RADIO PLANS
Shortly after the unfortunate affair at the dance Larry and Tim came to
the Layton bungalow, overjoyed at a letter they had just received.
"Bob, our streak of bad luck must be broken at last," exulted Larry. "It
was beginning to look like the bread line for ours, but now maybe we'll be
able to eat heartily again."
"You don't look very hungry just at present," grinned Bob. "But what does
it say in that letter that you're waving around, anyway?"
"We've got an engagement, at last," put in Tim. "And, oh, boy! make out it
doesn't seem like money from home!"
"Well, that's certainly fine," said Bob, heartily.
"It's with Chasson's vaudeville show," explained Larry. "It's a traveling
show, and we probably won't show more than one or two nights in a town. Of
course, it isn't as swell an outfit as we would like to connect up with,
but it will keep the wolf from the door for a little while."
"It will tide us over until we can hook up with something classier,
anyway," said Tim. "The chances are we'll play in all the towns around
this part of the country, and if we land in the one you fellows live in,
we'll expect you to applaud our act harder than any of the others, no
matter how bad we are." And he grinned.
"If you come to Clintonia, you can bet we'll give you the glad hand, all
right," promised Bob. "I suppose we all get free passes, don't we?" with a
twinkle in his eye.
"You'd get all you want if Tim and I had the say-so," said Larry, "but the
manager probably won't be able to see it that way."
"Some day we'll have a show of our own, maybe," said Tim. "Then we'll give
you all passes, you can bet your boots on that."
"Don't try to hold your breath until then, though," said Larry. "The way
things are breaking for us lately, we'll be more likely to be inviting our
friends to come and visit us in the poorhouse."
"Over the hills to the poorhouse,
It's not so far away,
We may get there to-morrow,
If we don't get there to-day,"
chanted Tim, immediately afterward breaking into a lively jig to express
his indifference to that mournful possibility.
"Well, if you ever do land in that cheerful place, you'll be very
popular," laughed Bob. "But now that you've both got an engagement, you
won't have to worry about that for some time to come. I know the other
fellows will be glad to hear about it, too. They went down to town this
morning, but they ought to be back pretty soon now. Stick around till they
come, and we'll tell them the glad news."
"Surest thing you know," acquiesced Larry. "We don't have to report to
Chasson until day after to-morrow, anyway. How's the wireless coming along
these days?"
"Fine and dandy," responded Bob. "After we get back to Clintonia we intend
to build some big sets so that we can receive signals from all over the
country."
"But where do you get all the money to buy that stuff?" asked Larry. "Some
of it must be pretty expensive, isn't it?"
"Not as expensive as you might think, although some of the apparatus, like
audion bulbs, certainly run into money," replied Bob. "But we can easily
sell the apparatus that we already have, and make enough on that to buy
the new things with. There are plenty of people ready and anxious to buy
our sets, because we can sell them for less than the store would charge,
and they work as well or better than some store sets."
"Who's talking of selling our sets?" broke in a well-known voice, as Joe,
Herb and Jimmy came, pellmell, into the room.
"I was," said Bob, in answer to Jimmy's question. "I was thinking of
selling your set to the junkman, for what it would bring."
"Huh!" exclaimed Jimmy, indignantly. "I'll bet a junkman wouldn't even buy
yours. He'd expect you to pay him to take it away."
"Say, you fellows must have a high opinion of each other's radio outfits,"
broke in Tim, laughing. "But if you want to give one away, here's Tiny
Tim, ready and waiting."
"No chance," said Jimmy, positively. "I worked too many hot nights on mine
to give it away now, and I guess Bob thinks he'd like to keep his, too,
even though it isn't really much good."
"It was good enough to take the Ferberton prize, anyway, which is more
than some people can say of theirs," Bob replied, grinning. "How about it,
Doughnuts?"
"That was because the judges didn't know any better," said his rotund
friend. "They should have made me the judge, and then there's no doubt but
what my set would have won that hundred bucks."
"We can believe that easily enough," laughed Larry. "But you radio bugs
forget your hobby for a few minutes and listen to the glad news," and then
he told them about the engagement he and Tim had secured.
All the boys congratulated them on their good fortune, and after some
further conversation the two actors departed, first promising to drop in
for a visit before going away to start their engagement.
"I like those two fellows first rate, and would be mighty glad to see them
succeed," said Bob, after they had gone. "It seems to me they ought to
make a big hit, too. They're a regular riot all the time they're with
us."
"Yes, they're certainly funny," agreed Joe. "What were you telling them
about selling our sets, just as we came in?"
"Oh, I was just saying that we could get money to buy new apparatus,
audion bulbs, and that sort of expensive stuff, by selling one or two of
the sets we've got now, and whacking up the proceeds," said Bob. "My dad
spoke of that last evening, and it struck me as a mighty good idea. I know
of several people in Clintonia who would like nothing better than to have
a good set, and having made them ourselves, we can sell them cheaper than
the stores, and still make money on them."
"Say, that's a pretty good stunt," said Joe. "I was trying to figure out
the other day where we could get the necessary cash. The cheapest audion
bulb you can buy costs about three dollars."
The other boys, also, were pleased with this idea, and said so. They
agreed to sell two of their sets as soon as they got back to Clintonia.
This was their last week at Ocean Point, for the fall term of the high
school started the following Monday, and they were to leave Ocean Point on
Saturday.
"It will be pretty hard to bone down to lessons again, after a summer like
this, but I suppose there's no help for it," said Jimmy, mournfully. "I
feel as though I'd forgotten all I ever knew."
"That isn't much, so you don't need to worry about it," said Joe, with
pleasing frankness.
"I suppose you think you're a regular Solomon, don't you?" retorted Jimmy.
"Nobody else does, though, I can tell you that."
"Quit your scrapping," admonished Herb. "You don't either of you know a
single good joke, while I'm just full of wit and humor. Why, here's a joke
I thought up just the other day, and I don't mind admitting that it's a
pippin, not to say peacherino. I thought it up while I was watching some
fellows play tennis, and I just know you're all crazy to hear it."
"We'd have to be crazy to want to hear it," said Bob. "But probably
you'll feel better after you get it out of your system, so fire ahead, and
we'll do our best to stand the strain."
"This won't be any strain; it will be a pleasure," said Herb. "Now, this
joke is in the form of a humorous question and an even more humorous
answer. Oh, it's a wonder, I'll say."
"We'll say something, too, if you don't hurry up and get the agony over
with," threatened Joe. "Make it snappy, before we weaken under the strain
and throw you out the window."
"Well, then," said Herb: "Why does the tennis ball? And the answer is:
Because the catgut on the racquet." And he broke into a peal of laughter,
in which, however, his friends refused to join.
"Well, what's the matter?" asked Herb, cutting short his laughter as he
saw that the others only shook their heads despondently. "Why in the name
of all that's good don't you laugh? Wasn't that a peach of a joke?"
"Herb, the only reason we don't kill you right away is because you will be
punished more by being allowed to live and suffer," said Bob. "That was a
fierce joke."
"Oh, get out!" exclaimed Herb, in an injured tone. "You fellows don't know
a clever joke when you hear it."
"Likely enough we don't," admitted Joe. "We don't get much chance to hear
clever jokes while you're around."
"Oh, well, if you don't like my jokes, why don't you think up some of your
own?" asked Herb, in an aggrieved tone. "There's no law against it, you
know."
"There ought to be, though," put in Jimmy.
"Oh, what do you know about it?" asked Herb, incensed at the laughter that
followed this thrust. "All you can think of, Doughnuts, is what you're
going to get to eat when the next meal time comes around."
"Well, I enjoy thinking of that so much, that I'd be foolish to think of
anything else," said Jimmy, serenely.
"You win, Jimmy," said Bob, as he and Joe shouted with laughter at Herb's
discomfiture. The latter was inclined to be sulky at first, but he soon
forgot his ill humor, and was as gay as the others as they discussed their
plans for the fall and winter months.
Contrary to the predictions of some of their neighbors in Clintonia, their
enthusiasm for radio work had increased rather than diminished, and they
were anxious to become the possessors of sets capable of hearing any
station in the United States, and perhaps even the large foreign stations.
Of course, this meant that their apparatus would have to be much more
intricate and expensive than any they had constructed hitherto, but the
realization of this did not deter them. On the contrary, the thought that
the task would be one to tax their skill and knowledge to the utmost only
served to make them more eager to begin. They examined numberless
catalogues and circulars in an effort to determine where and at what cost
they could obtain their necessary supplies, jotting down notes as they
went along. By supper time they had acquired a pretty good idea of what
their new equipment would cost, and were pleased to find that it came
within the amount that they thought they could get by selling two of their
present complete sets.
"Well, then," said Bob, in conclusion, as they heard the supper bell ring,
"the first thing we do when we get back home will be to sell the two sets,
and then we'll get busy on making the new ones."
With this the others agreed.