THE TELEGRAPH COMPANY.
"What's that you have?" said Frank, coming in one night after supper
and finding the Codfish handling a kind of an instrument composed of
bright polished brass set on a wooden base. Gleason was examining it
closely.
"That, my inquisitive young sir, is nothing more nor less than a
telegraph instrument."
"Where did you get it? Make it, buy it or pinch it?" inquired Frank.
"I bought it, kind sir. I was down at the Queen's station to-night
getting off some of my important business by telegraph, and his
nibbs down there, the telegraph operator, recognizing in me a man of
excellent perceptions, invited me in."
"And you got away with some of the tools. Does he know it?"
"Oh, yes, sir, he knows it. I sat there and watched him tapping away.
He told me it was New York on the other end of the wire, after he
had called up. I didn't believe him, and he told me if I didn't
believe, I could prove it for myself by simply touching two little
posts that he pointed out."
"And you touched?"
"Yes, if you must know the details, I touched it, and incidentally I
jumped about six feet in the air. It gave me a shock, you see."
"And then you realized that it really was New York on the other end
of the wire?" queried Frank, who knew something about telegraphy
because he had studied it in a series of articles in the Boys'
Magazine.
"Sure, I realized at once that it was New York, for I've heard that
New York is a shocking city. Now, then, will you be good?"
"Put him out! Put him out!" said David, looking up.
"Electrocute him, I should say," cried Jimmy. "He ought to be given
two thousand volts in the neck for that."
"Well, if you will draw down these things on your heads, keep on
interrupting my story. I asked the gent if it took much brains to
learn it, and he had the nerve to tell me it didn't take much of
any, and added that he thought I could just about accomplish it. If I
had been a fighter like Redhead here, I'd have been insulted, but as
it was I kept a dignified silence."
"Well, when did you make away with the instrument?"
"All in good time, kind friends. He showed me how easy it was to
wiggle the little key, and I tried it myself. If I had stayed another
half hour, I would have been an accomplished operator."
"And how about the instrument?"
"Well, finally, I got so much interested in the little clicker that
he said he would sell me something that I could learn on, and he
brought forth this attractive affair and agreed to sell it to me for
twenty-five dollars."
"Oh, oh, and you bit, did you?"
"I said he agreed to sell it, note my words carefully. I made him a
counter offer of three dollars and a half for it, and he said 'It's
yours.' And, generous soul that he was, he gave me an instruction
book which I also have, if I haven't lost it," and the Codfish began
to search hastily through his pockets.
"There it is," he said, holding it up--"How to Learn Telegraphy--A
Complete Analysis of the Entire System of the Morse Alphabet--With
the Complete Code for all Letters, Figures and Punctuation Marks.
There's a bargain at three-fifty. Eh, what?"
"Cheap at half the money," said Frank. "Hand it over."
He turned the pages over thoughtfully. "Say, this gives me an idea.
Why wouldn't it be a good scheme to have a little telegraph line of
our own?"
"Where to--New York? I insist it shall not be connected with New
York. I had enough of New York to-night. It's too shocking."
"Quit your fooling. If you get off that New York joke again I'll
punch your head. No, I really mean it. We could have a lot of fun
with a telegraph line. We might have an instrument here and one in
Jimmy's room. We might even connect up with Wee Willie Patterson who
seems to have deserted us this fall."
"I say," said Jimmy, "it would be a great stunt. We could use it as
a kind of alarm clock. When I sleep over, the Codfish can rattle a
little on it and I'll be awake in a jiffy."
"Thank you," said the Codfish. "I vote against it, if I'm to be the
alarming fellow."
"And," continued Frank, "we might run a wire down to Queen's station
and get the night operator to send to us for practice."
"Yes, I imagine he'd love to do it," quoth the Codfish. "He seems so
much like a generous fellow, particularly when you show him money."
"Well, let's show him money, if he won't do it without it."
David agreed with Frank that it would be a good scheme to have
a telegraph line; and the long and the short of it was that the
next night a descent was made on Murphy, the night operator at the
station who, after much haggling about the price, agreed to run a
private wire from the station to Queen's School and equip it with
two sets--because only two sets were available. Murphy also agreed
that for this sum he would furnish enough "juice" from the station
batteries to make a sending current on the wire, and moreover he
would "send" for fifteen minutes every night when the boys desired.
The boys went back to Queen's and scraped together enough money
between them to pay ten dollars down, and Murphy, as good as his
word, commenced stringing the wire the next day. As the line was
to be kept a secret, it took a somewhat crooked path, dodging this
way and that way to avoid conspicuous places. It cut across the
river from the station, was bracketed on a tree, then took half a
dozen leaps among the trees across the roof of an old house long
unoccupied, and finally climbed the slope to Queen's School, well
hidden among the trees.
Perhaps the most difficult part of the work was getting the wire
on Honeywell Hall itself so as not to attract the attention of the
caretakers, who would undoubtedly have made short work of it. The
heavier wire was ended on a bracket on a great elm that swayed over
the roof of Honeywell. From this bracket a very fine copper wire was
stretched to the room of Jimmy and Lewis, which was fortunately on
the rear of the Hall. From there it was an easy matter to bring it
across and down a rain spout to the sill of Frank's window. When the
whole job was completed, much of it under cover of darkness, so well
had it been done that unless you had been looking for such a wire you
might have looked over a hundred times and seen nothing unusual.
When the circuit was complete, Murphy attached the instruments and
returned to the station. "I go on duty to-night at seven o'clock," he
said, "and I'll cut the wire in and see how she works."
The boys were in high spirits about the successful completion of the
job, and waited with eagerness to hear the signals Murphy was to send
them.
"Wouldn't it be a joke," said the Codfish, as the hour for the
opening of the great telegraph line came and went, "if it didn't
work?"
"We'd be out ten dollars," remarked David. "But look at the fun we've
had!"
"There speaks a true sporting proposition, gents," said the Codfish.
But the line was not to be a failure. Suddenly, while the boys were
discussing their probable bad bargain, the little brass-armed sounder
jumped into life and began to dance like mad.
"How well he talks!" said the Codfish, who couldn't read a letter. "I
think it's about the most intelligent language I ever listened to.
Don't sit there, Frank, pretending you know all about it," for Frank
had his ear glued on the sounder and was trying hard to make out what
was coming.
[Illustration: "IT'S CHOCTAW!" CRIED THE CODFISH. "WHO CAN READ
CHOCTAW?"--_Page 179._]
"No, I can't make it out, it's too fast for me; I can read a little
if I haven't forgotten. I wish he'd send slower."
By degrees the sounder stopped its mad dancing and began to work
slowly.
"Listen," said Frank, and he seized a pencil, "it's something he
wants us to hear. I'll write it down."
Frank began scratching as the sounder clicked on. And this is what he
got:
"_Do ntfo rgett hat youow eme fi vedol lars._"
"It's Choctaw!" cried the Codfish, who had been leaning over Frank's
shoulder as the message came in. "Who can read Choctaw? David, don't
speak up too quick. And Frank thinks he's an operator! Shades of my
grandmother, what a message!"
Frank had been staring at the page. Finally he burst out laughing.
"Oh, it's a joke, is it? It looks funny enough to be a joke. Explain
it, please."
"The only trouble is, that I didn't get the spaces right between
the words. See, when you space it right the Choctaw becomes the
following: '_Don't forget that you owe me five dollars_'."
"What an insulting thing to send over our own wire first crack out of
the box!" said the Codfish. "Of course we owe him five dollars, and
if he were a gentleman he wouldn't remind us of it, particularly when
we haven't got it in our clothes."
Frank's unexpected display of the ability to read the telegraph by
sound, was a great incentive to the others of our quintet of boys,
and they worked with might and main. Pasted in each room was a large
white card ornamented in the Codfish's best style with the Morse
alphabet and figures spread boldly thereon, and this is what they
studied morning, noon and night, and sometimes in between:
A--dot dash.
B--dash and three dots.
C--two dots space dot.
D--dash two dots.
E--one dot.
F--dot dash dot.
G--two dashes dot.
H--four dots.
I--two dots.
J--dash dot dash dot.
K--dash dot dash.
L--one long dash.
M--two dashes.
N--dash dot.
O--dot space dot.
P--five dots.
Q--two dots dash dot.
R--dot space two dots.
S--three dots.
T--one short dash.
U--two dots dash.
W--dot two dashes.
X--dot dash two dots.
Y--two dots space two dots.
Z--three dots space dot.
1--dot dash dash dot.
2--two dots dash two dots.
3--three dots dash dot.
4--four dots dash.
5--three dashes.
6--six dots.
7--two dashes two dots.
8--dash four dots.
9--dash two dots dash.
0--one long dash (longer than letter L).
"And Murphy says that's all a fellow needs to know, to do almost any
kind of telegraphing. Sounds easy, doesn't it?" said Frank, one day.
"And it is easy to remember the signals themselves, but when they
come flying over the wire it's a different story."
"How are you getting on with the telegraph?" inquired David, one
night of Lewis, who was listening to the measured ticking of the
instrument.
"Great," said Lewis, "I guess I'll be able to take a job on the
railroad pretty soon."
"Get out," said Jimmy scornfully. "Lewis makes a great fuss about it
because he can tell such little things as _e_ and _i_ and _h_ and
things like that. I can do better than that myself. I have a speaking
acquaintance with the big, forbidding fellows like _q_ and _x_ and
all the high dignitaries."
For a time the lessons suffered by the introduction of this new toy,
but by and by it began to take its natural place in the day or night.
They picked up the reading wonderfully quickly and, as the days
went on, Murphy was able to take a faster gait. Perhaps they didn't
understand all of it, but it was a great joy to be able to pick out
small words as the instrument rattled along. All of the boys were
able to "send" pretty well, which as every one knows is the easy part
of telegraphing. It is the receiving that is so difficult.
Often Frank and Jimmy held labored conversations over the wire when
Murphy had cut out and left them to themselves, and it generally
happened that they were obliged to stick their heads out of the
window to confirm by voice what had been said and to fill in the gaps
which were not clear.
The Codfish frequently used the wire to play tricks. One night Jimmy
was awakened by a desperate clatter on the instrument. The call
of Jimmy's room was _JC_, and they were both hard letters for our
friend, the Codfish. He was rattling away at this _JC_, _JC_, _JC_,
as fast as he could go. Jimmy sprang up and answered. "_It's very
cold down here_," clicked the instrument; "_come on down and put
another blanket on me_." Jimmy was furious. "_I'll come down_," he
wired back, "_and put a club on you_."
"_Ha, ha, ha, ha!_" laughed the Codfish on the wire.
But they got a lot of fun out of it and some profit, for they were
learning something which they might some day be able to turn to
account. Little did any of them realize that it would, at no very
distant date, play a prominent part in an important incident in their
school life.