CHAPTER XXV
SOLVING THE MYSTERY
Just whom Mr. Salper had got the radio boys could not tell withcertainty, but they had a shrewd suspicion that Mohun was the haplessindividual.
The financier walked happily and springily about the office, chucklingto himself, and Jimmy declared afterward that if they had not beenthere he would have danced a jig.
At last, when he had given sufficient vent to his elation, Mr. Salperturned to Bob.
"I'm sure I can't tell you how I thank you," he declared, with acordiality and heartiness that they had never yet seen in him. "Thismatter was one of the most important that has come to me in the wholecourse of my life. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were involved init, and I'd surely have lost out if I hadn't had your services in thisextremity. And now I'm going to prove my gratitude. A check--"
"No, thank you, Mr. Salper," interrupted Bob hastily. "We don't wantmoney for the service we've been to you. It's been exciting andinteresting work for us, and I, at least, have been more than paid inthe experience I've got through sending."
"Well then I'm going to get you the finest radio set that money canbuy," persisted Mr. Salper.
"Not even that, thank you," returned Bob, smiling. "It's awfully goodof you, and we appreciate it, but we've learned more of radio bybuilding our own sets than we possibly could have done in any otherway. If you want to send a check to the Red Cross or some othersociety of the kind, it would suit us better than anything else."
"You're a stubborn young rascal," said Mr. Salper, with a smile, "andI suppose I'll have to let you have your way. But just bear in mindthat you boys have a friend in me for life, and if I can ever be ofservice to any of you in business or anything else, let me know andI'll be only too glad to do it."
He bade them good-by and went off briskly toward his bungalow to tellhis family of the news that had lifted such a heavy burden from hisbrain and heart.
The third day after the episode at the radio station the radio boyshad gone further afield than usual and came upon a little shack thathad evidently been used by workmen as a place for storing their tools.It was little more than a shed, and the boys, bestowing on it only acasual glance, had come nearly abreast of it when Bob, who wasslightly in advance, heard a voice that he recognized as that of BuckLooker.
He stopped dead in his tracks, and his companions did the same as heheld up his hand in warning.
"We certainly did put it over on those boobs all right," Buck wassaying, and the remark was followed by laughs of satisfaction.
"Yes, but we're not yet out of the woods," came the voice of CarlLutz, with a touch of uneasiness in the tone. "Suppose when they putus on the stand to testify that we found Bob Layton and the otherfellows in the cottage the evening before it burned, their lawyer asksus if we were in it too?"
"Well, let them ask," replied Buck. "All we'll have to do is to denyit. We know they were in it. They don't know we were in it. Who knowsthat we slipped in later and sat there until nearly midnight smokingcigarettes?"
With a bound Bob was at the door of the shack.
"I know it!" he cried. "I didn't know it till just this minute, butnow I know it by your own confession."
"We all heard it," echoed Joe, as he, with Herb and Jimmy, followedBob into the shack.
Consternation and conscious guilt was written on every one of thethree faces.
Buck was the first of the cronies to recover some measure ofself-possession.
"Think you've put something over, don't you?" he sneered. "Well,you've got another think coming to you. This won't do you a bit ofgood in court. I'll simply swear that I didn't say anything of thekind and that you've made up the story out of whole cloth. It'll besimply my word against yours, and you'd be interested witnesses tryingto help your fathers out by cooking up this story. So what are yougoing to do about it?"
"I'll show you what we're going to do about it!" cried Joe, startingforward.
But Bob stopped him.
"Wait a minute, Joe," he said. Then he turned to Buck. "Do you mean tosay," he demanded, "that you'd take a solemn oath in court to tell thetruth, and then go on the stand and swear to a downright lie?"
The contempt in his tone stung Buck into fury.
"You can put it any way you like," he shouted. "I'm simply not goingto let you get the best of me. Who cares for the old confession as youcall it? You can have as many of those as you like and it won't do youany good. Here's another one now for good measure. We were in thehouse late that night. We were smoking cigarettes. Probably that'swhat caused the fire to break out later. I tell you these things justbecause it won't do you any good. In court I'll deny that I ever saidthem. You'll say I did. But the court will know that you have as muchinterest in lying as I have, and it'll just be a standoff. You'd haveto have a disinterested witness, and that you haven't got."
"Oh, yes, they have," came a voice from the doorway, and Mr. Salperstepped into the shack.
An exclamation of delight broke from the lips of the radio boys, whileBuck and his cronies slunk back in terror and confusion.
"I was out taking a stroll," explained Mr. Salper, "and as I heardloud voices coming from the shack I stepped up to see what was thematter. I was just in time to hear the full confession of thisestimable young man"--here he turned a withering glance on Buck--"andwhile I'm here, I guess I'll take it down."
He drew from his pocket a notebook and a fountain pen and wroterapidly, while Buck and his companions looked at each other like somany trapped animals.
In a few minutes Mr. Salper had finished. Then he read in a clearvoice just what he had written. It was a complete confession similarto that which Buck had made, with date and place affixed. He handedthis over to Buck with the fountain pen, with a crisp demand that hesign it.
Buck hesitated as long as he dared, but with those keen eyes used tocommand fixed upon him from beneath Mr. Salper's beetling brows, hefinally signed his name, and Lutz and Mooney shamefacedly followedsuit.
"I guess that will settle the law case," Mr. Salper remarked, with asmile, as he handed the precious document to Bob, who folded itcarefully and put it in his breast pocket. "Now perhaps we wouldbetter go and leave these worthy young gentlemen to their meditations.I don't think they'll be especially pleasant ones."
The radio boys left the shack, followed by the black looks of thediscomfited conspirators.
"You certainly came along in the nick of time, Mr. Salper," said Bob."We're very grateful to you."
"I'm glad if I've been able to be of service to you," replied Mr.Salper. "It's only paying back in small measure what you've done forme. The bulk of the obligation is still on my side."
It was a happy group of radio boys that returned to the Mountain RestHotel that afternoon.
"Adventures have surely crowded in on us lately," remarked Bob.
"More than they ever will again," prophesied Joe.
But that he had not foretold the future correctly will be seen bythose who read the following volume of this series, entitled: "TheRadio Boys Trailing a Voice; Or, Solving a Wireless Mystery."
That very night they sent the news of the confession to Dr. Atwoodwith the request that he would communicate the tidings to the fathersof the rest of the boys. The lawsuit, of course, was dropped at once,and Buck and his cronies slunk home in disgrace.
"Radio is lots of work, but it's also lots of fun," remarked Joe thatnight, as they sat late reviewing the events of the day.
"Radio," repeated Bob. "It's more than fun. It's excitement. It'sromance. It's adventure. It's life!"
THE END