The Radio Boys at Ocean Point: or, The Message that Saved the Ship
“All the patience in the world,” laughed Joe. “I don’t really care how long he stays away, myself.”
“He couldn’t catch me if he did come around,” boasted Jimmy. “I’ll bet none of you hobos can catch me, anyway,” and he was off in a smother of foam.
This was a challenge not to be overlooked, and the rest were after him like hounds after a fox. Jimmy soon found it an impossibility to make good his boast, and before he had gone fifty yards he was overhauled by Bob, and then by Joe. Herb did his best for a while, but soon decided that it was more trouble than it was worth, and turned over on his back and floated instead.
“Why, you couldn’t beat a lame crab, Doughnuts,” chaffed Bob, as they all slowed up to get their wind. “I thought from the way you talked that you were the boy wonder of the world.”
“Oh, I don’t care. I made you fellows work hard, anyway,” panted Jimmy, puffing out a mouthful of water that he had inadvertently shipped. “This is one place where I can exercise without getting overheated, anyway.”
“No danger of that,” said Joe. “I’m about ready to go in for a while. How about you fellows?”
“Guess it might be a good idea,” said Bob. “We’re out further than I thought, as it is.”
In fact, when the boys looked toward the shore, it did look a long distance away. But they swam in easily, with long, easy strokes, reveling in the clean tang of the salt water and the joy of the brilliant sun on their faces as they clove through the sparkling waves. Before long they had reached the outer line of gentle combers, and let themselves be carried shoreward in a rush and swirl of white foam. A little further, and they felt the hard sand of the beach, and got on their feet, somewhat winded, but intoxicated with the joy and sense of glorious well being that comes of salt spray, glinting sun, and salty breeze.
“That was the greatest ever!” exclaimed Bob, flinging himself down in the soft, hot sand. “Fresh water is all right, but give me old ocean for real sport.”
Each boy burrowed out a comfortable nest in the sand, which felt very warm and grateful after the cold sea water. But it was not very long before the sun began to make itself felt, and pretty soon their bathing suits were steaming.
“Say!” exclaimed Jimmy, at length, scrambling to his feet, “it’s me for the water again. I can begin to feel my skin drying up and getting nice and crispy. Who’s game for another swim?”
It appeared that they all were, and with shouts and laughter they once more dashed into the surf. They did not stay in so long this time, however, as it was drawing on toward evening, and they all had ravenous appetites that told them it must be nearly supper time.
Jimmy was the first to put this thought into words.
“I feel as though I hadn’t eaten anything in days,” he remarked. “I’ve often heard that salt water was a great thing to give a person an appetite, and now I know it.”
“Yes, but I don’t believe that you have to come all the way to Ocean Point, Doughnuts, to get one,” said Herb. “I don’t see how you could very well eat more than you do when you’re in Clintonia.”
“Huh! I don’t suppose you feel hungry at all, do you?” asked Jimmy.
“Well, I must admit I feel as though I could punish a pretty square meal,” said Herb. “But if I were as fat as some people I know, I’d be ashamed to talk about eating, even.”
“Maybe if I floated around on my back while I’m in the water, instead of really swimming, I wouldn’t feel so hungry, either,” said Jimmy scathingly, and this turned the laugh on Herb.
“He’s got you there, Herb,” said Bob. “If you keep on you’ll be getting fat yourself. If you ever do, you’ll be out of luck, because Jimmy will never get through pestering you about it.”
“I guess I won’t have to worry about that for a while yet,” said Herb. “It will take me a good many years to catch up with Jimmy.”
“Don’t you worry about me,” said that aggrieved individual. “I don’t worry about you just because you look like an animated clothespin, do I?”
Herb was still trying to think up some fitting reply to this when his meditations were cut short by their arrival at the little bungalow colony.
There were several small bungalows grouped about one much larger one. This latter contained a large dining and living room and a kitchen big enough to supply the needs of all the families residing in the smaller buildings. It was in this large central living room that the boys had started to set up their radio apparatus when the lure of the ocean had tempted them away.
They returned none too soon, for the evening meal was ready, but, as Joe remarked, “It was no more ready than they were.” They did all the good things ample justice, and then went out on the wide veranda to rest and allow digestion to take its course.
“We ought to be able to get the set working this evening,” remarked Bob, as they sat looking out over the sand, with the boom of the surf in their ears, “provided, of course, we all feel energetic enough to tackle it.”
“Well, I’m willing to take a fling at it a little later,” said Joe. “But just at present I don’t feel strong enough even to handle a screw driver.”
“I’ll bet Jimmy’s crazy to get to work, anyway,” said Bob. “How about it, old energetic?”
But the only answer was a gentle snore from Jimmy’s direction, and everybody laughed.
“Guess that swim has tired him out,” said Joe. “Swimming in salt water always seems to leave you mighty lazy afterward.”
“You boys must be more careful when you go swimming, and not go out so far from shore,” said Mrs. Atwood, Joe’s mother. “This afternoon I was watching you from the porch, and it seemed to me you went for a dreadful distance before you started back.”
“Oh, that’s two-thirds of the fun of swimming, Mother,” said Joe. “There’s no use in puttering around close to shore. What’s the use in knowing how to swim, if you do that?”
“We keep pretty close together, anyway,” Bob added. “So if one should get tired, the others could help him in.”
“Yes, I know,” said Mrs. Atwood. “But just the same, I wish you’d be careful.”
The boys promised that they would, and then, feeling somewhat rested, they woke Jimmy, after some difficulty, and went inside to rig up their receiving set.
CHAPTER XII – THE RADIO STATION
“Just when I was having a swell nap, too,” complained Jimmy. “Somebody’s always taking the joy out of life.”
“Never mind about that now, Doughnuts,” said Bob. “Just grab hold of a screw driver and open some of these boxes. There’s nothing like a little exercise to drive the sleep out of your eyes.”
“You’ll find sympathy in the dictionary, Jimmy,” said Joe heartlessly.
“Yes, and that’s about the only place I will find it around here,” said Jimmy. “But give me the screw driver. Somebody’s got to do all the hard work, and I suppose I’m elected, as usual.”
In spite of his grumbling, he worked faithfully, and soon had the lids off a number of mysterious looking boxes, from which the boys got out much complicated looking apparatus. They had brought Bob’s set, the one that had been awarded the big prize the previous spring, and Bob handled this lovingly.
All the radio boys worked with a will, and the way in which the various apparently unrelated parts became connected up into a compact and highly efficient receiving station was surprising. After two hours of steady work they had the set in condition to test.
“I don’t think we’ve forgotten anything,” said Bob, carefully going over the various connections. “Everything looks all right to me, so here goes to test it out.”
And sure enough, it was not long before they heard the familiar call of the big Newark broadcasting station and were listening to a big band perform in stirring style.
“That sounds familiar,” said Joe, as the band finished its selection with a flourish. “It doesn’t seem to be any different than when we were in Clintonia, even though we’re considerably further away from the sending station.”
“I guess a few miles don’t make much difference to old man Electricity,” said Herb.
“It wouldn’t make any difference to me, if I could travel as fast as he does,” grinned Jimmy.
“You’ve got to train down a good deal before you can do that,” remarked Herb.
“Well, I guess my chances of traveling one hundred and eighty six thousand miles per second are about as good as yours, anyway.” retorted Jimmy.
“Who’s talking about traveling at such extremely high rates of speed?” asked a voice behind them that they all recognized. Turning, they saw Frank Brandon, the government radio inspector who had been of so much assistance to them a few months before in locating the scoundrel, Dan Cassey.
“Glad to see you. Sit down and make yourself at home,” they chorused, and almost before he knew it the radio inspector found himself seated in the most comfortable chair with a set of earphones over his head.
“You see, I haven’t lost any time coming to see you, as I promised,” he remarked. “I spoke to my cousin, Brandon Harvey, about you fellows, and he said to bring you up to the big station any time you wanted to go, and he’d show you all around it.”
“That’s fine!” exclaimed Bob. “That’s what we’ve all been wanting to see for a long time. I think we’ll take your cousin at his word and land down on him to-morrow. How about it, fellows?”
This met with the enthusiastic approval of all the radio boys, so it was settled that they should go to the big station early the following day, where Frank Brandon would be waiting for them and would introduce them to his cousin.
Accordingly, they set out the next day immediately after breakfast. The station was located something over a mile from the bungalow colony, but it was a beautiful day, and the walk seemed like nothing to the boys. The antenna of the station covered a large tract of land, and the station was capable of sending and receiving messages of almost any wave length. The station itself was a snug-looking building, ample enough to accommodate all the apparatus, and provide comfortable sleeping quarters for the operators as well.
As the boys approached this building they could see their friend, the inspector, sitting on the porch. When he caught sight of the boys he rose and stood waiting for them.
“You’re earlier than I expected you,” he said. “You must have set the alarm clock away ahead.”
“No, not that. But we had a hunch that there would be a lot to see, and we thought the earlier we started the better it would be,” said Bob. “Besides, we didn’t want to keep you waiting.”
“I’ve only been here a few minutes myself,” replied Brandon. “Come inside, and I’ll introduce you to my cousin. He’s even more of a radio fan than I am.”
The boys followed him into a large, well-lighted room that seemed literally packed with electrical apparatus. Switchboards, dials and various recording instruments lined the walls, while in one corner stood a glittering high frequency alternator. Seated at a table covered with wires was a young fellow of about Brandon’s own age, who looked enough like him to proclaim their relationship.
At the time the radio boys entered he was receiving some message, but as soon as he had finished he took the headphones off and turned to greet his visitors.
He and the boys were introduced, and their common interest in radio work made them all feel like old friends in a short time.
“I suppose you fellows want to see all there is to see,” said Brandon Harvey, after they had chatted on general subjects a few minutes. “We have a pretty complete layout here, and I’ll be glad to show you around and tell you all I can about it.”
The boys were not slow to avail themselves of this offer. The radio inspector volunteered to substitute for his cousin while the latter was busy with the boys, which left Mr. Harvey free to explain the bewildering details of the plant to his guests.
“I wouldn’t take this much trouble with everybody,” he said. “But Frank tells me that you fellows are so interested in the subject and have studied it up so much that you’ll be able to understand what I show you. Lots of people come in here that know absolutely nothing about radiophony, and expect me to explain the whole science to them while they wait.”
“They’d have to wait a long while,” grinned the irrepressible Jimmy. “I’ve just about learned enough about it to know I don’t know anything, if you understand what I mean.”
“I get you, all right,” returned Harvey, with a smile. “I’ve worked at it a long time myself, but as it is I can hardly keep up with all the new developments. There seems to be something new discovered every day.”
All that morning he took the boys about the plant, showing and explaining the various instruments. Some of these the boys were familiar with, while others were entirely new to them. But by dint of asking many questions, which were answered with great patience by the wireless man, they obtained a reasonably clear idea of the functions of the various parts and their relations to each other, and when they finally departed they felt that they had learned a great deal. Harvey even allowed them to “listen in” to messages arriving from big ships hundreds of miles out at sea.
“Well, we’ve had a wonderful morning and learned a lot, but I guess we must have tired you out, Mr. Harvey,” said Bob, as the boys were taking their leave.
“Not a bit of it,” denied the radio man. “I’ll be glad to see you any time you want to drop in. Lots of times there isn’t much coming in, and it gets pretty lonely around here.”
“You can bet we’ll be only too glad to come,” said Bob, and the boys left with many expressions of friendliness on both sides.
“We’re in luck to be located so near this station and to be friends with one of the operators,” said Joe, as the boys started homeward.
“We surely are!” agreed Bob. “I know I feel as though I’d learned a good deal this morning, and I guess you fellows do, too.”
“Mr. Harvey is certainly a prince,” declared Jimmy enthusiastically. “He answers questions without making you feel as though you were a natural born fool for having asked them, the way some teachers I know do.”
“Yes, we’ll have to take advantage of Mr. Harvey’s invitation and visit him often while we’re down here,” said Bob. “He even promised that he’d give me lessons in sending when he had time.”
“Good enough!” exclaimed Joe. “It’s lots of fun receiving, but that’s only half the game. We ought to be able to send, too.”
“If you like, we’ll study up on the code a little this evening,” said Bob. “I brought the book with me. We’ve already got so much from it that we ought to be able now to finish up.”
“I agree to that,” said Joe, and so that was settled.
“How quiet the ocean is to-day,” remarked Herb, as they noted how little surf there was and how lazily the waves were breaking on the beach.
“You wouldn’t think there was anything cruel about it to look at it now,” said Jimmy. “And yet we know that it is about the most cruel thing in the world.”
“It’s taken millions of lives without the least thought of mercy,” put in Bob thoughtfully. “To-day it’s like a tiger asleep. But it’s a tiger just the same, and when it wakes up – then look out!”
CHAPTER XIII – EXCITING SPORTS
By this time the boys were almost home, and their pace was accelerated as they drew nearby the sound of a musical and welcome dinner bell. In fact, walking seemed entirely too slow under the circumstances, and the last hundred yards was covered in close to record time.
“I was beginning to think something dreadful had happened to you,” said Mrs. Layton, as they dashed panting up on the porch. “Was the wireless station so interesting, then?”
“I should say it was!” said Bob, answering for all of them. “We’ll tell you all about it while we’re eating lunch.”
This was not so easy to do, however, as the feminine portion of the family had not the interest in wireless possessed by the boys.
“Instead of going to that old wireless station, why don’t you boys go and catch some crabs for us once in a while?” queried Rose, Joe’s sister.
“We’ve heard that there are lots of them in that inlet back of the beach, and I don’t see why you couldn’t catch some just as well as not.”
“Girls do have good ideas once in a while, don’t they?” said Joe. “What do you say to going crabbing this afternoon?”
“Great!” his chums exclaimed, and resolved to start on the expedition immediately after lunch. In anticipation of this, the grown-ups had brought crab nets with them, so it only remained to secure some chunks of meat as bait, and the boys were off to the beach intent on reducing the number of the crab population. Rose Atwood and Agnes and Amy Fennington had been invited to go, too, but had refused on the ground that while they liked crabs after they were cooked, they did not like them while they were alive.
“Don’t know that I blame them much,” said Jimmy, commenting on this. “A crab is a mean customer, and can give you a bad nip from those big claws of his.”
“The idea is not to let him get close enough to do it,” said Herb.
“I know that’s the idea, all right,” said Jimmie. “But sometimes it doesn’t work out.”
“We don’t have to worry about that yet,” said Bob. “Chances are we won’t see a crab all afternoon. It usually happens that way, it seems to me.”
But contrary to this prophecy the boys saw many crabs. There was a wide, shallow inlet where the ocean had worked a way in back of the beach for a considerable distance. At high tide the water here was several feet deep, but at low tide it was anywhere from six inches to a foot. Many crabs were washed in here with the tide, and remained after the tide had gone out. They had a way of hiding under bunches of seaweed, and when dislodged would go scuttling away along the sandy bottom for dear life. It looked easy to drop the crab net over one of these awkward creatures, but the boys soon discovered that it was more difficult than it appeared. The crustaceans exhibited a surprising nimbleness, and in addition, when they were in imminent danger of being captured, had a trick of suddenly changing their course and darting toward their pursuers with claws waving and giving every evidence of being willing and able to do battle.
The boys were in their bathing suits, and as they waded barefooted through the shallow water, they found the sport more exciting than they had anticipated.
“Gee!” exclaimed Jimmy, making a wild dash for shore, after a sudden but futile sweep of his net into the water. “That fellow was after my toes as though he meant business. I’d about as soon tackle a cage full of wild tigers as these man-eating crabs.”
“Stick to it, Jimmy,” said Bob, as he deftly scooped up a struggling crab in his net. “At the worst you’ll only lose a leg or two.”
“Yes, and what’s that to the pleasure of having nice fresh crabs for dinner to-night?” said Herb. “You don’t go at it in the right spirit, Doughnuts. Just watch – yeow! ouch!” he ended, with a yell, and kicked out wildly with one foot, to which a crab, a determined and stubborn crab, was clinging.
Joe, who was nearest, lashed at the clinging crustacean with his net, and caught the creature fairly in the middle with the iron frame. The crab dropped back into the water, and Herbert dashed to the safety of the beach.
“Oh, my poor foot!” he groaned. “I’ll bet that confounded crab could pinch the propeller off a battleship.”
“Oh, don’t mind a little thing like that,” said Jimmy vengefully. “Just think of the nice crabs you’ll have for dinner to-night, and it won’t hurt any more.”
“Oh, shut up!” exclaimed Herb, for Bob and Joe, while they were sorry for him, could not help laughing at his woebegone appearance. “It won’t be as much fun when one of you gets nipped.”
“I get out before they have a chance to catch me,” said Jimmy.
“Well, you’d better get in again, and do some catching yourself,” said Joe. “Bob and I aren’t going to catch them for the whole bunch. Just make a swipe at them with the net as soon as you see them. Don’t chase along after them first, because then they know you’re after them, and they turn and go for you.”
Herbert was rather doubtful about venturing back into the water. But he knew the others would never get through chaffing him if he did not; so, after nursing his injured foot awhile, he ventured in. Following Joe’s advice, he escaped further accident, and at the end of a couple of hours the boys had enough crabs in their baskets to supply the whole four families.
“It seems to me there must be an especially wicked and scrappy lot of crabs in this neighborhood,” said Bob. “Just look at them in the basket. They’re fighting each other just as though they enjoyed it.”
“Probably they do,” said Jimmy. “A crab is foolish enough to like anything.”
“They remind me of Buck Looker and his gang,” said Herb, laughing. “They’re always on the lookout for trouble, and they usually get the worst of it when trouble comes along.”
“Yes, but these fellows are real scrappers, while Buck is just a big bully,” said Bob. “I wonder if they’ve come to Ocean Point yet. I suppose if they had, we’d have seen something of them.”
“Oh, I suppose they’ll come pestering around as soon as they get here,” said Joe. “But if they do, I guess we’ll be able to take care of them.”
“We’ll do our best, anyway,” said Bob. “They’re still sore about the way we broke into their shack after they’d stolen Jimmy’s wireless outfit.”
“It only served them right,” said Jimmy. “I think we let them off pretty easily that time. Next time we’d better rub it in a little harder.”
“Well, don’t let’s spoil a perfect day by thinking about that crowd,” said Joe, shouldering the basket of crabs. “I’ll carry this until my back begins to break, and then somebody else can have a chance at it.”
“That’s fair enough,” assented Bob, and the boys started for home, well pleased with the result of their expedition. There were so many jokes bandied back and forth that Joe forgot all about the weight of the basket, and it was only when he threw his load down on the porch that he remembered that none of the others had done his share. And by that time it was of no use to protest.
“Well!” exclaimed Rose, when she saw the laden basket, “old Izaak Walton didn’t have anything on you. I never had any idea that you’d catch as many as that. To tell the truth, the honest truth, I didn’t think you’d catch any.”
“That’s all the confidence my sister has in me, you see,” said Joe, with a resigned air.
“They’re all alike,” said Herb. “They none of them really appreciate what a blessing it is to have a brother.”
“We do appreciate it once in a while,” returned Agnes. “Especially when they work up energy enough to go and catch some nice fat crabs. I just dote on crab salad.”
“If you only knew how close your brother came to losing his foot on account of those same crabs, you’d feel sorry for him,” said Bob, with a mischievous grin.
“Oh, do tell us about it,” said Amy. “What happened, Herb?”
“Aw, why can’t you keep quiet about that, Bob?” protested Herb.
But the girls were not to be put off so easily, and had to be told the story of Herb’s defeat at the claws, as it were, of one small crab.
“Well, I don’t care,” he said, goaded by the laughter of the girls, “I’ll get even by eating as many of those animals as I can, and maybe one of them will be the one that bit me.”
“It won’t do any harm to think so,” said Bob. “I hated to tell on you, Herb, but that story was too good to keep.”
“All right! I’ll get even with you some day,” threatened Herb. “It’s just your confounded luck that you didn’t get nipped instead of me.”
“Oh, well, it’s all in the day’s fun,” said Bob. “I’ll bet these fellows will taste so good we’ll forget about the trouble we had while we were catching them.”
This prophecy was fully justified that evening when the unfortunate crabs disappeared as if by magic.
“We’ll have to try this again some day soon,” said Bob. “I never knew a crab could taste so good.”
They all agreed to this, and were still discussing the afternoon’s fun when they heard a familiar voice on the porch, and a moment later Dr. Amory Dale walked into the room. They all sprang to their feet and gave him a hearty welcome.
He told them all the local news of Clintonia, and then broached the real object of his visit. He had conceived the idea of making up a party consisting only of the adults and taking a tour through the South, taking in Washington and other of the larger Southern cities. As outlined by him, the party was to go by rail, and return by steamer from Norfolk, Virginia, to Boston.
