The radio boys ruminated over Herb's suggestion for a little while.
"The idea itself is all right," pronounced Joe slowly, "but the trouble
is that we couldn't do it very well with this set, which is the best
we've been able to make so far. We can hear the sound that comes over
the wire well with these earpieces glued to our ears, but the sound
would be lost if it were spread all over the room."
"Wouldn't the horn help out on that?" asked Herb.
"Not by itself, it wouldn't," answered Bob. "It's a mistake to think
that the horn itself makes the sound or increases its loudness. The only
use of the horn is to act as a relay for the diaphragm of the receiver
and connect it with the air in the room. But the sound itself must first
be in the receiver. And with a crystal detector, such as we're using in
this set, I'm afraid that we couldn't get volume of sound enough. It
would be spread out over the room so thinly that no one would be able to
hear anything. We'll have to amplify the sound, and to do that there's
nothing better than a vacuum tube. That's the best thing that the world
has discovered so far."
"I guess it is," remarked Jimmy. "Doctor Dale has one in his set."
"Yes," chimed in Joe. "He even has more than one. The more there are the
louder and clearer the sound."
"I don't suppose we could make one," Herb remarked.
"No; that's one thing that costs real money," replied Bob. "But don't
let that bother you. I've got quite a lot left of that hundred dollars
of the Ferberton prize, and there's nothing I'd rather spend it for than
to improve the radio set."
"Count me in on that, too," said Joe. "I've scarcely touched my fifty."
"How about the horn?" queried Jimmy. "Will that have to be bought, too?"
"No," replied Bob. "That's something you can make. That is, if you're
not too tired from the work you did on setting up the aerial this
afternoon."
"But," objected Jimmy, ignoring the gibe, "I don't know anything about
working in tin or steel. I haven't any tools for that."
"The horn doesn't have to be made of metal," answered Bob. "In fact,
it's better if it's not. Some horns are even made of concrete----"
"Use your head for that, Jimmy," broke in Herb irreverently.
"But best of all," Bob continued, while Jimmy favored the interrupter
with a glare, "is to make the horn of wood. Take some good hard wood,
like mahogany or maple, polish the inside with sandpaper after you've
hollowed it out, give it a coat of varnish or shellac, and you'll have a
horn that can't be beaten. It's very simple."
"Sure!" said Jimmy sarcastically. "Very simple! Just like that! Simple
when you say it quick. Simple as the fellow that tells me how to do it."
"Just imagine you're hollowing out a doughnut," put in Joe, grinning.
"You're an expert at that."
"I'll tell the world he is," agreed Herb, with enthusiasm.
"That reminds me," said Bob, "that there's some pie in the pantry and
sarsaparilla in the ice-box that mother told me to pass around among you
fellows. That is, of course, if you care for it," he added, as he paused
in seeming doubt.
"If we care for it!" cried Jimmy, the creases of perplexity in his brow
disappearing as if by magic. "Lead me to that pie. I'll fall on its neck
like a long-lost brother."
"It'll fall into your neck, you mean," chuckled Herb, and in less than
two minutes saw his prophecy verified.
"And now," said Bob, after the last crumb and drop had disappeared, "I
don't want to tie the can to you fellows, but I hear dad moving around
and locking up, and that's a sign to skiddoo. We'll think over that idea
of Herb's and get a tip from Doctor Dale as to the best way to go about
it."
There was a chorus of hearty good-nights and the radio boys separated.
Two days later, as Bob and Joe were coming home from school, the latter,
looking behind him, gave vent to an exclamation that drew Bob's
attention.
"What's up?" he asked, turning his head in the same direction.
"It's Buck Looker and his bunch!" exclaimed Joe, a flush mounting to his
brow and his eyes beginning to flame. "He's been careful to keep out of
my way so far. Let's wait here until he catches up to us."
"You'll wait a long time then, I guess," replied Bob, "for he's seen us,
too, and he's slowing up already. He doesn't seem a bit anxious to
overtake us."
"Then we'll have to go back and meet him," said Joe grimly. "I'm going
to have it out with him right here and now. He needn't think he's going
to get away scot free after the trick he played on me."
"What's the use, Joe?" counseled Bob. "You can't prove it on him and
he'll only lie out of it. It's bad policy to kick a skunk."
But Joe had already turned and was striding rapidly back toward Buck and
his companions, and Bob went along with him.
There was a hurried confabulation between Buck and his cronies as they
saw Bob and Joe advancing toward them, and a hasty looking from side to
side, as though to seek some means of escape. But there was no street
handy to turn into, and as it would have been too rank a confession of
cowardice to turn their backs and run, the trio assumed a defiant
attitude and waited the approach of the swiftly moving couple.
Joe stopped directly in front of the bully, while Bob ranged alongside,
keeping a sharp watch on the movements of Lutz and Mooney.
"Why did you take down that ladder the other afternoon, Buck Looker?"
asked Joe, looking his opponent straight in the eye.
Buck's look shifted before Joe's gaze, but he affected ignorance.
"What ladder and what afternoon?" he countered, sparring for time. "I
don't know what you're talking about, and for that matter I guess you
don't either."
"I know perfectly well what I'm talking about, and so do you," replied
Joe, coming so near to him that Buck gave ground. "You and your gang
took away the ladder from the side of Bob's barn, and in trying to get
down I nearly broke my neck."
"Pity you didn't," blustered Buck. "If your ladder fell down and you
didn't have sense enough to wait for some one to come along and put it
up for you, that wasn't any fault of mine. I wasn't anywhere near
Layton's barn that whole afternoon."
"We know better," said Joe. "Bob and I saw you going along the street a
little while before we missed the ladder, and Herb Fennington and Jimmy
Plummer saw you and your crowd running away like mad while I was hanging
to the pipe alongside the barn."
"You shut up!" yelled Buck, in a burst of rage.
"Take off your coat, Buck Looker," cried Joe, dropping his books to the
ground, "and I'll give you the same kind of a trimming that Bob gave you
the night you tried to wreck his aerial."
For answer Buck tightened his grip on the strap that held his books.
"You stand back, Joe Atwood," he cried, with a quaver in his voice, "or
I'll soak you with these books!"
Joe laughed his disdain.
"You coward!" he exclaimed, and was springing forward when a warning
exclamation came from Bob.
"Stop, Joe," he commanded. "Here comes Mr. Preston."
A look of vexation came into Joe's eyes and a look of relief into Buck's
as they looked and saw the principal of the high school walking rapidly
toward them.