CHAPTER V
A STARTLING ACCUSATION
Elated and triumphant, the radio boys shouldered their bags and setout for home.
"This is the end of a perfect day," chanted Joe, as they trudgedalong, tired in body but light in heart.
"For us perhaps, but not for Buck and his crowd," chuckled Herb.
"And those sneak thieves were the fellows who were talking aboutburglars," laughed Jimmy.
The sun had gone down before the radio boys left the woods, and it wasfull night by the time they reached their homes and disburdenedthemselves of their load of nuts.
"I was going to ask you fellows to come around tonight and listen inon the broadcasting concert," said Bob, as they reached his gate; "butI guess our folks will be so much excited about the bear that theycan't talk or think of anything else."
"That's bearly possible," chuckled Herb, and grinned at theindignation of his companions at the pun.
"But I think there'll be something doing at church tomorrow on thesubject of radio," continued Bob. "You fellows must be sure to bethere. I heard Doctor Dale talking about it to father."
"I'll be there if I can wake up in time," said Jimmy. "But just now Ifeel as if I could sleep through the next twenty-four hours straight.I'll be like one of the seven sleepers of Pegasus."
"Ephesus, I guess you mean," laughed Bob. "Pegasus was a horse."
"Is that so?" replied Jimmy. "Well, that's a horse on me. Don't hitme," he begged, as Bob made a pass at him. "I'm stiff and sore allover, without having that big ham of yours land on me."
Bob laughed and went up the steps, while the others made their ways totheir respective homes not many doors away.
As they had anticipated, the telling of the adventures that they hadgone through that day was listened to with breathless interest by allthe members of their families. At places in the story there waslaughter, but more frequently there were exclamations of alarm mingledwith great relief that they had come through safely.
"I tell you," said Bob, as he finished telling of the matter to hisparents. "I felt mighty cheap to think that I had run like mad from abear that, as the Italian said, was simply trying to 'maka frens' withme."
"It was rather amusing after it was all over," assented his father,with a smile. "But after all you were very wise to act as you did. Itisn't by any means certain that the bear would have been as friendlywith you as he was with his master, and resistance of any kind mighthave awakened all his savage instincts. I am very doubtful about thebear thinking it was only a game when he was climbing up after you.But even if he did, you had no reason to suppose it. For all you knewhe might have escaped from a circus or menagerie and might have beenready to tear you in pieces."
"That was my first thought; that is, as soon as I could think calmlyabout anything," answered Bob. "But, after all, a miss is as good as amile, and he didn't get us. He came mighty near it though."
"The most serious outcome of the whole thing will probably be thematter of the broken roof," said Mr. Layton meditatively. "It willprobably cost considerable to put it in perfect shape again. But,after all, that doesn't count for anything as long as you boys weren'thurt. I'll see Looker about it on Monday and fix the matter up withhim."
"And of course the fathers of the other fellows will chip in on theexpense," said Bob. "I'd like to hear what Buck is telling his fatherabout it tonight," he continued, with a grin. "By the time he getsthrough, we'll have pulled the whole house down."
The next morning all the boys were at church in time for the morningservice, even Jimmy, who walked very stiffly and smelled strongly ofarnica.
"You fellows needn't sniff as though I had the plague," he protested,as his friends lifted their nostrils inquiringly. "I was the fellowwho was underneath when you fell on me like a thousand of brick. Yougot off easy, while I had all the worst of it. But then I'm used tothat," he concluded, sighing heavily.
"Cheer up, old boy," said Joe, clapping him on the back, at which poorJimmy winced. "The first hundred years is the worst. After that youwon't mind it. But now we'd better get in if we want to sit together,for there's a bigger congregation here than usual."
Doctor Dale, the friend and counselor of the boys in radio, as in manyother things, was in the pulpit. He was a very eloquent preacher andwas always sure of a good congregation. But as Joe had said, thechurch was even fuller than usual that morning, and there was ageneral stir of expectancy, as though something unusual was inprospect.
The attention of the boys was attracted at once by a small disk-likecontrivance right in front of the preacher's desk. It had never beenthere before. They recognized it at once as a microphone, but to themajority of the audience its purpose was a complete mystery, and manycurious glances were fixed upon it.
There were the customary preliminary services, and then Doctor Dalecame forward to the desk.
"Before beginning my sermon this morning," he said, "I want to explainwhat will seem to some an unusual departure from custom, but which Ihope will justify itself to such an extent as to become a regularfeature of our service.
"There is no reason why the benefits of that service should beconfined to the persons gathered within these four walls. There arethousands outside who by the means of radio, that most wonderfulinvention of the present century, can hear every word of this servicejust as readily as you who are seated in the pews. The prayers, thehymns, the organ music, the sermon, the benediction--they can hear itall. The only thing they will miss will be the privilege of puttingtheir money in the collection plate."
He paused for a moment, and a smile rippled over the congregation.
"I have said," he resumed, "that they can hear it. And if they canhear it, they ought to hear it--that is if they want to. This is nonew or untried idea. It is being carried out today in Pittsburgh,Washington, and other cities. The pulpit becomes a religiousbroadcasting station, from which the service is carried over an areaof hundreds of miles. Everybody within that area who has a receivingset can hear it if they wish. In some cases it is estimated that morethan two hundred thousand people are enjoying at the same moment thesame religious service. You can see at once what that means inimmeasurably extending the usefulness and influence of the church.
"Now it has occurred to me that we might do here what is being doneelsewhere on a larger scale. So, after a conference with the officialsof the church, an adequate sending set has been installed in the loftof the building. What is said here is sent from this microphone to theloft, where it is flung out into the ether. Arrangements have beenmade with a number of churches in this county, too poor and small tohave a regular pastor, by which they have installed loud speakerreceiving sets in their buildings. At this moment there are a dozenscattered congregations where the people have gathered to worship, andwhere at this moment they are hearing everything that is said just asplainly as you do.
"And in addition to that," he went on, "in hundreds, perhaps thousandsof homes, people who cannot go to church because of illness or someother reason are listening to this service. The sick, the crippled,the blind--think of what it means to have the church brought to themwhen they cannot go to the church. You in the pews are the visiblecongregation. But outside these walls there is today an invisiblecongregation many times greater, to whom this service is bringing itsmessage of help and healing."
With this prelude, Doctor Dale announced his text and preached hissermon, which, if anything, was more eloquent than usual. It seemed asif he were inspired by preaching to the greatest audience that he hadever had in his whole career, and the audience in the pews also felt athrill as they thought of the invisible listeners miles and milesaway. It seemed as though the natural were being brought into closeconnection with the supernatural, and the impression produced was mostpowerful.
If the doctor had had any misgivings as to the attitude of his peopletoward this new departure, these were quickly dissipated by thecordial congratulations and approval that were expressed after theservice was over and he moved abo
ut among them. It was the universalopinion that a great advance had been made and that the innovation hadcome to stay.
The radio boys had been intensely interested in this new applicationof their favorite study, and after the sermon they went up into theloft and examined the apparatus that had been used in sending. It wasa vacuum tube set with two tubes and power enough to send messages outover the whole county. It had been set up by Dr. Dale himself, andthat was proof enough for the boys that it had worked perfectly insending out the morning service.
"What will radio do next?" asked Bob, as the boys were walkinghomeward.
"What won't it do next is the way you ought to put it," suggested Joe."It seems as if there were no limit. There are no such things as spaceand distance any more. Radio has wiped them out completely."
"That's true," chimed in Herb. "The earth used to be a monstrous bigthing twenty-five thousand miles round. Now it's getting to be nobigger than an orange."
"What a fuss they made when it was proved that one could travel aroundthe world in eighty days," said Jimmy. "But radio can go round theearth more than seven times in a single second. Just about the time ittakes to strike a match."
"Gee, but I'm glad we weren't born a hundred years ago," remarked Bob."What a lot of things we would have missed. Automobiles, locomotives,telegraph, telephone, phonograph, electric light----"
"Yes," interrupted Joe, "and radio would have been the worst miss ofall."
"They're doing in the colleges now, too, something very like what thedoctor did in the pulpit this morning," said Bob. "In Union Collegeand Tufts and a lot of others the professors are giving their lecturesby radio. Talk about University Extension courses! Radio will beatthem all hollow. Think of a professor lecturing to an audience offifty thousand, instead of the hundred or so that are gathered in hisclassroom. And think of the thousands of young fellows who are crazyto go to college and haven't the money to do it with. They can keep onworking and get their college education at home. I tell you what,fellows, Mr. Brandon was right the other day when he said that thesurface of radio had only been scratched so far."
The next day at school the boys found that the story of theirexperience with the bear had had wide circulation, chiefly through theactivity of Buck Looker, who took care at the same time, however, toexpress his belief that nothing of the kind had happened. There was agood deal of good-natured joking, and the boys in self-defense had toexplain the whole thing in all its details.
At recess their story received unexpected confirmation, for there,just outside the school yard, was Tony putting Bruno, the bear,through his tricks while a breathlessly interested crowd gatheredabout the pair. Tony grinned at the boys when he saw them and Jimmyasserted that Bruno grinned too, but the rest of the radio boysthought that that was due to Jimmy's excess of imagination.
A noticeable feature of the school work that day was the scarcity ofpupils. All the classes were more or less sparsely attended, and theteachers were called to a conference with Mr. Preston, the principal.
"What do you suppose the powwow of the teachers was all about?" askedBob, as the boys were going home after the session of the school wasended.
"About so many fellows being away," replied Joe, who, as his fatherwas the leading physician of the town, was better informed than werehis friends as to the situation. "Dad says there's an awful lot ofsickness in the town. He's kept busy day and night, and scarcely hastime to breathe."
"I wonder what the reason is," remarked Herb.
"Dad thinks the water supply may have something to do with it,"answered Joe. "He says there's a regular epidemic of typhoid fever,and that usually comes from impure water. He's called the attention ofthe town council and the engineers of the reservoir to the matter, andthey're going to have an investigation. Dad says it may even benecessary to close the schools for a time."
"What's that?" exclaimed Jimmy, with sudden animation.
"Don't tell Jimmy anything like that," mocked Herb. "It would simplybreak his heart. If there's anything he's stuck on it's school."
"You fellows wouldn't be tickled to death either if you thought youwere going to get a vacation, would you?" retorted Jimmy. "I know youbirds."
"Say, wouldn't it give us lots of time for radio!" said Bobenthusiastically. "I want to get all the new wrinkles in that latestset of ours, and we don't have time to do it in the few evenings wecan spare from our home work."
"You bet," agreed Herb. "I don't want there to be any more sickness,but I sure do hope they find it necessary to close the schools. Thatwould be just what the doctor ordered--in more senses than one."
"I wouldn't shed any bitter tears myself," admitted Joe. "There'sgoing to be a meeting of the Board of Health to consider the subjectsoon, and I'll give you fellows the tip the minute I hear anythingdefinite about what they decide to do."
"In the meantime, suppose you fellows drop around this evening for alittle while," suggested Bob. "I want to try out some long distancereceiving and listen in on Chicago."
All agreed to be there at about eight o'clock.
The Laytons had barely finished dinner that night when the door bellrang. Bob answered the bell.
He was surprised to find that the callers were Mr. Looker and his sonBuck. Both had dark and angry looks on their faces.
"I want to know," said Mr. Looker abruptly, "what you and yourcompanions mean by burning down my cottage!"