Kitabı oku: «The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass: or, The Midnight Call for Assistance», sayfa 6

CHAPTER XIV – SCORING A TRIUMPH

When he had gone the boys grinned at one another.

“We’re getting to be popular around this place,” remarked Bob.

“We sha’n’t be quite so popular tomorrow, if the concert broadcasted tonight isn’t a good one,” said Joe.

“I only wish we could get that loudspeaker to speak just a bit louder,” said Herb. “It’s only fair now, and those people will be expecting a lot, I suppose.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” remarked Bob. “And if we’re willing to pitch in this afternoon, we can improve the strength of our set a lot”

The others looked incredulously at him.

“Explain,” said Joe. “You’ve got us guessing, Bob.”

“The way we’ve got our set hooked up now, we’re using a loop antenna, aren’t we? Well,” as the others nodded assent, “why not unwind the loop and string a double aerial on the roof? That would give us a lot more power, you know.”

“Right you are!” exclaimed Joe. “That should make a lot of difference.”

“But if we do that, we’ll have to have a ground, which isn’t necessary with the loop antenna,” objected Herb.

“That’s true enough,” agreed Bob. “But that’s easy, after all. We can hook our ground wire to one of the steam radiators.”

“Trust Bob to think of everything!” ejaculated Jimmy.

“Bob is thinking that we’d better get busy, then,” said that individual. “Heave yourself off that nice soft couch, Jimmy, and get your hat and overcoat on.”

Jimmy emitted a dismal groan.

“Have a heart, Bob,” he complained. “You know I worked so hard this morning that I’m all in.”

“All right, then, you stay there; but we’ll tell Edna and Ruth that you refused to help,” said Joe, cruelly.

This threat had its effect, and Jimmy struggled to his feet and had his outer clothing on almost as soon as the others. It was a beautiful day outside, and after they once got warmed up, they thoroughly enjoyed the work of stringing the aerial on the roof. They brought the leading-in wire to one of the windows of the hotel parlor. It was not necessary to insulate this with anything heavier than friction tape, as this was to be only a temporary installation. Before dark they had everything ready, and then they went inside, moved their receiving set into the parlor, and connected it up to the leading-in wire. Following Bob’s suggestion, they attached a ground wire to a radiator, and found that everything worked perfectly. As they had anticipated, the signals were considerably louder, and the old phonograph horn filled the big room with a satisfying volume of sound.

During dinner the boys were so excited that they could hardly eat, and immediately afterward they hurried into the parlor. The guests had been notified of the impending concert, and soon almost everybody in the hotel had crowded into the room.

The hotel manager made a little speech introducing the boys to those who had not already become acquainted with them, and mentioning the concert that was to come. Then every one waited expectantly for the promised entertainment.

It proved unnecessary to do much tuning, as the adjustment they had secured that afternoon proved to be very nearly correct still.

When the first clear notes floated into the room many of the audience straightened up in their chairs, while looks of astonishment passed over their features. At first they were too engrossed with the novelty of the thing to pay much attention to the music, but gradually the golden notes wove their magic net and held them all enthralled. The night was an ideal one for radiophony, cold and still, with hardly any static to annoy. One selection after another came in clear and distinct, and after each one the audience applauded instinctively, hardly conscious of the fact that upward of one hundred miles of bleak and snow-covered mountains and valleys lay between them and the performers.

At length, to everybody’s regret, the last number was played, and the receiving set was silent. Not so the audience, however, who overwhelmed the boys with thanks, and made them promise to entertain them in a similar manner on other evenings.

After most of the audience had drifted out the Salper girls thanked the boys prettily for all they had done, and they felt more than repaid for the hard work of the day, even Jimmy admitting afterward that “it was worth it.”

The next day the boys were eager to see Bert Thompson, the radio man, and tell him about their successful experiment, so they set out for the government station soon after breakfast. It had snowed in the early morning, but had now stopped, and the air was cold and bracing.

The four lads relieved the monotony of the long walk with, more than one impromptu exchange of snowballs. It seemed that they had hardly started before they had traversed the miles of difficult going and found themselves in the snug interior of the wireless house.

As they were approaching it, they were astonished to see Mr. Salper emerge, a heavy frown on his usually none-too-cheerful countenance. He only nodded to the radio boys in passing, and hurried away through the snow at a pace of which they would never have believed him capable.

When they entered the station they found Bert Thompson excited and angry. When they opened the door he started up, but when he saw who his visitors were, sank back in his chair.

“I’m glad it’s you fellows!” he exclaimed. “I thought it was that Wall Street man coming back. I’m not sure but I’ll throw him out if he does. I’d like to, anyhow.”

“You are all up in the air,” said Bob. “Did you have an argument with Mr. Salper?”

“Well, he did most of the arguing,” said the other, with a faint smile. “He’s so blamed used to having his own way that if any one doesn’t do just as he wants, he gets mad.

“I suppose I should make allowances for him, because he has plenty to worry him,” went on Thompson. “Some of those Wall Street manipulators are a ruthless bunch, and when they aren’t busy taking money from an innocent public, they stage some battles between each other. Mr. Salper has an idea that a bunch of them are trying to swing the market against him while he’s up here, and he seems to think that this is a public radio station, with nothing to do but send and receive messages for him all day. I’m working for Uncle Sam, not for him.”

“Oh, well, don’t let him get you all stirred up, anyway,” said Bob. “He doesn’t mean half of what he says. He was real decent last night while we were giving our concert.”

“What do you mean, concert?” asked the wireless man. “Are you in the entertainment game now?”

“Something like that,” answered Bob, grinning, and then he told the operator about the concert of the previous evening.

“That’s fine,” said Thompson heartily, when he had finished. “That was a good idea, to use a regular aerial instead of the loop. It certainly catches a lot more.”

“Yes, but the loop is mighty handy, just the same,” remarked Joe. “Especially in a portable set. You can set it up in no time.”

“Oh, it’s handy, there’s no doubt of that,” admitted the young wireless man. “I wish I had been there for the concert. I heard most of it here, but it must have been fun to watch the faces of the audience when you started in.”

“It was,” laughed Herb. “I think that some of them imagined we had a phonograph hidden somewhere because after the concert was over a number of them looked all around the set as though they were hunting for something suspicious.”

“Likely enough,” agreed Thompson. “Some people are mighty hard to convince.”

After some further conversation the boys took their leave, promising to come again for a longer visit. On the way back the chief topic of discussion was Mr. Salper, and the boys wondered more than once just what the nature of the trouble was that caused him to haunt the wireless station and besiege the operator with a flood of messages.

CHAPTER XV – THE SNOWSLIDE

“Well,” said Herb, philosophically, “‘it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good.’”

Bob, who had been shaking a tree for nuts and had shaken down more snow than anything else, looked at Herb inquiringly.

“Now what’s the poor nut raving about?” he asked slangily of Jimmy and Joe, who were also engaged in nut gathering.

“I was just thinking,” said Herb, with an attempt at dignity, “how sorry I am for all those poor sick people in Clintonia.”

“Oh, yes, you were,” scoffed Jimmy, who was eating more nuts than he saved. “You were thinking how lucky we are to be here picking nuts in the woods instead of slaving away in Clintonia High.”

“Gee, that fellow must be a mind reader!” exclaimed Herb, grinning, and Bob, coming near, made a pass at him.

“Say, get busy, old bluffer,” he said. “You’re getting slower than Doughnuts here. You haven’t got half the nuts that I have.”

“But I’m having twice as much fun,” countered Herb, unmoved “A fellow can’t work all the time.”

“I wish I knew what was worrying Mr. Salper,” said Joe, suddenly. “I wonder if that Wall Street bunch, is really out after his money.”

“Gee, he sure does know how to change the subject,” murmured Herb, and Bob threw a nut at him, which he successfully ducked.

“He seemed rather cut up about it, anyway,” said Bob, in answer to Joe.

“I wouldn’t trust those Wall Street sharpers out of my sight myself,” added Jimmy solemnly.

“Gee, listen to the financier,” gibed Herb. “He’s lost so many millions in Wall Street himself.”

“Not yet,” said Jimmy, plaintively. “But wait, my boy, my life is all before me.”

“Say,” cried Joe, “if you two fellows don’t look out I’ll put you in my pocket with the other nuts.”

“Mr. Salper seems kind of a nut himself,” said Joe, continuing with his own reflections. “He seems to have a grouch on everything and everybody.”

“No wonder, with all the worries he’s got,” said Jimmy, adding dolefully: “You see the penalties of extreme wealth.”

“One thing you’ll never have to worry about,” said Herb, and Jimmy grinned good-naturedly.

“I’d rather have my sweet disposition,” he sighed, “than all of Salper’s wealth.”

“I don’t see why you think he’s so wealthy,” Bob objected. “Everybody who trades in Wall Street isn’t a millionaire, you know.”

“Say, wait a minute!” cried Bob suddenly, with an imperative wave of his hand. “Did you hear anything?”

They listened for a moment in breathless silence and it came again, the call that Bob’s sharp ears had first detected. In the distance it was, surely, but a distinct cry for help, nevertheless.

“Come on, fellows! We’re needed!” cried Bob, and, dropping his bag of nuts in the snow, he started off at a swift pace in the direction of the sound.

The rest of the radio boys needed no second invitation. They started after Bob, pushing swiftly through the deep snow.

But as the seconds passed and they heard no further outcry, they thought that they must have been mistaken or that they had started in the wrong direction.

However, as they stopped to consider what to do, the cries began again, louder this time, a fact which told them they had been on the right track all along.

They hurried on again, sometimes plunging into snowdrifts that reached nearly to their waists, but keeping doggedly on to the rescue.

It was enough for the radio boys that some one was in trouble. Even roly-poly Jimmy, puffing painfully, but running gallantly along in the rear, had but one thought in his head, and that to help whoever needed help.

As they came nearer the cries became louder, and they thought they could distinguish three voices, and one seemed to be that of a woman.

Another minute they came upon a cleared space and stopped still for a moment to stare at the amazing scene which met their eyes.

A woman stood, nearly knee deep in snow, waving her arms wildly, and even in that moment of astonishment they recognized her as Mrs. Salper. She was gesticulating toward something in front of her and calling urgently to the boys to hurry.

Then the lads saw the cause of her distress. At the foot of a steep rise of ground, almost a small hill, was all that was to be seen of two girls. These latter had their heads above the snow that enveloped them and they were trying desperately to work their arms free of the icy blanket. From their expressions and from their wild cries for help it could be seen they were panic-stricken.

“A snowslide!” Joe, who was standing close to Bob, heard him mutter. “Those girls had a narrow escape to keep from being buried entirely!”

The next moment he was dashing off in the direction of the two prisoners, shouting encouragement to Mrs. Salper. The others were close at his heels.

“We’ll get you out all right,” he called to the frightened girls, who had stopped their struggling and were looking at him hopefully. “Just keep still for a moment and save your breath. We’ll have you out of there in a jiffy.

“Dig, fellows, for all you’re worth,” he added to the boys, who, as usual, looked to him for directions. “These girls must be pretty cold by this time.”

For answer the boys did dig manfully, the imprisoned girls helping them as much as they could with their numb fingers, and before many minutes they had the snow cleared away sufficiently to be able to struggle through it to a spot where it was not so deep. The girls were, of course, Edna and Ruth Salper, the pretty daughters of the Wall Street broker.

Edna and Ruth were trembling with cold and with the shock of their recent accident, and Mrs. Salper ran to them, putting an arm about each of them protectingly and pouring out thanks to the embarrassed boys.

“That’s all right,” said Bob, modestly. “We couldn’t very well have done anything else, you know. I hope,” he added with a glance at the shivering girls, “that the girls won’t take cold.”

“They will if I don’t get them home quickly,” said Mrs. Salper, adding, with a worried frown: “I wish we hadn’t come so far from the house.”

It was then that Joe broke in.

“I tell you what,” he said, eagerly. “It isn’t far to Mountain Rest – ”

“And there’s sure to be a fire in the grate up there,” Bob finished for him.

“And it’s a fire that will warm you up in a jiffy,” added Herb with his most friendly smile.

“If we can only make it,” sighed Mrs. Salper.

The radio boys knew of a short cut from this spot to Mountain Rest and along this they led the others as swiftly as they were able to travel. And on the way they learned how it was that the girls had happened to be in such a predicament.

“I shouldn’t have let them do it.” It was Mrs. Salper who told the story. The two girls were still too shaken from their adventure to say anything. All they could think of was the comforting shelter of a room and an open grate fire.

“They wanted to climb up that little hill to see what was on the other side of it,” the lady went on to explain. “I didn’t want them to, for I saw that the snow was deep. But they were in wild spirits, wouldn’t listen to me, said I didn’t need to come if I didn’t want to – which I didn’t! – and off they went.

“When they had nearly reached the top Edna started to fall – ”

“No, it was Ruth, Mother,” corrected the girl, showing the first sign of returning interest.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” said Mrs. Salper, with a sigh. “The result was the same. One of them clutched at the other and they both toppled down the hill. Their fall must have loosened a mass of the drifted snow and it came down on top of them. Heavens!” she shuddered at the memory. “It seemed as if the whole mountain side were falling on top of them! I thought they would be completely buried!”

“Well, we were, almost,” said Ruth, chafing her cold hands to bring the circulation back into them. “Anyway,” she added with a stiff smile, “I feel almost as frozen as if I had been!”

CHAPTER XVI – THE MODERN MIRACLE

“I bet you’re cold,” said Bob, sympathetically. “Never mind, we’ll have you warmed up in a jiffy now.”

As a matter of fact, the big hotel was even then looming before them, and in a moment more they entered its doors, to find to their delight that a roaring fire was burning in the grate of the big living room.

The two girls rushed to it joyfully, holding out their chilled hands to the blaze, snuggling to its warmth like two half-frozen kittens.

They happened to have the big room all to themselves at that moment, and, after having drawn chairs up to the fire for Mrs. Salper and the girls, the boys excused themselves and hurried back to the spot where they had dropped their bags of nuts when the cry for help had interrupted them in their occupation.

“Never do to lose the fruits of our labor,” said Herb, grinning, as he picked up his own particular bag.

The other boys did likewise, and they were soon hurrying back to the hotel again, talking excitedly about the rescue of the Salper girls.

“It’s mighty lucky we happened to be near enough to hear the cries for help,” said Joe, soberly. “It would have been pretty hard for them to have forced their way through those drifts alone, half numbed as they were.”

“Yes,” agreed Bob. “It’s pretty nice to think of them warm and snug before the fire just now.”

“Queer,” observed Jimmy as they neared the house, “that we should have been talking about them just at the time the thing happened.”

“Queer,” said Herb patronizingly, “but not half so queer, Doughnuts, as the modern miracles that happen every day – ”

“Take radio, for instance,” finished Bob, and they entered the hotel laughing.

They found the two girls recovered from their fright and quite a good deal happier than they had been a few minutes before. They regarded the radio boys with interest, and it was clear that the girls and Mrs. Salper had been talking about them during their absence.

“You’re often called the ‘radio boys,’ aren’t you?” challenged Edna, as the boys drew chairs up to the fire.

“Why, I guess so,” said Bob, with a smile. “Lots of folks call us that.”

“Dad was up at the radio station the other day and the operator there was enthusiastic about you,” said Ruth Salper, in her direct way. “Said that if you kept on the way you were going, you would soon know more about radio than he does himself.”

“That’s mighty nice of him, but I’m afraid he was boosting us too high,” replied Bob, trying hard not to show how pleased he was.

“That fellow at the station has forgotten more about radio than we ever knew,” added Joe modestly, but in his heart he was as pleased at the praise as Bob was. It is always nice to receive commendation from some one who is an authority.

“You’re very modest,” teased Edna gaily. “But when dad says anything nice about anybody he generally means it. He doesn’t say nice things very often – ” She caught a glance of reproof from her mother and bit her lip penitently.

“You mustn’t say unkind things about your father, Edna,” said Mrs. Salper, gently. “You know he is worn to death with business worries. If we could once succeed in making him forget his responsibilities, he would be as jolly and fun-loving as he used to be.”

“Yes, dad used to be no end of fun,” said Ruth, adding, with a fierce little frown and a clenching of her fists; “I just wish I could get hold of whoever’s worrying him so. I’d give them something to worry about for a change.”

Then, seeming to realize that the boys might not be interested in her personal affairs – though as a matter of fact they were interested, extremely so – the girl tactfully turned the conversation to something which she thought might interest them.

“Could we see your radio set?” she asked, impulsively. “We’d just love to have you tell us about it. As much as we could understand,” she added, with a smile for the boys.

Mrs. Salper protested feebly, but so eager were the boys to show off their set to the girl radio fans that her opposition was overcome almost at once.

Then followed a happy hour during which the radio boys talked learnedly of condensers and amplifiers and different kinds of receivers until the admiration of the girls mounted almost to awe.

“My, but it sounds worse than Greek!” cried Edna Salper once, as she bent absorbedly over the apparatus that worked such miracles and bore such high-sounding names. “This is the tuning apparatus, isn’t it?” she asked, gingerly touching the wire coil. “It seems almost impossible that you can tune to any wave length with this thing, just as the piano tuner can tune the wires of his instrument to the proper sound vibration.”

“It – the whole thing – seems impossible,” added Ruth, while Mrs. Salper found herself quite as interested as her daughters.

“Yes, that’s the way it seemed to us at first,” agreed Bob, his eyes shining. “When Doctor Dale told us we could make a set for ourselves we could hardly believe him. But it didn’t seem a bit hard once we got started and learned the hang of it.”

“You mean to say that you made this set yourselves?” asked Mrs. Salper, with interest.

“Oh, this is nothing. We’ve made lots of ’em,” said Jimmy proudly, at which Herb promptly kicked him under the table. The injured Jimmy glared at his assailant, but the others were too much interested in the subject to notice him.

“You see this is a comparatively small set,” Bob explained.

“But we’re working on a powerful apparatus now,” broke in Joe eagerly. “And when we have that in working shape we’ll be able to send as well as receive.”

“Well, I think you’re just as smart as father said you were,” said Ruth, and at this candid compliment the confused boys thought it time to change the subject.

“How about listening in a while?” suggested Bob, struck by a sudden inspiration. “We ought to be just about in time to catch the afternoon concert – if there is one. Would you like to find out?”

“Would we?” cried Edna, enthusiastically. “Indeed we would!”

“Just try us,” added Ruth happily.

So the boys showed them how to fit the head-phones, not using the loudspeaker they had made from the phonograph horn, and adjusted the tuning apparatus to the proper wave length, and the girls answered to the thrill of catching music magically from the ether just as the boys had done on that never-to-be-forgotten evening when their first concert had reached them over the wires of their first receiving set. Crude it seemed to them now in the light of later improvements, but an instrument of magic it had been to them that night.

No wonder that the boys felt a warm and real friendship for the Salper girls – and Mrs. Salper, too – a friendship that would have been surprising, considering the shortness of their acquaintance, had it not been that they were all radio fans, dyed in the wool.

So quickly did the time fly that Mrs. Salper was amazed and apologetic when she found how long they had lingered.

“We must hurry!” she exclaimed, starting toward the door, the girls reluctantly following. “Your father will surely think we are all lost in a snowdrift.”

“Which two of us came very near being,” added Edna, with a laugh.

“Don’t joke about it,” said Ruth, with a shiver. “I must say being buried in a snowdrift wasn’t very pleasant – while it lasted.”

The radio boys insisted upon accompanying the Salpers home, explaining that they could show them the shortest path. Gaily they started out and before they had reached the Salper place the friendship which had begun the evening of the concert with their mutual interest in radio, became steadily stronger.

It was plain that, besides being grateful to them for having come to the help of the girls, Mrs. Salper liked the boys for their own sakes.

When they reached the house she begged them to come in with her so that Mr. Salper might have the opportunity of thanking them for their kindness.

The boys skillfully avoided accepting this invitation by pointing out that it was getting late and the path would be hard to find in the dusk.

“Thanks ever so much for everything,” Ruth Salper called after them as they started off, and Edna added:

“We’re going to frighten dad into getting us a radio set by threatening to make one ourselves!”

“I shouldn’t wonder if they could make a set, at that,” said Bob thoughtfully, as they tramped on alone. “They’re smart enough.”

“For girls,” added Herb, condescendingly.

Whereupon Jimmy turned and eyed him scornfully.

“Say, where do you get that stuff?” he jeered. “If those girls couldn’t make a better radio set than you, I’d sure feel sorry for them.”

“Ha! I’ll wash your face for saying that,” was the quick answer, and the next instant Jimmy felt some snow on his ear. Then began a snow battle between all the boys which lasted until they reached the hotel.