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RADIO BOYS IN THE SECRET SERVICE
[Illustration: Radio Boys in the Secret Service]
RADIO BOYS IN THE SECRET SERVICE
Or, Cast Away on an Iceberg
by
J. W. DUFFIELD
M. A. Donohue & Co.
Chicago New York
* * * * * *
THE RADIO BOYS SERIES
RADIO BOYS IN THE SECRET SERVICE
or, Cast Away on an Iceberg.
RADIO BOYS IN THE FLYING SERVICE
or, Held For Ransom by Mexican Bandits.
RADIO BOYS IN THE THOUSAND ISLANDS
or, The Yankee-Canadian Wireless Trail.
RADIO BOYS UNDER THE SEA
or, The Hunt for Sunken Treasure.
* * * * * *
Copyright 1922, by M. A. Donohue & Co.
Made in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
I Wireless Twins
II On the Way to London
III The Mysterious Man Again
IV Seeing London in a Fog
V. Highwayman No. 2 and Mr. Smithers
VI Artie’s “Failure” as a Detective
VII “Wireless Shoes”
VIII A Suspicious Intruder
IX A Puzzling Situation
X The Voice with the “Squeak and Roar”
XI “The Ship Is Sinking!”
XII The Wreck
XIII S. O. S.
XIV The Voice of the Fog Pirate
XV Captain Walter
XVI On the Iceberg
XVII The Eskimos
XVIII A Midnight Invasion
XIX The “Iceberglars”
XX “Jump as Far as You Can!”
XXI Searching the Sea
XXII The Rescue
XXIII Taking the “Wireless” Out of “Wireless Shoes”
XXIV The Why of the “Squeak-Roar Voice”
XXV The Fog Pirate at the Bobstay
CHAPTER I
Wireless Twins
“Good-by and good luck, Guy,” said Walter Burton as his twin brother,
with small traveling bag in one hand and amber glasses protecting his
supersensitive eyes, was about to step aboard a south-bound train at the
Ferncliffe station one clear, crisp winter-end day. “Send me a wireless
message from Europe, and I’ll be listening in and catch it.”
“I’d like to, Walt,” was Guy’s smiling answer; “but I’m afraid that
would be extravagant. I’ll tell you what I’ll do, though. When we get to
New York, I’ll hunt up Vacuum Tube and send you a message from his
station. You know he invited us to come and see him any time we were in
New York.”
“All right,” agreed Walter. “When’ll you send it?”
“At 4 o’clock tomorrow if he’s home.”
“Good. I’ll watch for it. I’ll call V T and tell’m you’re coming. Good
luck. Good-by.”
This hearty exchange of parting cheer between the sturdy, bright-eyed
Walter and his equally sturdy, but “sick-eyed” brother was one incident
in a general round of farewells that marked the departure of Guy Burton
and his mother for England. Guy had been suffering several weeks with a
severe infection of the eyes, resulting from the “flu,” and it was
decided to put him under the care of a London specialist as the most
hopeful move for saving his sight.
A local physician advised that this be done, and the boy’s father
resolved to waste no time. Urgent business made it almost impossible for
him to accompany his son, and a family council resulted in the selection
of Mrs. Burton as traveling companion for Guy.
During a period of more than two weeks the latter had been unable to
endure the optical strain of light, and most of this time he remained
indoors with his eyes bandaged. Meanwhile Walter did all he could to
cheer his “blind” brother. He read to him a good deal and in other ways
endeavored to make his own eyes do the work of four. Every day he led
Guy to their attic “den” where one of their wireless sets was installed,
and then he would proceed to the other radio station over their
workshop, and in these positions they would send and receive radio
messages, not only between themselves, but in communication with other
amateurs near and far away.
The Burton twins were 16 years old. Their father, active in two
professions, banking and farming, was one of the leading business men in
the New England community in which he lived, but he found time to
exercise real interest in the sports and aspirations of his two sons.
Both of the latter were mechanically inclined, and this inclination was
encouraged by the busy business man in many practical ways.
Walter was ambitious to become an electrical engineer. There was hardly
anything in popular electrical affairs that he did not know something
about. It was he who first suggested that they take up the study of
wireless and install radio instruments in their home. Guy’s ambition was
not so definitely formed as that of his brother, but his enthusiasm over
the proposition was scarcely less than that of Walter. They had an ideal
boys’ workshop, which they built themselves, and on the roof of this
15×20 frame structure was a cupola-like inclosure, which they used as
one of their wireless stations. The other, it has been noted, was in
their attic den. The aerials over these two stations, by their
conspicuous loftiness, advertised the brothers widely as the “wireless
twins of Ferncliffe.”
The workshop of the twins was equipped with an outfit of tools and
machinery that might well arouse the wonder and admiration of any
ambitious boy. The machinery consisted principally of turning lathe,
scroll saw and drill, operated with belts, pulleys, shafts and electric
motor. The boys not only planned and constructed their shop building,
but they wired it electrically and installed and connected the
machinery. And when completed, it proved to be no mere toy shop, but a
very useful boy institution for repair and construction work about the
Burton home.
The boys had received their wireless apparatus as Christmas presents a
little more than a year before and immediately set them up. They learned
the radio alphabet and soon were laboriously spelling out words to each
other. In a few months they had acquired a considerable addition to
their vocabulary and spoke of spark gaps, aerials, transformers, keys,
helices, tuning coils, condensers, and detectors with something of the
ready familiarity of old timers. They were especially elated when they
found themselves catching signals from distant wireless operators. This
became more and more frequent, as they lived on the coast and not a few
passing ships were supplied with radio outfits.
The Burton home was a sort of country seat near the outskirts of the
city and was bordered on the east by half a mile of seashore. A small
natural harbor added much to the curious interest of the surroundings,
being sufficient to accommodate comfortably the 50-foot power yacht
owned by Mr. Burton. This harbor was well sheltered by hilly
projections, except at one point where the shore dropped down almost to
the level of the sea and afforded a good landing place. Here a quay had
been built for the yacht. So well protected with bluffs was the cove
that the heaviest gales hardly rocked the little vessel in its mooring.
Under the brow of the largest bluff had been constructed a
pile-supported shed for sheltering the boat in winter.
Ferncliffe is a manufacturing and fishing seaboard town. Half a mile
from the Burton home are the municipal docks, where fishing boats tie up
and where steamers stop to receive or unload passengers and freight. In
the summer months a considerable business of this kind is done.
The house in which the Burtons lived was a large, square, comfortable,
white frame dwelling, rather southern in style. Mr. Burton had several
men in his employ constantly. One of these was Det Teller, half-sailor,
half-farmer, who had worked for the banker-farmer several years. Det was
an interesting character. He knew “everything and the whole world.” He
had been around the world twice as a seaman and was skilled in the tying
of sailors’ knots and the weaving of sailors’ yarns.
His nickname was a “short” for Deuteronomy. Det’s father had been very
religious and had given bible names to all his children. The retired
sailor was now fifty years old. Six years previously he had discovered
in a servant of the Burton family a former girl schoolmate with whom he
had been in love twenty-odd years before, and he married her and entered
Mr. Burton’s employ as farm foreman. A house was built especially for
them on the premises.
Det was really a bright and valuable fellow. In six years he had learned
“all about” his employer’s business and could “run any branch of it
except the bank.” He was a short, long-armed, broad-shouldered, powerful
man, whose natural alertness and jovial disposition seemed not to have
been affected seriously by the burden of two score years and ten.
Mr. Burton had owned the yacht, Jetta, for two seasons. It had been
named for the boys’ five-year old sister. Det was mate and part of the
crew of the vessel, and during the outing months of the year his
capacity of farm foreman was almost forgotten, or left in other hands.
Originally intended only as a private pleasure craft, the Jetta, under
the enterprising ambition of the “wireless twins,” had become, in the
last summer, a recognized excursion boat, identified inseparably with
the outing happiness of many of the inhabitants of Ferncliffe and
neighboring towns. Guy and Walter made up the complement of the crew and
acted as joint skippers who usually followed the instructions of the
mate. Mr. Burton was merely owner and made no attempt to interfere with
the management of the craft when aboard with the mate and one or both of
the young captains.
On the morning when Guy and his mother boarded the train for New York
city, another passenger of peculiar interest here bought a ticket for
the same destination. He was a tall, thin, sharp-eyed, well-dressed man,
wearing a high-crowned derby hat and large angular trowel-shaped patent
leather shoes. He had had business in Ferncliffe and stopped several
days at the Chenoweth House, the best hotel of the place. On the day of
his arrival he had read with interest the following local item in the
Ferncliffe Gazette:
“H. G. Burton has decided to send his son Guy to London for treatment of
his eyes. Guy and his mother will sail from New York in a week. The
boy’s eyes will be treated by the famous Dr. Sprague.”
The stranger had registered at the hotel as Stanley Picket of New York.
He had planned to return home on the day when he read the above item,
but the information it contained caused him to alter his plan. He
remained in Ferncliffe until Mrs. Burton and Guy started for New York,
when as we have seen, the train bore him also as a passenger.
Walter and Guy noticed the tall, well-dressed man on the platform before
the train pulled in, little dreaming what an important part he was
destined to play in their affairs within the next few months.
The boy with the amber glasses and his mother boarded the train and took
possession of a seat. Soon afterward the tall man with the high-crowned
derby and the trowel-shaped patent leathers sat down in the seat just
behind them, and the train moved away from the depot.