A PRACTICAL OBJECT LESSON
The chums were joined outside the hotel by Herb and Jimmy, who had
waited for them during their interview. To them they narrated what
they had learned of Miss Berwick's story. Their friends shared their
own indignation and were quite as keen as themselves to hear the end
of the story.
"What did you say the fellow's name was?" asked Herb, as the quartette
walked along Main Street.
"Cassey, she said it was--Dan Cassey," replied Bob. "Ever hear of
any one by that name?"
"It sounds rather familiar," replied Herb, knitting his brows as he
tried to remember.
"Wait!" he said suddenly. "I've almost got it--Cassey! Cassey! Does
the man stutter, do you know?"
"She didn't say anything about that," replied Joe. "Why do you ask
that question?"
"Because," answered Herb, "I remember a man of that name a few weeks
ago calling at dad's store to get a bill of goods. The reason I
remember was the way he stuttered when dad was making out the bill.
He tried and tried to say something, and his eyes bulged out and his
cheeks got all puffed and red while he was trying to get it out. Then
he stopped and whistled, and that seemed to help him, for then he went
right on talking, only stopping once in a while to whistle again and
get a fresh start. I had to get out of the store to keep from bursting
out laughing. I remember I felt rather sorry for the fellow at the
time, but if he's the fellow who's trying to do Miss Berwick out of
her money, nothing's too bad for him."
"Suppose you ask your father what he knows about him," suggested Bob
eagerly. "He may know something that may prove of some help to the
girl, either in getting her money back or putting the fellow in jail."
"I'll do it," agreed Herb. "By the way, fellows, I dropped into Dave
Slocum's place yesterday afternoon and found out that he had a whole
stock of material for making wireless telephone sets. Said a salesman
from New York talked him into it, and he was wondering how he was
going to get rid of them. Thought he'd been stocked up with more than
he could sell, all through the salesman's slick tongue. I told him
not to worry, that the boys would be standing in line before long and
would clean him out of stock. He seemed to think I was kidding him,
but he brightened up just the same."
"Dave's got a pleasant surprise coming to him," grinned Joe. "Just
our bunch alone will make quite a hole in his stock."
"You bet," agreed Bob, as, having reached his gate, he said good-bye
to his mates and went in. "Don't forget to ask your dad about that
Cassey fellow," he called out after Herb.
That Herb did not forget was proved when he overtook his friends
the next morning on the way to school.
"I asked dad about Cassey," were his first words, after greetings had
been exchanged. "He said he thought very likely the man was the one
you had in mind, for this stuttering fellow came from Elwood and his
first name was Daniel. It's hardly likely there'd be two men of the
same name in that little town."
"Did your father know anything about what kind of fellow he was?"
asked Joe.
"Dad said that he had the reputation of being tricky and hard-fisted,"
answered Herb. "But as far as he knew he hadn't been caught in
anything yet that could put him in jail. He went up in the air when
I told him about Miss Berwick, and said he'd like to get hold of the
fellow and break his neck. He thinks Miss Berwick ought to get a good
lawyer and bring the rascal into court. But at the same time he thinks
she may have a hard time proving her case, as she hasn't any receipt
or any witnesses. She could simply say she'd paid him and he could
say she hadn't. All he'd have to do would be to stand pat and put it
up to her to prove her case. And how is she going to do it?"
"Do you mean to say that he could get away with a thing as raw as
that?" asked Joe, in a white heat.
"He might," declared Bob. "Things just as rank have been pulled off
again and again. But at any rate she ought to get after him right
away. She's a dead loser as things stand, and if she can only get
the rascal in court she may have a chance. Perhaps he hasn't covered
his trail as well as he thinks he has, and when a good lawyer gets
to questioning him the truth may come out. In any case it's the only
way that will give her a ghost of a chance."
The days passed by swiftly until Saturday came and with it the
opportunity the boys had looked forward to of going to Dr. Dale's
workshop and getting a few practical points on the making of a
wireless telephone set.
They found the doctor at a bench that he had rigged up in his barn.
On the wall was arranged a large variety of tools and on the bench
were strewn several coils of wire and a number of objects the name
and use of which the boys did not know.
The doctor, who was in his shirt sleeves, extended a hearty welcome
to the boys, who ranged themselves about him, and whose numbers were
constantly augmented by newcomers until the barn was well filled.
"What I want to do to-day, boys," he said, "is to show you how easy
and simple it is to put up a wireless telephone receiving set without
having to spend very much money.
"Now the first thing you have to get and put up is the aerial," he
remarked, as he unwound a large coil of copper wire. "You want about
a hundred or a hundred and twenty feet of that. You can extend it
horizontally for about fifty feet, say, for instance, from the side
or back of your house to the barn or the garage, and then have it go
up as high as it can go. The upper end doesn't have to be in the outer
air, for the sound will come along it if it's in the attic. Still it's
better to have it outside if possible. The lower end of the wire has
to be connected with the ground in some way, and you can fix that
by attaching it to a water pipe or any other pipe that runs into the
ground. A good way is to let it down the side of the house and put
it through the cellar window and fasten it to a pipe.
"After you have your aerial you want to get the rest of the apparatus
together. The first thing to do is to get a baseboard which will serve
as the bottom of the receiving box. Something like this," and he put
his hand on a board about eighteen inches long, twelve inches wide,
and about an inch thick. "This is the platform, as it were, on which
the different parts of the apparatus are to rest.
"Now since your ear alone can't detect the waves that are coming to
and along your aerial, you have to have a sort of electrical ear that
will do this for you. Here it is," and he picked up a piece of crystal
and a wire of phosphor bronze. "When this wire comes in contact with
this bit of crystal the mysterious waves become audible vibrations.
"But this isn't enough. You've got to get in tune with the sending
station in order to understand the sounds you hear. When your
vibration frequency is the same as that from which the message is
sent, you can hear as clearly as though the voice or instrument were
in the next room. Now here's a piece of a curtain pole that's about
a foot and a half long. You see that I've wound around its entire
length, except for about a half inch at either end, a coil of wire.
This is called the inductance coil. You will notice that the wire is
covered with cotton except for this little strip of wire extending
lengthwise where I've scraped the cotton off with sandpaper so as to
accommodate the sliding contacts. These sliding contacts can be made
from curtain rings with holes punched in them, through which are
passed copper rivets. These rivets press against the bare path of
the coil and can be moved to and fro until you find the exact point
where your set is in tune with the sending station."