"We"re a bunch of nuts," finished Jimmy, decidedly.
"Maybe," retorted Bob. "But at this time, even a bunch of nuts might be better than nothing."
"We"ve been studying the code," said Joe thoughtfully. "We might be able to handle it all right. It isn"t the first time, if we"re not experts. Of course we can do it."
"But not for old Salper," said Herb. "He"s so impatient he"d make us forget in five minutes everything we ever knew."
"Maybe," said Bob again, adding, stoutly: "But I"m game to make a try at it anyway. There"s no one else to do it, and Mr. Salper stands to lose his wife and a lot of money besides if some one doesn"t help him out."
"Well, let"s make him the proposition," suggested Joe, pausing and looking back at the Salper house. "I"m with Bob in this thing."
"So say we all of us," sang Herb cheerily, as they turned back.
"So long as Bob"s the goat," finished Jimmy.
They found Mr. Salper in the living room of the bungalow, savagely smoking a cigar. He scarcely looked at the boys when the girls let them in, and Bob was forced to speak his name before he gave them his attention.
"Well, what is it?" he said gruffly, his tone adding plainly: "What are you doing here anyway? I wish you"d get out."
The tone made Bob mad, as it did the other boys, and when he spoke his own tone was not as pleasant as usual.
"We"ve decided to try to help you out, if we can, Mr. Salper," he said, and the man looked at him with a mixture of surprise and incredulity.
"In what way?" he asked, in the same curt tone.
"We know something about sending and receiving messages by radio," Bob went on, getting madder and madder. "And we thought maybe we might get a message through for you to a doctor and to your brokers, as well. Of course," he added, modestly, "we haven"t had very much experience----"
Bob was too modest to say anything about how he had once sent messages to some ships at sea, (as related in detail in "The Radio Boys at Ocean Point,") and how he had tried to send on other occasions.
"Experience be hanged!" cried Mr. Salper, so suddenly that the boys jumped. "You mean to tell me you can operate that radio contraption?"
"I think so," said Bob, still modestly. "We haven"t done much along that end of it----"
"You"ll do," cried Mr. Salper, while Edna and Ruth stared at him with tear-reddened eyes. "Are you ready to go with me right away to the station?"
The boys nodded and the older man shrugged into his great coat, reaching quickly for his cap.
"Take care of your mother," he said to the girls. "I"ll stop on my way over to the hotel and send a nurse over for her. I hear there are two of them there. Don"t see why the physician there didn"t send some one to take his place if he had to leave."
In a moment the radio boys found themselves once more in the freezing air of the out-of-doors, being hurried along by the erratic Mr.
Salper.
Poor Jimmy suffered on that forced march. Although he uttered no word of protest, his face was purple and his breath came in little puffing gasps before they had reached the hotel.
Once there, they had a little respite, however, while Mr. Salper went to arrange about having a nurse sent over to his wife. Jimmy waited in the hotel lobby in a state nearing collapse while the other boys went up to inquire once more about their friend, the operator.
They found him no better--worse, if anything--and their faces were very solemn when they rejoined Jimmy in the lobby.
"Guess it will be nip and tuck if he gets through at all," said Bob, anxiously. "I don"t see why such hard luck had to pick him out for the victim."
"I suppose they"ll appoint another operator right away," suggested Herb.
"I suppose so," agreed Jimmy. "But it will be hard to get any one for a week or more on account of the heavy weather."
"And in a week"s time without communication with the outside world a lot of Mr. Salper"s money will probably have gone up in smoke," said Joe.
"Yes, it"s us on the job all right," said Bob, looking a bit worried.
"I only hope we can live up to what"s expected of us."
"All right, boys," said Mr. Salper, on returning, in his eyes the preoccupied look of the man of affairs. "If you can help me out of this fix, I will surely be deeply in your debt."
These genial words--almost the first that they had heard from the self-absorbed man--warmed the boys" hearts and they resolved to do the best they could for him, and, through him, for his daughters.
When they reached the station they found it deserted save for one man who sat at a desk, humped over in a dispirited fashion, reading a magazine.
At the entrance of Mr. Salper and the boys he looked up, then got up and came over to them as though he were glad of their companionship.
"How do you do, Mr. Salper?" he said, addressing the older man with marked respect. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Nothing, unless you can work this contrivance," returned Mr. Salper, with a comprehensive wave of his hand toward the cluttered radio table.
"I"m sorry," said the other, a frown of anxiety lining his forehead.
"The operator is sick, and because of the heavy weather it is doubtful if we shall be able to secure another one within the week."
"A week!" cried Mr. Salper. "That amount of time, my friend, may very easily spell ruin for me. It is necessary that I communicate with New York immediately. Are you ready, boys?"
The man looked with surprise, first at the radio boys and then back to Mr. Salper.
"Am I to understand----" he began, when Mr. Salper cut him short with an imperative wave of the hand.
"These boys," he said, "know something of radio. How much they know I am about to find out.
"Are you ready?" he asked, sharply, as the boys still hesitated. "A delay of even a few minutes would be regrettable."
The boys looked at each other, and since no one else made a move to approach the apparatus, Bob saw that it was up to him. And right there he realized the great difference that there is between theory and practice. Of course they had had some practice in sending and they were fairly familiar with the code, but never before had they been called upon to make use of their knowledge in such a matter as this.
Then too, Mr. Salper was not the kind of person to inspire self-confidence. He was a driver, and it is hard to do good thinking when one is being driven.
However, having gone so far, there was no possibility of backing out and with a show of confidence, Bob approached the apparatus. The man who had addressed Mr. Salper regarded him with not a little distrust.
He had heard of the radio boys, as who at Mountain Pa.s.s had not, but he certainly did not think them competent to send a message of any importance.
And at that moment, neither did Bob.
"Will you send your message phone or code?" he asked, looking up at Mr. Salper inquiringly. "We can do either here."
Mr. Salper hesitated for a moment, then with a significant glance at the other man, who was hovering curiously near, he snapped out, "Code."
"Do you know the letters of the station to be called?" asked Bob.