The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass; Or, The Midnight Call for Assistance

by William Osborn Stoddard

  CHAPTER I

  THE BEAR PURSUES

  "Nothing to do till tomorrow!" sang out Bob Layton, as he came out ofhigh school at Clintonia on Friday afternoon, his books slung over hisshoulder, and bounded down the steps three at a time.

  "And not much to do then, except just what we want to," chimed in JoeAtwood, throwing his cap into the air and catching it deftly as itcame down.

  "You fellows do just love to work, don't you?" put in Herb Fennington,with an air of self-righteousness that was belied by the merry twinklein his eyes.

  "Oh, we just dote on it," replied Bob.

  "Work is our middle name," asserted Joe. "In fact we lie awake nightstrying to conjure up something to do."

  "Regular pair of Work Hard twins--I don't think," declared JimmyPlummer. "Now as for me----"

  "Yes?" said Herb, with an assumption of polite interest.

  "As for me," repeated Jimmy, not at all daunted by the incredulity inHerb's tone, "I've been working like a horse all this season. A littlemore and I'll be only skin and bone."

  As Jimmy was by all odds the fattest boy in school, this assertion wasgreeted by a roar of laughter.

  "Now I know why you look like a string bean," chuckled Joe.

  "That explains why his clothes hang on him so loosely," laughed Bob,pointing to Jimmy's trousers which were so filled out that theyresembled tights. "Jimmy, you may be an unconscious humorist, butyou're a humorist just the same."

  Jimmy glared at his tormentors and tried to look wan and haggard, butthe attempt was not a pronounced success.

  "All the same," he protested, "Doc. Preston has been rushing us likethe old Harry all this fall, and what with school work and home workand radio work----"

  "Radio!" interrupted Bob. "You don't call that work, do you? Why it'sfun, the greatest fun in the world."

  "You bet it is," chimed in Joe enthusiastically. "We never knew whatreal fun was until we took it up. Look at the adventures it's broughtus. If it hadn't been for radio, we wouldn't have won those Ferbertonprizes; we wouldn't have run down Dan Cassey and made him give backthe mortgage he was trying to cheat Miss Berwick out of; and wewouldn't have got back the money he nearly got away with when heknocked out Brandon Harvey."

  "Right you are," agreed Bob. "And probably that boat our folks were onwould have gone down with all on board if it hadn't been for the radiomessage that brought help to it. And see the good it did for Larry andthe experience we had in sending out from the broadcasting station inNewark!"

  "I tell you, fellows, there's nothing like radio in the universe!"agreed Jimmy.

  "I'd like to take it up as a regular profession," said Joe. "Think ofwhat it must be for fellows like Armstrong and Edison and De Forestand Marconi. I'll bet they don't think it's work. They're eager to getat it in the morning and sorry to knock off at night. There's nodrudgery in a profession like that."

  "Speaking of Marconi," remarked Herb, "I see that he's just come overto America again on that yacht of his where he thought he heardsignals that might have been from Mars. I wonder if he's heard anymore of them."

  "I don't know," replied Bob thoughtfully. "Though I've become so usedto what seem to be almost miracles that I'm prepared for almostanything. At any rate, the only thing one can do nowadays is to keepan open mind and not say beforehand that anything is impossible. Itwould be great, wouldn't it, if we could get in touch with anotherplanet? And if we could with one, there doesn't seem to be any reasonwhy we couldn't with all, that is if there's life and intelligence onthem. But after all, at present that's only speculation. Whatinterests me more just now is the discovery that Marconi is said tohave made by which he is able to send out radio waves in one givendirection."

  "I hadn't heard of that," remarked Joe. "I thought they spread outequally in all directions and that anybody who had a receiving setcould take them."

  "So they have up to now," replied Bob. "But Marconi's one of thosefellows that can never rest satisfied with what's been done up todate. That's what makes him great. I'm not exactly clear about thisnew idea of his, but the gist of it is that he throws a radio wave ina certain direction, much as a mirror throws a ray of light. He uses areflector apparatus and the wave is caught at the receiving end on ahorizontal metal standard. With a wave of only three and one halfmeters he has thrown a shaft nearly a hundred miles in just thedirection he wanted it to go. The article I read said that he had somesort of semicircular reflector covered with wires that resembled adish cut in half. When the open side is turned toward the receivingstation he wants to reach, the signals are heard loud and clear. Whenthe open part is turned away, the signals can't be heard. The wholeidea is concentration. Just what a burning glass does with the rays ofthe sun, his device does with the radio waves. Marconi's a wizard, andthat's all there is about it. There's no knowing what he may do next.But you can be sure that it'll be something new and valuable."

  "He's a wonder," agreed Joe heartily. "And if he's the 'father ofwireless,' we've got to admit that he has a good healthy baby. I'mgoing to try to get on friendly terms with that baby."

  "We've already been introduced to it, if we haven't got much further,"laughed Bob. "But say, fellows, what's the program for tomorrow?"

  "Three square meals," was Jimmy's suggestion.

  "Sure," agreed Herb. "Though in your run-down condition you ought tohave at least six."

  "He'll get them, don't worry," chaffed Joe, unmoved by the reproach inJimmy's eyes.

  "I was thinking----" Bob began.

  "How do you get that way?" inquired Herb composedly.

  "You'll never get that way," retorted Bob severely. "As I was sayingwhen this lowbrow interrupted me, I was thinking that it might be agood idea to go nutting. The trees are full of nuts this year, andthat frost we had a couple of nights ago will make it easy to get araft of them. What do you say?"

  "I say yes with a capital Y," replied Joe.

  "Hits me just right," assented Herb.

  "It's the cat's high hat," was the inelegant way that Jimmy phrasedit.

  "It's a go then," said Bob. "Come around to my house a little aftereight tomorrow morning and we'll get an early start. Every fellowbrings his own lunch, and we'll take some potatoes along to roast inthe woods."

  "Here's hoping it will be a dandy day," said Herb, as the boys partedat Bob's gate.

  "It looks as though it were going to be," replied Bob, looking at thesky. "But after supper I'll tune in and get the weather report byradio."

  "Anything you don't do by radio?" asked Joe, with a grin.

  "Oh, I set my watch by the Arlington signal every night and a fewother things," laughed Bob. "Fact is, I'm hanging around the receivingset every spare minute I have for fear I'll let something get by me.Radio has got me, and got me for fair."

  The weather report was favorable and Bob slept in peace. And when heopened his eyes on the following morning he found that Uncle Sam'sweather bureau had been right in this particular instance, for alovelier fall morning, to his way of thinking, had never dawned.

  He ate breakfast a little more quickly than usual, and had barelyfinished when the other radio boys were at his door loaded withlunches and ready to start. Jimmy especially was well furnished in thematter of provisions, for he carried two packages while the rest ofthe boys were content with one.

  "Aren't you afraid you'll be hunchbacked carrying both those bales ofgoods?" asked Herb, with mock anxiety.

  "Not a bit," responded Jimmy cheerfully. "One of them is full ofdoughnuts, and I expect to eat them on the way. You see I was in sucha hurry that I didn't eat much of a breakfast----"

  "What?" exclaimed Bob.

  "Can I believe my ears?" asked Herb plaintively.

  "Say it again and say it slow," urged Joe.

  "I mean," Jimmy hurried to correct himself, "not so much as I mighthave eaten. I had a bit of cereal----"

  "Catch on to that 'bit,'" murmured Herb.

  "And some bacon and eggs and a slice of cold meat from the roast lastnight
and some hot rolls and----"

  "Outside of that you didn't have anything to eat," said Joe. "Allright, Jimmy, old boy, we understand. But shake a leg now and let'sget under way. This is too fine a day to be spending it in a chinfest,and besides we can have plenty of that as we go along."

  The air was brisk and stimulating, with just enough warmth imparted bythe sun to prevent its being cold, and a soft autumnal haze hung overthe landscape and clothed it in mellow beauty. It was the kind of daywhen Nature is at her best and when it is good just to be alive.

  The boys were like so many young colts turned out to pasture, andjoked and jested as they went along. Laughter came easily to theirlips and shone through their eyes, while the joy of youth ran throughtheir veins and made them tingle to their finger-tips. Life wasroseate and they had not a care in the world.

  A walk of between two and three miles brought them to the woods forwhich they had set out. The forest covered a great many acres and wasfull of noble trees, chestnut, hickory, and many other varieties.

  As Bob had said, the year had been an unusually good one for nuts, andthe trees were loaded with them. The frost of a little time before hadbeen just sufficient to make them ready to pick, and the ground wasalready strewn with the half-opened burrs of many that had been shakenfrom the trees. Others still hung to the boughs by so slender andbrittle a thread that it was only necessary to hurl clubs up into thetrees to have them come down in showers.

  The boys had brought big bags along with them to carry the nuts theymight gather, and before long these had most of the wrinkles spreadout of them by the steadily accumulating collection of chestnuts thatformed the bulk of their treasure, although they had a good manyhickory nuts as well.

  The active work gave them all an appetite, a thing that came to themvery easily under almost any circumstances, and a little before noonthey ceased for a while from gathering the nuts and bestirredthemselves in gathering leaves and brushwood for a fire. Their bagswere more than half full, and from what they had seen they knew theywould have little trouble in finishing filling them up to the verydrawing strings.

  They gathered together a little cairn of rocks and built the fireinside of it, keeping it fed to such effect that before long thestones were at a white heat. Then they drew the fire away and on theheated stones roasted their potatoes and a large number of thechestnuts they had gathered. They had brought plenty of salt andbutter along, and when at last the potatoes were done they seasonedthem and ate them with a relish exceeding anything that would haveattended the eating of them at a regular meal in their homes. Anepicure might have complained of the smoky flavor, but to the boys,seated on the leaf-carpeted ground flecked with the sunlight thatsifted through the trees, the food was simply ambrosial.

  With the potatoes they dispatched the rest of the food they hadbrought along. Then, with a feeling of absolute content, theystretched out luxuriously on the ground and munched the roastedchestnuts in beatific indolence.

  For an hour or two they rested there, and then Bob rose and stretchedhimself and called his reluctant friends to action.

  "It would be a sin and a shame to go out of these woods without havingour bags crammed to bursting," he said. "Let's get a hustle on, andjust for variety let's try another part of the woods."

  "All right," assented Joe, while Herb and Jimmy, though more slowly,roused themselves.

  They picked up their bags and moved from place to place, choosingthose sections where the trees grew thickest and the outlook for nutswas most promising.

  "Better be a little careful," warned Joe, after they had gone aconsiderable distance. "Part of this wood belongs to Buck Looker'sfather, and perhaps he'd have some objection to our nutting here."

  "I don't think any one would kick," responded Bob. "Everybody aroundhere regards the woods as common property, as far as nutting isconcerned. Besides, there's no way of telling, as far as I know, whatsection belongs to him and what to other people."

  "There's something that will give us the tip," remarked Herb, pointingthrough the trees to a clearing in which they saw a two-story cottage."That house belongs to Mr. Looker, though nobody has lived in it for along while and I guess he's just letting it go to rack and ruin."

  The house did indeed look shaky and dilapidated. Some of the railingand boards of the low veranda had been broken in or rotted away, andthe whole place bore the look of decay that comes to houses that for along time have been destitute of occupants.

  "Looks as if it would fall to pieces if you breathed on it," saidHerb.

  "Old enough to have false teeth," commented Jimmy. "I suppose Mr.Looker lets it stand simply because it's cheaper than pulling itdown."

  The boys gathered nuts for perhaps two hours longer, and then they hadto stop because their bags would not hold any more. Jimmy was alreadygroaning in anticipation of having to carry his home.

  "That'll weigh a ton by the time we get to Clintonia," he grumbled, ashe eyed it with considerable apprehension.

  "Hard to please some people," commented Herb. "You'd be kicking like asteer if you didn't have any to carry, and now you're sore becauseyou've got enough to last all winter."

  "Might as well leave enough for other people," said Jimmy, with aspasm of generosity.

  "There are more nuts here than will ever be picked," replied Herb."For that matter, some other people are getting them now. I've heardthem thrashing about in the brush for the last few minutes only alittle way from here."

  "Funny we don't hear voices then," said Joe.

  "Perhaps they're deaf mutes," suggested Jimmy, and adroitly ducked thepass that Joe made at him.

  The noise persisted and seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. Therewas a crashing of bushes, as though some heavy body were being pushedthrough them.

  "Seem to be making heavy weather of it," commented Herb. "Don't seewhy any one should make extra work for himself when there are plentyof paths through the woods. Now if--Look!"

  His voice rose in a shout that startled his comrades.

  They turned and looked in the direction of his pointing finger. Andwhat they saw froze the blood in their veins.

  A great shaggy bear had emerged from the brush into a path not morethan a hundred feet away and was lumbering rapidly toward them!