The Radio Boys at Ocean Point: or, The Message that Saved the Ship

CHAPTER XX – THE RADIO CONCERT

“When do we give the concert, Herb?” asked Bob at breakfast the next morning.

“Mother isn’t quite sure yet,” replied Herb to Bob’s question. “Not until she consults with some of the others, anyway. But she thinks that a week from to-night will be all right. Guess one night’s the same as another as far as we are concerned.”

As a matter of fact, the projected concert was scheduled several days sooner than Herb had predicted, being set for the ensuing Saturday night, so as to get as many of the week-end visitors as possible. Tickets to the affair sold well, and from the first it became evident that there would be a large attendance. People were only too glad to come, both for the sake of hearing good music and to know that they were contributing to a worthy charity. The boys, as the volume of sales increased, realized that it was up to them to see that the visitors should have the worth of their money and they went over the set with a “fine-tooth comb,” to use Herb’s expression, in order to make sure that every part of it was in fine working order.

“We’ll have to test everything out pretty thoroughly,” remarked Bob, that Saturday morning. “We’d never hear the last of it if anything went wrong to-night.”

“You bet!” said Joe. “We’ve got to have everything in apple-pie order.”

The audience began to arrive early. A large space had been roped off in front of the central bungalow and furnished with rows of campchairs. The boys had set up the loud-speaking horn on a small table on the porch, running leads from it to their apparatus in the living room. This enabled them to operate the set out of sight of the audience.

By eight o’clock almost everybody was in his place, waiting expectantly, and in some cases somewhat sceptically, for the music to begin.

But they had not long to wait. Inside the bungalow the boys, excited and tense, heard the familiar voice of the announcer at WJZ, the big Newark broadcasting station. While he was speaking the boys had the horn outside disconnected, but with their head phones they tuned until the announcer’s voice was distinct and clear and all other sounds had been tuned out. Then, as the announcer ceased speaking, and in the brief pause that ensued before the first selection on the program started, the boys connected in the loud-speaker on the porch.

The concert commenced. Violin solos, vocal selections, and orchestral numbers followed each other in quick succession, every note and shade of tone being reproduced faithfully by the radio boys’ set.

The audience sat in absorbed silence, listening spellbound to this miracle of modern science. At intervals they could not resist applauding, although the artists producing the music were many miles away. When the concert was over at last there was a regular storm of handclapping and calls for the boys, who at length had to appear on the porch, looking, it must be confessed, as though they would rather have been almost anywhere else.

Cries of “Speech! Speech!” came from the audience, and at last Bob stepped forward.

“We’re mighty glad if all you folks enjoyed the concert,” he said. “We boys are all very much interested in radio, and we want to have everybody know what it is like. Maybe before the sanitarium gets finished you’ll have to listen to another concert,” he added, with a grin.

Cries of “we hope so” and “make it soon” came from the audience, which then dispersed with many expressions of commendation for the evening’s entertainment.

When the receipts for the evening were counted it was found that they had taken in over four hundred dollars, which was soon turned over to the trustees of the sanitarium.

The concert was the chief topic of conversation in the neighborhood for the next few days, and the radio boys were deluged with requests for information concerning radio and radio equipment. They were somewhat surprised at the furor caused by their concert, but that was probably the first time that most of those present had ever heard radio music or had reason to give more than passing thought to the subject.

But the boys had other interests in addition to radiophony to absorb their attention. At last word had come that the tourists had started home, and the boys were excited at the thought of soon seeing their parents and Rose again. They had written that they would come from Norfolk to Boston on the steamer Horolusa, a combination freight and passenger ship.

“Say!” exclaimed Bob, when he read this, “wouldn’t it be great if they’d send us a wireless message from their ship when they pass Ocean Point on the way to Boston?”

“You bet it would,” said Joe. “Do you suppose they’ll think of it?”

“They’ll probably be passing here some time to-morrow,” said Jimmy; “so it will be up to us to keep close to the radio outfit in case they do send a message. Probably they’ll never think of it, though.”

“I hope they have good weather for the trip,” said Bob. “It doesn’t look very favorable just now.”

“It doesn’t, for a fact,” agreed Joe. “It’s been cloudy and muggy for the last two days, and it’s worse than ever to-day. But it probably won’t amount to anything. There isn’t apt to be a bad storm at this time of year.”

But the weather failed to justify Joe’s optimism. As the day wore on the cloudiness increased, and toward evening a breeze sprang up that kept freshening until it had attained the proportions of a gale. All that night it blew with increasing violence, and the next day, when the boys went down to look at the ocean, they were alarmed at the size and fury of the surf. Toward evening their anxiety increased, as no word had come from the Horolusa, although they had spent the afternoon at their radio set. They overheard messages of distress from other vessels, however, and knew that the storm was creating havoc along the coast. Night came on early, with the gale still blowing with unabated fury, and after supper Bob proposed that they go to the big radio station and see if there was any news there of the Horolusa.

“That will be fine,” said Jimmy. “If they haven’t received any news of the ship there, we can be pretty sure that she is all right, because they would have been sure to get any distress message if it had been sent out.”

The boys made a hasty end of their meal, and then started through the storm and darkness for the wireless station. It was raining in torrents that were driven before the gale and penetrated the thickest clothing. The only light the boys had came from an occasional jagged flash of lightning, and they kept to the path more by instinct than knowledge of its direction. But, with heads lowered to the storm, they plodded doggedly on, their minds filled with forebodings of disaster to their loved ones. The terrible roar of the breakers on the beach made them shudder with dread.

Suddenly a tremendous flash of lightning split the sky, and in the fraction of a second that the vivid glare endured they saw a man coming toward them whom Bob and Joe recognized at once. It was Dan Cassey, the scoundrel who had tried to cheat Nellie Berwick in the matter of the mortgage on her home.

More from instinct than anything else, the radio boys sought to block the man’s path, guessing that he was probably on some evil errand and remembering the warning that Miss Berwick had given them. Cassey struck out at random, and one lucky blow caught Joe unawares and knocked him down. The other boys sprang at Cassey, but in the darkness he managed to elude them and took to his heels.

It was hopeless to attempt to find the rascal in the pitch blackness, and after running a few steps the boys realized this and returned to help their comrade.

The latter had gotten to his feet and was fuming with anger, and it was all that his friends could do to dissuade him from rushing off through the darkness in quest of his assailant.

“But he was headed for the village probably,” expostulated Joe. “We’ll probably find him there if we get there before he has time to light out.”

“Maybe. But it’s more important just now to get to the wireless station and find out if there’s any news of the Horolusa,” said Bob. “If we find out that she’s all right, we can get after Cassey later.”

“That’s good dope,” said Jimmy. “The sight of that rascal has made me feel more scared than ever for the folks. He’s a hoodoo, a raven, a sign of bad luck. I’m not superstitious, but meeting him has given me the creeps.”

The boys resumed their interrupted journey, and before long could see the lights of the radio station shining through the rain.

“Now, if we can only find out that the steamer is safe!” sighed Bob.

“If we only do!” came from Joe. “It would be terrible if anything went wrong in this awful storm.”

The boys increased their pace, and were soon mounting the steps of the porch. To their surprise, the door was wide open, and almost by instinct they felt that something was wrong. Their suspicions were confirmed the next moment, for as they entered the house the first object they saw was their friend, Brandon Harvey, stretched unconscious on the floor with blood trickling from a wound on his head. The little safe of which he had spoken the last time the boys were there stood wide open, and the cash drawer lay empty on the floor.

CHAPTER XXI – A DASTARDLY ATTACK

With horror-struck faces the radio boys hastened to examine and aid their friend.

“He isn’t dead,” said Bob, as he felt the wounded man’s heart beat. “Somebody’s given him a terrible blow, though. Let’s lift him over to that couch, and I’ll get him a drink of water and see if we can’t bring him around.”

This was quickly done, and the boys chafed his wrists and did everything they could think of to restore him to consciousness. At last their efforts were rewarded, for Brandon Harvey’s eyelids flickered, and a spot of color came into his cheeks. As his eyes opened recognition came into them, and he made a feeble effort to rise, but sank back on the couch with a groan.

“Who hit you?” asked Bob. “Do you remember what happened?”

“I was at the table, taking a message,” panted Harvey, in a voice little above a whisper. “I remember hearing a footstep behind me, but before I could turn around somebody struck me on the head, and I knew nothing more until I came to and found you boys here. Is the safe all right?” he exclaimed suddenly, as a terrible thought crossed his mind.

“I’m afraid that whoever hit you robbed the safe, too,” replied Bob. “It’s empty now, anyway. The door of it was open when we came in.”

“Good Heaven!” exclaimed Harvey, and would have leaped to his feet had the boys not restrained him. “Why, there was over three thousand dollars in that safe! I had been meaning to go to the bank, but the weather was so bad that I let it slide. I can’t imagine who the thief could have been.”

The same thought occurred to all the boys at once, and was voiced by Bob.

“I’ll bet any money I know who the thief was!” he exclaimed. “It must have been that low-down crook, Dan Cassey. He was hurrying away from here when he bumped into us, fellows.”

“That’s about the size of it!” Joe ejaculated. “And to think that we let him get away from us!”

“Dan Cassey?” queried the wireless man. “Why, that’s the same man my cousin was telling me about; the one you fellows had trouble with last spring. Are you sure this was the same one?”

“No doubt of it,” declared Bob. “We had a scrimmage with him not half an hour ago, but in the darkness he managed to get away from us. If we had had any idea that he had attacked and robbed you this way, though, we’d have gone after him.”

“But we can’t be sure that he was the thief, anyway,” said Brandon Harvey. “How did you boys happen to be coming here?”

“Before we talk any more I’m going to fix your head up,” said Bob. “You’ve had a pretty bad crack there, and you’d better stay as quiet as you can. After I’ve fixed you up, I’ll tell you what we came for.”

The wireless station was equipped with a complete medical outfit. Bob sponged the ugly looking gash, then applied iodine and bandaged the wound as well as he could.

“There!” he exclaimed. “That isn’t very fancy, but it’s a whole lot better than nothing. How do you feel now?”

“Pretty much all in,” Harvey confessed, essaying a smile. “I don’t mind the rap on the head as much as I do the loss of the money. I’ll have to make it good, and that will take some while out of a wireless operator’s pay.”

“Don’t worry about that money,” said Joe. “It isn’t as though you didn’t know who took it. There isn’t a doubt in any of our minds but Cassey is the guilty party. If we can locate him, we’ll either make him give it back or else wish he had.”

“Well, I only hope so,” said Harvey doubtfully. “But you haven’t told me yet what lucky accident brought you to my assistance.”

“Why, we wanted to find out if there was any news of the Horolusa, the steamer that our folks are coming home on,” explained Bob. “We’ve been listening at our set all the afternoon for word from her, but haven’t heard anything. We thought that perhaps you had caught something that got past us.”

“No, I haven’t heard a thing from that particular ship,” said Harvey, shaking his head. “There are plenty of others, though, having a hard time of it. This is the worst storm on record for this time of year. I don’t remember – ah! there’s a distress signal now. I’ll have to answer it,” and he attempted to get to his feet, but fell back on the couch with a face as white as chalk.

The boys looked at each other in dismay, for while they had been practicing sending and receiving in the international code, they hardly felt competent to take an important message like this. But after a second’s hesitation, Bob jumped to the big table.

“I’ve got to try, anyhow,” he muttered, grimly. He snatched the head phones and fastened them over his ears. At first he was so excited that he could make nothing of the jumble of buzzings in the receiver that sounded like a gigantic swarm of hornets. But in a few seconds he began to catch words here and there, and, seizing a pencil, he began feverishly jotting them down.

“Steamer Horolusa,” he wrote. “Have struck derelict – sinking – help – quick – are about five miles – Barnegat shoals.”

Bob reached for the sending key, while the other boys, their faces white, read the message that he had just written down.

Outside the wind roared and howled, the rain dashed against the windows in sheets, and, although they were quite a way from the beach, the boys could hear above everything else the angry roar of the breakers. They could envision the ill-fated vessel fighting a losing battle with the elements, and their hearts stood still as they thought of the terrible peril in which their dear ones stood.

Bob manipulated the sending key slowly and no doubt made more than one mistake, but nevertheless succeeded in making himself understood by the operator on board the Horolusa.

“Message received at Station YS,” he sent. “Will relay to all ships. How are things with you now?”

“Lifeboats smashed as soon as put overboard,” came back the answer. “Only chance is to be picked up by other vessel. For God’s sake, do your best.”

“They’re in a pretty bad fix,” said Bob, turning a tragic face to his friends, “I’ll relay the S. O. S. call, and probably we’ll reach ships that the Horolusa’s wireless couldn’t, as this station is so much more powerful. While I’m doing that, why don’t you fellows call up the life saving station at Barnegat, and tell them to be on the lookout.”

“That’s a good idea!” exclaimed Joe, and he rushed for the telephone, while Bob sent out the call for help for the Horolusa.

“Central must be asleep!” exclaimed Joe impatiently. “I can’t get any answer at all to this blamed thing,” and he worked the hook up and down, but to no effect.

Meanwhile Bob had had better success with his instrument, and had got into communication with two ships that promised to go immediately to the aid of the Horolusa. They were both only a few miles from that unfortunate vessel, so when at last Bob left the key, the load of anxiety that had lain so heavily on his heart was considerably lightened.

“What’s the matter, Joe?” he inquired of his friend, who was still making frantic but ineffectual efforts to get into communication with the life saving station. “Can’t you get any answer?”

“Not a word, worse luck!” exclaimed Joe. “I guess the wires must have been blown down by the storm.”

“Yes, or they might have been cut by the thief before he attacked Mr. Harvey,” suggested Herb, struck by a sudden thought.

“I’ll bet that’s just what’s the trouble!” exclaimed Joe. “I’m going outside and investigate.”

He caught up a flashlight that was lying on the table, and dashed outside, followed by the others. Sure enough, the telephone wires had been cut a few feet above the ground. Evidently the thief had planned everything carefully.

“Good night!” ejaculated Joe disgustedly. “No wonder I couldn’t get any answer. And all the time I was blaming the poor operator for being asleep.”

When the boys went inside again they found Brandon Harvey sitting up, and he declared that he felt a good deal better.

“I’ll be as good as ever in a little while,” he declared. “I guess I was in the land of dreams for a little while, though. What’s been going on while I was down and out?”

The boys told him about the message from theHorolusa and about the telephone wires being cut.

“Well, I guess you’ve done about all that can be done,” he remarked, after they had finished. “Chances are those two vessels you spoke will stand by the Horolusa and take the passengers off in case it becomes certain that she’s going to founder. But I think I’m strong enough to push a key down now, if you’ll help me over to the table.”

This was soon done, and while the wireless man was still somewhat shaky, he nevertheless stated that he had recovered enough to carry on the duties of the station.

“You fellows don’t need to worry about me,” he said. “I’ll hold down the station all right, if you want to go after this Cassey. You might be able to catch him before he leaves the town, because he didn’t leave here in time to catch the last train out, and I doubt if he’d be able to hire an automobile on a night like this. It would be worth an attempt, anyway.”

“It doesn’t seem right to leave you here alone,” said Bob doubtfully. “But I suppose you know best how you feel.”

“We’ll hook up the telephone before we go, and get a message through to the life saving station,” said Joe.

The radio boys set about this task without loss of time. They soon had the instrument working again, and this time had no difficulty in getting a connection with the life saving station. The life savers reported that there was no vessel near the shoals at that time, but promised to keep a vigilant lookout.

“Well,” said Bob, when this had been accomplished, “I suppose there isn’t much more that we can do around here, so let’s get after Cassey. We’ll have to flash a lot of speed if we’re going to stand any chance of catching him.”

“I guess we can do that, all right,” said Joe. “Let’s go,” and with that the boys were off on the trail of the thief.

CHAPTER XXII – IN THE GRIP OF THE STORM

The Horolusa had left Norfolk with the sun shining, but after she had steamed a day on her way to Boston the weather changed, the sun becoming obscured by heavy clouds and the air growing sultry and heavy. The passengers took little note of this, except in a casual way, but the ships’ officers wore a somewhat worried look as they went about their duties, for the barometer had been falling steadily all the morning and had now reached a low point that forecasted trouble, and that in the near future. The sea was calm, with a long, oily heave that soon sent a number of the passengers to the seclusion of their staterooms.