Bob reminded him. "That was quite a little cash, wasn"t it?"
"That"s a long time ago, though," returned Joe. "I wish I knew some way to pick up a little extra change now. Christmas is not very far off, and heaven knows how I"m going to buy anybody any present."
"Can you do anything in the way of a song or a recitation?" asked Mr.
Reed. "I know Mr. Allard needs one or two short bits to fill out the programme to-night, but I don"t suppose you could do anything of that sort, could you?"
"I"m afraid not," replied Joe. "I know two or three recitations that I learned for the elocution cla.s.s, but I"m afraid that"s about the full extent of my entertaining power. If I tried to sing, folks would think that some accident had happened to their apparatus."
"A good recitation or two might be just what the boss is looking for,"
returned Mr. Reed. "It Couldn"t do any harm to ask him about it, anyway.
What is your specialty, Layton?"
"There"s no such thing," laughed Bob. "As an entertainer, I"d be a terrible frost."
"I"m not so sure of that," said the other. "Suppose we look up Mr. Allard, anyway, and see what he has to say."
"I"ll try anything once," said Bob. "I suppose it can"t do any harm to try, anyway."
"If you can get away with it, why not pick up a few dollars?" asked Larry.
"It isn"t like facing a big audience, you know. The audience is there, all right, but you don"t see them, and it"s easier to forget about them than in a theater."
"I wouldn"t try it for a farm in a theater," said Joe. "But I guess I could work up nerve enough to talk into that sending apparatus. It won"t be as bad as reciting in the auditorium at high school, at any rate."
"Don"t bank too much on it," warned their conductor. "Mr. Allard may not think well of the plan, or he may have found some one else by this time."
"I"ll be satisfied either way," said Bob, philosophically. "I"d like to make a little money, all right; but, on the other hand, I"m beginning to get stage fright already. If Mr. Allard turns us down it will be a relief, after all."
But the manager, when interviewed, seemed relieved at the prospect of having their services.
"I think I can use you both very nicely this evening," he said. "Of course, I"ll have to hear your stuff before I can tell. Suppose you let us hear one or two of your recitations, Mr. Atwood."
"All right," grinned Joe. "You"ll probably give me the hook before I get through, though; but you can"t say I didn"t warn you."
"We"ll take a chance," smiled the manager. "Do your worst."
Thus exhorted, Joe recited a humorous piece he had learned recently for delivery in the elocution cla.s.s, and he recited it very well, too. When he had finished Mr. Allard called for more, and Joe obliged with the only other selection in his repertoire.
"That"s first rate," said the manager, when he had finished. "I think that ought to go all right. I think I"ll give you ten or fifteen minutes on the bill. Now, how about you, Mr. Layton? What"s your specialty?"
"I don"t own such a thing," grinned Bob. "I know one piece that I learned for elocution, the same as Joe, but you wouldn"t want two of the same variety on the bill."
"No, that"s true," agreed Mr. Allard. "Let"s see, now," and he thought a minute or two.
"How would this do?" he exclaimed at length. "We"ve got all sorts of books here with jokes and riddles in them. Suppose we pick out a few good conundrums, and you can learn them and the answers between now and seven o"clock. Then, right at the beginning of the bedtime stuff, you give the riddles, and we"ll announce that the answers aren"t to be given until the very end of the performance. That will keep them guessing all through it, and keep them interested. Then at the end you can give the answers. How does that strike you?"
"I"m game," replied Bob, grinning. "I guess if I bone down to it I can learn a few by then."
"You won"t even have to memorize them, if you don"t want to," said Mr.
Allard. "You can read them right off if you"d rather. Your audience won"t be able to see what you"re doing, you know."
"That would probably be better," agreed Bob. "Then there won"t be any chance of my forgetting the answers. Think of how tough it would be on the kids if I gave them a riddle and then forgot the answer. That would be a terrible trick to play on them."
"Well, you can suit yourself about that," returned Mr. Allard. "It"s almost six o"clock now, so perhaps you"d better go out and get a bite to eat right now. I"ll pick out a few good conundrums, and you"d better get back as soon as you can and study them up a bit."
"All right," said Bob. "We"ll make it snappy."
He and Joe and Larry went out and had a quick meal at the nearest restaurant.
"You fellows have broken into the entertaining game with your usual speed," remarked Larry. "Who would have imagined this morning that you would be on the broadcasting programme this evening?"
"We wouldn"t have been, one time out of a hundred," answered Bob. "If one of the regulars hadn"t been sick, we never would have gotten a look in."
""It"s an ill wind that blows n.o.body any good,"" quoted Joe. "We"ll make our car fare out of this, and something over. It"s lucky I happened to speak as I did to Mr. Reed."
"But say!" exclaimed Bob, struck by a sudden thought. "Won"t Jimmy and Herb be knocked silly when they hear our voices this evening? They won"t be able to believe their ears."
"You said it," declared Joe. "But the worst of it is, we won"t be there to see their faces at the time. I"d give the evening"s profits to see them then."
"It will be a scream, all right," agreed Larry, with a chuckle. "You two will have it all over all the other radio fans in Clintonia when you get back. They"ll be green with envy."
"I guess it will make them sit up and take notice," a.s.sented Bob. "Just make out Lon Beardsley won"t be sore. This will be a terrible blow to him."
"It"s a good thing it isn"t the other way around," said Joe. "If it were Lon who was on the broadcasting programme, we"d never hear the last of it.
You"d be hearing about it ten years from now."
The three friends finished their meal and returned to the broadcasting station, where Mr. Allard was waiting for Bob with the riddles that he had selected.
"Here are a few funny ones," he said. "You can practice up on the delivery of them, and Larry will give you some pointers about the best way to say them. I don"t imagine you"ll have any trouble when the time comes."
CHAPTER XXIV
WINNING OUT
"It seems to me he takes a lot for granted," said Bob, after the manager had left the room. "How does he know that both of us won"t get rattled right in the middle of the thing and ball up the whole programme?"
"I guess it"s because he"s heard something about both you and Joe from Mr.
Brandon, and he"s pretty sure you"ll come up to the scratch," said Larry.
"That"s the way I figure it out, anyway."
"Well, we"ll do the best we can to live up to our reputation, if that"s the case," said Bob. "I"ll read these things aloud the way I think they should go, Larry, and you correct me if I"m wrong."
"Go ahead," replied Larry. "You"ve been telling me so much about radio that I ought to be willing to tell you something about how to put a joke over."
Bob settled down to his task in earnest then, and for an hour rehea.r.s.ed the jokes with Larry, who drilled him in the most effective way to tell them to advantage.