"Hey there!" it said. "You"re engine"s missing, old timer. Let it cool off a bit and then try again."
This was evidently heard by the stutterer, for he became excited, and that did not help him much.
"S-s-shut up, y-y-you big b-b-b.o.o.b," he finally managed to get out, in an infuriated tone.
"I may be a b.o.o.b, but I can talk straight, anyway," replied the amateur.
This so infuriated the stuttering man that he was absolutely unable to say anything for a few moments, while the boys, with much merriment, waited expectantly for the forthcoming answer.
"S-s-s-shut up, w-w-will you?" exploded the unfortunate stutterer at last. "J-j-just you w-w-w-w--" but he was unable to finish the sentence until he stopped and gave vent to a long whistle, after which he was able to proceed.
At the sound of the whistle Bob suddenly stopped laughing and sat up straight in his chair.
"Say, fellows!" he exclaimed, "do you remember what Herb told us about the man named Dan Ca.s.sey?"
"Jerusalem!" exclaimed Joe, "I remember Herb said he stuttered and had to whistle to go on, and if that doesn"t describe this bird I"ll eat my hat!"
Jimmy and Herb himself caught the idea, at the same time, and they gazed speculatively at each other. There was more recrimination between the stutterer and his tormentor, and the boys listened attentively, hoping to get some clue to the whereabouts of the afflicted one"s station. But they could get no hint of this, and finally the voice ceased, leaving them full of hope but with little that was definite to found their suspicions on.
"Of course, it may not mean anything at all," said Bob. "This Dan Ca.s.sey isn"t the only man in the world who stutters."
"No, but there can"t be many who are as bad as he is," said Joe, grinning at the recollection, even though his mind was occupied with more serious thoughts. "But it will certainly be worth our while to try to locate this person and find out what name he answers to."
The others were of the same opinion, and they listened for some repet.i.tion of the voice in the hope that its possessor might drop some clue to his ident.i.ty, but although they missed most of the concert by trying to catch the talk of the object of their interest, they heard no further word of him that evening nor for many more to come.
The next morning but one when Bob joined his companions it was plain to see that he was bursting with news.
"Say, fellows," was his salutation, "did any of you read in the morning papers of the big Radio Show that is opening up in New York City?"
They had to confess that they were innocent of any such knowledge.
"It opens to-morrow," went on Bob. "They say it"s going to be one of the biggest things that ever happened. A regular rip-roaring, honest-to-goodness show. They"ll have all the latest improvements in radio sets and all kinds of inventions and lectures by men who know all about it, and automobiles that run by wireless without any drivers--"
"For the love of Pete," interrupted Joe, "go a little easy and let us take it in a little at a time. Any one would think you were the barker at a sideshow. Where is this wonderful thing to be?"
"On the roof of one of the big New York hotels," answered Bob. "I forget the name just now, but it"s one of the biggest in the city.
What do you say, fellows, to taking it in? We ought to get all sorts of ideas that will help us in making our sets."
"Count me in," replied Joe promptly. "That is, if my folks will let me go, and I think they will."
"Don"t leave out little Jimmy," remarked that individual.
"Me too," added Herb. "That is, if dad will see it the same way I do."
"I guess our folks won"t kick," Bob conjectured confidently. "I notice that they"re getting almost as much interested in the game as we are.
Besides we won"t have to stay in the city over night. The show"s in the afternoon as well as the evening and we can be home before ten o"clock."
"We"ll put it up to them anyway," replied Joe. They did "put it up"
to their parents with such effect that their consent was readily obtained, though strict promises were exacted that they would spend only the afternoon in the city and take the early evening train for home.
It was a hilarious group that made their way to the city the next day, full of eager expectations of the wonders to be seen, expectations that were realized to the full.
From the moment the boys crowded into the jammed elevators and were shot to the enclosed roof in which the exhibition was held they enjoyed one continuous round of pleasure and excitement. The place was thronged, and, as a matter of fact, many late comers were turned away for lack of room. But the boys wound in and out like eels, and there were very few things worth seeing that eluded their eager eyes.
Impressions crowded in upon them so thick and fast that it was not until later that they were fully able to appreciate the wonders that were being displayed for their benefit.
They listened to talks from men skilled in radio work, they wandered about to the many booths where information was given about everything connected with wireless, they studied various types of coils, transformers, vacuum tubes, switches, aerials, terminals, everything in fact that ambitious young amateurs could wish to know.
There was the identical apparatus with its marvelously sensitive receiver, which, while installed in Scotland, had correctly registered signals from an amateur radio station in America.
A little later they stood entranced in the Convention Hall before a new, beautifully modeled radio amplifier, so ma.s.sive that the volume of music it poured forth actually seemed to cause vibration in the walls of the great room in which they stood.
One of the most interesting features was the radio-controlled automobile. The crowd before this almost incredible invention was so dense that the operator was handicapped in his demonstration.
The car was about seven feet in length, with a cylindrical ma.s.s of wire rising about six feet above its body. It was upon this that the swiftly moving car caught signals from antennae stretched across the hall. The boys watched, fascinated, as the inventor, opening and closing the switches in its mechanism by use of a radio wave of one hundred and thirty-five metres in length, caused the small car to back out of its garage and run about the hall without a driver, delivering papers and messages, afterward returning to the garage.
Then they saw the transmitters that could shoot radio messages into s.p.a.ce, and hung entranced over the moving pictures of what happens in a vacuum tube. Nothing escaped them, and they "did" the show thoroughly, so thoroughly in fact that at the end they were, as Joe expressed it, "all in."
"Gee, I knew that show was going to be great," remarked Bob happily, as they were returning home on the train. "But I didn"t have any idea that it was going to be such a whale."
"It was a pippin," agreed Joe, as he snuggled back still further in his seat.
Jimmy sighed gustily.
"What"s the matter, Doughnuts?" asked Bob.
"I was just pitying," replied Jimmy, "the poor b.o.o.bs who didn"t see it."
"And that"s no joke!" said Joe. "Seeing all those things is going to be a big help toward winning those prizes."
"Who said I was joking?" retorted Jimmy. "I wasn"t. That show was the dandiest thing I ever saw."
CHAPTER XXII
THE STOLEN SET
Meanwhile, Bob, Joe and Jimmy were working like beavers on their prize sets, and were making great progress. Mr. Ferberton"s offer had aroused great interest in the town, and several other boys were working for the coveted prizes. The knowledge of this only spurred the radio boys to greater efforts, and they began to acquire a deeper insight into the mysteries of radio work with every day that pa.s.sed.
They began to talk so learnedly of condensers and detectors that Herb wished more than once that he had started to make a set of his own, and he was at last driven in self defense to study up on the subject so as not to be left too far behind.
Almost two weeks had pa.s.sed since they first started work on the prize sets when one evening Doughnuts came rushing into Bob"s workroom with woe writ large on his round countenance.
"What do you think, Bob!" he burst out. "Some crook has stolen my set."
"Stolen your set!" echoed Bob. "What in the world do you mean?"