DING-DONG’S CLUE.
Ding-dong Bell, released early from the, to him, irksome task of
stock-taking in his father’s store, was making the last adjustments on
the new shore wireless station which was to place him in communication
with his chums on Goat Island. He hummed away at the work he loved, as
busy as a bee and as active as a squirrel. The new station was in the
backyard of his home and at some distance from the house, owing to Mrs.
Bell’s nervous fears that it would attract lightning.
The boy had tried to explain to her that a properly grounded apparatus
presents no such danger, but the good lady would not be convinced; so
Ding-dong had been compelled to set up his instruments in an old tool
shed, rather than in his own room as he had fondly hoped. He was now
rigging up a “wireless alarm-clock,” connecting it with his room so that
when anyone called him he could be summoned day or night.
He was stringing the wires for this when, from the road outside, came
the sharp “chug-chug-chug” of a motorcycle. It stopped at the back of
the shed and a cheery voice hailed:
“Hello, Ding!”
“He-he-hello, yourself, Pepper,” cried Ding-dong, as, hurrying out of
the shed at the summons, he came face to face with a lad of about his
own age whose head was thatched with a mop of brilliant red hair. He had
been nicknamed Red Pepper, shortened to Pepper, and his last name was
Rodman.
The newcomer wore motor-cycling togs and was hatless. He had dismounted
from a spick-and-span-looking two-cylindered machine which stood leaning
against the fence.
“Come on in,” invited Ding-dong cordially.
“I wouldn’t mind a drink of ice-water,” responded Pepper. “I’ve just
come back from a long spin in the country and I’m mighty thirsty, I can
assure you.”
“I’ll do bub-bub-better than ice-water,” promised Ding-dong hospitably;
“how about some lemonade?”
“Oh, yum-yum,” exclaimed young Pepper joyously; “lead me to it.”
“In a jiffy. This way,” said Ding-dong, leading the way into the house,
where he soon set before his guest a big glass pitcher full to the brim
of the cold and refreshing drink. Pepper did full justice to it, tossing
off three glasses.
“My goodness, Pup-Pup-Pepper, but you must be as hot as your
nu-nu-nickname,” exclaimed Ding-dong as he watched.
“Well, I was mighty dry, for a fact,” agreed Pepper, smacking his lips;
“I feel a lot better now. I’ve ridden all the way in from beyond
Powell’s Cove, and it’s a mighty dusty trip.”
“How’d you get that tut-tut-tear in your coat?” asked Ding-dong,
regarding a rent in Pepper’s neat khaki motor-cycling coat.
“Why, that happened out at Powell’s Cove,” was the response. “I meant to
tell you about it. I was dry as an old crust out there, and I saw a
small ranch house standing quite a way back from the road. It was a
lonesome-looking sort of a place, but I judged I could get a drink
there, so I chugged up to the door.
“It was open, and not seeing anyone about, I went in uninvited. From a
room in the back I heard voices, and so I walked in there, too. There
were two men sitting at a table. One of them was explaining something to
the other, and they had on the table what looked to me like a model of a
torpedo, or something of that sort.”
Ding-dong pricked up his ears.
“A mu-mu-model of a tut-tut——”
“Yes, of a torpedo. Then, too, there were a lot of plans.”
“Her-her-hold on!” cried Ding-dong, his words tripping all over each
other in his excitement. “Wer-wer-what did the men lul-lul-look like?”
Pepper looked rather astonished.
“How do you expect me to get on with my story if you keep butting in?”
he asked in an aggrieved tone of voice.
“I’ve a per-per-particular reason,” cried Ding-dong.
“Well, one had a big black beard, an ugly-looking customer, and the
other——”
But he got no further.
“Hokey!” yelled Ding-dong, while Pepper looked on in a rather alarmed
way, as if he thought his young companion had gone suddenly insane;
“it’s Minory for a bet! Minory, the fellow that swiped the wireless
torpedo!”
“What, the one you told me about? That invention of the Professor
What’s-his-name?”
“The same fellow,” cried Ding-dong. “What a shame the professor has gone
East! I’ll wire him at once.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to wait and see if you haven’t made a mistake?”
asked Pepper soberly. “You know it might not be the same at all. Other
men than Minory have black whiskers. My pop has, for instance.”
“That’s so,” said Ding-dong in a chastened voice. “But go ahead, Pep,
and tell me the rest.”
“All right, I’d have finished by this time if it hadn’t been for you,”
said Pepper. “Well, the minute I appeared, both men jumped up and glared
at me as if I’d been a mountain lion or something. The black-bearded
fellow made a run for me and shouted out to know what I wanted there. I
told them I was after a drink of water, but the fellow grabbed me by the
arm. I wrenched free, but I tore my coat in doing it. That was the rent
you saw.
“You can bet I lost no time in running for the door where I’d left my
motorcycle. The black-whiskered chap came after me, but the other one
held him back.
“‘Don’t grab him, Miles,’ I heard him say. ‘He’s nothing but a fool kid.
You’re so nervous I think you’d be suspicious of a cat’.”
“Mum-Mum-Miles!” shouted Ding-dong Bell. “That was Minory’s first name!
Oh, Eureka! We’ve got him! But I beg your pardon, Pep; how did you get
away?”
“Well, they told me that if I ever said anything about them, they’d find
me out and kill me,” went on Pepper, “and they looked fierce enough to
carry out their threat. One of them asked me if I’d seen anything on the
table, and of course I said ‘No.’ I guess if I’d admitted seeing that
model or anything, I’d have been there yet.”
“I don’t der-der-doubt that a ber-ber-bit,” agreed Ding-dong. “So after
that they let you go?”
“Yes, and told me never to come near there again, and not to do any
talking if I valued my life. Of course that was just a bluff, but I made
out to be scared to death by it.”
“The wisest thing to do,” agreed Ding-dong, and then he began to speak
earnestly and rapidly.
“Say, Pepper,” he said, losing as he often did in moments of stress his
impediment of speech, “are you game to help me out on a big enterprise?”
“What do you mean?” asked the other.
“Just this. Your motorcycle will carry two, won’t it?”
“Yes, I’ve got an extension seat behind. I take my brother out on it
once in a while.”
“Will you ride me out to that ranch house while I reconnoiter?”
“When?”
“To-night.”
“Gee whiz, Ding, it’s a pretty risky thing to do, isn’t it?”
“I don’t think so. I’m not going into the house or anything. I just want
to prowl around and see what I can find out. Then if everything is O. K.
and Minory’s there, I’ll notify the police and he can be arrested at
once.”
“That sounds reasonable,” admitted Pepper, “but say, Ding, don’t go
putting your head into a hornet’s nest. I’ve heard you’ve got a kind of
habit of doing that.”
“Who says so? I’m as careful as—as an old lady carrying eggs to market!”
“All right then, I’ll do it. I’ll be here at seven o’clock.”
“Good boy. I won’t be able to keep still till that time arrives.”
[Illustration: The boys ... fell in a heap down the steep steps.—_Page_
264.]