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WALTER AND THE WIRELESS
By Sara Ware Bassett
_The Invention Series_
PAUL AND THE PRINTING PRESS
STEVE AND THE STEAM ENGINE
TED AND THE TELEPHONE
WALTER AND THE WIRELESS
[Illustration: "K Y W Chicago, Illinois. Stand by fifteen minutes
for----." FRONTISPIECE. _See page_ 208.]
The Invention Series
WALTER AND
THE WIRELESS
BY
SARA WARE BASSETT
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
WILLIAM F. STECHER
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1923
_Copyright, 1923_,
BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
_All rights reserved_
Published March, 1923
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
To
PAUL MARBLE
AND HIS COLLIE BOBS,
THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I HIS HIGHNESS 1
II THE NEW JOB 17
III WHAT WORRIED MRS. KING 36
IV WALTER MAKES HIS BOW TO HIS EMPLOYER 50
V THE CONQUEST OF ACHILLES 64
VI HIS HIGHNESS IN A NEW ROLE 75
VII THE PURSUIT OF LOLA 92
VIII A BLUNDER AND WHAT CAME OF IT 104
IX MORE CLUES 116
X BOB 127
XI THE DECISION 138
XII LESSONS 147
XIII INFORMATION FROM A NEW SOURCE 162
XIV BOB AS PEDAGOGUE 169
XV TIDINGS 183
XVI MIRACLES 197
XVII THE LAWS OF THE AIR 210
XVIII THE NET TIGHTENS 228
XIX WALTER STEPS INTO THE BREACH 238
XX THE RETURN OF THE WANDERERS 248
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"K Y W CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. STAND BY FIFTEEN MINUTES
FOR----" _Frontispiece_
PAGE
THE TWO BOYS WOULD DISCUSS BOATS, FISHING AND
KINDRED INTERESTS 76
"YOU WILL GET ALL THE WIRELESS COMING TO YOU,
THAT'S ALL. TAKE IT FROM ME" 154
CLEARLY AND EVENLY THE MESSAGE TICKED ITSELF OFF.
THEN THERE WAS SILENCE 240
WALTER AND THE WIRELESS
CHAPTER I
HIS HIGHNESS
His Highness came by the nickname honestly enough and yet those who
heard it for the first time had difficulty in repressing a smile at
the incongruity of the title. In fact perhaps no term could have been
found that would have been less appropriate. For Walter King possessed
neither dignity of rank nor of stature. On the contrary he was a
short, snub-nosed boy of fifteen, the epitome of good humor and
democracy.
His hair was red and towsled, his face spangled with great golden
freckles which sea winds and sunshine had multiplied until there was
scarce room for another on his beaming countenance. Hands and arms
were freckled too, for when one lives in a bathing suit six months of
the year and is either in the water or on it most of the time the skin
fails to retain its pristine whiteness of hue. But His Highness did
not care a fig for that. He was far too busy baiting eel and lobster
traps, mending fish nets, untangling lines, and painting boats to give
a thought to his personal beauty.
Indeed his mother often bewailed the fact that he was not more
interested in his appearance and there were times when it seemed as if
she were right. Certainly when her son ambled home at dusk with every
rebellious hair standing upended upon his head and a string of
flounders dripping salt from the tips of their slimy tails she was
justified to a degree in wishing he had more regard for the niceties
of life.
"Look at the mess you're making!" she would pipe indignantly. "I've
just mopped this floor, Walter."
"You have? Now isn't that the dickens! Well, no matter, Ma; I'll swab
the place down again when I've finished cleaning these fish. They're
beauties, aren't they? A batch of them fried won't go bad for supper
to-night. I'm hungry as a bear. Shouldn't think I'd eaten anything in
ten years. Say, Ma, what do you s'pose? Dave Corbett was out in the
_Nancy_ three hours and never got a bite. What do you think of that?
The wind died down, his engine got stalled, and he and Hosey Talbot
had to row home from the Bell Reef Shoals. Haw, haw! Maybe I didn't
roar when I saw them come pulling in against the tide, mad as two
man-eating sharks. Fit to harpoon the first person they met, they
were. I sung out and asked them were they practicing for the Harvard
and Yale boat race and Dave was that peeved he shied an oarlock after
me. Haw, haw, haw!"
"You ought not to provoke Dave, Walter."
"Provoke him? But he was provoked already, Ma. There's no harm
putting an extra stick on the fire when it's burning, anyhow. Besides,
Dave is never in earnest when he bawls me out. He just likes to hear
himself scold."
"He has a terrible temper."
"Oh, I know half the town is scart to death of him. But he always will
take a jolly from me. We understand each other, Dave and I. Say, Ma,
these rubber boots leak. Did you know that? Yes, siree! They leak like
sieves. I might as well be without 'em."
Mrs. King sighed.
"I don't see," murmured she, "how you manage to go through everything
you have so quickly, Walter. Nothing you wear lasts you more than a
week."
"Oh, I say, make it a month. Do, now!"
He saw his mother smile faintly.
"Well, a month then."
"You couldn't stretch it to two?"
"Not possibly. Four weeks seems to be your limit."
The sharpness of her tone, however, had weakened.
"Four weeks, eh? I did think I'd had these rubber boots longer than
that. It is amazing how attached you can get to things even in a
little while."
Holding aloft the knife with which he was preparing to behead the
unlucky flounders, His Highness gazed reflectively down at his feet.
"It's awful that I have to keep having so many things, isn't it? I
hate to be costing you money all the time. Now if you'd only let me
ship for the Grand Banks when the _Katie B._ goes out----"
"Walter! What is the use of digging up that old bone again? I never
shall let you ship for the Grand Banks or any other Banks so long as I
live. We've had this out hundreds of times before. You know you and
Bob are all I've got in the world. Do you suppose I want you lost in a
fog and never heard from again?"
"Oh, Great Scott, Ma! They don't lose fishing boats now as they used
to. They carry wireless, and the fleet keeps in touch every minute."
"The dories have no wireless aboard them," observed Mrs. King grimly.
"I suppose not, no, probably they don't," His Highness admitted
reluctantly.
"Anyway, wireless or no wireless, you are not going on a fishing
cruise to the Grand Banks."
"I hear you, Ma," grinned the boy.
"There is plenty of work right here on the land if you're looking for
it. Why must you always be wanting to go to sea to earn money?"
"Faith, Mother, I don't know," laughed Walter. "I expect it's because
I see chores to do when I'm afloat that I can't see ashore. It is the
way I was born."
"A poor way."
"Maybe it is. At any rate I can't help it."
"I'm afraid you do not try to help it very hard."
The lad shrugged his shoulders.
"There's that chance you have to hire out at the Crowninshields' for
the summer."
"Those snobs."
"Beggars cannot be choosers. Besides, they may not be snobs at all.
What makes you think they are?"
"Oh, I don't mind the lugs they put on," protested Walter, evading the
issue. "I suppose all New York swells do that. It's what they want me
for that gets my goat." Again the knife he held was tragically
upraised. "How would you like to be nursemaid to six or eight
brainless little pups no bigger than rats? Not but what I like dogs.
I'd like nothing better than to own a fine dog of some spirit. But
those imitations! Why, before a week was out, I'd have their necks
wrung."
"Mr. Crowninshield promised to pay you well."
"What's money if all the kids in town are going to josh you?"
"Money is a good deal when you need it." His mother shook her head
gravely. "Have you ever considered how badly we are in want of money,
Walter?"
"What do you mean, Ma?" The boy wheeled about, startled.
"I haven't said anything about it, dear, because I could not bear to
have you boys bothered," was the quiet answer. "But lately things have
not been going well and I have been pretty much worried. The money
your Uncle Henry invested for us isn't paying any dividends; there
seems to be something the matter with the company's affairs. As for
your Uncle Mark Miller, I've heard nothing from him in months. His
ship was to put in at Shanghai for cargo and I ought to have had a
letter by now; but none has come and I am afraid something must be the
trouble. He is a good brother and never fails to send me money. I can
ill afford to be without help now when the mortgage is coming due and
I have so many bills to meet. It takes a deal of money to live
nowadays. You boys do not realize that."
"Why, I had no idea you were fussed, Mother, and I'm sure Bob hadn't
either," declared Walter soberly.
"Then I have done better than I thought I had," returned his mother,
with the shadow of a smile. "I wanted to keep it secret if I could."
"But you shouldn't have tried to keep it a secret, Mater dear," Walter
replied. "I'm sure we'd rather know--at least I would."
"But what use is it?"
"Use? Why, all the use in the world, Ma. I shall go ahead and take Mr.
Crowninshield's job for one thing."
"But you said----"
"Shucks! I was only fooling about the dogs, Mother. I shan't really
mind exercising and taking care of them at all. Of course, I won't
deny I'd rather they were Great Danes or police dogs; I'd even prefer
Airedales or Cockers. Still I suppose these little mopsey Pekingese
must have some brains or the Lord would not have made them. No doubt I
shall get used to them in time."
"It is only for the summer vacation anyway, you know," ventured his
mother. "The Crowninshields go back to New York in October."
"I certainly ought to be able to bear up a few months," laughed
Walter, with a ludicrously wry twist of his mouth. "I hate to think
you've been bothered and have been keeping it all to yourself."
"Misery does like company," Mrs. King returned with an unsteady laugh.
"I believe I feel better already for having told you. But you must not
worry, dear. We shall pull through all right, I guess. How I came to
speak of it I don't know. It was only that it seemed such a pity to
toss the Crowninshield offer aside without even considering it. Nobody
knows where it might end. The village people say Mr. Crowninshield is
a very generous man, especially if he takes a fancy to anybody."
"But he may not take a fancy to me."
"He must have done so already to be asking you to help with the dogs."
"Nonsense, Ma! Did you think Mr. Crowninshield picked me out himself?
Why, he's never laid eyes on me. That great privilege is still in
store for him. No, he simply told Jerry Thomas, the caretaker, to find
somebody for the job before the family arrived. He doesn't care a darn
who it is so long as he has a person who can be trusted with his
priceless pups. Why, I heard the other day that a dealer from New York
had offered five thousand dollars for the smallest one."
"Walter!"
"Straight goods!"
"Five thousand dollars for a dog!" gasped Mrs. King.
Her son chuckled at her incredulity.
"Sure!"
"But it's a fortune," murmured she. "I had no idea there was a dog on
earth worth that much."
"All of them are not."
"But five thousand dollars!" she repeated. "Why, Walter, I wouldn't
have you responsible for a creature like that for anything in the
world. You might as well attempt to be custodian of a lot of gold
bonds. I shouldn't have a happy moment or sleep a wink thinking of it.
Suppose some of the little wretches were to run away and get lost? Or
suppose they were to be stolen? Or they might get sick and die on your
hands."
"That is why they want a responsible person to keep an eye on them."
His Highness squared his shoulders and threw out his chest.
"But you are not a responsible person," burst out Mrs. King with
unflattering candor.
"Mother!"
"Well--are you?" she insisted.
The boy's figure shriveled.
"No," he confessed frankly, "I'm afraid I'm not."
"Of course you're not," continued his mother with the same brutal
truthfulness. "It isn't that you do not mean to be, sonny," added she
kindly. "But your mind wanders off on all sorts of things instead of
the thing you're doing. That is why you do not get on better in
school. All your teachers say you are bright enough if you only had
some concentration to back it up. What you can be thinking of all the
time I cannot imagine; but certainly it isn't your lessons."
"I know," nodded Walter without resentment. "My mind does flop about
like a kite. I think of everything but what I ought to. It's a rotten
habit."
"Well, all I can say is you'd be an almighty poor one to look after a
lot of valuable dogs," sniffed his mother.
"I'll bet I could do it if I set out to."
"But would you set out to--that is the question? Would you really put
your entire attention on those dogs so that other people could drop
them from their minds? That is what taking care means."
"I couldn't promise. I could only try."
"I should never dare to have you undertake it."
"That settles it, Ma," announced His Highness. "I've evidently got to
prove to you that you are wrong. I'm going up to Crowninshields' this
minute to tell Jerry he can count on me from July until October."
"You're crazy."
"Wait and see."
"I know what I'll see," was the sharp retort. "I shall see all those
puppies kicking up their heels and racing off to Provincetown, and Mr.
Crowninshield insisting that you either find them and bring them back
or pay him what they cost him."
"Don't you believe it."
"That is what will happen," was the solemn prophecy.
"But you were keen for me to take the job."
"That was before I knew what the little rats were worth."
"You just thought it was a cheap sort of a position and that I was to
race round and make it pleasant for a lot of ordinary curs, didn't
you?" interrogated the lad with mock indignation.
In spite of herself his mother smiled.
"Well, you see you were wrong," went on Walter. "It is not that sort
of thing at all. It is a job for a trustworthy man, Jerry Thomas said,
and will bring in good wages."
"It ought to," replied his mother sarcastically, "if a person must
spend every day for three months sitting with his eyes glued on those
mites watching every breath they draw."
"It isn't just days, Mother; I'd have to be there nights as well."
"_What!_"
"That's what Jerry told me. I'd have to sleep on the place. Mr.
Crowninshield wants some one there all the time."
"But Walter----!" Mrs. King broke off in dismay.
"I know that would mean leaving you alone now that Bob has a regular
position at the Seaver Bay Wireless station. Still, why should you
mind? I have always been gone all day, anyhow; and at night I sleep so
soundly that you yourself have often said burglars might carry away
the bed from under me and I not know it."
"You are not much protection, that's a fact," confessed Mrs. King.
"Fortunately, though, I am not a timid person. It is not that I am
afraid to stay here alone. My chief objection is that it seems foolish
to run a great house like this simply for myself."
"Couldn't you get some one to come and keep you company?"
"Who, I should like to know?"
"Why--why--well, I haven't thought about it. Of course there's Aunt
Marcia King."
"Mercy on us!" exclaimed his mother, instantly flaring up. "I'd rather
see the evil one himself put in an appearance than your Aunt Marcia.
Of all the fault-finding, critical, sharp-tongued creatures in the
world she is the worst. Why, I'd let burglars carry away every stick
and stone I possess and myself thrown in before I would ask her here
to board."
"My, Mother! I'd no idea you had such a temper. You're as bad as Dave
Corbett," asserted Walter teasingly.
His mother tossed her head but he saw her flush uncomfortably.
"I suppose you wouldn't want a regular boarder," suggested the boy in
order to turn the conversation.
"A _boarder_!" There was less disapproval than surprise in the
ejaculation, however.
"Lots of people in the town do take summer boarders," added he.
"The thought never entered my head before," reflected his mother
aloud. "There certainly is plenty of room in the house, and we have a
royal view of the water. Besides, there's the garden. Strangers are
always coming here in vacation time and asking if they may look at it
or sketch it. It never seemed anything very remarkable to me for most
of the flowers have sown themselves and grow like weeds, but of course
there's no denying the hollyhocks, poppies, and larkspur are pretty.
But visitors always call it wonderful."
"Most likely you could get a big price if you were to rent rooms."
"I'm sure I could," replied Mrs. King thoughtfully. "It would help
toward the mortgage and the other bills, too. I've half a mind to try
it, Walter."
"It would mean extra work for you."
"Pooh! What do I care for that? Not a fig! In fact, with both of you
boys away I'd rather be busy than not," was the quick retort.
"Do you suppose Bob would mind?"
"Bob? Why, he's seldom at home nowadays. Why should he care?"
"Aunt Marcia might think----" began the boy mischievously. But the
comment was cut short.
"Oh, I know what your Aunt Marcia would say," broke in Mrs. King.
"She'd hold up her hands in horror and announce that it was beneath
the dignity of the family to take boarders."
They both laughed.
"I believe the very notion of scandalizing her will be what will
decide me," concluded his mother with finality. "I'll put an
advertisement in the Boston paper to-morrow and see what luck I have.
If the right people do not turn up, why I don't have to take them."
"Sure you don't."
"It's a good plan, a splendid plan, Walter. Boarders will give me
company and money too. I wonder it never occurred to me to do it
before." Then she patted the lad's shoulder, adding playfully, "I
guess if you have brains in one direction you must have them in
another. Still, as I said before, I do not fancy your being
responsible for those dogs."
"Pooh! You quit worrying, Ma, or I shall be sorry I told you they were
blue ribbon pups."
"I should have heard of it, never fear. You hear of everything in this
town. You can't help it. Like as not everybody in the place will know
by to-morrow morning that I am going to take boarders. Luckily I don't
care--that's one good thing. And as to the dogs, if you are resolved
to accept that position all I can say is that you must keep a head on
your shoulders. You cannot hire out for a job unless you are prepared
to give a full return for the money paid you. It is not honest. So
think carefully what you mean to do before you embark. And remember,
if you get into some careless scrape you cannot come back on me for
money for I haven't any to hand over."
"I shall shoulder my own blame," responded Walter, drawing in his
chin.
"Well and good then. If you are ready to do that, it is your affair
and I have nothing more to say," announced Mrs. King, preparing to
leave the room.
But Walter stayed her on the threshold.
"I don't see," he began, "why you always seem to expect I'm going to
get into a scrape. You are never looking for trouble with Bob."
"Bob! Bless your heart I never have to! You know that as well as I do.
Any one could trust Bob until the Day of Judgment. He never forgets a
word you tell him. Ask him to do an errand and it is as good as done.
You can drop it from your mind. From a little child he was dependable
like that. His teachers couldn't say enough about him. Wasn't he
always at the head of his class? The way he's turned out is no
surprise. Think of his picking up wireless enough outside school hours
to get a radio job during the war, and afterward that fine position at
Seaver Bay! Few lads his age could have done it. And think of the
messages he's entrusted with--government work, and sinking ships, and
goodness knows what not!"
The proud mother ceased for lack of breath.
"I wish I was like Bob," sighed Walter gloomily.
"Nonsense!" was the instant exclamation. "You're yourself, and
scatter-brain as you are, I'd want you no different. You're but a lad
yet. When you are Bob's age you may be like him. Who knows?"
"I'm afraid not," came dismally from Walter. "I haven't started out as
Bob did."
"What if you haven't? There's time enough to catch up if you hurry.
And anyway, I do not want my children all alike. Variety is the spice
of life. I wouldn't have you patterned after Bob if I could speak the
word."
"You wouldn't?" the boy brightened.
"Indeed I wouldn't! Who would I be patching torn trousers or darning
ripped sweaters for if you were like Bob, I'd like to know? Who'd be
pestering me to hunt up his cap and mittens? And who would I be frying
clams for?"
"Bob never could abide clam fritters, could he?" put in the younger
brother.
"Bob never had any frivolities," mused Mrs. King, shaking her head.
"Sometimes I've almost wished he had if only to keep the rest of us in
countenance. Many's the time I've feared lest he was going to die he
was that near perfect."
"Well, Ma, you haven't had to lie awake worrying because I was too
good for this world, have you?" chuckled His Highness, breaking into a
grin.
His mother regarded him affectionately.
"Oh, you'll make your way too, sonny, some day. It won't be as Bob has
done it; but you'll make it nevertheless. Folks are going to do things
for you simply because they cannot help it."
The boy studied her with a puzzled expression.
"What do you mean, Mater?"
As if coming out of a reverie Mrs. King started, the mistiness that
had softened her eyes vanishing.
"There! Look at the way you've splashed up my nice clean sink!"
complained she tartly. "Did any one ever see such a child--always
messing up everything! Come, clear out of here and take your fish with
you. It does seem as if you needed four nursemaids and a valet at your
heels to pick up after you. Be off this minute."
With a cloth in one hand and a bar of soap in the other, she elbowed
him away from the dishpan.
"You'll fry these flounders for supper, won't you, Ma?" called the lad
as he disappeared into the shed.
"Fry 'em? I reckon I'll have to. It's wicked to catch fish and not use
'em."
But he saw his mother's eyes twinkle and her grumbling assent did not
trouble him.