CHAPTER XI
A MOUNTAIN RADIO STATION
Left to themselves, the boys looked at one another.
"That's what I call quick work," remarked Joe. "I hate to let the oldset go, but they say you should never mix sentiment with business."
"Maybe this will lessen your grief," said Bob. "Eighty divided by fourmakes twenty, or at least that's what they always taught us in school.Take these four five-dollar bills, Joe, and dry your tears with them."
"Oh, boy!" exclaimed Joe.
"Money, how welcome you are!" ejaculated Herb, as he pocketed hisshare. "What I can't do with twenty dollars!"
"That will buy exactly two thousand doughnuts," calculated Jimmy, arapturous expression on his round countenance. "Hot doughnuts, crispbrown doughnuts, doughnuts with jelly in them, doughnuts----"
A human avalanche precipitated itself on the corpulent youngster, andhe found himself writhing on the floor with his three companionsseated comfortably on different parts of his ample anatomy.
"Hey! Quit, quit!" stuttered Jimmy. "Get off me, you hobos! You'llhave me flattened out like a dog that's just been run over by a steamroller."
"And serve you right, too," retorted Joe. "What do you mean by talkingabout doughnuts when it's almost dinner time, and we're starved todeath, anyway. Besides, you know there isn't a place at Mountain Passwhere we can buy them."
"Yes, and if I'd known that before I started, I would probably havestayed at home," retorted Jimmy. "Get off me, will you, before I throwyou off?"
"We'll let you up, but I doubt if you should be trusted with all thatmoney," returned Bob, grinning. "You'd better whack it up among us,Jimmy. You'll just buy a lot of junk with it and make yourself sick."
"Well, I've got a right to get sick if I want to," said his rotundfriend, struggling to his feet. "If you get that twenty away from me,it will have to be over my dead body."
"It doesn't seem worth while to kill him for just twenty dollars,"said Bob, pretending to consider. "That's just a little over sixdollars apiece."
"No good," said Joe, decisively. "It would cost more than that to buryhim."
"You're a cold-blooded set of bandits," complained Jimmy, in anaggrieved tone. "I'm glad I haven't got a hundred dollars with me. I'dbe a mighty poor insurance risk then, I suppose."
"I wouldn't give a lead nickel for your chances," said Bob. "But don'tlet that worry you, Jimmy. You'll probably never have that much moneyall at one time as long as you live."
"I won't if I wait for you fellows to give it to me," admitted hisfriend. "But I'm going over to the hotel and see if dinner is servedyet. I'm not going to be the last one in the dining room at _every_meal."
"When you get the hang of this place, you'll always be the first one,"said Herb. "After a little while they'll make you up a bunk in acorner, and you can even sleep there."
"Oh, go chase yourself!" exclaimed Jimmy. "You never learned how toeat, Herb, and that's why you're such a human bean pole," and withthis parting shot he slammed the door behind him before Herb couldthink of a suitable reply.
"He got you that time, Herb," said Bob, with a grin. "I guess we mightas well all get ready for dinner. Dad says they hate to have peoplecoming in late."
Every day after that Mr. Robins dropped in in time to hear the marketreports, sometimes alone, and at others accompanied by his partner,Mr. Blackford. The latter was not quite so enthusiastic as hiscolleague, but he was nevertheless greatly interested, and was alwaysglad to don a head set and hear what was going on.
True to their agreement, the boys instructed the new owner of the sethow to adjust it and get the best results. He always paid the closestattention to what they told him, and in a few days could pick upsignals and tune the set fairly well.
"Not bad for an old fellow, eh?" he exclaimed delightedly one day,when he had accomplished the whole thing without any aid from theboys. "If Blackford and I sell out to your father, Bob, I'll have alittle leisure time, and blame it all if I don't think I'll do someexperimenting and possibly some building myself."
"You're pretty badly bitten by the radio bug," observed his partner.
"I won't try to deny it," said the other, emphatically. "The more Ithink about it, the more wonderful it seems. Besides, it's got amighty practical side to it. I was holding on to some shares a fewdays ago until I learned by way of the radio that they were startingto fall. I sent a telegram to my brokers, they sold out for me just inthe nick of time, and I made a profit on the deal instead of having totake a loss. The bottom dropped clean out of the market that sameafternoon, and if I'd been holding on to those shares, I would havegotten bumped good and hard."
The other nodded. "It's a good investment when you look at it thatway," he admitted.
"Good investment is right," declared his partner. "I saved a lot morein that deal than the whole radio outfit cost me, and I still own theset."
"I wonder why the new government wireless station doesn't do somethingof the kind," remarked Mr. Blackford. "They might as well makethemselves useful as well as ornamental."
"Government station!" exclaimed Bob and Joe at once. "Is there agovernment station at Mountain Pass?"
Mr. Blackford nodded. "I thought you fellows knew about it, or I'dhave mentioned it before," he said. "It was just opened a few weeksago, and I don't think they've got all their equipment in yet. There'sbeen some delay in getting the stuff here, I understand."
"What does the government want of a wireless station away up here?"asked Bob.
"This is the highest point in all the surrounding country and makes anideal lookout for forest fires," said his informant. "The station wassupposed to be ready for use last summer, but, as I say, was delayed agood deal. But we expect it to be of great service in the future.There have been some disastrous forest fires around here in the lastfew years, as you probably know."
"We ought, to know it," remarked Joe. "The smoke has been so thick asfar away as Clintonia sometimes that you could cut it with a hatchet.It's about time something was done to stop it."
Of course, once they heard about the government station, the boyscould think of nothing else until they had visited it. Bob proposedthat they go right after lunch, and this met with the enthusiasticapproval of his friends. Poor Jimmy was so rushed by his eager friendsthat he was frustrated in his design of asking for a second helping ofchocolate pudding, and was hurried away protesting vainly against suchunseemly haste.
"What do you Indians think you're doing?" he grumbled. "Do you allwant to die of indigestion? Don't you know you're supposed to restafter a meal and give your stomach a chance?"
"Oh, dry up," said Joe, heartlessly. "If you didn't eat so much youwouldn't want to lie around for two hours after every meal like aBrazilian anaconda. You know you didn't want another plate of thatpudding, anyway."
"Didn't I!" said Jimmy, disconsolately. "That was about the bestpudding I ever tasted, bar none. You fellows are such radio bugs thatyou can't even pay proper attention to what you're eating."
"You give enough attention to that to make up for the whole gang,"said Bob. "Stop your growling and step along lively, old timer."
Jimmy grumbled a little more in spite of this admonition, but regainedhis usual cheery mood when he saw the steel lattice-work towers withthe familiar antenna sweeping in graceful spans between them, andforgot all about the missing plate of pudding.
The station was situated some distance from the Mountain Rest Hotel ina clearing cut out of the dense pine woods, and the boys ceased towonder why they had not discovered it on some of their rambles. Asthey drew near they could see that everything was solidly andsubstantially built, as is usually the case with government work.
The station, besides the towers, comprised a large, comfortablebuilding, which housed all the sending and receiving equipment, and asmaller building, in which the operators slept when off duty, andwhere spare equipment was stored.
The radio boys knocked at the door of the larger building, and after ashort wait it was o
pened by a tall, rather frail looking young fellow,who eyed them inquiringly.
Bob explained that he and his friends were radio fans, and wereanxious to look over the station, if it would not cause too muchinconvenience.
"Not a bit of it," said the young operator, heartily. "To tell you thetruth, there is not much doing here at this time of year, and companyis mighty welcome. Step in and I'll be glad to show you around theplace."