CHAPTER XX
BROKEN WIRES
True to Bob's prediction, the snowstorm proved to be a fierce one evenfor this season of unusual snows, and when the boys awoke the nextmorning they found that the ground had taken on an extra covering andthe branches of the trees were weighted down with the heavy fall.
"Say, fellows, look what's here!" cried Joe as he roused his mates,sleepy-eyed from their comfortable beds. "Old Jack Frost sure was busylast night."
"Guess he thinks it's Thanksgiving," Bob agreed as he hurried into hisclothes, keeping one eye on the frosty landscape and fairly aching tomake part of it. "Hurry up, fellows, let's go out and have a snowfight."
"You're on," agreed Joe, and then began the race to see who would getfrom their cottage to the hotel and to the breakfast table first.
They arrived there--at the breakfast table, that is--at one and thesame time and ate as ravenously as though they had not broken theirfast in a week. Mr. and Mrs. Layton watched them and smiled, wishingthat they might once more eat with such lusty appetites.
Before the boys had finished breakfast, it had begun to snow again,making the landscape appear more than ever blizzardy and bleak.Eagerly the boys buttoned up heavy sweaters, prepared to fight thestorm to a finish.
It seemed that they were not the only ones whom the storm had luredforth. There were a number of people gathered in front of the hoteland, since they seemed rather excited about something, three of theboys joined them to find out what the fuss was all about, Jimmyremaining behind for the time being to take a nail from his shoe.
"The telegraph wires are all down," said a man in response to Bob'squestion. "There's a man been raving around here like a crazy man,declaring he has to send a telegram. Nobody can seem to make himunderstand that since the wires are all down such a thing isimpossible."
"He might telephone," Joe suggested, but the man who had been theirinformant took him up quickly.
"They're down too," he said. "We're as marooned here, as far as anycommunication with the outside world is concerned, as though we werestranded on an island in the midst of the ocean. This storm has doneconsiderable damage."
"I should say so," remarked Joe, as the gentleman turned to some oneelse and the boys started on a tour of the place to look over theprospect. "I'll call it some damage to knock down both telephone andtelegraph wires at one fell swoop."
"That talk about our being just as badly off for communication withthe outside world as though we were on an island isn't quite correct,"observed Herb. "That fellow seemed to forget all about trains."
"I suppose he meant quick communication," said Bob. "We could send amessage by wire in an hour or less, while it would take two or threetimes that time to send the same message by rail."
"That's so," agreed Herb, staring up at the wires which had fallenbeneath their weight of snow. "I'd hate to _have_ to get a messagethrough for any reason just now. But look," he added, pointing to thehotel. "Our aerials are still up anyway."
"I wonder who the fellow was who was so anxious to telegraph," saidJoe, after a few minutes. "He must think himself in bad luck."
Bob brought his gaze from the damaged wires and stared at the boys,and at Jimmy who just then came puffing up.
"Say, I bet that was Mr. Salper," Bob said. "Don't you remember lastnight that he said he must get a message through to his broker firstthing in the morning?"
"By Jove, the storm knocked it clear out of my head!" exclaimed Joe."Say, I feel sorry for him, all right."
"Wish we could help him some way," said Herb anxiously. "It wouldnever do to let that fellow Mohun and his pals get off with the filthylucre just when we thought we'd double-crossed them so nicely."
"I guess that's where Mr. Salper would agree with you," said Jimmy,with a grin. "Especially since the filthy lucre belongs to him."
They walked on in silence for a few moments, chagrined at the thoughtthat the storm had played so into the hands of Mr. Salper's enemies.
They had learned from Mr. Salper the night before that Mohun of theprotruding teeth was not the kind of man to let a golden opportunitypass. He would rush the "deal" through while Salper was out of town,and, from the latter's impatience, they had gathered that the next fewhours would, in all probability, be the crucial time.
"Burr-r-r!" cried Jimmy suddenly, wrapping his arms as far as theywould go about his chubby body and shivering with the cold. "Thisweather sure does make a fellow wish for a fur overcoat. Thethermometer must have gone down twenty degrees over night."
"Hear who's talking!" scoffed Herb. "With all that fat on your bones,Doughnuts, you haven't a chance in the world of feeling cold."
"I suppose you know more than I do about it--not being me," retortedJimmy, scathingly. "I'd just like you to feel the way I do; that'sall."
"Well, it isn't what you might call unpleasantly hot," observed Bob."I must say I'm not sweltering, myself."
"Guess it isn't much colder than this up at the North Pole," agreedJoe, as he turned his sweater collar up higher about his ears. "Mightas well rig up as an Eskimo and be done with it."
"Reminds me of that Norwegian, Amundsen," said Bob. "He sure intendsto discover the North Pole with all the fancy trimmings, this time."
"What do you mean?" asked Herb, with interest.
"Do you mean to say you haven't read about it?" demanded Jimmy,indulgently. "Why, he's the fellow who is going to have his ship alldressed up with wireless so that when he smashes his ship against theNorth Pole he can let everybody know about it."
"It's a great idea, I call it," said Joe, enthusiastically. "Up tothis time, explorers haven't had any way of communicating with theoutside world, and so if they got in trouble they just had to get outof it the best way they could or die in the attempt."
"While now," Bob took him up eagerly, "his wireless messages will bepicked up by hundreds of stations all over the world and in case ofneed ships and teams of huskies and even aeroplanes can be rushed tohis rescue."
"Exploring de luxe," murmured Herb, with a comical look. "Pretty soonthere won't be any such thing as adventure because there won't be anydanger. We'll have radio to watch over us and keep us from all harm."
"It's all right for you to talk that way," said Jimmy. "But I bet ifyou were one of these explorer chaps you'd be mighty glad to havesomething watch over you and help you out of a tight fix."
"Yes, I guess those fellows need all the help they can get," agreedBob, soberly. "It isn't any joke to be away out there with hundreds ofmiles of ice and water between them and civilization."
"They say even the sledges are to be equipped with radio," Joe brokein. "So that they can keep in touch with the ship all the time andthrough the medium of the powerful sending set aboard the boat theship itself can be kept in constant touch with the outside world."
"There are planes too, equipped with radio," added Bob. "And they sayeach plane is outfitted with skids so that it can land safely on theice."
"I should think there would be danger in that," remarked Jimmy,rubbing his hands vigorously to set the blood circulating again. "Theysay the ice is awfully rough and bumpy and spattered with small hillsof ice. I should think a pilot would have a jolly time trying to makea landing under those conditions."
"They intend to cut out the ice about the ship so as to make landingpossible," explained Bob. "And in the other places the skids help themto make a sure landing. Say, wouldn't I like to make one of thatexpedition!" he added, with enthusiasm.
"I wonder how long they expect this expedition to take," said Herb.The idea of exploring the arctic with radio as a companion was afascinating one to him and at that moment he would have made one ofAmundsen's hardy crew, if such a thing were possible, with thegreatest joy.
"They expect it will take them five years, maybe six." It was Bob whoanswered the question. "Their idea is to travel as far as possiblenorth before the ice gets thick. Then when the floes close in aboutthem they will drift with the ice over the pole--or, at least, that'swhat
they hope to do."
"What gets me," said Jimmy plaintively, "is how they are going to knowwhen they get to the pole anyway."
Herb made a pass at him which the fat boy nimbly avoided.
"Why, you poor fish," said the former witheringly, "you sure will be afull-sized nut if you ever live to grow up. I suppose if you got tothe North Pole you'd expect to see a clothes pole with the clothesline wrapped around it, ready for use."