No wonder that the boys felt a warm and real friendship for the Salper girls--and Mrs. Salper, too--a friendship that would have been surprising, considering the shortness of their acquaintance, had it not been that they were all radio fans, dyed in the wool.
So quickly did the time fly that Mrs. Salper was amazed and apologetic when she found how long they had lingered.
"We must hurry!" she exclaimed, starting toward the door, the girls reluctantly following. "Your father will surely think we are all lost in a snowdrift."
"Which two of us came very near being," added Edna, with a laugh.
"Don"t joke about it," said Ruth, with a shiver. "I must say being buried in a snowdrift wasn"t very pleasant--while it lasted."
The radio boys insisted upon accompanying the Salpers home, explaining that they could show them the shortest path. Gaily they started out and before they had reached the Salper place the friendship which had begun the evening of the concert with their mutual interest in radio, became steadily stronger.
It was plain that, besides being grateful to them for having come to the help of the girls, Mrs. Salper liked the boys for their own sakes.
When they reached the house she begged them to come in with her so that Mr. Salper might have the opportunity of thanking them for their kindness.
The boys skillfully avoided accepting this invitation by pointing out that it was getting late and the path would be hard to find in the dusk.
"Thanks ever so much for everything," Ruth Salper called after them as they started off, and Edna added:
"We"re going to frighten dad into getting us a radio set by threatening to make one ourselves!"
"I shouldn"t wonder if they could make a set, at that," said Bob thoughtfully, as they tramped on alone. "They"re smart enough."
"For girls," added Herb, condescendingly.
Whereupon Jimmy turned and eyed him scornfully.
"Say, where do you get that stuff?" he jeered. "If those girls couldn"t make a better radio set than you, I"d sure feel sorry for them."
"Ha! I"ll wash your face for saying that," was the quick answer, and the next instant Jimmy felt some snow on his ear. Then began a snow battle between all the boys which lasted until they reached the hotel.
CHAPTER XVII
THRASHING A BULLY
After that the boys saw a good deal of Edna and Ruth Salper. The latter were thoroughly good sports and entered into the fun of the moment with such enthusiasm that the radio boys declared they were lots more fun than a good many of the fellows they knew.
They went nutting together, tramped through the woods, read together the latest discoveries in the radio field, until the girls became almost as great enthusiasts as the boys.
The boys were often asked to visit the Salper home, but it was seldom that they took advantage of these invitations.
"It would be pleasant enough," Herb declared, "if only grouchy Mr.
Salper were not always around to put a damper on the sport."
As a matter of fact, on the rare occasions when they happened to meet, Mr. Salper hardly uttered a word, but it was this very silence of his that made the boys uneasy.
"I feel sometimes," Jimmy remarked, "as if I"d like to put a tack on his chair, just to see if he"d say "ouch" when it stuck into him."
"He"d probably say a sight worse than that," Bob replied, with a laugh,
However, they were having too good a time to allow Mr. Salper and his grouches to interfere much with them.
They became familiar figures at the sending and receiving station, and the operator always received them cordially. They often had long and interesting discussions which were not only delightful to the boys but extremely helpful as well.
"It seems," said Jimmy, with a grin, "as if all the radio inventors were running a race with each other to see who can get the greatest number of inventions on the market in the shortest s.p.a.ce of time."
"You said something that time, boy," the operator replied ruefully.
"The smart fellows are keeping us dubs on the jump trying to catch up with them. Not that I intend to put you in the "dub" cla.s.s with myself," he added, with a grin.
"I only wish we knew half as much about the game as you do," Bob returned heartily. "I think we"d be mighty well satisfied."
One day when the radio boys had left Edna and Ruth Salper and were tramping through the woods alone, they spoke of the operator admiringly.
"He sure does know a lot about radio," said Joe. "He must stay up all night studying."
"Guess that"s what"s the matter with him," remarked Bob, soberly. "He spends too much of his time indoors, boning. He should get out in the open more."
"Looks as if a little fresh air might tone him up some," Herb admitted. "He looks as if a breath of air might blow him away."
"If I looked as thin as he does, I"d go see a doctor," said Jimmy emphatically.
It was a fact that the operator at the station, while looking far from strong when the boys had first seen him, had grown thinner and thinner and paler and paler until now he seemed to be positively going into a decline.
Because they had a sincere regard for Bert Thompson, the boys had tried to lure him out into the open, but he had been proof against all their blandishments. And after a while the boys had given up trying.
"If he wants to kill himself," Bob had grumbled, "I suppose we"ll have to let him have his own way about it."
And now at this particular time when the boys were at peace with the world, something suddenly happened that gave them a rude jolt.
Talking happily of improvements they expected to apply to their new radio outfit, they came suddenly upon--Buck Looker and his crowd.
To say they were surprised would not have half expressed it. They were dumbfounded and mad--clear through. So here were these rascals, turning up as they always did, just in time to spoil the fun.
That Buck and his cronies had been talking about them was evident from the fact that at the appearance of the radio boys they stopped short in what they were saying and looked sullenly abashed. And from their confusion Bob guessed that the meeting was as much a surprise to the "gang" as it was to themselves.
The boys would have gone on without speaking, hoping to avoid trouble if it was possible, but Buck hailed them boisterously.
"Say, what are you guys doing here?" he asked, sneeringly, thrusting himself almost directly in front of Bob, so that the latter would be forced to step aside in order to pa.s.s him.
"That"s what I"d like to ask you," returned Bob, feeling himself grow hot all over. "Get out of my way, Buck. You"re cramping the scenery."
"Aw, what"s your awful rush?" asked Buck, refusing to move, while Carl Lutz and Terry Mooney sidled over to the bully, keeping a wary eye on Bob"s right fist, nevertheless.
"Say, get out of here, Buck Looker, and get quick!" It was Joe who spoke this time, and any one not as stupid as Buck Looker would have known it was time to do as he was told.