HENRY OVERCOMES AN OBSTACLE
Could the messenger boy have seen Henry after the latter had read the
telegram, he would soon have changed his mind as to Henry's sleepiness.
For a very brief space--just long enough to reread the message once or
twice--Henry stood like one dazed, as motionless as a statue, and as
silent as a sign-post. Then he gave a loud whoop and began to dance
around the little shop. For a boy who was ordinarily so sober as
Henry, such conduct was scandalously riotous. He skipped about the
tiny wireless room, waving his hat in his hand, cheering for the Camp
Brady Wireless Patrol, and making loud declarations as to what that
organization would do to the enemies of the country.
Ordinarily Henry would have restrained himself. Not even the news that
the Camp Brady Patrol had been selected to perform the wireless service
at the guard headquarters the preceding summer had excited Henry as did
this message from his captain. But that was scarcely to be wondered
at. The work for the commander of the Pennsylvania guards had promised
nothing but the sending of uninteresting and wordy despatches, though
to be sure it had turned out quite differently before it was ended.
But the task now in view promised excitement from the start. It
breathed adventure, romance. To hunt spies--to trace traitors--to turn
the searchlight on hidden crimes and dark deeds--to outwit clever
men--to take a man's part in a man's world--to do deeds of daring and
bravery--and above all to serve his country and save his fellows--these
were the things that came into his mind as the probable results of the
precious communication he held in his hand.
Forgotten were the tedious hours of monotony that his sober senses
would have told him must make up the greater part of any such labor as
that he was now about to embark upon. Forgotten were the dull, deadly
dull and uninteresting days that his experience should have told him
lay before him. In his enthusiasm Henry saw only the bright spots.
The mental vision he looked upon glowed with rosy light. And Henry
gave himself up utterly to enjoyment of the prospect.
So he danced and shouted and waved his hat, and cheered for the Camp
Brady Patrol, until in his excitement he danced too close to the side
of the tiny shop. His wildly waving hat came into contact with sundry
tools and kettles and other metal implements hung up on nails to be out
of the way. Down came saws and pails and a sprinkling can, and the
hoe, and a dozen other articles in a noisy crash. It sounded as though
a cyclone had suddenly descended upon the little shop, or a
42-centimeter shell had burst within. The exultant chant of the lone
occupant of the building suddenly ceased. But its place was instantly
taken by another voice as Henry's mother suddenly appeared on the back
porch of the house, looking anxiously toward the workshop.
"Henry! Henry!" came her anxious call.
"Yes, mother," replied Henry, disentangling himself from the wreckage,
and thrusting his head out of the shop door. "What is it?"
"Whatever are you doing?" demanded Mrs. Harper. "I thought the shop
had tumbled in."
"It's only some things I knocked down," laughed Henry. Then his
enthusiasm bubbled over again. "Just think, mother," he cried. "We're
going! We're going! Captain Hardy has sent for us!"
Mrs. Harper looked at her son anxiously. His words meant absolutely
nothing to her, for Henry had not told any one of his letter to his
captain. Suddenly she feared that perhaps something had fallen on
Henry's head and momentarily unbalanced him.
"Going?" she said. "Where? What are you talking about?"
"We're going to New York City to help catch German spies," cried Henry,
beginning to dance about again in his excitement. "Isn't it bully!
And we'll catch 'em, too, just as we did the dynamiters."
"I guess you're going crazy," said his mother. Then as Henry continued
his demonstration, his mother said sharply, "You stop right there,
Henry Harper, and tell me what all this nonsense means about German
spies and New York and Captain Hardy. You know very well that Captain
Hardy is in Washington with the army."
Henry at once calmed down and took a grip on himself. "Yes, mother,"
he said. "Captain Hardy was in Washington, but he is going to New
York----"
"How do you know?" interrupted Mrs. Harper impatiently.
"He just telegraphed me----"
"Telegraphed you!" said the incredulous Mrs. Harper. "What would
Captain Hardy be telegraphing to a youngster like you for, I'd like to
know."
"In answer to my letter----" began Henry, but again his mother cut him
short.
"Your letter?" she said. "What letter? I didn't know that you had
written him a letter."
"You see, mother," said Henry patiently, "when I read in the newspapers
the other day that the Germans had found out about the sailing of
Pershing's men, and had sent submarines to lay in wait for them out in
the ocean, the idea came to me that perhaps the wireless patrol could
help to discover----"
"Henry Harper, I hope you never had the impudence to suggest that you
youngsters could----"
"I did, mother. But I don't think it was impudence. I wrote to Dr.
Hardy and asked if the wireless patrol couldn't help catch the spies
who are sending news to Germany."
"Well of all things!" ejaculated Mrs. Harper. "What will you infants
do next? Offer to relieve the President of his job?"
"Well, we did catch the dynamiters at the Elk City reservoir,"
protested Henry defensively. "And we did it after the state police and
the national guards had failed. I don't see why we can't help catch
German spies in New York just as well as in Pennsylvania."
"Humph!" said Mrs. Harper. "It's a lot of help you youngsters would be
in catching real spies. You just happened to stumble on these
dynamiters and now you think you can do thing. But that's the way with
boys. They're all alike."
"But, mother," protested Henry, "boys can be useful in lots of ways.
And just because they are boys nobody thinks of suspecting them."
"There's one place where a certain boy I know could be of a lot of use
and never be suspected," agreed Mrs. Harper. "And that's at that
woodpile back of the shed."
"Please don't interrupt me, mother," said Henry. "You asked me to tell
you about our trip to New York."
"About your dream of a trip to New York," corrected Mrs. Harper. "You
don't for one minute think you are really going to New York, do you?"
"Indeed we are," replied Henry. "And this is how it came about. When
I read of the leak in the navy's secrets and the attempts of the
Germans to torpedo our transports, I wrote to Captain Hardy about it.
I told him we could be just as useful catching German spies in New York
as we were in Pennsylvania. He answered and said he didn't think we
could be of any use, but----"
"Showed his sense," interrupted Mrs. Harper.
"But he said," continued Henry, paying no attention to the
interruption, "that he would mention the matter to the Chief of the
Radio Service and let me know if anything came of it. And something
has come of it, mother. Just think! We're to go. Here's the telegram
itself."
Mrs. Harper took the yellow paper that Henry held out to her and read
it slowly and carefully. "Well, I never!" she said at last. "I never
did! But I don't know whether to let you go or not. Why, you'd be
lost inside of ten minutes in New York, and instead of being a help to
the police, you'd keep them busy hunting for you. I don't know about
this. Wait till your father gets home and we'll talk it over."
"But, mother," protested Henry, "I can't wait. And we've _got_ to go.
The Chief of the Radio Service has asked for our help. That means the
government wants us. If it wants us, it must need us. And we've just
got to go."
"Humph!" said Mrs. Harper.
"And besides," added Henry, reading the signs in his mother's face,
"Dr. Hardy is to be in New York with us, so we can't get into trouble."
"Well, that alters the case," said Mrs. Harper. "With Dr. Hardy to
look after you, I reckon you _can't_ go very far astray."
"Then we can go, mother?"
"I suppose so. I know your father thinks every one of us should do
everything he possibly can to help win this war. But it gets me to
know what you youngsters can do that will be of any use. Still, I
guess the government wouldn't have sent for you if it didn't want you,
and I won't stand in the road of the government."
"Hurrah!" shouted Henry. "Then I'm off to tell the others." And he
darted out of the yard and was away like an arrow.