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The Radio Boys at Ocean Point by Allen Chapman
"Jiminy, but this is hot work!" exclaimed Bob Layton, as he laid down the hammer he was using and wiped his perspiring forehead.
"Hot is right," agreed his friend, Joe Atwood, as he also took a moment's breathing space. "You might almost think it was August instead of early June. Old Sol must have got mixed up in his calendar."
"I'd call it a day and knock off right now if we were doing anything else," remarked Bob. "But, somehow, when I get going on this radio business I can't seem to quit. There's something about this wireless that grips a fellow. Work seems like play."
"Same here," said Joe. "I guess we're thirty-third degree radio fans all right. I find myself talking radio, thinking radio, dreaming radio. If there was any such thing as radio breakfast food I'd be eating it."
"I'm afraid we'll get thin if we wait for that," laughed Bob, picking up his hammer and resuming work on the aerial that they were stringing on the top of his father's barn. "But come along now, old scout, and get a hustle on. We're going to finish this job to-day if it takes a leg."
Joe stretched himself lazily.
"I hope it won't come to that," he replied. "I need both legs in my business."
"Well, come along and shake a leg anyway," counseled Bob. "I'm not asking you to lose one."
"I'm glad we decided to make this aerial in umbrella shape," remarked Joe, as, following his friend's example, he set busily to work. "I think it has it all over the vertical one. We'll be able to hear the messages from the broadcasting station a heap better than we ever did before."
"I'm sure we shall," returned Bob. "That's the kind Doctor Dale is using on his set, and he tried both the vertical and the flat-top kind before he finally settled on this. It's better for long-wave work. It stands to reason that since it has the greatest surface area it also has the greatest capacity. Then, too, the end of the antenna that has the greatest potential is nearest the ground. The doctor gave me a lot of dope about it that sounded reasonable. He knows by actual experience, and that's better than all the theory in the world."
"What Doctor Dale says goes with me all right," replied Joe. "He's never been wrong yet in any of the tips he's given us. It's funny, isn't it," he continued, as he deftly drove a nail, "that we're never satisfied with what we've got in this radio work? That first set we put together looked pretty good to us at the time. Then the ones with which we won the Ferberton prizes looked a good deal better yet. But now here we are making it still better."
"That's the beauty of radio," said Bob, with enthusiasm. "The surface of it hasn't been more than scratched so far. It's practically a brand new thing with a million features to be explored and countless improvements to be made. I suppose a few years from now we'll be laughing at the instruments we're using now. They'll seem as old fashioned as the stage coach and the kerosene lamp. Some of the best brains in the world are working at it now, and there's hardly a day that you don't hear of something new in connection with it. It keeps you guessing all the time as to what will turn up next."
"Right you are," agreed Joe. "Did you read the other day about that man in Paris who runs his house by radio? You know they have a powerful radio outfit on the Eiffel Tower. That starts operations at six o'clock every morning. This fellow has rigged up things all over his house that are controlled by the waves that come from the tower. First the shutters fly open, then the curtains are drawn back, then electric heaters get into action and begin to make the coffee--"
"Say," interrupted Bob, turning to look at his friend, "what are you giving me? Trying to get me on a string?"
"Honest to goodness, I'm not trying to kid you," replied Joe. "This is straight goods. The coffee begins to bubble in the percolator, the breakfast is started cooking, and the people are waked up by electric bells placed alongside their beds. If the weather is hot, the electric fans are started working."
"Does it wash and dress the baby, too?" demanded Bob, with a laugh.
"I don't know whether they've got as far as that yet," replied Joe, with a grin; "but it starts a lullaby at night and sings the baby to sleep. It sure does wonders. There seems to be no limit to what it can be made to do."
"We'll have to tell Jimmy about that," chuckled Bob. "Anything that will save work will make a hit with him. He'll want to hitch it up so that it will saw wood for him and mow the front lawn. By the way, Joe, when did Jimmy say he'd be around? He promised to help us out with this."
"He said he wouldn't be able to get here before three," replied Joe. "He had to go on an errand for his father. But to-day's baking day at his house, and I smelled doughnuts cooking as I came past. Ten to one he's filling up on those. That beats working on a roof in a hot sun."
"I shouldn't wonder if you were more than half right," agreed Bob. "But what's keeping Herb? He promised to help out on the job."
"There's company at his house," explained Joe. "But he said he'd slip away as soon as he could and get over here."
"Sounds mighty uncertain," said Bob. "Looks like a case of doing it ourselves if we want it done. And it's got to be done this afternoon. They've got a dandy program on at the broadcasting station to-night, and I don't want to miss it."
The two boys set to work with redoubled energy, despite the sweat that rolled down their faces and made them have frequent recourse to their handkerchiefs.
"What's the idea of all those rocks down at the side of the barn, Bob?" inquired Joe, at the moment that his work brought him close to the edge of the roof.
"They're for some repairing that dad's going to do to the barn," replied Bob. "The side of it has settled some, and he's going to put in a new stone foundation. The old shebang needs a lot of fixing, anyway. The water pipes are rusty, and they'll have to be replaced. He wants to get the place in shape before we go down to Ocean Point for the summer."
"Ocean Point!" repeated Joe, with a sigh. "Why do you want to bring that up now when I'm dripping with sweat? It's cruelty to animals. Say, Bob, what would you give just at this minute to be taking a dip in the briny? Just imagine yourself at the end of the pier with your hands above your head, ready to dive down into that cool green water, down, down, down, and feel it closing all around you and--"
"Who's cruel now?" groaned Bob. "Stop right where you are or I'll throw something at you. Don't you suppose I'm just as crazy as you to get down there? It's only last night that I dreamed I was there. Oh, boy! The swimming, the fishing, the boating, the games on the sand, the--"
"Radio," suggested Joe.
"Righto!" agreed Bob. "That will be a new thing there that we've never had before. And instead of being in a hot, stuffy room, we can sit on the veranda, with the sea breeze blowing all around us, and the ocean stretched before us in the moonlight, and the lights of ships passing up and down the coast and--"
"Back up," laughed Joe. "You're getting poetical. You could almost set that to music. But you're dead right that it will be just what the doctor ordered to listen to a radio concert under such conditions. Where can we put up our radio set? In your cottage or mine, I suppose."
"I've got an idea it would be a good thing to put it up in the community hall," replied Bob. "Then everybody could enjoy it, and there's a broader and bigger piazza there than any of the cottages have. We're all like one big family there anyway."
"That's a dandy plan," agreed Joe. "I shouldn't wonder, too, if we caught a good many messages from ships while we are down there. Almost all the vessels now are equipped with wireless, and we ought to be able to listen in on lots of talk going on with the shore."
"I only wish we could talk back to them," said Bob. "I'm keen for the time when we can send messages, as well as listen in on them. But that will be possible, too, before the end of the summer. I'm studying up hard on the code and I know you are too, and we ought to be able to pass our examinations soon and get the right to have a sending station. But look who's going down the street, Joe!" he exclaimed, interrupting himself suddenly.
Joe followed the direction of his glance and gave a grunt of disgust.
"Buck Looker and his bunch," he remarked contemptuously. "Carl Lutz and Terry Mooney always trailing along with him! I wonder what low-down thing they're cooking up now."
"No knowing," replied Bob carelessly. "They've steered pretty clear of us since we got back that set of Jimmy's that they took. I have to laugh whenever I think of them rolling over and over in the dark and fighting each other when they thought they were fighting us."
Joe laughed too at the recollection.
"We put one over on them then all right," he agreed. "And I have to laugh, too, when I think how he crawled yesterday when you called him down in the school yard while he was bullying little Sam Ashton."
"I didn't want to soil my hands with him," returned Bob. "I'd made up my mind never to speak to him again. But it made my blood boil when I saw the way he was tormenting a boy half his size and I had to interfere."
"It did me good to see how he backed down," chuckled Joe. "I really hoped he wouldn't, for I wanted to see him get a good trimming. But Buck's memory is good, and I guess he remembered the thrashing you handed him the night he was trying to wreck your aerial."
"Perhaps," laughed Bob. "I sure was sore at him that night and I guess I gave him good and plenty."
"The pity of it was," said Joe, "that nobody was around to see you do it. Ten to one he told his cronies afterward that it was he who licked you. But there was no mistake yesterday. Lutz and Mooney were standing close by and saw him take water. He turned fairly green with fright when he saw you double up your fists. You want to keep your eyes open, Bob, for he'll try to get even by doing you a dirty trick whenever he thinks he can get away with it safely."
"Let him try," replied Bob indifferently. "That's the least of my worries. What's bothering me a good deal more now is why Jimmy and Herb haven't turned up to help us out on this job."
"Guess they've got stalled somewhere," hazarded Joe. "But even if they don't turn up we'll be done in half an hour or so. Then it's me for a cold bath and some dry clothes! I'm drenched to the skin."
A half hour later there was no sign of the truants, but the job was done, and Bob and Joe ran their eyes over it with keen satisfaction.
"Some little mechanics, old scout!" chuckled Bob, slapping his friend on the shoulder. "Now for that cold bath you were--"
He stopped suddenly and gave vent to an exclamation of surprise.
"What's the matter?" queried Joe, who was adjusting his belt.
"The ladder!" exclaimed Bob. "It's gone!"
Joe looked toward the edge of the roof, and saw that the top of the ladder by which they had mounted was no longer in sight.
"It must have fallen down," he said; "but it's queer we didn't hear it."
"Fallen nothing!" snorted Bob, as he crawled to the edge of the roof and looked over. "It was resting solidly against the roof when we left it, for I shook it with my hand to make sure. Somebody has taken it down. There it is lying on the ground, twenty feet away from the barn."
"Now we're in a nice fix!" exclaimed Joe, in dismay. "Have we got to stay here all the afternoon and be baked to a frizzle by this scorching sun? Call to somebody in the house, Bob."
"That's the worst of it," replied Bob lugubriously. "Mother's out calling to-day and there isn't a soul at home."
The boys looked at each other, and the same thought came into the minds of both.
"Buck Looker!" they exclaimed in one voice.
"That's who it was," declared Bob savagely. "He and his gang have done this. If we could see him, it follows that he could see us, and he thought he'd keep us up here broiling while he had the laugh on us. No doubt the whole crowd are hiding somewhere and watching us at this minute."
"Well, they're not going to make a show of us," Joe almost shouted in his wrath. "I'm going to get down off this roof and I'm going to get down quick, ladder or no ladder."
Before Bob could stop him he had grasped the water pipe that ran alongside the barn and started to slide down.
"Don't! Don't!" cried Bob, in alarm. "The pipe's rusty! It'll break! For the love of Pete--"
His voice ended almost in a scream.
For at that moment what he feared happened.
The pipe broke beneath Joe's weight. The lad felt it going and grabbed frantically at the upper part that was still fastened to the roof. He caught it and held on, his legs dangling in the air directly over the pile of rocks more than twenty feet below. To fall on those rocks meant broken limbs or death!
One of a series of children's adventure stories by Allen Chapman - the house pseudonym used for a number of books for young people published since 1905.
The Radio Boys' First Wireless Or Winning the Pemberton Prize by Allen Chapman
Tom Fairfield's Pluck and Luck; Or, Working to Clear His Name by Allen Chapman
Tom Fairfield in Camp; or, The Secret of the Old Mill by Allen Chapman
Allen Chapman was one of the many pseudonyms used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate to publish popular kids books.
Everyone was shocked to the bones when the news of Rupert Benton's engagement broke out. It was surprising because the lucky girl was said to be a plain Jane, who grew up in the countryside and had nothing to her name. One evening, she showed up at a banquet, stunning everyone present. "Wow, she's so beautiful!" All the men drooled, and the women got so jealous. What they didn't know was that this so-called country girl was actually an heiress to a billion-dollar empire. It wasn't long before her secrets came to light one after the other. The elites couldn't stop talking about her. "Holy smokes! So, her father is the richest man in the world?" "She's also that excellent, but mysterious designer who many people adore! Who would have guessed?" Nonetheless, people thought that Rupert didn't love her. But they were in for another surprise. Rupert released a statement, silencing all the naysayers. "I'm very much in love with my beautiful fiancee. We will be getting married soon." Two questions were on everyone's minds: "Why did she hide her identity? And why was Rupert in love with her all of a sudden?"
To the public, she was the CEO's executive secretary. Behind closed doors, she was the wife he never officially acknowledged. Jenessa was elated when she learned that she was pregnant. But that joy was replaced with dread as her husband, Ryan, showered his affections on his first love. With a heavy heart, she chose to set him free and leave. When they met again, Ryan's attention was caught by Jenessa's protruding belly. "Whose child are you carrying?!" he demanded. But she only scoffed. "It's none of your business, my dear ex-husband!"
Linsey was stood up by her groom to run off with another woman. Furious, she grabbed a random stranger and declared, "Let's get married!" She had acted on impulse, realizing too late that her new husband was the notorious rascal, Collin. The public laughed at her, and even her runaway ex offered to reconcile. But Linsey scoffed at him. "My husband and I are very much in love!" Everyone thought she was delusional. Then Collin was revealed to be the richest man in the world. In front of everyone, he got down on one knee and held up a stunning diamond ring. "I look forward to our forever, honey."
"I've warned you from the beginning. Don't marry him, but you won't listen." She stood close to me and smiled with concern. "You are not a woman worthy of a man as handsome, rich, smart, and virile as Blaze." My whole body trembled at her words. "Have you no shame?" I asked in a quivering voice. "Take a good look at yourself, Heather." She looked at me in the mirror. "You can't even look at your ugly face. Do you think Blaze can endure a lifetime of looking at that face?" Heather Bailey had a surprise from her husband that night: a divorce agreement. After a year of marriage and facing ups and downs, she couldn't believe Blaze intended to divorce her. But she was devastated when she saw him gazing lovingly at another woman because that person was closest to her. Shortly after she put her signature on their divorce papers, shock waves caught her up. Her flower shop was severely burnt, beyond repair. Her father's company collapsed, and her parents blamed her. She struggled to rebuild her life from the ground up and became more successful than ever. Having many customers who came from influential families, she started her action against Blaze. She won the very thing he wanted. But that was just the beginning.
Belinda thought after divorce, they would part ways for good - he could live his life on his own terms, while she could indulge in the rest of hers. However, fate had other plans in store. "My darling, I was wrong. Would you please come back to me?" The man, whom she once loved deeply, lowered his once proud head humbly. "I beg you to return to me." Belinda coldly pushed away the bouquet of flowers he had offered her and coolly replied, "It's too late. The bridge has been burned, and the ashes have long since scattered to the wind!"
COALESCENCE OF THE FIVE SERIES BOOK ONE: THE 5-TIME REJECTED GAMMA & THE LYCAN KING BOOK TWO: THE ROGUES WHO WENT ROGUE BOOK THREE: THE INDOMITABLE HUNTRESS & THE HARDENED DUKE *** BOOK ONE: After being rejected by 5 mates, Gamma Lucianne pleaded with the Moon Goddess to spare her from any further mate-bonds. To her dismay, she is being bonded for the sixth time. What’s worse is that her sixth-chance mate is the most powerful creature ruling over all werewolves and Lycans - the Lycan King himself. She is certain, dead certain, that a rejection would come sooner or later, though she hopes for it to be sooner. King Alexandar was ecstatic to meet his bonded mate, and couldn’t thank their Goddess enough for gifting him someone so perfect. However, he soon realizes that this gift is reluctant to accept him, and more than willing to sever their bond. He tries to connect with her but she seems so far away. He is desperate to get intimate with her but she seems reluctant to open up to him. He tries to tell her that he is willing to commit to her for the rest of his life but she doesn’t seem to believe him. He is pleading for a chance: a chance to get to know her; a chance to show her that he’s different; and a chance to love her. But when not-so-subtle crushes, jealous suitors, self-entitled Queen-wannabes, an old flame, a silent protector and a past wedding engagement threaten to jeopardize their relationship, will Lucianne and Xandar still choose to be together? Is their love strong enough to overcome everything and everyone? Or will Lucianne resort to enduring a sixth rejection from the one person she thought she could entrust her heart with?