LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS
"It's going to be pretty hard for Larry when he does start to get around,
I'm afraid," said Bob, after the boys had left the hospital. "Tim told me
yesterday that Larry's mother is an invalid, and has to have a nurse all
the time. Larry is her only support, and if he can't keep up his
vaudeville career I don't see how either of them are going to get along."
"It's pretty tough, all right," replied Joe. "The doctor says now that
he'll be as strong as ever eventually, but he admits that it will be a
long time until he is. I wish we could think of some way to help Larry out
until he gets on his feet again."
"Well, maybe we can," observed Bob, hopefully. "Although I must admit that
I can't see much light on the subject just at present."
"We'll have to get busy on our new radio set in earnest pretty soon," said
Joe, after a pause in which each had been busy with his own thoughts.
"We've spent so much of our time at the hospital with Larry that we
haven't got more than about ten cents' worth done since the night of the
accident."
"We can plug right along with it now," said Bob. "And speaking of radio,
who do you think called me up last night? I meant to tell you before, but
I forgot all about it."
"Who was it?" asked Herb. "Somebody we all know?"
"You bet we all know him," said Bob, laughing. "It was Frank Brandon."
"Frank Brandon!" they all exclaimed. "Where's he been keeping himself
lately?" asked Joe.
"He said that he had had to go to Florida on some government business
connected with wireless, and he just got back to this part of the country
yesterday," replied Bob. "He expected to be in Clintonia to-day, and said
that if we were all going to be at my house to-night, he'd drop in and
make us a visit."
"I hope you told him that we'd be there," said Jimmy.
"Of course I did," replied Bob. "You fellows had better get around bright
and early this evening, because he said he'd be around right after supper.
I know I've got plenty of questions I want to ask him, and I guess you
have, too."
"You can bet I have!" exclaimed Jimmy. "I want to ask him where he got
that package of milk chocolate he had with him the last time I saw him. He
gave me a piece, and believe me, it was about the best I've ever tasted."
"There you go again," exclaimed Herb, with a laugh, "always thinking of
that stomach of yours. Don't you ever think of anything serious?"
"Serious?" echoed Jimmy. "It's a serious enough thing for me, where to get
that milk chocolate. I've been in pretty nearly every candy store in town,
but none of them seems to have anything quite so good."
By this time the boys had reached Main Street, and they parted for the
time being, promising to get to Bob's house as soon as they could after
supper.
The Layton family had hardly finished their evening meal when there came a
ring at the doorbell, and Bob jumped up to admit the expected guest.
"Hello, Mr. Brandon!" exclaimed Bob, as they both shook hands heartily.
"It seems great to see you again."
"I can say the same thing about you," replied Frank Brandon. "You're
tanned like a life guard at Coney Island. I'll bet you haven't been far
from salt water all summer."
"You're right there," smiled Bob. "I was in the water so much that it's a
wonder I didn't turn into a fish. The whole bunch of us had a wonderful
time of it."
"Good enough!" Brandon exclaimed, heartily. "Where's all the rest of your
crowd this evening?"
"They'll be around soon now. I'm expecting them any minute. There's Joe's
whistle now! I thought he'd be along soon."
As he finished speaking Joe came bounding up the porch two steps at a
time, and he had hardly got inside and shaken hands with Brandon when
Jimmy and Herb appeared together. There was great excitement while they
exchanged greetings, and then they went into the parlor and were made
welcome by Mr. and Mrs. Layton.
"It seems good to get back in this town again," said Brandon, in a voice
that carried conviction. "You folks have made me so welcome ever since we
became acquainted that it seems almost like my own home town."
"That's the way we want everybody to feel," smiled Mr. Layton. "Clintonia
is a neighborly town, and we always do our best to make visitors feel at
home."
"I hear you've done a good deal of traveling since you were here last,"
said Mrs. Layton.
"Yes, I had a little commission to execute for the government down in
Miami," said Brandon. "A radio inspector is apt to be sent anywhere on
short notice, you know."
"How is your cousin, Mr. Harvey, getting along?" asked Bob. "Has he got
entirely over his experience of last summer, when Dan Cassey knocked him
out and stole his money?"
"Oh, yes, he's all right now," responded Brandon. "I saw him only day
before yesterday, and he couldn't get through talking about the way you
fellows took charge of the station while he was down and out, and then got
the money back afterward. That was mighty fine work, and you can believe
both he and I are grateful to you for what you did."
"Oh, that wasn't much," disclaimed Bob. "Besides, he'd done so much for us
that we owed him something in return."
"He didn't say anything about that," observed Brandon.
"I suppose that's the last thing in the world he would mention," laughed
Joe. "But he gave us all kinds of stuff on radio, and even loaned us a
practice set to get the code with."
"Don't forget about the motor boat," said Herb. "He was as generous with
that as with everything else. We sure had some fine cruises in the old Sea
Bird."
"That sounds like him, all right," admitted Brandon. "There's hardly
anything you could ask him for that he wouldn't cheerfully give you. He
told me that you fellows were getting to be regular sharps at the radio
game. Are you building any sets at present?"
"You bet we are!" cried Bob. "Come on down to my workroom, and we'll show
you what we're doing. We're working on a regular set this time."
"I'm with you," said Brandon, heartily. "Come ahead and let's see what
you've got. I suppose you'll be giving me pointers pretty soon."
"Not for a little time yet, anyway," grinned Bob. "The government hasn't
been after us yet begging us to take jobs in the radio department."
"You never can tell," replied Brandon. "There's a big demand for radio men
these days, and we're getting some pretty young chaps in our division."
"We don't feel as though we'd much more than scratched the surface of
radiophony yet," said Joe. "There's such an immense amount to be learned,
and then there are new discoveries being made every day. It would take
almost all a fellow's time just to keep up with new developments, let
alone learn all the fundamentals."
"That will all come in time," said the radio inspector. "You're on the
right road now, anyway, and traveling pretty fast. Say!" he exclaimed, a
moment later, as he was ushered into the workroom and caught sight of the
new set, which was partially completed. "You're certainly going into it
pretty heavily this time, aren't you? I didn't imagine you were working up
anything so elaborate."
"We thought we might as well make something pretty good while we were
about it," said Bob. "It won't be much more work to make this set than a
smaller one, and we expect to get a whole lot better results. Don't you
think so yourself?"
"There's no doubt about it," agreed Mr. Brandon. "When you get this set
finished, you ought to be able to catch pretty near anything that happens
to be flying around. Let's see how you intend to hook things up."
The boys explained their ideas and methods in detail, while the radio man
nodded appreciatively from time to time. Sometimes he interrupted to ask a
question or make a suggestion, which was duly taken note of by the
enthusiastic boys.
"There doesn't seem to be a whole lot that I can tell you," remarked Frank
Brandon, after they had gone over everything in detail. "You seem to have
thought it out very thoroughly already, and outside of the few minor
things I've already told you, I can't think of much to suggest. It looks
to me as though you'd have a pretty good set there when you get through.
"There's one tip I want to give you though," he went on. "And that is to
be careful about your tuning. You've noticed, no doubt, that sometimes you
get first-class results, and then again the reception is so unsatisfactory
that you are disgusted. Now in nine times out of ten the whole trouble is
that you haven't tuned your receiver properly. You can't do the thing in a
haphazard fashion and get the signals clearly. You know what Michelangelo
said about 'trifles that make perfection.' Well, it's something like that
in tuning your receiver.
"Now I see that in this receiver you have separate controls for the
primary and secondary circuits. To tune in correctly you have to adjust
both circuits to the wave length of the special signal that you are trying
to get.
"First you start in with a tentative adjustment of the first primary. Fix
it, let us say, for between a third and a half of its maximum value. I see
that here the coupling between the primary and secondary is adjustable, so
place it at maximum at the start. Of course you know that maximum means
the position in which the windings are closest to each other.
"Then you fix up the secondary circuit for adjustment to the wave length,
turning it slowly from minimum to maximum until you come to the point
where the desired station is heard. When this is found, you again
readjust the primary until you find the point of maximum loudness.
"Now you see the advantage of this double control. If an interfering
station butts in, just decrease the coupling between primary and secondary
and then tune again the two circuits. You can feel pretty sure of cutting
out the interference and getting clearly just the station that you want."
"That's mighty good dope," said Bob. "I've had that trouble more than once
and haven't been quite clear as to the best way of getting around it."
"Then too," went on the radio expert, "you must be careful in adjusting
the tickler that gives the regenerative effect. Start in slowly by turning
the control knob toward the maximum. You'll soon strike a point where the
signal will be loud and clear. Now when you've got to that point, don't
overdo it. If you get too much regeneration, the quality of the notes
becomes distorted and before you know it you have only a jumble. Let well
enough alone is a good rule in tuning, as in many other things. When your
coffee's sweet enough, another spoonful of sugar will only spoil it. Keep
to the middle of the road. It isn't the loudest noise you want but the
sweetest music.
"Be careful, too," he urged, "not to have too brilliant a filament. It's
wholly unnecessary to have it at a white heat, and you don't want to burn
it out any more quickly than you have to. You can save money in reducing
the filament brightness by increasing the regeneration, which will make up
for the loss of brilliancy.
"Now by keeping these things in mind," he concluded, "you'll be able to
operate your set to the best advantage and get the satisfaction you are
looking for."
"We certainly hope to, anyway," said Bob. "We've put a lot of work and
quite a little money into this outfit, and we'd be mightily disappointed
if we didn't get good results."
"There's not much doubt about that, I think," remarked Frank Brandon. "You
ought to see some of the sets I come across! They look to be regular
nightmares, but they get passable results, anyway. Radio is certainly
getting to be a country-wide craze. Only the other day I was at one of the
big broadcasting stations, and the manager told me that they were actually
having trouble to get performers, there is such a demand for them. They
seem to be especially hard up for novelty acts--something out of the
ordinary. People get tired of the same old programmes night after night."
"Say!" exclaimed Bob, struck by a sudden thought. "Why wouldn't that be
just the thing for Larry when he gets a little better? He could do his
bird imitations just as well as ever, and he could do it as well sitting
in a chair, as far as that goes."
"Bob, you said something!" exclaimed Joe, slapping him on the back.
"That's just the kind of thing that would appeal to people, too. I'll bet
he'd be a hit from the beginning."
"Who is Larry?" asked Mr. Brandon, curiously.
The excited boys told him all about their acquaintance with Larry and Tim
up to the time of the almost fatal accident in the theater. Brandon
listened attentively, and when they had finished sat thinking for several
minutes.
"Yes, I think it could be arranged all right," he said at last. "I know
the manager of one big New Jersey broadcasting station personally, and I'm
sure he'd be willing to give your friend a try-out. If he's as good as you
say he is, they'd probably be glad to put him on the pay roll. From what
you tell me, his act is certainly a novelty, and that's what they want."