"Jolliest kind of fellows, aren"t they?" said Joe.
"They sure are," agreed Herb. "I should think that free and easy life of theirs would be just one round of enjoyment."
"I wouldn"t exactly say that," remarked Bob. "Two or three times I have noticed a look of worry in Larry"s eyes as though something were weighing on his mind."
This arrow, shot at a venture, was indeed correct, for Larry was far from being as care free as the boys imagined. The fact that he was out of work at present worried him, naturally. But this would have but little weight with him had it not been for his sick mother at home. That mother had worked for years in his behalf, following the death of his father, whose affairs were so involved at his death that there was little money left to support his wife and child. The mother had kept up a brave heart, however, and done the best she could for herself and her idolized son. The strain of being both bread-winner and mother had told, however, and now she was in ill health. Larry, since he had entered upon a profession, had sent to her all that he possibly could in order to maintain her in comfort, but just now the source of supply had stopped and there was no knowing at what time it would be resumed. He knew that his mother had very little money on hand at the time, and her condition of health made Larry her only resource.
The radio boys kept their engagement, and the dance was a jolly affair at which they enjoyed themselves thoroughly. The only drawback to a perfect evening was the fact that Buck Looker and Carl Lutz were there also, but this did not bother them much in the early part of the evening.
The last dance had just been concluded and the ardent dancers were clamoring for one more encore, when a disturbance rose at one end of the room that attracted general attention. The radio boys hurried to the spot in question to find Buck and Lutz talking excitedly while Larry and Tim were standing near them with flushed and indignant faces. The manager of the hotel and a house detective were also in the group.
"I tell you that those are the fellows who did it," Buck was vociferating, while he pointed to Larry and Tim. "They were the ones closest to me when I missed my watch and stickpin, and I had just looked at my watch the minute before. If you search them you"ll find the goods on them. My friend here lost his at the same time."
"It"s false!" cried Larry.
"If there weren"t ladies here, I"d cram the story down your throat!"
exclaimed Tim, his eyes blazing.
"That"s a serious charge you"re making, young man," said the manager to Buck.
"They"ve got them," said Buck sullenly. "Search them and you"ll find I"m right."
"See here," cried Larry. "If this fellow were the only one concerned I wouldn"t condescend to satisfy him. But I have some friends here,"
indicating the radio boys, "and for their sakes I"m going to establish my innocence beyond any doubt. Come right in to one of the private rooms here and search me thoroughly. As for this fellow," glaring at Buck, "I"ll settle with him at another time."
The party adjourned to a room, and a thorough search resulted in showing that none of the missing articles was on Larry or Tim.
"Now I"ll settle with you," cried Larry, making a rush at Buck. But he was restrained by the house detective who held him while Buck and his crony slunk away.
The radio boys gathered around their new friends and condoled with them over the unfounded accusation.
"He"ll pay me for that yet," declared Larry, who had been wrought up to a high pitch of excitement.
"Here"s hoping you"ll get a hack at him," said Joe. "Did you notice that there wasn"t a word of apology for having made a false charge against you?"
"Did you ever know him to do a decent thing?" asked Bob scornfully.
"That"s Buck Looker to a dot."
The next morning Bob was over at Joe"s bungalow when Mr. and Mrs. Rockwell called with Mary to thank the Atwoods for the care they had given Mary when she was brought from the water, and also to express their grat.i.tude to the boys, whose quickness and resource had saved her life.
Mary, a pretty girl, had entirely recovered, and was profuse in her thanks to Bob and Joe, which were echoed by her parents, who laid so much stress upon their bravery that the boys blushed to the ears.
"You are making altogether too much of it," Bob protested, and Joe agreed.
"It is impossible to do that," said Mr. Rockwell, and Mrs. Rockwell nodded her head vigorously.
"The only thing I am sorry about," said Bob, "is that we have not been able to catch the fellows in the motor boat who ran the rowboat down. They ought to be sent to jail on the double quick."
"It turns out," said Mr. Rockwell, "that they were not only heartless brutes, but thieves as well. We found out yesterday that the boat had been stolen from Mr. Wentworth, who is one of the guests at the hotel where we are stopping. They left an old rowboat in its place. Mr. Wentworth has put the police on the track of the thieves, but as yet nothing has been heard of them. I am afraid they have made good their escape."
"I only hope," declared Bob, "that I may live long enough to get my hands on the throat of one or both of them."
"I"d like that privilege," returned Mr. Rockwell warmly, "but I am afraid the chances are slim. They may be hundreds of miles away by this time."
"Well," said Joe, "the arm of the law is long and it may reach them yet."
"Here"s hoping," said Bob.
CHAPTER IV
RADIO PLANS
Shortly after the unfortunate affair at the dance Larry and Tim came to the Layton bungalow, overjoyed at a letter they had just received.
"Bob, our streak of bad luck must be broken at last," exulted Larry. "It was beginning to look like the bread line for ours, but now maybe we"ll be able to eat heartily again."
"You don"t look very hungry just at present," grinned Bob. "But what does it say in that letter that you"re waving around, anyway?"
"We"ve got an engagement, at last," put in Tim. "And, oh, boy! make out it doesn"t seem like money from home!"
"Well, that"s certainly fine," said Bob, heartily.
"It"s with Cha.s.son"s vaudeville show," explained Larry. "It"s a traveling show, and we probably won"t show more than one or two nights in a town. Of course, it isn"t as swell an outfit as we would like to connect up with, but it will keep the wolf from the door for a little while."
"It will tide us over until we can hook up with something cla.s.sier, anyway," said Tim. "The chances are we"ll play in all the towns around this part of the country, and if we land in the one you fellows live in, we"ll expect you to applaud our act harder than any of the others, no matter how bad we are." And he grinned.
"If you come to Clintonia, you can bet we"ll give you the glad hand, all right," promised Bob. "I suppose we all get free pa.s.ses, don"t we?" with a twinkle in his eye.
"You"d get all you want if Tim and I had the say-so," said Larry, "but the manager probably won"t be able to see it that way."
"Some day we"ll have a show of our own, maybe," said Tim. "Then we"ll give you all pa.s.ses, you can bet your boots on that."
"Don"t try to hold your breath until then, though," said Larry. "The way things are breaking for us lately, we"ll be more likely to be inviting our friends to come and visit us in the poorhouse."
"Over the hills to the poorhouse, It"s not so far away, We may get there to-morrow, If we don"t get there to-day,"
chanted Tim, immediately afterward breaking into a lively jig to express his indifference to that mournful possibility.
"Well, if you ever do land in that cheerful place, you"ll be very popular," laughed Bob. "But now that you"ve both got an engagement, you won"t have to worry about that for some time to come. I know the other fellows will be glad to hear about it, too. They went down to town this morning, but they ought to be back pretty soon now. Stick around till they come, and we"ll tell them the glad news."
"Surest thing you know," acquiesced Larry. "We don"t have to report to Cha.s.son until day after to-morrow, anyway. How"s the wireless coming along these days?"
"Fine and dandy," responded Bob. "After we get back to Clintonia we intend to build some big sets so that we can receive signals from all over the country."