Part 12 (1/2)
”I won't try to deny it,” said the other, emphatically. ”The more I think about it, the more wonderful it seems. Besides, it's got a mighty practical side to it. I was holding on to some shares a few days ago until I learned by way of the radio that they were starting to fall. I sent a telegram to my brokers, they sold out for me just in the nick of time, and I made a profit on the deal instead of having to take a loss. The bottom dropped clean out of the market that same afternoon, and if I'd been holding on to those shares, I would have gotten b.u.mped good and hard.”
The other nodded. ”It's a good investment when you look at it that way,” he admitted.
”Good investment is right,” declared his partner. ”I saved a lot more in that deal than the whole radio outfit cost me, and I still own the set.”
”I wonder why the new government wireless station doesn't do something of the kind,” remarked Mr. Blackford. ”They might as well make themselves useful as well as ornamental.”
”Government station!” exclaimed Bob and Joe at once. ”Is there a government station at Mountain Pa.s.s?”
Mr. Blackford nodded. ”I thought you fellows knew about it, or I'd have mentioned it before,” he said. ”It was just opened a few weeks ago, and I don't think they've got all their equipment in yet. There's been some delay in getting the stuff here, I understand.”
”What does the government want of a wireless station away up here?”
asked Bob.
”This is the highest point in all the surrounding country and makes an ideal lookout for forest fires,” said his informant. ”The station was supposed to be ready for use last summer, but, as I say, was delayed a good deal. But we expect it to be of great service in the future.
There have been some disastrous forest fires around here in the last few years, as you probably know.”
”We ought, to know it,” remarked Joe. ”The smoke has been so thick as far away as Clintonia sometimes that you could cut it with a hatchet.
It's about time something was done to stop it.”
Of course, once they heard about the government station, the boys could think of nothing else until they had visited it. Bob proposed that they go right after lunch, and this met with the enthusiastic approval of his friends. Poor Jimmy was so rushed by his eager friends that he was frustrated in his design of asking for a second helping of chocolate pudding, and was hurried away protesting vainly against such unseemly haste.
”What do you Indians think you're doing?” he grumbled. ”Do you all want to die of indigestion? Don't you know you're supposed to rest after a meal and give your stomach a chance?”
”Oh, dry up,” said Joe, heartlessly. ”If you didn't eat so much you wouldn't want to lie around for two hours after every meal like a Brazilian anaconda. You know you didn't want another plate of that pudding, anyway.”
”Didn't I!” said Jimmy, disconsolately. ”That was about the best pudding I ever tasted, bar none. You fellows are such radio bugs that you can't even pay proper attention to what you're eating.”
”You give enough attention to that to make up for the whole gang,”
said Bob. ”Stop your growling and step along lively, old timer.”
Jimmy grumbled a little more in spite of this admonition, but regained his usual cheery mood when he saw the steel lattice-work towers with the familiar antenna sweeping in graceful spans between them, and forgot all about the missing plate of pudding.
The station was situated some distance from the Mountain Rest Hotel in a clearing cut out of the dense pine woods, and the boys ceased to wonder why they had not discovered it on some of their rambles. As they drew near they could see that everything was solidly and substantially built, as is usually the case with government work.
The station, besides the towers, comprised a large, comfortable building, which housed all the sending and receiving equipment, and a smaller building, in which the operators slept when off duty, and where spare equipment was stored.
The radio boys knocked at the door of the larger building, and after a short wait it was opened by a tall, rather frail looking young fellow, who eyed them inquiringly.
Bob explained that he and his friends were radio fans, and were anxious to look over the station, if it would not cause too much inconvenience.
”Not a bit of it,” said the young operator, heartily. ”To tell you the truth, there is not much doing here at this time of year, and company is mighty welcome. Step in and I'll be glad to show you around the place.”
CHAPTER XII
THE MARVELOUS SCIENCE