-goodness radio receiving outfit, not quite so beautifully
+finished and polished off as a set bought readymade in a store,
+perhaps, but still serviceable and practical.
+
+"Hooray!" shouted all three together, so loudly that the sound
+reached Jimmy, still lying on the grass, and roused him from his
+blissful slumber.
+
+"What's the matter here?" he asked a few moments later, coming
+sleepily down the stairs. "Is the place on fire, or what?"
+
+"No, but we've got the whole set together at last, and we thought
+we were entitled to a yell or two," explained Bob.
+
+"Gee, that's fine! I didn't mean to sleep so long. Why didn't you
+wake me sooner?"
+
+"You seemed to be enjoying that snooze so much that we hated to
+disturb you," said Bob "There wasn't very much you could have done,
+anyway."
+
+"Well, I certainly feel a lot better," said Jimmy, with a prodigious
+yawn. "What's the next thing on the program?"
+
+"All we've got to do now is to hook up our leading-in wire and ground
+wire and we'll be all set," said Bob. "I've got a fine big table in my
+bedroom, and I was thinking that that would be a fine place to mount
+all our things and keep them together."
+
+This was agreeable to all concerned, so they repaired forthwith to
+Bob's room. This was situated on the top floor, and, as it happened,
+almost under the scuttle leading onto the roof. This made it
+comparatively easy to connect up with the antenna, as all they had
+to do was to bring the leading-in wire through the frame of the
+scuttle, drill a hole through the attic floor and the ceiling of
+Bob's room, and drop the insulated leading-in wire through. To make
+it perfectly safe, they surrounded the wire, where it passed through
+the scuttle and ceiling, with a fire proof asbestos bushing or sleeve.
+In this work they received some advice from Dr. Dale, who chanced
+to drop in.
+
+All this work took some time, and it was nearly dark when they had
+made all their connections, including the ground connection to a
+water pipe.
+
+On one corner of Bob's big table they had inserted a small knife-blade
+switch in the leading-in wire, so that the set could be disconnected
+from the aerial when not in use, or during storms so as to guard
+against lightning.
+
+When all was finished the boys viewed the result of so many hours
+of hard work and planning with mingled feelings of delight at its
+business-like appearance and apprehension that, after all, it might
+not work.
+
+"Gee, I'm almost afraid to try it," said Bob. "But we've got to find
+out what rotten radio constructors we are some time, so here goes,"
+and he produced his set of head phones. So did Joe and Herb, but
+Jimmy was struck with a sudden unpleasant thought.
+
+"Great Scott!" he exclaimed. "I've gone and left my set home. I'll
+get it and come back as soon as I can," and he dived precipitately
+out of the room.
+
+"He didn't need to be in such a hurry," laughed Bob. "We could have
+taken turns with ours."
+
+"Well, let's connect up, anyway, and see if we can hear anything,"
+said Joe. "There's no use waiting until Jimmy gets back. It won't
+take him a long while, and likely enough he'll be back before we
+raise any signals, anyway."
+
+"Well, pull up your chairs, and we'll plug in," said Bob, adjusting
+the ear phones over his head.
+
+"I saw in this morning's paper that the Newark broadcasting station
+was going to send out an orchestra concert this afternoon, and if
+our set is any good we ought to hear part of it."
+
+They all adjusted their ear phones and then drew up chairs and
+inserted the plugs in the spring sockets designed for their reception.
+They had connected four pairs of these sockets in parallel, so that
+all four head sets could be used at once.
+
+Now was the crucial moment, and the boys waited breathlessly for
+some sound to come out of the air to them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+SWEETS OF VICTORY
+
+
+Bob set one of the sliders about at the middle of the tuning coil,
+and set the other--the one connected to the leading-in wire--about
+opposite. Then he adjusted the sharp pointed wire on the detector
+until the point was just touching the crystal. Still there was no
+sound in the ear phones, and the boys looked at one another in bitter
+disappointment. Bob moved the antenna slider slowly along the tuning
+coil, and suddenly, faint, but very clear, the boys heard the opening
+chords of an overture played by a famous orchestra nearly a hundred
+miles away! Sweet and resonant the distant music rose and fell,
+growing in tone and volume as Bob manipulated the contacts along the
+coil. The boys sat spellbound listening to this miracle, to this soul
+stirring music that seemed as though it must surely be coming from
+some other world. Hardly breathing, they listened until the last
+blended chords whispered away into space, and then looked at each
+other like people just awakened from a dream.
+
+Bob was the first to speak.
+
+"I think we can call our set a success, fellows," he said, with
+a quiet smile.
+
+"Bob, that was simply wonderful!" cried Joe, jumping up and pacing
+about the room in his excitement. "Why, we can sit here and hear
+that orchestra just as well as though we were in the same hall with
+it. It seems like a fairy tale."
+
+"So it is," said Bob. "Only this is a fairy tale that came true.
+I wish Jimmy had been here to listen in with us."
+
+"He's here now, anyway," said a familiar voice, and Jimmy burst
+into the room, puffing and blowing. "Does it work, fellows? Tell
+me about it."
+
+"I should say it did work!" replied Joe. "We just heard a wonderful
+selection played by a big orchestra. It must be the Newark
+broadcasting station, as they had promised a concert for this
+afternoon."
+
+"I missed it, then, didn't I?" said Jimmy, with a downcast face.
+
+"Yes, but they'll play something else pretty soon," said Herb. "Plug
+in with your ear phones, and maybe you'll hear something to cheer
+you up."
+
+"It will take quite a good deal," said Jimmy, "after hoofing it all
+the way to my house and back on the double quick. I'll bet that trip
+took ten pounds off me, if it took an ounce."
+
+"That won't hurt you any," said Joe, with a total lack of sympathy
+for his friend's trials. "Hurry up and plug in here, so that we'll
+be ready for the next number on the program."
+
+"Oh, all right, all right," said Jimmy, adjusting his phones. "If
+I'm not ready, just tell 'em to wait."
+
+The absurdity of this idea raised a laugh, which was suddenly
+cut short as the first notes of a rousing march came ringing into
+the earphones. Every note was true and distinct as before, with
+practically no interference, and when the last note had died away
+the boys rose and as though actuated by one impulse, executed an
+impromptu war dance.
+
+When they had quieted down somewhat, Bob rushed downstairs and
+brought his mother up to hear her first radio concert. She was
+rather incredulous at first, but when the first notes of a violin
+solo reached her ears, her expression suddenly changed, and when
+the selection was over she was almost as enthusiastic as the boys
+themselves.
+
+"That was simply wonderful!" she exclaimed. "I never imagined you
+would be able to hear anything half as distinctly as that."
+
+"I'll bet you never thought you'd hear anything over our home-made
+set, now did you?" accused Bob.
+
+Mrs. Layton looked a trifle guilty. "I never thought you'd get it
+working so soon nor so perfectly," she confessed. "But now that you
+have, I certainly congratulate you."
+
+They all listened for some time for something else to come in over
+the aerial, but apparently the concert was over, for they could hear
+nothing but a confused murmur, with here and there some fragment of
+a sentence coming out clear above the general confusion. This was
+probably due to the sending being so distant as to be almost beyond
+their range. Just before supper time they heard a message from a ship
+at sea, and Joe, Herb, and Jimmy could hardly tear themselves away
+to go home to supper. They finally got started, however, promising
+to return as soon as they could after supper, so as to be in time
+for the evening concert.
+
+After they had gone, Bob called up Doctor Dale, and told him of the
+successful outcome of their experiment. The minister was delighted.
+
+"That's great work!" he exclaimed heartily. "So the set works well,
+does it?"
+
+"Yes, sir, it certainly does," said Bob. "Of course it's not as good
+as yours, and we can't tune out interference very well. But it does
+all that I hoped it would, and more. I wish you could get around to
+hear it when you get a chance."
+
+"I tell you what I'll do," said the doctor. "I have an expert radio
+man visiting me here this evening. How would it be if I dropped
+around some time during the evening, and brought him with me?"
+
+"Fine!" exclaimed Bob, delighted at the prospect of talking with
+an experienced radio man. "We'll all be looking for you, sir."
+
+Bob was delighted over the doctor's promise, and told his friends
+about it as soon as they arrived that evening. They were all
+equally pleased.
+
+"He can tell us just what we need to know," commented Joe. "You can
+dig a lot of stuff out of books, but lots of times just the question
+you want answered doesn't seem to be in them."
+
+The boys had just raised the Newark station, end were listening to
+the first number on the program, a soprano solo, when the minister
+and his friend arrived. He introduced the stranger as Mr. Brandon,
+and the latter immediately made himself at home.
+
+"I hear you fellows got your set working first crack out of the box,"
+he said, as they were going upstairs. "You're luckier than I was with
+my first one, because I had a lot of trouble before I got my first
+signal through. I fooled around a long time before I found out what
+the trouble was, too."
+
+"What was it?" asked Bob.
+
+"I finally found that the water pipes were insulated from the street
+pipes, as they are in some houses, so that I really didn't have any
+ground at all, even though my ground wire was connected with a pipe
+in the bathroom. I might have been looking for the trouble yet if a
+friend of mine hadn't given me a tip what to look for."
+
+By this time they had reached Bob's room, and Dr. Dale and Mr. Brandon
+inspected the boys' outfit with great interest.
+
+"Pretty good for beginners, isn't it, Brandon?" said the minister
+at length, when they had gone over the thing at length and Bob had
+explained the way they had made the different units.
+
+"I should say so," acquiesced the expert. "They've made up one of
+the neatest amateur jobs I've seen in a long time. Let's see how it
+sounds."
+
+He and the doctor donned head phones, and Mr. Brandon manipulated the
+tuning coil and the crystal detector with a deftness that spoke of
+long experience. He showed the boys how they might get even clearer
+and louder tones than any they had yet obtained by adjusting the
+detector until the best possible contact was obtained with the
+crystal.
+
+"You could hear better with a more elaborate set, of course," he said,
+"but you get mighty good results with what you've got. Of course,
+you're range is limited to less than two hundred miles with this set,
+and your tuning range is limited, too. But you've made a fine start,
+and with this as a foundation you can go on adding equipment, if you
+like, until you have a first class receiving station."
+
+"Yes, and after we get a little more experience, we want to try our
+hand at sending, too," said Joe.
+
+"Well, that's a more complicated undertaking," said Mr. Brandon.
+"But there's no reason why you shouldn't, if you are willing to
+go to the trouble to learn the international code and take an
+examination. You have to be able to receive ten words a minute,
+you know, to get a license."
+
+"I suppose you're an expert both sending and receiving," said Bob.
+
+"I ought to know something about it by this time," said Mr. Brandon.
+"Uncle Sam has me working for him now as radio inspector, so I'm
+supposed to know something about it."
+
+"Mr. Brandon was with the aviation radio branch of the service during
+the war," explained Dr. Dale, "and he has seen radio telephony develop
+from almost nothing to what it is to-day."
+
+"Yes, it was the war that speeded up the growth of radio," said Mr.
+Brandon. "It revolutionized war in the air, and made it possible to
+control the movements of airplanes in a way that had never, been
+dreamed of before."
+
+"You must have had some mighty interesting and exciting work,"
+ventured Herb.
+
+"All of that," admitted Dr. Dale's friend, with a smile. "Once our
+whole station was wrecked by a bomb dropped on it from an enemy plane.
+Luckily, we all had time to duck out before the bomb landed, but there
+wasn't anything left of our fine station but a big hole in the ground
+and bits of apparatus scattered around over the landscape. There were
+very few dull moments in that life."
+
+"It doesn't sound very dull," said Bob, laughing.
+
+"I can assure you it wasn't," said the radio expert. "But in the case
+I was telling you about, our airmen brought down the fellow who had
+dropped the bomb, which made us feel a little better."
+
+"There's some interesting stuff coming in now," said Dr. Dale, who
+had been listening in at the receiving set. "They're sending out news
+bulletins now, and I'd advise you to listen for a bit. It's away
+ahead of reading a newspaper, I assure you."
+
+"Besides being easier on the eyes," grinned Mr. Brandon. "Let's hear
+what it's all about."
+
+Sitting at ease, they heard many important news items of the day
+recorded. There was a little interference from an amateur sender,
+but they finally managed to eliminate this almost entirely by
+manipulation of the tuning coil.
+
+"I know that fellow," said Brandon. "I was inspecting his outfit
+just a few days ago. He's got a pretty good amateur set, too. He's
+located in Cooperstown, not twenty miles from here."
+
+"My, you must know every station in this part of the country!"
+exclaimed Joe, surprised.
+
+"It's my business to know them all," said Brandon. "And if anybody
+takes a chance and tries to send without a license, it's up to me
+to locate him and tell him what's what."
+
+"It must be hard to locate them, isn't it?" asked Jimmy.
+
+"Sometimes it is," returned the radio inspector. "I'm tracing down
+a couple now, and hope to land them within a few days."
+
+The little company had some further interesting talk, and then, as
+it was getting rather late, Dr. Dale and his friend rose to go.
+
+"I'm glad to have met all you fellows," said the radio expert,
+shaking hands all around. "If there's anything I can do to help
+you along at any time, Dr. Dale can tell you where to find me,
+and I'll be glad to be of service."
+
+The boys thanked their visitor heartily, and promised to avail
+themselves of his offer in case they found that they needed help.
+Then Bob saw the visitors to the door, and returned to his friends.
+
+"We're mighty lucky to have met a man like that, who knows this game
+from start to finish," said Joe. "I'd give a lot to know what he does
+about it."
+
+"You never will know as much," said Jimmy. "Mr. Brandon is a smart
+man."
+
+"Meaning that I'm not, I suppose?" said Joe. "Well, there's no need
+of my being smart as long as you're around with your keen young mind."
+
+"It's nice of you to say so," said Jimmy, choosing to ignore the
+sarcasm in Joe's tone. "I never expected to hear you admit it,
+though."
+
+"I'll have to get you two Indians a pair of boxing gloves, and let
+you settle your arguments that way, pretty soon," came from Bob.
+
+"Nothing doing," said Jimmy. "Boxing is too much like work, and it's
+time to go home, anyway," and he rose to look for his hat. "Anybody
+coming my way?"
+
+"Well, if there were any more messages coming in, I'd ask Bob to let
+me stay all night," said Joe. "But as it is, I suppose I might as well
+go, too. Coming, Herb?"
+
+"Yes, I suppose I'll have to."
+
+"Not at all," put in Jimmy. "I'm sure Mrs. Layton would just love
+to have you two fellows planted on her for a life time."
+
+"Nothing doing!" declared Bob, laughing.
+
+In a few moments three tuneful whistlers were making their way
+homeward, with hearts elated at the success of their first venture
+into the wide field of radio telephony.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE FERBERTON PRIZE
+
+
+For several days nothing of special interest happened in Clintonia.
+Buck Looker made his appearance about the streets, one eye covered by
+a black patch. This he explained to his cronies by telling them that
+he wore the patch to keep out the sun, but even they had to take this
+with a large grain of salt, as Bob's friends took pains to let the
+real cause of Buck's trouble be known. Buck knew that he was not
+'getting away' with his excuse, and the knowledge made him more surly
+and unpleasant than before. In the course of a few days he was able
+to discard the patch, but unfortunately he could not discard his mean
+and revengeful nature so easily, and his mind was continually occupied
+with plans to "get even."
+
+"We'll put that crowd out of business some way, you see if we don't,"
+said Buck to Carl Lutz.
+
+"I'd like to do it, all right, but I don't see just how we're going
+to manage it," replied Lutz. "If Bob Layton can lick you, he can lick
+any of our bunch, so we don't want to get into trouble with them
+until we've got a sure thing."
+
+Buck agreed heartily with this unsportsmanlike attitude, but had more
+confidence in fortune.
+
+"Don't worry about that," he said. "We'll get our chance all right!
+And then won't we rub it into Bob Layton and his crowd!" and his face
+wore even a more ugly and sinister look than usual.
+
+For the next few days the boys' radio set was in much demand. Of
+course all their immediate relatives had to listen in, as it is
+called, and they also invited many of their friends, both boys and
+girls, to try it.
+
+"Oh, it's too wonderful for anything," declared Joe's sister Rose.
+"To think of getting all that music from such a distance!"
+
+"Yes, and that splendid sermon Sunday afternoon!" exclaimed Mrs.
+Plummer. "I declare, if Dr. Dale doesn't look out they'll make it
+so nobody will have to go to meeting any more."
+
+"I've certainly got to hand it to you boys," was Doctor Atwood's
+comment. "I didn't think you could really do it. This radio business
+is going to change everything. Why, a person living away off in the
+country can listen in on the finest of concerts, lectures, sermons
+and everything else. And pick up all the very latest news in the
+bargain."
+
+One day Bob had to go out of town on an errand for his father and he
+was allowed to take Joe along. At the out-of-town railroad station
+they quite unexpectedly ran into Nellie Berwick. The girl had
+recovered from the shock of the automobile accident but looked
+much downcast.
+
+"No, I haven't heard from Dan Cassey yet," she said, in reply to
+a question from Bob.
+
+"Then he didn't come back?" questioned Joe.
+
+"No--or, if he did, he is keeping in hiding. I guess my money is
+gone," and the girl heaved a deep sigh.
+
+"The rascal, the dirty rascal!" was Bob's comment, after they had
+left Miss Berwick. "Oh, how I would like to hand him over to the
+police!"
+
+"Yes, but give him a good licking first," added his chum.
+
+While Buck Looker was still racking his brains for an appropriate form
+of punishment for Bob and his chums, a most interesting thing happened
+to the radio boys. The Representative in Congress of the district in
+which Clintonia was located, Mr. Ferberton, came out with an offer of
+a prize of one hundred dollars for the best amateur wireless outfit
+made by any boy in his district, and a second prize of fifty dollars.
+It was stipulated that the entire set, outside of the head phones,
+must be made by the boy himself, with out any assistance from
+grown-ups. A time limit of three weeks was allowed, at the end of
+which time each set submitted was to be tried out by a committee
+composed of prominent business men and radio experts, and the prizes
+awarded to those getting the best results and making the neatest
+appearance.
+
+It may be imagined what effect this offer had on the four radio boys.
+The announcement was made at the high school one day, and from that
+time on the boys were engrossed with the idea of winning the coveted
+prize.
+
+"Just think of the honor it would be, let alone the hundred dollars,"
+said Bob. "Whoever wins that prize will be known through the entire
+State."
+
+"I wouldn't care much who got the honor, so long as I got first
+prize," said Jimmy, avariciously. "What I couldn't do with all that
+money--yum, yum!"
+
+"Yes, or even fifty dollars wouldn't be anything to sneeze at," said
+Joe. "I give you fellows notice right here that you'll have to step
+mighty lively to beat yours truly to one of those fat plums."
+
+"Gee, you'll never have a chance," said Jimmy. "Why, my set will be
+so good that it will probably win both prizes. Nobody else will have
+a look in."
+
+"All you'll win will be the nickel plated necktie for trying," said
+Herb. "If you really want to see the winner of the first prize, just
+gaze steadily in my direction," and he grinned.
+
+"I'm not saying anything, but that doesn't prove that I'm not
+thinking a lot," said Bob. "Never leave little Bob Layton out of it
+when there's a prize hanging around to be picked."
+
+"It would be just like your beastly luck to win it," said Jimmy.
+
+"There won't be much luck about this, I guess," said Joe. "By the
+time the judges get through picking the winner, the chances are it
+will take a pretty nifty set to pull down first prize--or second,
+either, for that matter," he added. "There's a lot of fellows
+trying for it, I hear."
+
+"Well, as far as we four go, we all start even," continued Bob.
+"All that we know about radio we learned together, so nobody has
+a head start on the other."
+
+"That doesn't help me much," said Herb. "What I need is a big head
+start. I think I'll enjoy myself working the set we have already,
+and let you fellows slave your heads off trying for prizes. I know
+I'd never win one in a thousand years, anyway."
+
+"Oh, you might--in a thousand years," put in Jimmy, wickedly;
+"not any sooner than that, though."
+
+"Oh, who asked you to put in your two cents' worth, you old croaker?"
+said Herb, giving Jimmy a poke in his well padded ribs. "I'll win that
+prize just as well by not working as you will by working. You know
+you're too fat and lazy, to make up a set all by your lonesome."
+
+"I'm not too lazy to try, anyway," returned the fat boy, "and that's
+more than some people can say."
+
+"He's got you there, Herb," laughed Bob. "Why don't you start in
+and make a try for it, anyway?"
+
+"Nothing doing," said Herb. "If I took the trouble to make a wireless
+outfit good enough to cop that prize, I'd expect them to pay me a
+thousand dollars for it instead of a measly little hundred."
+
+"To hear you talk, anyone would think that hundred dollar bills grew
+on trees," said Joe. "I'll bet any money you never saw a hundred
+dollars all at one time, in your life."
+
+"To tell you the truth," said Herb, "I don't really believe there's
+that much money in the whole world. I must admit I've never seen it,
+anyway."
+
+"You'll see it when I show it to you," said Jimmy, with more show
+of confidence, it must be admitted, than he really felt.
+
+"Well, remember we're all pals," said Herb. "If you win that prize,
+Jimmy, I get half, don't I?"
+
+"Yes, you don't. I might blow you to an ice cream soda, but outside
+of that, my boy--nothing doing."
+
+One day the hardware dealer of whom they had purchased their supplies
+called Bob, Joe and Jimmy into his establishment.
+
+"Got something to show you," he declared importantly. "New box set,
+just from New York, and sells for only twenty-two fifty. Better than
+any you can make. Want to try it? There's a concert coming in from
+Springfield right now."
+
+"Yes, sir, we'd like to try it, and it's good of you to let us,"
+answered Bob. "But we believe in making our own sets. That's more
+than half the fun."
+
+"Yes, but just wait till you hear this box set," urged the dealer.
+"Then maybe you'll want to own one. A professional set is always
+better than an amateur one, you know."
+
+The boys didn't know but they did not say so. They followed the man
+to a back room of his establishment, where the box set rested on a
+plain but heavy table.
+
+"There are the ear phones, help yourselves," he said. "I've got to
+wait on that customer that just came in."
+
+The three radio boys proceeded to make themselves at home around the
+table. They adjusted the ear phones and listened intently. There was
+not a sound.
+
+"Guess the concert is over," observed Doughnuts.
+
+"Wait till I make a few adjustments," put in Bob, and proceeded to
+tune up as best he could. He had been reading his book of instructions
+carefully of late, so went to work with a good deal of intelligence.
+
+"There it is!" cried Joe, as the music suddenly burst upon their ears.
+"Listen, fellows! They are playing Dixie!"
+
+"And it sounds mighty good," added Jimmy enthusiastically.
+
+"But no better than it would on our set at home," put in Bob,
+quickly.
+
+"Not a bit," added Joe, loyally.
+
+The three lads listened to another selection and then the storekeeper
+joined them.
+
+"Isn't that grand?" said he. "I'll bet you can't make a box as good
+as that."
+
+"Maybe we'll make something better," said Bob. "You come up to our
+place some day and listen to what we have."
+
+"Then you don't think you want a box?" And the shopkeeper's voice
+indicated his disappointment.
+
+"Not just yet anyway," answered Bob.
+
+"We'd rather buy the parts from you and make our own," added Joe.
+"Besides, we want to try for the Ferberton prizes."
+
+"Oh, that's it. Well, when you want anything, come to me," concluded
+the dealer.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+FRIENDLY RIVALS
+
+
+The radio boys, Herb excepted, finally decided each to make his own
+set without any consultation with any of the others, and submit it
+to be judged strictly on its merits.
+
+"Three weeks ought to give us plenty of time," said Bob. "I'm going
+to do a lot of experimenting before I start in to make the real set.
+Of course, the one we've already got belongs to all of us equally,
+and you fellows know you can come and use it any time you feel like
+it."
+
+"Your mother will be putting us out if we spend much more time at
+your house," replied Joe. "It seems as though we have just about
+been living there lately."
+
+"Oh, don't let that worry you," said Bob. "You know you're welcome
+at any time. Besides, we won't have to put all our time on the new
+sets, either. We can have plenty of fun in the evening with our
+present one."
+
+The boys finally agreed to build their sets each by himself, and
+to say nothing about any features or improvements that they might
+incorporate in it. They were all enthusiastic over their chances,
+although they knew that the winners would have to overcome a lot
+of first-class opposition.
+
+Herb felt sorry at times that he had not started a set of his own,
+but his was an easy-going disposition that took things as they came,
+and while the other boys were studying all the books they could find
+on the subject and consulting Dr. Dale, Mr. Brandon having departed,
+he was listening to music and talk over the original set, and
+enjoying himself generally.
+
+"You go ahead and have all the fun you want now," said Joe one time,
+when Herb was teasing him about working so hard. "My fun will come
+later."
+
+"Yes--if you win the prize," said Herb. "But if you don't, you won't
+be any better off than I am, and you'll be out all your work besides."
+
+"Not a bit of it," denied Joe. "Even if I don't win either prize, my
+set will be returned to me after the judging is over, and I'll have
+that to show for my trouble, anyway."
+
+"Maybe you will, if they don't tear it all apart while they're looking
+it over," said Herb.
+
+"Aw, forget it," advised Joe. "If I don't get anything out of it but
+the experience, I won't think that I've wasted my time."
+
+"Well, that's the spirit, all right," said Herb. "Go to it. But you
+ought to have heard the concert I heard last evening while you slaves
+were working your heads off."
+
+"Yes, but when I get this outfit of mine working, I'll be able to hear
+everything a lot better than you can with the set we've got now," said
+Joe. "I've got some good kinks out of a radio magazine that I'm going
+to put in mine, and it's going to be a regular humdinger."
+
+"Oh, all right, all right," said Herb, laughing. "That's the very
+thing that Jimmy was telling me only this afternoon. He's putting
+a lot of sure fire extras on his set, too. I don't think there will
+be enough prizes to go around."
+
+"I don't care whether there are or not, so long as I get one," said
+Joe, with frank selfishness. "One is all I want."
+
+"That's probably exactly one more than you'll get," grinned Herb.
+"But you may astonish us all by working up something really decent.
+Funny things like that do happen, sometimes."
+
+"'It's easier to criticize than to create,'" quoted Joe. "Likewise,
+'he who laughs last, irritates.' If those two wise old sayings don't
+hold you for a while, I'll try to think up a few more for you."
+
+"Oh, don't bother, that's plenty," laughed Herb. "It doesn't take
+many of those to satisfy me."
+
+"Well, I'll have to leave you to your troubles," said Joe. "Now that
+I've got this idea in my noodle, I won't be able to rest until I get
+it worked up.
+
+"Say, wait a minute," said Herb. "I heard a swell joke to-day, and
+I know you'll enjoy it. There was an Irishman and a Jew--" but at
+this formidable opening Joe rushed out, slamming the door behind him.
+"Well, it's his loss," thought Herb. "But it is a crackerjack story,
+just the same. I'll have to go and find Bob and tell it to him."
+
+He found Bob hard at work at his bench downstairs.
+
+"Hey, Bob, want to hear a good joke?" he asked.
+
+"Nope," said his friend, with discouraging brevity.
+
+"Gee!" exclaimed Herb, "you're as bad as Joe. You neither of you
+seem to appreciate high-class humor any more."
+
+"Oh, we appreciate high-class humor all right," said Bob, with a
+wicked grin. "It's only your kind that we can't stand for."
+
+"Bang!" exclaimed Herbert. "That settles it. Any one of you knockers
+who wants to hear that story now will have to come to me and ask for
+it."
+
+"That's all right, Herb. Just you hold on to it until we do. Maybe
+it will improve with a little aging."
+
+"This story is so good that it can't be improved. But I'm going home
+now, so if you want to give yourself the pleasure of hearing it,
+you'd better say so right away."
+
+"No, I'll get along somehow without it," answered Bob. "But maybe
+Jimmy would like to hear it. Have you tried it on him?"
+
+"No, and what's more, I'm not going to. I've lost my confidence in
+that story now. I guess it can't be so good after all."
+
+"Probably not," agreed Bob gravely.
+
+"Oh, get out!" cried Herb. "I'm going home!" and he departed
+indignantly, slamming the door behind him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+A SPLENDID INSPIRATION
+
+
+"Say, fellows, I've been thinking about something," said Bob
+seriously, so seriously, in fact, that the three boys who had been
+lolling on the grass turned over and regarded him with interest.
+
+"Gosh, did you hear what he said?" asked Herb, with a grin. "He's
+got an idea, fellows. Hold your hats, I bet it's a bear."
+
+"Spill it, Bob," came from Jimmy, lazily.
+
+"Gee, he sure is a wonder, that boy," said Joe, regarding his friend
+admiringly. "I've never known him to run out of ideas yet. Not but
+what some of 'em are rotten," he added, grinning. The next minute
+he dodged a clump of moist earth thrown his way by the good-natured
+Bob, the result being that the missile landed square upon Jimmy's
+unoffending head.
+
+The boys roared while poor Jimmy patiently brushed the dirt off,
+inquiring in injured accents what the big idea was, anyway.
+
+"Good work, fellows," crowed Herb joyfully. "That's bully slap-stick
+work all right. You have a movie star beat a mile already."
+
+"Say, cut out the comedy, will you, Herb?" asked Joe impatiently.
+"I want to hear about this great idea of Bob's."
+
+"I didn't say it was great, did I?" demanded Bob modestly. "It's
+just an idea, that's all."
+
+"Well, shoot," demanded Herb laconically.
+
+Bob was silent for a moment, wondering just how he could best express
+the thought that had suddenly come to him; just a little afraid that
+the others might laugh at him. And where is the boy who does not dread
+being laughed at more than anything else in the world?
+
+The day had been unusually warm for the time of the year, and the
+radio boys, turning their backs upon the town, had started out for
+a long hike into the woods. The heat, together with a visit to the
+doughnut jar just before meeting the boys, had wearied Jimmy, and
+he had been the first to suggest a rest. And so, having come across
+a talkative little brook, hidden deep in the heart of the woodland,
+the boys had been content to follow Jimmy's suggestion.
+
+Sprawled on the mossy ground in various ungraceful, though comfortable
+positions, the boys lazily watched the hurrying little brook, throwing
+a pebble into it now and then and talking of the thing that almost
+always filled their minds these days--their radio outfits.
+
+At last, urged on by the boys, Bob made public his idea.
+
+"Why, I was just thinking--" he said slowly. "I was just thinking
+how awfully slow things must be for the poor shut-ins--"
+
+"What?" demanded Herb curiously.
+
+Bob frowned. It bothered him to be interrupted, especially when it
+was hard to express what he felt.
+
+"Shut-ins," he repeated impatiently. "People who can't get out and
+have fun like us fellows."
+
+"Oh, you mean cripples like Joel Banks," said Herb with relief.
+
+"Gee, did you just find that out?" murmured Jimmy, turning over on
+his stomach and wondering if he really ought to have eaten that last
+doughnut. "Some folks are awful stupid."
+
+Herb showed a strong desire to avenge this insult, but Joe quelled
+the threatened riot.
+
+"Cut out the rough stuff, can't you, fellows?" he asked disgustedly.
+"Give Bob a chance."
+
+"Well," Bob continued during the temporary quiet that ensued, "I was
+just thinking what a mighty fine thing it would be for these poor
+folks who never have any fun if they could have a radio attachment
+in their own houses so that no matter how crippled they were, they
+could listen to a concert or the news, or any old thing they wanted
+to, without going outside their houses."
+
+"It sure would be fine," said Joe, a little puzzled as to what Bob
+was driving at but loyally certain that, whatever the idea, his chum
+was sure to be in the right.
+
+"I don't get you at all," complained Jimmy, finally deciding that he
+really should have left that last doughnut alone, there was beginning
+to be a mighty uncomfortable sensation somewhere in the center of his
+being. "Radio probably would be a fine thing for cripples but, gee,
+we're not cripples--yet."
+
+"Who said anything about us?" demanded Bob, disgruntled. "I never
+said we were cripples, did I?"
+
+"Well, spill the rest of it," groaned Jimmy as he shifted from one
+side to the other in the hope of relieving the pain that gnawed at
+his vitals. "What's the big idea?"
+
+"I was wondering," said Bob, sitting up and growing excited as his
+vague plan began to take shape, "if we couldn't get some of these
+poor folks together and give 'em the time of their lives."
+
+The boys stared at him and Herb shook his head sorrowfully.
+
+"Gone plain loco," he explained to the other boys, with a significant
+tap on his forehead. "They say life's pretty hard inside that asylum,
+too."
+
+"Loco, nothing!" cried Joe, beginning to understand Bob's idea and
+growing excited in his turn. "You're the one that's loco, you poor
+fish, only you haven't sense enough to know it. Where would we give
+this entertainment, Bob? At your house?" he asked, turning to his
+chum while Herb grinned at the suffering Jimmy.
+
+"Now, they've both got it," he said dolefully.
+
+"Well, I wish 'em joy of it," grumbled Jimmy.
+
+"Why, I thought of that at first," Bob said in reply to Joe's
+question. "Only with our instruments we have to use the ear pieces
+so that only a few could listen at a time."
+
+"That would be pretty slow for the rest of them," Joe finished
+understandingly.
+
+Bob nodded eagerly.
+
+"Sure thing," he said, sitting up and flinging the hair back out
+of his eyes. "I knew you'd catch the idea, Joe."
+
+"Say, I know what we'll do," broke in Herb excitedly. "How about
+taking all these poor lame ducks to Doctor Dale's house. He has a
+horn attachment--"
+
+"And they could all hear the concert at once! Hooray!" cried Jimmy,
+momentarily forgetting his pain in excitement. "You've got a pretty
+good head piece after all, Bob."
+
+"Yes, and a minute ago you were laughing at me," said Bob, aggrieved.
+
+"Well, say," cried Joe, who was ever a boy of action, "what's the
+matter with our getting busy on this right away? Let's go and see
+Doctor Dale--"
+
+"What's your big rush?" Jimmy protested feebly, appalled by the
+prospect of immediate action. "There's a lot of things we don't know
+about this business yet."
+
+"Sure, sit down and talk it over," urged Herb placatingly. "No use
+gettin' all worked up over this thing, you know. Say," he added,
+with a sudden light in his, eye, "that reminds me of a joke I heard."
+But a roar of protest from the other boys drowned his voice.
+
+"Gag him, some one, can't you?" Joe's voice was heard above the
+uproar. "The last joke he tried to work off on us was so old it
+had false teeth."
+
+"Gee," cried Herb, finally released and disgruntled. "It's plain
+to be seen real humor is wasted on this gang."
+
+The boys let it go at that and eagerly plunged into a discussion
+of the proposed concert.
+
+"Who do we know that we can invite?" Joe asked practically. "The only
+'shut in' I know is poor old Joel Banks. He's a fine old boy--went
+all through the Civil War with colors flying. He's awfully old now,
+and so crippled with rheumatism he can't leave the house."
+
+"Fine!" crowed Herb irrepressibly. "Here's the first of our lame
+lucks."
+
+"Joel Banks isn't any lame duck! I'll have you know that right now,"
+cried Joe hotly. "He's one of the finest old gentlemen you ever want
+to see, and a hero at that. My dad says he would take his hat off
+to him any day in the week."
+
+"All right, all right," said Herb quickly. "Don't go off the handle.
+I didn't know you were so strong for the old boy. Who's next on the
+list?" he asked, turning to Bob.
+
+"Why," said Bob uncertainly, "I know quite a few poor kids who were
+crippled in that infantile paralysis epidemic--"
+
+"Sure, so do I," broke in Jimmy, interested. "How about little Dick
+Winters and his sister?"
+
+"Fine!" cried Bob. "And I know a couple more I could pick up. Now
+let's see! That makes--Gee, how many is it?"
+
+"About five;" Joe figured for him. "That's enough, isn't it."
+
+"Y-yes," said Bob doubtfully. "Only your friend, the old war veteran,
+might not like to be squeezed in with a lot of kids, that way."
+
+"I can fix that easily," said Jimmy, importantly. "What's the matter
+with asking Aunty Bixby?"
+
+"Who's she?" asked Bob, with interest.
+
+"She's an old lady, a sort of spinster, I guess," Jimmy explained.
+"She lives all by herself, and I guess she gets kind of lonesome
+sometimes. She's kind of deaf, though," he added doubtfully.
+
+"Deaf!" repeated Bob, with a frown. "How can she listen to radio
+then, if she's deaf?"
+
+"Oh, she has a trumpet," Jimmy hastened to explain. "She sticks it in
+her ear like this," and he made a gesture with his hands at the same
+time distorting his face into such a comical imitation of a deaf
+person doing his best to listen that the other boys shouted with
+laughter. "Oh, she can hear, all right," Jimmy finished confidently.
+
+"Well, then, that makes six," said Bob briskly. "Now we've got to make
+up our minds how we are going to get them to Doctor Dale's house."
+
+"Maybe dad will let me take the big car," said Joe, his eyes shining
+with the sheer daring of the thought. "He is so crazy about radio
+himself these days that he will pretty nearly stand on his head to
+help anybody who takes an interest in it."
+
+"I guess all our dads are bricks about radio," declared Jimmy stoutly.
+"Mine said the other night he was mighty glad to have a youngster that
+had sense enough to pick out something really good to waste his time
+on."
+
+"Waste, is right," said Herb and then stared upward through the trees
+as Jimmy's indignant stare was fixed upon him.
+
+"Stop scrapping, fellows," said Bob, jumping to his feet and shaking
+off some of the twigs and damp earth that stuck to him. "Let's get
+busy and find Doctor Dale. If he won't let us have his house then
+this thing is all off."
+
+"Swell chance, his not letting us have his house," said Jimmy, getting
+painfully to his feet and shaking himself for all the world like a fat
+puppy dog. "He's the greatest sport going."
+
+"He sure is," Bob agreed as they swung off at a great pace through
+the woods. "If it hadn't been for him we probably wouldn't have known
+anything about radio."
+
+For a while they were quiet, their minds busy with plans for
+perfecting their own radio outfits, their imaginations athrill
+with anticipation of the wonders they were yet to perform.
+
+Then Herb suddenly broke into their dreams with a very practical
+question.
+
+"Boys, I just happened to think--"
+
+"'Happened' is right," murmured Jimmy, with a grin.
+
+"Even if Joe does get his dad's car," Herb went on, unmoved, "it's
+only a seven passenger, and there will be ten of us, counting the
+lame ducks."
+
+"Oh, that'll be all right," said Bob confidently. "We'll hire
+a jitney of some sort down at the livery."
+
+Thereupon they all plunged into a lively discussion of plans for
+the concert, and so absorbed were they that they found themselves
+walking down Main Street before they had any idea that they were
+near the town.
+
+As they neared the big stone church on the corner they espied a
+familiar figure mounting the steps of the parsonage.
+
+"Hooray!" shouted Bob, starting on a run down the street. "Just
+in the nick of time, fellows. There's the doctor himself!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES
+
+
+Doctor Dale heard their shout and waited with his genial smile till
+the four boys came panting up to him.
+
+"We've got a sort of idea, Doctor Dale," explained Bob, stammering in
+his eagerness. "And--and we would like to speak to you about it if
+you have time."
+
+"I can always spare some for you boys," the doctor assured him
+heartily. "Come on in, fellows, and let's hear about this idea.
+Something connected with radio, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered Bob, as Doctor Dale opened the parsonage door
+and the boys crowded eagerly after him into the cozy study.
+
+The doctor listened with interest while Bob outlined the plan to him,
+assisted by frequent interruptions from the other boys.
+
+And if the chums had expected enthusiasm from this good friend of
+theirs, they were certainly not disappointed. The doctor was jubilant
+over the idea and readily consented to giving his time unreservedly
+for the purpose of making the affair a great success.
+
+They set the date of the concert for the next day, which was
+Saturday, and added the names of several others to the list of those
+to be invited. A few minutes later the minister's callers departed
+gleefully, a warmer feeling than ever in their hearts for Doctor
+Amory Dale.
+
+"You've got the right idea, boys," the latter called after them,
+standing at the top of the steps to see them off. "Give happiness
+to others and you will find true happiness for yourselves."
+
+So far everything had gone swimmingly, and when the next morning
+the boys arose to find the sun shining brightly they thought that
+the fates had been almost too good to them.
+
+"Something sure will happen before night," Jimmy muttered gloomily,
+as he made his way down to the dining room, from which issued a
+tempting aroma of bacon. "It's all too good to be true." But then,
+Jimmy always did feel grumpy before breakfast.
+
+The boys each found his own family as enthusiastic as Doctor Dale
+had been about the great plan, and Bob's mother even hugged him
+impulsively as she passed behind his chair. Bob was almost ashamed
+of the happiness that welled in his heart. Of course a fellow of
+fifteen was too big to be hugged as a general thing, but, somehow,
+one's mother was different.
+
+After breakfast he started down town to see about the jitney, met
+Joe on the way, and the two boys went on together, talking excitedly
+of their preparations.
+
+"Dad says I can have the big car and the garage man will run it,"
+Joe informed him gleefully. "Gee, I was never so surprised in my
+life. All he said was 'take it, my son, and Heaven grant you never
+want it for a worse purpose.' Great old sport, dad is."
+
+"Gee, that's great," said Bob. "Now if we can only find some old bus
+that looks as if it will stand up for a mile or two, everything will
+be dandy."
+
+After much kicking of tires and anxious examination, the boys did
+actually manage to find a Ford machine that promised, with more or
+less reservations, to do its duty, and, after engaging it with a
+driver for one-thirty that afternoon, they walked importantly from
+the shop, much to the amusement of the garage man.
+
+"Fine set of kids," he muttered, shaking his head admiringly as he
+returned to the machine that he was repairing. "Always full of pep
+and ginger whenever you see 'em. They'll go a long way, those kids
+will."
+
+In spite of various gloomy predictions, at one-thirty that afternoon
+there was still not a cloud in the sky and the breath of the sun
+smote downward almost as hotly as it would in midsummer.
+
+Gayly the four boys started off in the two cars, eager to pick up
+the poor shut-ins of their acquaintance and give them the time of
+their lives.
+
+Their first stop was at the lonely little cottage of Joel Banks, Civil
+War veteran. His housekeeper let them in, a quaint little woman with
+pink cheeks and white hair and a spotless white apron tied around her
+comfortable waist.
+
+When the boys made known their errand to her she departed in a flutter
+of pleased surprise to prepare "the colonel" for his treat. In a few
+moments more the old gentleman appeared, leaning heavily upon the
+housekeeper, a stout cane grasped stiffly in his knotted fingers.
+
+He gazed at the boys for a moment with dim eyes, then suddenly a gleam
+shot into them and he smiled.
+
+"Reckoning on giving me a treat, are you, boys?" he asked. Something
+must have caught in his throat, for he cleared it hastily. "Well,
+that's mighty fine of you. Been a long time since anybody took that
+much interest in old Joel Banks."
+
+Joe introduced his friends in hurried, boy fashion, and a moment later
+they were helping the old gentleman out of the house and into the
+automobile, at the same time pouring into his interested ears such
+tales of the marvels of radio telephony that it was a wonder they did
+not talk the veteran deaf.
+
+In the confusion Bob managed to whisper instructions to Joe.
+
+"We'll put the kids in your car," he said hurriedly. "There will be
+more room for them, and then they won't bother the old folks. And have
+the man drive slowly," he added. "This old bus isn't long on springs,
+and I don't want to jolt 'em up too much. Take it easy, Joe."
+
+"All right," agreed the latter, and a moment later they were gliding
+cautiously over the smooth roads on their way to the home of little
+Dick Winters and his sister Rose.
+
+The children were deliriously happy at the prospect of a little change
+and excitement, and there were tears in their mother's eyes as she
+helped the boys lift the children into the comfortable back seat of
+the Atwood car.
+
+"God bless those boys!" whispered the woman, as the two cars sped
+away down the road.
+
+Still further on the boys picked up several more crippled boys and
+girls, and then turned off a hot and dusty side road to call for
+Aunty Bixby.
+
+Secretly the boys were a little afraid of this formidable old woman,
+and they wondered rather nervously whether or not she would break up
+the party.
+
+When Jimmy, who was sitting beside Bob in the flivver, pointed out
+the white, ivy-grown house where the old woman lived, Bob nudged him
+nervously.
+
+"Remember, you've got to take care of her," he said, noticing that
+Jimmy himself looked rather worried. "You were the one who spoke
+about her--"
+
+"Gee, you don't need to rub it in, do you," growled the fat boy as he
+squeezed himself through the door and stepped gingerly onto the dusty
+road. "Better let me go in alone. She might get scared if she saw the
+whole bunch of us, and maybe she wouldn't come at all."
+
+In his heart Bob thought that that might not be such a terrible thing,
+but he kept quiet. A fellow ought to be thankful for small blessings.
+Think how much worse it would be if he, and not Jimmy, were forced to
+break the news to Aunty Bixby.
+
+The big car came to a stop beside the Ford, and all the boys watched
+with interest as Jimmy ascended the steps of the porch, rang the bell,
+and a moment later, disappeared into the house.
+
+But as the time passed and he still failed to emerge they began to get
+a little uneasy about him. Finally Bob let himself out of the car and
+went to consult with Joe and Herb.
+
+They had just about decided to make a raid upon the house and rescue
+poor Jimmy when the subject of discussion himself appeared, looking
+very red and flustered and out of sorts.
+
+The boys were about to make a concerted rush upon him, but he waved
+them back violently.
+
+"She's coming," he said in a hoarse tone somewhere between a whisper
+and a shout. "Get back there, you fellows."
+
+They got back just in time to see Aunty Bixby herself emerge. Bob
+gave one look and his heart sank into his boots.
+
+"Gee!" he muttered and there was anger in his eye. "Just wait till
+I get Doughnuts Plummer alone somewhere."
+
+Meanwhile Aunty Bixby was limping down upon them with all sails set,
+her stiff silk dress billowing out about her and her little hat set
+securely on her determined head, while Jimmy puffed along behind her.
+
+With rare presence of mind Bob jumped out, opened the door of the car
+and offered to assist the old woman. His reward was a cold stare that
+made him feel like a baby caught with the jelly jar.
+
+"No, thank you, young man," said Aunty Bixby. "I am quite capable
+of climbing into this--er--horrible thing, unassisted."
+
+Bob shot a wild glare at Jimmy, who hovered in the background, but
+at the look of utter misery on the latter's face, even Bob's hard
+heart was softened.
+
+As the old woman rustled into the car Joel Banks moved over
+courteously, but there was a gleam of amusement in his eye that
+puzzled Bob. How could he know that the old gentleman was having
+the time of his life?
+
+Bob nudged Jimmy, bidding him do his duty and introduce the two old
+people, and, to do poor Jimmy justice, he really did do his best. But
+Aunty Bixby could not get the name straight, even with the assistance
+of her ear trumpet.
+
+"Not that it matters in the least," said the old woman irritably,
+settling back with a grim expression on her face. "Now if you will
+take my advice and get started, young man, I would be very much
+obliged to you."
+
+As the chauffeur felt for the starter and threw in the clutch Bob was
+desperately conscious of the old woman's accusing gaze on the back
+of his head.
+
+"Say," he growled at Jimmy, huddled miserably in the seat beside him,
+"you sure did play a bonehead trick this time. She'll just spoil the
+fun for all of us."
+
+"Ah, cut it out," retorted Jimmy, wriggling uncomfortably. "She really
+isn't half bad once you get to know her."
+
+"Neither is poison," snorted Bob, as the car chugged wearily once or
+twice, then settled down to business. "If we ever get out of this
+alive, we'll be lucky."
+
+However, maybe it was the sunshine, or maybe it was Joel Banks'
+conversation that wrought the change in her. Be that as it may, Aunty
+Bixby unbent surprisingly in the next few minutes. Bob and Jimmy kept
+an interested eye on the back seat where Joel Banks patiently shouted
+dry jokes into the old woman's trumpet to the accompaniment of the
+latter's amused cackle.
+
+"You see!" Jimmy said proudly. "I told you she wasn't half bad if you
+only got to know her."
+
+And then, just when they were within half a mile of their destination
+the miserable thing happened. There was a sharp explosion and an
+ominous whistling of escaping air.
+
+The driver stopped the car, got out and regarded the flat tire with
+a frown of despair.
+
+"Now what's the matter?" demanded Aunty Bixby, irritably adding,
+with an air almost of triumph: "I always did say I hated the dratted
+things."
+
+How the chauffeur managed to get that tire changed the boys never
+afterward knew. Somehow or other he accomplished it and finally the
+car reached Doctor Dale's house without any further mishaps.
+
+They found the doctor awaiting them, and in his courteous way he
+welcomed the guests of the afternoon, welcoming each one in turn
+and helping the radio boys to see that each one was made as
+comfortable as possible.
+
+Little Dick Winters and Rose and even the older crippled boys were
+a trifle awed by the dignity of the occasion and the strangeness
+of their surroundings, but beneath the boys' merry joking and the
+doctor's friendly manner they soon got rid of this feeling and
+prepared to enjoy themselves to the limit.
+
+Mr. Joel Banks was intensely interested in the radio apparatus,
+asking intelligent questions, to which the boys eagerly replied.
+So interested were they in the mechanical end that Dr. Dale finally
+informed them that if they expected to listen in at any concert that
+afternoon they had better get to it without further delay.
+
+Aunty Bixby, listening anxiously through her ear trumpet, nodded
+emphatically at this suggestion.
+
+"Yes," she said in her high, chronically irritable voice, "let's get
+along with it. I want to see what that horn-shaped contraption can do.
+Looks to me like nothin' so much's an old fashioned phonygraph."
+
+"It's far more wonderful than any phonograph," the doctor told her
+good-naturedly. Then turning to Bob, directed: "Let her go, Bob.
+It's just time to catch that concert in Pittsburgh."
+
+Bob obeyed, and then the fun began. For an hour that seemed only a
+minute in length all listened to a concert of exquisite music both
+vocal and instrumental, a concert given by some of the world's great
+artists and plucked from the air for their benefit.
+
+Once Aunty Bixby dropped her trumpet and was heard to murmur something
+like "drat the thing!" But Jimmy gruntingly got down on his knees
+and retrieved the instrument from its hiding place under a chair.
+Then, finding she had missed part of a violin selection, the old
+woman exclaimed irritably.
+
+"There, I missed that. Have them play it over again!"
+
+The boys looked at each other, then looked suddenly away, trying
+their best to control the corners of their mouths.
+
+However, when the concert was over and the last soprano solo, flowing
+so truly through the horn-shaped amplifier, died away into silence
+they saw that Aunty Bixby's bright old eyes were wet.
+
+"Drat the thing!" she said, feeling blindly for a handkerchief.
+"Never heard tell o' such foolishness, making a body cry about
+nothing!"
+
+Joel Banks sat with a knotted hand over his eyes, dreaming old dreams
+of days long past, days when he was young and athrill with the joy
+of living.
+
+"How about a little dance music now?" asked Bob, glancing over at
+Doctor Dale, who nodded his consent.
+
+"Surely," he replied. "We have to have some dance music nowadays
+to please the young folks."
+
+The little cripples received this suggestion with enthusiasm and
+fairly shouted with delight as the snappy tune of the latest fox trot
+floated into the room.
+
+"That's the stuff!" shouted Dick Winters, and the boys grinned
+at him.
+
+Later they had a minstrel show that sent them all into gales of
+laughter. Joel Banks and Aunty Bixby were as sorry as the young
+folks when it was over.
+
+Then suddenly, without warning, the stirring strains of the Star
+Spangled Banner filled the room, played by a master band. Suddenly,
+as though by some common instinct, all eyes were turned upon Joel
+Banks. There was a light in the old veteran's eyes, a straightening
+of his whole sagging figure.
+
+He tried to rise, faltered, felt two pairs of strong young arms
+lifting him, supporting him, as Bob and Joe sprang to his aid. He
+stood there, his hand at stiff salute, in his old eyes the fire of
+battle, until the last stirring note died away and the music was
+still. Then he sank into a chair, shaking his old head feebly.
+
+"Those were the days!" he muttered under his breath. "Those were
+the good old days!"
+
+And so the concert finally came to a close and the boys took their
+happily weary guests home through the mellow late afternoon, promising
+to do the whole thing over some day.
+
+"They sure seemed to enjoy themselves," said Bob as the radio boys
+started toward home. "Aunty Bixby is a nice old lady, and as for Joel
+Banks--"
+
+"Say, isn't he a dandy?" Joe demanded, and this time Herb and Jimmy
+chimed in:
+
+"He sure is!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE VOICE THAT STUTTERED
+
+
+The following Saturday evening the radio boys were once more assembled
+at Bob's house. They were in high spirits, having prepared all their
+lessons for the following Monday, and were out for an evening's fun
+with their radio outfit. It was too early for the regular concert to
+start, but they were experimenting with the set, shifting the sliders
+around on the tuning coil in an effort to catch some of the messages
+sent out by near-by amateurs. It was sometimes great fun to listen in
+on these conversations, and often they wished that they had a sending
+set so that they could answer some of the remarks passed out by the
+ambitious senders.
+
+For some time they had picked up nothing of interest, and were wishing
+for the time to come when the concert was to start, when suddenly a
+voice they had never heard before came out of the air. The boys gazed
+at each other in astonishment for a few moments, and then broke into
+irrepressible laughter. For the voice belonged to a man who stuttered
+terribly, and the effect was ludicrous indeed. The strange voice
+rasped and stuttered its difficult way along, until some one who
+possessed a sending as well as a receiving set, interrupted.
+
+"Hey there!" it said. "You're engine's missing, old timer. Let it
+cool off a bit and then try again."
+
+This was evidently heard by the stutterer, for he became excited,
+and that did not help him much.
+
+"S-s-shut up, y-y-you big b-b-boob," he finally managed to get out,
+in an infuriated tone.
+
+"I may be a boob, but I can talk straight, anyway," replied the
+amateur.
+
+This so infuriated the stuttering man that he was absolutely unable
+to say anything for a few moments, while the boys, with much
+merriment, waited expectantly for the forthcoming answer.
+
+"S-s-s-shut up, w-w-will you?" exploded the unfortunate stutterer
+at last. "J-j-just you w-w-w-w--" but he was unable to finish the
+sentence until he stopped and gave vent to a long whistle, after
+which he was able to proceed.
+
+At the sound of the whistle Bob suddenly stopped laughing and sat up
+straight in his chair.
+
+"Say, fellows!" he exclaimed, "do you remember what Herb told us
+about the man named Dan Cassey?"
+
+"Jerusalem!" exclaimed Joe, "I remember Herb said he stuttered and
+had to whistle to go on, and if that doesn't describe this bird I'll
+eat my hat!"
+
+Jimmy and Herb himself caught the idea, at the same time, and they
+gazed speculatively at each other. There was more recrimination
+between the stutterer and his tormentor, and the boys listened
+attentively, hoping to get some clue to the whereabouts of the
+afflicted one's station. But they could get no hint of this, and
+finally the voice ceased, leaving them full of hope but with little
+that was definite to found their suspicions on.
+
+"Of course, it may not mean anything at all," said Bob. "This Dan
+Cassey isn't the only man in the world who stutters."
+
+"No, but there can't be many who are as bad as he is," said Joe,
+grinning at the recollection, even though his mind was occupied with
+more serious thoughts. "But it will certainly be worth our while to
+try to locate this person and find out what name he answers to."
+
+The others were of the same opinion, and they listened for some
+repetition of the voice in the hope that its possessor might drop
+some clue to his identity, but although they missed most of the
+concert by trying to catch the talk of the object of their interest,
+they heard no further word of him that evening nor for many more
+to come.
+
+The next morning but one when Bob joined his companions it was plain
+to see that he was bursting with news.
+
+"Say, fellows," was his salutation, "did any of you read in the
+morning papers of the big Radio Show that is opening up in New York
+City?"
+
+They had to confess that they were innocent of any such knowledge.
+
+"It opens to-morrow," went on Bob. "They say it's going to be one
+of the biggest things that ever happened. A regular rip-roaring,
+honest-to-goodness show. They'll have all the latest improvements
+in radio sets and all kinds of inventions and lectures by men who
+know all about it, and automobiles that run by wireless without any
+drivers--"
+
+"For the love of Pete," interrupted Joe, "go a little easy and let us
+take it in a little at a time. Any one would think you were the barker
+at a sideshow. Where is this wonderful thing to be?"
+
+"On the roof of one of the big New York hotels," answered Bob. "I
+forget the name just now, but it's one of the biggest in the city.
+What do you say, fellows, to taking it in? We ought to get all sorts
+of ideas that will help us in making our sets."
+
+"Count me in," replied Joe promptly. "That is, if my folks will let
+me go, and I think they will."
+
+"Don't leave out little Jimmy," remarked that individual.
+
+"Me too," added Herb. "That is, if dad will see it the same way
+I do."
+
+"I guess our folks won't kick," Bob conjectured confidently. "I notice
+that they're getting almost as much interested in the game as we are.
+Besides we won't have to stay in the city over night. The show's in
+the afternoon as well as the evening and we can be home before ten
+o'clock."
+
+"We'll put it up to them anyway," replied Joe. They did "put it up"
+to their parents with such effect that their consent was readily
+obtained, though strict promises were exacted that they would spend
+only the afternoon in the city and take the early evening train for
+home.
+
+It was a hilarious group that made their way to the city the next day,
+full of eager expectations of the wonders to be seen, expectations
+that were realized to the full.
+
+From the moment the boys crowded into the jammed elevators and were
+shot to the enclosed roof in which the exhibition was held they
+enjoyed one continuous round of pleasure and excitement. The place was
+thronged, and, as a matter of fact, many late comers were turned away
+for lack of room. But the boys wound in and out like eels, and there
+were very few things worth seeing that eluded their eager eyes.
+Impressions crowded in upon them so thick and fast that it was not
+until later that they were fully able to appreciate the wonders that
+were being displayed for their benefit.
+
+They listened to talks from men skilled in radio work, they wandered
+about to the many booths where information was given about everything
+connected with wireless, they studied various types of coils,
+transformers, vacuum tubes, switches, aerials, terminals, everything
+in fact that ambitious young amateurs could wish to know.
+
+There was the identical apparatus with its marvelously sensitive
+receiver, which, while installed in Scotland, had correctly registered
+signals from an amateur radio station in America.
+
+A little later they stood entranced in the Convention Hall before a
+new, beautifully modeled radio amplifier, so massive that the volume
+of music it poured forth actually seemed to cause vibration in the
+walls of the great room in which they stood.
+
+One of the most interesting features was the radio-controlled
+automobile. The crowd before this almost incredible invention was
+so dense that the operator was handicapped in his demonstration.
+
+The car was about seven feet in length, with a cylindrical mass of
+wire rising about six feet above its body. It was upon this that the
+swiftly moving car caught signals from antennae stretched across the
+hall. The boys watched, fascinated, as the inventor, opening and
+closing the switches in its mechanism by use of a radio wave of one
+hundred and thirty-five metres in length, caused the small car to
+back out of its garage and run about the hall without a driver,
+delivering papers and messages, afterward returning to the garage.
+
+Then they saw the transmitters that could shoot radio messages into
+space, and hung entranced over the moving pictures of what happens
+in a vacuum tube. Nothing escaped them, and they "did" the show
+thoroughly, so thoroughly in fact that at the end they were, as Joe
+expressed it, "all in."
+
+"Gee, I knew that show was going to be great," remarked Bob happily,
+as they were returning home on the train. "But I didn't have any
+idea that it was going to be such a whale."
+
+"It was a pippin," agreed Joe, as he snuggled back still further
+in his seat.
+
+Jimmy sighed gustily.
+
+"What's the matter, Doughnuts?" asked Bob.
+
+"I was just pitying," replied Jimmy, "the poor boobs who didn't
+see it."
+
+"And that's no joke!" said Joe. "Seeing all those things is going
+to be a big help toward winning those prizes."
+
+"Who said I was joking?" retorted Jimmy. "I wasn't. That show was
+the dandiest thing I ever saw."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE STOLEN SET
+
+
+Meanwhile, Bob, Joe and Jimmy were working like beavers on their
+prize sets, and were making great progress. Mr. Ferberton's offer
+had aroused great interest in the town, and several other boys were
+working for the coveted prizes. The knowledge of this only spurred
+the radio boys to greater efforts, and they began to acquire a deeper
+insight into the mysteries of radio work with every day that passed.
+They began to talk so learnedly of condensers and detectors that Herb
+wished more than once that he had started to make a set of his own,
+and he was at last driven in self defense to study up on the subject
+so as not to be left too far behind.
+
+Almost two weeks had passed since they first started work on the prize
+sets when one evening Doughnuts came rushing into Bob's workroom with
+woe writ large on his round countenance.
+
+"What do you think, Bob!" he burst out. "Some crook has stolen
+my set."
+
+"Stolen your set!" echoed Bob. "What in the world do you mean?"
+
+"Just that," went on poor Jimmy. "I had it in my father's shop back
+of the house. I was working on it last night, and when I went out
+this evening, it was gone."
+
+"Was anything else stolen?" asked Bob.
+
+"No. That's the funny thing about it," replied Jimmy. "Nothing was
+touched but my set."
+
+"Then it looks to me as though Buck Looker or one of his crowd had
+taken it," said Bob, after thinking a few minutes. "You know they
+have it in for us, and they'd do anything to harm us."
+
+"Yes, but if that's so, why should they steal my set instead of yours
+or Joe's?" argued Jimmy.
+
+"Probably because it was easier to steal yours," said Bob. "We keep
+our sets in the house, while yours, being in a shed at the back,
+would be a lot easier to get away with."
+
+"Jimminy crickets! I'll bet you're right," exclaimed Jimmy. "It would
+be just the kind of dirty trick they'd be likely to play, too."
+
+"If it's Buck Looker and his crowd that's responsible for this, we'll
+have your set back or know the reason why," said Bob, throwing down
+his tools. "Let's go around and get the others, and we'll have a
+council of war."
+
+A peculiar whistle outside their friends' houses brought them out
+at once, and when they were all together Jimmy told them about his
+misfortune. They were as indignant as Bob, and had little doubt that
+Buck Looker was the author of the outrage.
+
+"It's dollars to doughnuts that gang's got it," said Bob. "Now, when
+a thing needs to be done, it's usually best to do it right away.
+We've got to get Jimmy's set back, and I've got an idea where we
+can find it."
+
+"Where?" they all asked in chorus.
+
+"Well, you know that crowd often hang out in that shack back of Terry
+Mooney's house--the place that his father built to keep an automobile
+in, and then could never get enough money to buy the automobile. They
+spend a lot of their time there. And if they've taken Jimmy's outfit,
+that's the place they'd naturally keep it. They wouldn't want to take
+it into any of their homes, because then their folks wound likely find
+out about it and make them give it up."
+
+"Gee, I believe you're right!" exclaimed Joe. "Let's go there right
+away and accuse them of it."
+
+"Better yet, let's go there and take it away from them," proposed Bob,
+with a grim set to his mouth. "Are you with me?"
+
+For answer they all started off in the direction of Terry Mooney's
+house, and as they went, Bob outlined a plan of attack.
+
+"We'll scout around first, and see if they're in the place," he said.
+"If they are, we may be able to get a look inside and see if there is
+any sign of Jimmy's outfit. If they've got it, we can decide the best
+way to take it away from them after we get there."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+BATTERING IN THE DOOR
+
+
+Ten minutes of brisk walking brought the radio boys to their goal.
+The Mooney family inhabited a large but dilapidated house, in the rear
+of which was the small building that the head of the Mooney family
+had erected in a moment when his enthusiasm had far outrun his bank
+account. He had never been able to buy a car to put in the building,
+and his son and his cronies had found it an ideal place to meet,
+smoke cheap cigarettes, and plot mischief.
+
+As they neared this shack, the radio boys kept in the shadows and
+approached noiselessly, it being Bob's plan to take the gang by
+surprise, if possible. Besides, he wanted to be absolutely sure that
+Jimmy's stolen set was in the building before making any further move.
+
+Noiselessly as shadows, the boys crept up to the shack until they
+were close enough to hear voices inside. They could easily recognize
+Buck Looker's arrogant voice, and at times the whining replies of
+Terry and Carl.
+
+There was only one small window in the building, and that was covered
+by a square of cloth. At the end of the shack opposite the window were
+two large doors, both closed. An electric light cord had been strung
+from the house, supplying current to one or more lamps inside the
+shack. The four radio boys prowled about the building, trying to find
+some place from which they could get a view of the interior. At last
+Joe found a place where a crack in a plank allowed them to see in.
+
+All three of the gang were inside, seated on rickety chairs about
+a rough pine table. And on this table, sure enough, was the missing
+radio outfit!
+
+Jimmy clenched his fists when he saw this, and was for an immediate
+attack. But Bob had a more crafty scheme in his head.
+
+"Here's a better stunt," he said, drawing his friends off to a little
+distance so that they could talk without running the chance of being
+overheard.
+
+"If we break in on them, they might make trouble for us later," said
+Bob. "But if we put their light out first, we'll be able to get hold
+of Jimmy's outfit without their really knowing who's doing it."
+
+"Cut the electric light cord, you mean?" said Joe, getting the idea
+like a flash.
+
+"That's the idea," said Bob. "Suppose you cut the cord, Jimmy, and the
+second you do, we'll all rush those front doors. They've probably got
+'em locked but if we land heavily enough I don't think that will stop
+us. I'll make for the table and grab Jim's outfit, and when you hear
+me whistle twice you'll know I've got it, and we'll get out. They'll
+probably be fighting each other in the dark for a while before they
+even know we're gone."
+
+"Bob, I take off my hat to you," said Joe admiringly. "We'll work it
+just as you say."
+
+Doughnuts had a pair of wire cutters with him, which he had used when
+working on his set. Silent as ghosts, the four friends crept back to
+the shack, and Jimmy carefully separated the two wires of the cable
+and caught one of them between the jaws of his cutter.
+
+"When the light goes out, we rush," whispered Bob. "Give us a few
+seconds to get set, Jimmy, and then cut!"
+
+Bob, Joe, and Herb withdrew about ten feet from the big front doors
+and waited tensely for the light to go out.
+
+A scarcely audible click, and the shack was plunged in darkness.
+
+Like projectiles shot from a gun, the boys hurled themselves against
+the doors, landing with a crashing impact that shattered the lock
+into fragments and tore one of the doors bodily from its rusty hinges.
+Shouts of terror rose from the panic-stricken bullies inside, taken
+completely by surprise with no idea of what had come upon them. The
+radio boys scattered them head over heels as they made for the table,
+and the shack was a pandemonium of shouts, cries, and the crash of
+overturned chairs. It was the work of only a few seconds for Bob to
+reach Jimmy's radio set, and having secured this, he whistled twice
+to signify success, and made for the door.
+
+Meanwhile, as he had foreseen, the bullies, tangled in a heap on the
+floor, were grappling with each other, pounding away at whatever came
+handiest to their fists. The radio boys, having got what they came
+after, left the gang struggling in the dark, and made their way back
+to Jimmy's house, doubled up with laughter at times, as they thought
+of the ludicrous discomfiture of their foes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+ON THE TRAIL
+
+
+"Gosh!" exclaimed Herb, wiping tears of merriment from his eyes. "I'll
+never forget this night if I live to be a hundred. Oh, my, but that
+was rich!"
+
+"Those fellows will learn after a while that it doesn't pay to get gay
+with this bunch," said Joe. "I think we let them off easy for stealing
+Doughnuts' outfit, as it is. We might have landed them a few swift
+ones while we were there."
+
+"They saved us even that trouble," Bob pointed out. "They were
+punching each other hard enough to suit any one."
+
+"That's right," said Joe, laughing. "I guess by this time they're
+sorry they stole that set."
+
+"I'm mighty grateful to you fellows for helping me get this back,"
+said Jimmy, looking lovingly at his set, which had escaped with hardly
+a scratch. "When I found it was gone, I pretty nearly gave it up for
+lost."
+
+"'One for all and all for one,'" quoted Bob. "We'll teach Buck Looker
+and his set to let us alone, if it's possible to teach them anything.
+But I suppose we might as well run along now, because it's getting
+pretty late."
+
+"I happen to know that there's a big pan of rice pudding in the ice
+box," said Jimmy. "It may be late, but it's never too late for that,
+is it?"
+
+"Lead us to it!" the other three chanted in unison, and in a short
+time the rice pudding was only a memory. Then the boys said good-night
+and parted, each to his own home, well satisfied with the result of
+their adventure.
+
+Bob and Joe were walking down Main Street the next day, when they met
+Buck Looker and Carl Lutz, both looking very much the worse for wear.
+
+Joe stopped and gazed at them in apparent astonishment.
+
+"Why, what have you fellows been doing, anyway?" he inquired. "You
+look as though you had had an argument with a steam roller."
+
+"Yes, and the steam roller must have won," grinned Bob.
+
+"You know well enough what happened to us," growled Buck Looker
+malignantly. "If ever you fellows come around our clubhouse again,
+we'll make you wish you hadn't."
+
+"Clubhouse?" queried Joe innocently. "What does he mean, Bob?
+I didn't know he and Lutz had a clubhouse."
+
+"I mean that garage back of the Mooney's place," said Buck irately.
+"That's our clubhouse, and you fellows had better not try any rough
+house there again, or there'll be trouble."
+
+"Oh, I know the place he means," said Bob, after making a pretence of
+puzzled thinking. "He means that tumbled-down shack where Mr. Mooney
+keeps his garden tools. I'm sure we'd never want to go near a place
+like that, would we, Joe?"
+
+"Of course not," said Joe. "I wouldn't ask a respectable dog to go
+near that place."
+
+Looker and Lutz had been growing angrier all the time during this
+dialogue, but after their recent experiences with the radio boys
+they did not quite dare resort to open hostilities. But if looks
+could have killed, Bob and Joe would have dropped dead on the spot.
+
+"If you've got anything to say, now's the time to say it," said Bob,
+gazing steadily at the bullies with a look in his eyes that made
+them shift uneasily.
+
+"We're in a big hurry, or we'd tend to you right now," blustered
+Buck. "Come on, Carl. We'll fix them some other time."
+
+"No time like the present, you know," said Joe.
+
+But the two bullies had little inclination for a fair fight, as they
+had a pretty shrewd suspicion of how they would fare in that event.
+With ugly sidewise looks they passed on, leaving Bob and Joe in
+possession of the field.
+
+"They're beginning to think we're bad medicine," said Joe. "A little
+more training, Bob, and they'll even be afraid to talk back to us."
+
+"Looks that way, doesn't it," said Bob, laughing.
+
+The two radio boys went on to their destination, which was the
+hardware store, where they both wanted to buy some wire and other
+supplies. What was their surprise, when they went inside, to find
+Frank Brandon, the radio inspector, talking to the proprietor.
+
+As the boys entered, Brandon glanced at them, and then, as recognition
+came into his eyes, he extended his hand.
+
+"Hello, there!" he exclaimed. "How have you been since I saw you?
+How's the wireless coming on?"
+
+"It's O K," said Bob. "We're both trying for the Ferberton prize,
+you know."
+
+"That's fine," said Brandon heartily. "The prizes are to be given out
+pretty soon, aren't they?"
+
+"Yes. And we're both hoping that if one of us doesn't get it, the
+other will," said Joe. "If neither one gets it, it won't be anything
+against you," said Brandon. "I hear there are a lot of sets entered,
+and some of the fellows who have made them have been at the game
+a lot longer than you have."
+
+"We're doing a lot of hoping, anyway," said Bob. "Are they keeping
+you pretty busy these days?"
+
+"I should say so," said the radio inspector. "There's one fellow
+in particular that I'm having a lot of trouble with. I've got his
+location approximately, but in the neighborhood where he should be
+I haven't been able to locate any antennae to indicate the presence
+of a radio station. Usually it's easy enough, but this fellow seems
+to be a sly fox."
+
+"How in the world do you locate an unauthorized station, anyway?"
+queried Bob.
+
+"In each district in which there is a radio inspector we have what
+we call directional finders. These consist of a combination of a loop
+aerial and a compass and a radio receiving set. We have complete maps
+of the district. When the man we're after is sending, we swing the
+loop aerial around until the signals reach their loudest tone. Then
+a reading is taken on the compass. This action is repeated several
+times, after which we turn the loop so as to tune out all sound.
+During the silent period a line is drawn on the map at right angles
+to the direction of the loop. This line indicates the direction from
+which the sounds are coming. This takes place at the same time at all
+three stations, and where the lines on the map intersect is the point
+where the offender can be found."
+
+"But I suppose that location isn't very exact, is it?" asked Bob.
+
+"No; but it's usually exact enough," said Brandon. "We go to the place
+indicated on the map, and look about in the neighborhood for aerials.
+Anybody owning them has to show his license, if he has one, and if he
+hasn't--well, that's the man we're after."
+
+"Simple enough," commented Bob. "But when you don't know how it's
+done, it seems like looking for a needle in a haystack."
+
+"Yes, and by all the rules it should be easier than usual to locate
+this offender," said the radio inspector, "because he has a
+peculiarity that marks him out."
+
+"I'll bet I know what it is, too," said Bob quickly.
+
+"You do?" said Brandon, surprised.
+
+"He stutters badly, and then has to whistle before he can go on,
+doesn't he?" said Bob.
+
+"That's the man, all right," said Brandon. "Do you know anything
+about him?"
+
+"Well, if he's the man we think he is, we don't know much good about
+him," said Bob, and he proceeded to tell Brandon about Dan Cassey
+and the mean way he had tricked Nellie Berwick and stolen her money.
+
+"So you see you're not the only one looking for the stuttering man,"
+said Bob, in conclusion. "We'd like pretty well to find out where
+he is ourselves."
+
+"But what makes you think this man I'm looking for is the same one
+you're after?" asked Brandon.
+
+"In the first place, there aren't many people who stutter so badly,"
+said Bob. "And in the second place, Miss Berwick told us that she
+saw some radio apparatus on his desk when she was in his office."
+
+"That certainly goes a long way in hitching up the two," said the
+inspector thoughtfully. "Now," he continued, after studying a few
+minutes longer, "I have a proposition to make. I've checked up my
+calculations, and I'm going to have another try at locating this man
+to-morrow. As you're both interested in finding him, too, why not go
+with me and help me? Between the three of us we ought to find him."
+
+"Nothing could suit me better!" exclaimed Bob. "How about you, Joe?"
+
+"Fine," replied his chum. "To-morrow's Saturday, so we can go all
+right. But don't forget that we want to be back when the prize
+winners are announced," he said, struck by a sudden thought.
+
+"Oh, it won't take us very long to get on the ground," said Brandon.
+"I figure this man we're after is somewhere in Lansdale, and you know
+that isn't more than a two hours' run by automobile. If we haven't
+found him by the time you should be leaving in order to get back here
+on time, you two can come back by train, and I'll stay there. But
+if we get an early start I think the three of us, working together,
+should locate our man pretty quickly. Lansdale isn't a very large
+place, you know."
+
+"I can start as early as you like," said Bob. "How about you, Joe?"
+
+"That goes for me, too," said Joe. "Set your own time, Mr. Brandon."
+
+"Well, then, suppose you both meet me at Hall's garage at eight sharp
+to-morrow morning," proposed Frank Brandon. "I'll hire a good car and
+be all ready to start by that time."
+
+"We'll be there on the dot," promised Bob, and they all shook hands
+on the bargain.
+
+Bob and Joe made their purchases, said goodbye to the radio inspector,
+and left the store excitedly discussing their chances of locating the
+rascal Cassey and perhaps recovering Nellie Berwick's stolen money.
+When they parted to go home, each renewed his promise to be on time
+the following morning, and went his way filled with hope that at last
+the scoundrel would perhaps be brought to justice.
+
+"But I wish we could be sure that that old rascal would be caught up
+with and be made to give back Miss Berwick's money," reflected Bob,
+as he turned in at his own home. "She's in Clintonia again. I saw her
+at a distance to-day."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE PRIZE
+
+
+But before going to bed that night, Bob had an idea which he proceeded
+at once to put into execution, with the result that there were some
+lively telephone exchanges and considerable excitement in various
+quarters.
+
+The fruit of his work was seen the following morning, when, on
+reaching Hall's garage, Mr. Brandon, instead of finding only the two
+boys waiting for him, found also Miss Nellie Berwick and a Mr. Edgar
+Wilson, a keen, wide-awake lawyer of Clintonia, whom Miss Berwick
+had retained to look after her interests.
+
+"I tried to get you also on the telephone last night, Mr. Brandon,"
+Bob explained, after introductions had been made, "but I couldn't find
+you in. So I took the liberty of asking Miss Berwick and Mr. Wilson to
+go along with us on the chance that we might round up Dan Cassey."
+
+"That's all right," responded Mr. Brandon warmly. "The boys have
+already told me, Miss Berwick, of the dastardly trick that fellow
+played on you, and I shall be only too happy to have you and your
+lawyer go along with us. It would give me the keenest satisfaction
+to see that fellow get his deserts."
+
+Miss Berwick thanked him heartily and the party took their places
+in the automobile, which held five persons comfortably and was of
+a modern type. That it was speedy was soon proved by the way it sped
+along the road under the skillful guidance of Mr. Brandon. A rain
+two days before had laid the dust, and the roads were in perfect
+condition. In a surprisingly short time they had come in sight of
+Lansdale, a little village on the coast.
+
+They stopped at the post-office and Brandon climbed out of the car
+and went in. The postmaster eyed him warily, and was at first somewhat
+disinclined to give any information, but the sight of the badge that
+proclaimed Mr. Brandon a government official unloosed his tongue and
+he talked freely.
+
+"Know anybody about here by the name of Cassey?" asked Mr. Brandon.
+
+"Cassey? Cassey?" repeated the postmaster ruminatively. "No, there's
+nobody of that name around here. Or if there is, he's never been to
+this office to get his mail."
+
+"The man I'm speaking of stutters--stutters badly," said the
+inspector. "Is there any one like that in town?"
+
+"Just one," replied the postmaster. "And he stutters enough for a
+dozen. Worst case I ever knew. Gets all tangled up and has to whistle
+to go on. But his name's Reddy."
+
+"Has he been here long?" pursued the inspector.
+
+"Oh, a matter of a month or two," was the reply. "Never saw him
+before this year. Thought perhaps he was one of the early birds
+of the summer visitors that was rushing the season."
+
+"Where does he live?" asked Mr. Brandon.
+
+"Just a little way up the street," replied the postmaster. "Come
+to the window here and I'll show you the house."
+
+He pointed out a little cottage of rather dilapidated aspect, above
+which the keen eye of Mr. Brandon saw the end of an aerial.
+
+He thanked the postmaster and went out to his party.
+
+"I think we have our game bagged all right," he remarked, and
+rejoiced to see the light that came into Miss Berwick's eyes,
+"but of course I'm not sure as yet."
+
+He told them the result of his inquiries, and they were delighted.
+
+"I tell you what I think we had better do," he suggested. "I propose
+that we leave the automobile here and go up to the house on foot.
+Three of us will go in, while Miss Berwick and Mr. Wilson will stay
+out of sight at the side of the house until they get the sign to
+enter. The surprise may lead to confession and restitution if properly
+managed."
+
+The others signified their consent to this and proceeded toward the
+house. Miss Berwick and her lawyer stood at the side, where they could
+not be seen from the door, and the inspector, followed by the boys,
+mounted the steps and rang the bell.
+
+There was a moment's delay and then the door opened. A short thick-set
+man stood there with his hand on the knob. He wore large horn glasses,
+which may have been because of defective sight or possibly as a
+disguise. The eyes behind the glasses were furtive and shifty, and
+the mouth was mean and avaricious.
+
+"Is this Mr. Reddy?" asked the inspector politely.
+
+"Th-th-that's my name," answered the man. "W-what can I do
+f-f-for you?"
+
+"That depends," replied Mr. Brandon. "I called to see you on a matter
+of business. May I come in?"
+
+The man eyed his visitors with a look of apprehension and annoyance,
+but finally assented with a nod of his head and led the way into a
+small and meagerly furnished living room.
+
+"I see that you have a radio set here," remarked Mr. Brandon, seating
+himself and looking around the room.
+
+"Y-y-y-yes," stuttered the man. "W-what about it?"
+
+The inspector threw back his coat and showed his badge. At the sight
+of this symbol of authority the man gave a violent start.
+
+"I happen to be a radio telephone inspector," explained Mr. Brandon.
+
+"O-oh," said the man, visibly relieved that it was no worse. "W-why
+do you want to see me?"
+
+"Because you've been violating the government regulations," replied
+the inspector sternly. "There have been a number of complaints
+against you, and you've got yourself into serious trouble."
+
+As he spoke he crossed his legs, which was the sign agreed on, and
+unseen by the man who during this conversation had had his back toward
+the boys, Bob tiptoed out to the street and beckoned to Miss Berwick
+and her lawyer, who followed him promptly and softly into the room.
+
+"I'm s-s-sorry," the man was saying at the moment. "I d-d-d-didn't
+mean--"
+
+Just then Bob slammed the door shut with a bang. The man jumped,
+and as he turned about came face to face with Miss Berwick, who
+stood regarding him with a look of scorn.
+
+So startled was the man that his glasses dropped from his nose and
+he had to grasp a chair to hold himself steady. His face turned a
+greenish hue and rank fright came into his narrow eyes.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Cassey?" asked Miss Berwick. "Do you happen to
+have my mortgage with you?"
+
+"Mr. Cassey?" repeated Mr. Brandon with affected surprise. "He told
+me his name was Reddy. How about it?" he asked, and his voice had the
+ring of steel. "Have you been trying to deceive a government officer?"
+
+The detected rascal dropped weakly into the chair whose back he had
+been holding. He seemed near total collapse.
+
+"Come now," said Mr. Wilson, stepping forward and tapping him on the
+shoulder, "the game's up, Cassey. We've got you at last. The money
+or the mortgage, Cassey. Come across with one or the other and come
+across quick. It's that or jail. Take your choice."
+
+Dan Cassey, shaking in every limb, tried to temporize, and stuttered
+until he got red in the face and seemed on the point of apoplexy.
+But the lawyer was inflexible, and at last Cassey took a key from
+his pocket and opened a drawer from which he took a paper and handed
+it over to Mr. Wilson. The latter ran his eyes over it and his face
+lighted up with satisfaction.
+
+"It's the mortgage, all right," he said, as he handed it over to
+his client. "That settles his account with you, Miss Berwick, and
+I congratulate you. But it doesn't settle his account with the law.
+You contemptible scoundrel," he said, addressing Cassey, "you ought
+to serve a good long term for this."
+
+Cassey, utterly broken, fell on his knees at this and fairly begged
+for mercy. He stuttered so horribly that the boys would have had to
+laugh if it had not been for the tragedy of the wretched creature
+groveling in such abasement.
+
+Miss Berwick intervened and held a conference with her lawyer in
+a low voice.
+
+"Well," said the latter finally, "of course, if you refuse to make
+a charge against him, there's nothing to do but to let him go,
+though he ought to be sent to jail as a warning to others. Get up,
+you worm," he continued, addressing Cassey, "and thank your stars
+that Miss Berwick's generosity keeps you from getting the punishment
+you so richly deserve."
+
+They left him there in his shame and disgrace, and went back to their
+car, after Mr. Brandon had warned the rascal that any repetition of
+his minor offense would bring down swift penalty, from the government.
+
+It was a happy party that rode back to Clintonia. There were tears
+in Miss Berwick's eyes as she thanked again and again the boys who
+for the second time had done her such a signal service. And Bob and
+Joe had a Sense of satisfaction and exhilaration that was beyond
+all words to express.
+
+On their way they passed through Ocean Point, a summer colony where
+many of the residents of Clintonia had cottages. It was on the
+seashore and every foot of it was familiar to the boys, whose own
+parents spent a part of the summer there every year.
+
+"It won't be long now before we'll be on this old stamping ground of
+ours," remarked Joe, as he looked at the surf breaking on the shore.
+"It will be good to be here again."
+
+"Right you are," replied Bob. "And we'll bring our radio sets along.
+This summer will be more interesting than any we've known before."
+
+How fully that prophecy was carried out, and how exciting were the
+adventures that awaited the boys will be told in the second book of
+this series, to be entitled: "The Radio Boys at Ocean Point; Or,
+The Message That Saved the Ship."
+
+Herb and Jimmy were as delighted as their chums when they heard of
+the way that Cassey had been trapped and forced to make restitution.
+But many of the details had to be postponed until another time, for
+just now their thoughts were full of the Ferberton prize which was
+to be awarded that night, and for which they were busy in making
+their final preparations.
+
+The town hall that night was crowded, and many had to be content
+with standing room. Upon the platform were numerous wireless
+telephone sets that had been received for the competition.
+
+Mr. Ferberton himself presided at the gathering. He made a most
+interesting address, in which he dealt with the wonders of wireless
+and gave a review of its latest developments. His own set, which was
+one of the largest and most powerful the radio boys had ever seen,
+had been installed on the platform with a large horn attached, and
+for an hour and a half, while waiting for the prizes to be awarded,
+the auditors were regaled with a delightful concert.
+
+In the meantime, a committee of three radio experts had been examining
+the sets submitted in competition. They subjected them to various
+tests, taking into account the care displayed in workmanship, the
+ingenuity shown in the choice of materials, and the clearness of tone
+discerned when each in turn was connected with the aerial and put to
+a practical test. The choice was difficult, for many of them showed
+surprising excellence for amateurs.
+
+At last, however, the awards were decided on, and Mr. Ferberton,
+holding the list in his hand, advanced to the edge of the platform.
+The silence became so intense that one could almost have heard
+a pin drop.
+
+"The first prize," he said after a few words of introduction,
+"is awarded to Robert Layton."
+
+There was a roar of applause, for no one in town was more popular
+than Bob.
+
+"The second prize goes to Joseph Atwood," continued Mr. Ferberton,
+and again the hall rocked with applause.
+
+"If there had been a third prize," the speaker concluded, "it would
+have been awarded to James Plummer. As it is, he receives honorable
+mention." And Jimmy too had his share of the cheering and hand
+clapping.
+
+Long after the lights were out and the audience dispersed, the chums
+sat on Bob's porch, elated and hilarious.
+
+"I'm the only rank outsider," grinned Herb. "I take off my hat to
+the rest of the bunch. You're the fellows!"
+
+"You needn't take it off to me," laughed Jimmy. "I got only honorable
+mention, and there isn't much nourishment in that. Not half as much
+as there is in a doughnut. I could have used that money, too."
+
+"What are you two bloated plutocrats thinking of?" asked Herb of Bob
+and Joe, who had let the others do most of the talking.
+
+"Radio," replied Joe.
+
+"The most wonderful thing in the world," declared Bob.
+
+THE END
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE RADIO BOYS SERIES
+
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+By ALLEN CHAPMAN
+
+Author of the "Railroad Series," Etc.
+
+ILLUSTRATED. INDIVIDUAL COLORED WRAPPERS FOR EACH STORY.
+
+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 of the New York Tribune.
+
+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 RADIO BOYS WITH THE FOREST RANGERS;
+Or, The Great Fire on Spruce Mountain.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP. PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE TOM SWIFT SERIES
+
+By VICTOR APPLETON
+
+UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING. INDIVIDUAL COLORED WRAPPERS.
+
+These spirited tales, convey in a realistic way, the wonderful
+advances inland and sea locomotion. Stories like these are impressed
+upon the memory and their reading is productive only of good.
+
+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
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP,  PUBLISHERS,  NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS SERIES
+
+BY VICTOR APPLETON
+
+UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING. INDIVIDUAL COLORED WRAPPERS.
+
+Moving pictures and photo plays are famous the world over, and in this
+line of books the reader is given a full description of how the films
+are made--the scenes of little dramas, indoors and out, trick pictures
+to satisfy the curious, soul-stirring pictures of city affairs, life
+in the Wild West, among the cowboys and Indians, thrilling rescues
+along the seacoast, the daring of picture hunters in the jungle among
+savage beasts, and the great risks run in picturing conditions in a
+land of earthquakes. The volumes teem with adventures and will be
+found interesting from first chapter to last.
+
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE WEST
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE COAST
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE JUNGLE
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN EARTHQUAKE LAND
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AND THE FLOOD
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT PANAMA
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE WAR FRONT
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON FRENCH BATTLEFIELDS
+MOVING PICTURE BOYS' FIRST SHOWHOUSE
+MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT SEASIDE PARK
+MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON BROADWAY
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS' OUTDOOR EXHIBITION
+THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS' NEW IDEA
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS SERIES
+
+BY CAPTAIN QUINCY ALLEN
+
+The outdoor chums are four wide-awake lads, sons of wealthy men of
+a small city located on a lake. The boys love outdoor life, and are
+greatly interested in hunting, fishing, and picture taking. They have
+motor cycles, motor boats, canoes, etc., and during their vacations
+go everywhere and have all sorts of thrilling adventures. The stories
+give full directions for camping out, how to fish, how to hunt wild
+animals and prepare the skins for stuffing, how to manage a canoe,
+how to swim, etc. Full of the spirit of outdoor life.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS
+Or The First Tour of the Rod, Gun and Camera Club.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE LAKE
+Or Lively Adventures on Wildcat Island.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE FOREST
+Or Laying the Ghost of Oak Ridge.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE GULF
+Or Rescuing the Lost Balloonists.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AFTER BIG GAME
+Or Perilous Adventures in the Wilderness.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON A HOUSEBOAT
+Or The Rivals of the Mississippi.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE BIG WOODS
+Or The Rival Hunters at Lumber Run.
+
+THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AT CABIN POINT
+Or The Golden Cup Mystery.
+
+12mo. Averaging 240 pages. Illustrated. Handsomely bound in Cloth.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH SERIES
+
+By GRAHAM B. FORBES
+
+Never was there a cleaner, brighter, more manly boy than Frank Allen,
+the hero of this series of boys' tales, and never was there a better
+crowd of lads to associate with than the students of the School
+All boys will read these stories with deep interest. The rivalry
+between the towns along the river was of the keenest, and plots and
+counterplots to win the champions, at baseball, at football, at boat
+racing, at track athletics, and at ice hockey, were without number.
+Any lad reading one volume of this series will surely want the others.
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH
+Or The All Around Rivals of the School
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE DIAMOND
+Or Winning Out by Pluck
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE RIVER
+Or The Boat Race Plot that Failed
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE GRIDIRON
+Or The Struggle for the Silver Cup
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE ICE
+Or Out for the Hockey Championship
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN TRACK ATHLETICS
+Or A Long Run that Won
+
+THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN WINTER SPORTS
+Or Stirring Doings on Skates and Iceboats
+
+12mo. Illustrated. Handsomely broad in cloth, with cover
+design and wrappers in colors.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE FAMOUS ROVER BOYS SERIES
+
+BY ARTHUR M. WINFIELD
+(Edward Stratemeyer)
+
+American Stories of American Boys and Girls
+
+NEARLY THREE MILLION COPIES SOLD OF THIS SERIES
+
+12mo. CLOTH. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING. COLORED WRAPPERS.
+
+THE ROVER BOYS AT SCHOOL
+THE ROVER BOYS ON THE OCEAN
+THE ROVER BOYS IN THE JUNGLE
+THE ROVER BOYS OUT WEST
+THE ROVER BOYS ON THE GREAT LAKES
+THE ROVER BOYS IN THE MOUNTAINS
+THE ROVER BOYS ON LAND AND SEA
+THE ROVER BOYS IN CAMP
+THE ROVER BOYS ON THE RIVER
+THE ROVER BOYS ON THE PLAINS
+THE ROVER BOYS IN SOUTHERN WATER
+THE ROVER BOYS ON THE FARM
+THE ROVER BOYS ON TREASURE ISLE
+THE ROVER BOYS AT COLLEGE
+THE ROVER BOYS DOWN EAST
+THE ROVER BOYS IN THE AIR
+THE ROVER BOYS IN NEW YORK
+THE ROVER BOYS IN ALASKA
+THE ROVER BOYS IN BUSINESS
+THE ROVER BOYS ON A TOUR
+THE ROVER BOYS AT COLBY HALL
+THE ROVER BOYS ON SNOWSHOE ISLAND
+THE ROVER BOYS UNDER CANVAS
+THE ROVER BOYS ON A HUNT
+THE ROVER BOYS IN THE LAND OF LUCK
+THE ROVER BOYS AT BIG HORN RANCH
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE PUTNAM HALL STORIES
+
+Companion Stories to the Famous Rover Boys Series
+
+By ARTHUR M. WINFIELD
+(Edward Stratemeyer)
+
+UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING. INDIVIDUAL COLORED WRAPPERS.
+
+Being the adventures of lively young fellows at a Military Academy.
+Open air sports have always been popular with boys and these stories
+that mingle adventure with fact will appeal to every manly boy.
+
+THE MYSTERY OF PUTNAM HALL
+Or The School Chums' Strange Discovery
+
+The particulars of the mystery and the solution of it are very
+interesting reading.
+
+CAMPING OUT DAYS AT PUTNAM HALL
+Or The Secret of the Old Mill
+
+A story full of vim and vigor, telling what the cadets did during
+the summer encampment, including a visit to a mysterious old mill,
+said to be haunted. The book has a wealth of fun in it.
+
+THE REBELLION AT PUTNAM HALL
+Or The Rival Runaways
+
+The boys had good reasons for running away during Captain Putnam's
+absence. They had plenty of fun and several queer adventures.
+
+THE CHAMPIONS OF PUTNAM HALL
+Or Bound to Win Out
+
+In this volume the Cadets of Putnam Hall show what they can do in
+various teen rivalries on the athletic field and elsewhere. There
+is one victory which leads to a most unlooked-for discovery.
+
+THE CADETS OF PUTNAM HALL
+Or Good Times in School and Out
+
+The Cadets are lively, flesh-and-blood fellows, bound to make friends
+from the start. There are some keen rivalries, in school and out, and
+something is told of a remarkable midnight feast and a hazing with an
+unexpected ending.
+
+THE RIVALS OF PUTNAM HALL
+Or Fun and Sport Afloat and Ashore
+
+It is a lively, rattling, breezy story of school life in this country,
+written by one who knows all about its pleasures and its perplexities,
+its glorious excitements, and its chilling disappointments.
+
+
+GROSSET and DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Radio Boys' First Wireless, by Allen Chapman
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS ***
+
+***** This file should be named 7899.txt or 7899.zip *****
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+
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+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
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+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
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