Part 18 (1/2)

No wonder that the boys felt a warm and real friends.h.i.+p for the Salper girls--and Mrs. Salper, too--a friends.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ver. ”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 friends.h.i.+p which had begun the evening of the concert with their mutual interest in radio, became steadily stronger.

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

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

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

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

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

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

”For girls,” added Herb, condescendingly.

Whereupon Jimmy turned and eyed him scornfully.

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

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

CHAPTER XVII

THRAs.h.i.+NG A BULLY

After that the boys saw a good deal of Edna and Ruth Salper. The latter were thoroughly good sports and entered into the fun of the moment with such enthusiasm that the radio boys declared they were lots more fun than a good many of the fellows they knew.

They went nutting together, tramped through the woods, read together the latest discoveries in the radio field, until the girls became almost as great enthusiasts as the boys.

The boys were often asked to visit the Salper home, but it was seldom that they took advantage of these invitations.

”It would be pleasant enough,” Herb declared, ”if only grouchy Mr.

Salper were not always around to put a damper on the sport.”

As a matter of fact, on the rare occasions when they happened to meet, Mr. Salper hardly uttered a word, but it was this very silence of his that made the boys uneasy.

”I feel sometimes,” Jimmy remarked, ”as if I'd like to put a tack on his chair, just to see if he'd say 'ouch' when it stuck into him.”