CHAPTER XIX
CONSTRUCTION AND DESTRUCTION
Bill and Gus worked long hours and diligently. All that the power plantconstruction had earned for Bill, the boy had turned in to help hismother. But Mr. Grier, busy at house building and doing better than atmost other times, was able to add something to _his_ boy's earnings, sothat Gus could capitalize the undertaking, which he was eager to do.
The layout of the radio receiver outfits to be built alike were put atfirst on paper, full size; plan, side and end elevations and tracingswere made of the same transferred to heavy manila paper. These were tobe placed on the varnished panels, so that holes could be bored throughpaper and panel, thus insuring perfect spacing and arrangement.Sketches, also, were made of all details.
The audion tubes, storage batteries and telephone receivers had beenpurchased in the city. Almost all the other parts were made by the boysout of carefully selected materials. The amplifiers consisted of ironcore transformers comprising several stages of radio frequency. Thevariometers were wound of 22-gauge wire. Loose couplers were usedinstead of the ordinary tuning coil. The switch arms, pivoting shaftsand attachments for same, the contact points and binding posts werehome-made. A potentiometer puzzled them most, both the making and theapplication, but they mastered this rather intricate mechanism, as theydid the other parts.
In this labor, with everything at hand and a definite object in view, noboys ever were happier, nor more profitably employed, considering theinfluence upon their characters and future accomplishments. How true itis that they who possess worthy hobbies, especially those governed bythe desire for construction and the inventive tendency, are gettingaltogether the most out of life and are giving the best of themselves!
The work progressed steadily--not too hastily, but most satisfactorily.Leaving at supper time, Bill's eyes would sparkle as he talked overtheir efforts for that day, and quiet Gus would listen with nods andmake remarks of appreciation now and then.
"The way we've made that panel, Gus, with those end cleats doweled onand the shellacking of both sides--it'll never warp. I'm proud of thatand it was mostly your idea."
"No, yours. I would have grooved the wood and used a tongue, but thedowels are firmer."
"A tongue would have been all right."
"But, dear boy, the dowels were easier to put in."
"Oh, well, it's done now. To-morrow we'll begin the mounting and wiring.Then for the aerial!"
But that very to-morrow brought with it the hardest blow the boys hadyet had to face. Full of high spirits, they walked the half mile out tothe Hooper place and found the garage a mass of blackened ruins. It hadcaught fire, quite mysteriously, toward morning, and the gardener andchauffeur, roused by the crackling flames, had worked like beavers butwith only time to push out the two automobiles; they could save nothingelse.
The Hoopers had just risen from breakfast when the boys arrived; at onceGrace came out, and her expressions of regret were such as to imply thatthe family had lost nothing, the boys being the only sufferers. And it_was_ a bit staggering--all their work and machinery and tools and plansutterly ruined--the lathe and drill a heap of twisted iron. It was witha rueful face that Bill surveyed the catastrophe.
"Never mind, Billy," said Grace, detecting evidence of moisture in hiseyes; but she went over to smiling Gus and gazed at him in wonder."Don't you care?" she asked.
"You bet I care; mostly on Bill's account, though. He had set his heartmighty strong on this. I'm sorry about your loss, too."
"Oh, never mind that! Dad is 'phoning now for carpenters and hisbuilder. He'll be out in a minute."
Out he did come, with a shout of greeting; he, too, had sensed that thereal regrets would be with them.
"It'll be all right, me lads!" he shouted. "Herring'll be here on thenext train, with a bunch o' men, an' I'll git your dad, Gus, too. Musthave this building up just like it was in ten days. An' now count upjust what you lads have lost; the hull sum total, b'jinks! I'm goin' tobe the insurance comp'ny in this deal."
"The insurance company!" Bill exclaimed and Gus stared.
"Sure. Goin' to make up your loss an' then some. I'm a heap int'restedin this Eddy's son business, ain't I? Think I ain't wantin' to see thatthere contraption that hears a hunderd miles off? Get busy an' give methe expense. We've got to git a-goin'."
"But, Mr. Hooper, our loss isn't yours and you have got enough to--"
"Don't talk; figger! I'm runnin' this loss business. Don't want to makeme mad; eh? Git at it an' hurry up!" He turned and walked away. Gracefollowed in a moment, but over her shoulder remarked to the wonderingboys:
"Do as Dad says if you want to keep our friendship. Dad isn't any sortof a piker,--you know that."
The insistency was too direct; "the queen's wish was a command." Theboys would have to comply and they could get square with their goodfriends in the end. So at it they went, Bill with pad and pencil, Guscalling out the items as his eye or his memory gleaned them from thehard-looking objects in the burned mass as he raked it over. PresentlyGrace came out again.
"Dad wants the list and the amount," she said. "He's got to go to thecity with Mr. Herring."
Bill handed over his pad and she was gone, to return as quickly in a fewminutes.
"Here is an order on the bank; you can draw the cash as you need it. Youcan start working in the stable loft; then bring your stuff over. Therewill be a watchman on the grounds from to-night, so don't worry aboutany more fires. I must go help get Dad off."
Once more she retreated; again she stopped to say something, as anafterthought, over her shoulder:
"And, boys, won't you let Skeets and me help you some? Skeets will behere again next week and I love to tinker and contrive and make allsorts of things; it'll be fun to see the radio receiver grow."
"Sure, you can," said Gus; and Bill nodded, adding: "We have only alimited time now, and any help will count a lot."
Going down to the bank, Bill again outlined the work in detail,suggesting the purchases of even better machinery and tools, of only thebest grades of materials. There must be another trip to the city, themost strenuous part of the work.
"We'll get it through on time, I guess," said Bill.
"I'm not thinking so much of that as about how that fire started," saidGus.
"It couldn't have been any of our chemicals, could it?"
"Chem--? My eye! Don't you know, old chap? I'll bet Mr. Hooper and Gracehave the correct suspicion."
"More crooked business? You don't mean--"
"Sure, I do! Thad, of course. And, Bill, we're going to get him, sooneror later. Mr. Hooper won't want to stand this sort of thing forever.I've got a hunch that we're not through with that game yet."