VAULTING AMBITION
"Bang!" exclaimed Bob, with a laugh. "That was saying something, Jimmy.
You surely hit the bull's-eye plumb in the center that time. Guess that
will hold you a while, Herb."
"It was a terrible slam," acknowledged Herb. "If I weren't so busy eating
this pie, Jimmy, I'd be tempted to make you take back those cruel words."
"Nary take," said Jimmy, positively. "I said 'em, and I'll stick by 'em.
Besides, it's so. Isn't it, Bob? I'll leave it to you."
"Well," said Bob, "in the interests of truth I'll have to admit that as a
rule I'd rather have a stomach ache than listen to one of Herb's home-made
jokes. But on the other hand, some of them aren't so awfully bad. If you
took one and polished it up a bit here and there and changed it around a
little, it might be good enough to raise a laugh in an insane asylum."
"It seems to me I remember once, a long time ago, when he made a joke
that was so funny that we all laughed at it," said Joe. "It hardly seems
possible, but I'm almost sure I remember it."
"Oh, you're all bugs, anyway, so that doesn't prove anything," said Herb,
calmly finishing the last of his pie. "But some day, when I become a
world-famous humorist, you'll realize how dumb you were not to appreciate
my jokes. Now you get them free, but then it will cost you money to hear
them."
"It will never cost me any money," said Bob, with conviction. "I wouldn't
give a plugged nickel for a book full of them."
"Neither will anybody else," said Joe. "If you have any idea of ever
making a living that way, Herb, you'd better forget it. You'd starve to
death, sure."
"Well, it's a cinch I won't have to starve to death right now, anyway, so
quit your croaking," retorted the much abused Herb. "Whoever told you
fellows that you were judges of humor, anyway?"
"A person doesn't have to be an expert to judge your jokes," came back
Joe. "If he knows anything at all, he can tell that they're rotten."
"All your friends seem to have very decided views on the question,
Herbert," laughed Frank Brandon. "The popular vote seems to be heavily
against you."
"Oh, their opinions aren't worth worrying about," said Herb, complacently.
"As long as I know my jokes are good, I don't care what they say."
"That's the spirit," encouraged Brandon. "Remember, all great men have had
to fight an uphill battle against criticism."
"That's true," said Herb, with a melancholy sigh. "And what's more, if you
can judge by the amount of criticism, I must be going to be extra great.
Still, that's likely enough, I suppose."
"Don't stop him, fellows," said Bob, with a mischievous grin. "Let him
rave on. If he enjoys kidding himself that way, why should we wake him
up?"
"Aw, you fellows who think you're so smart are probably kidding
yourselves," said Herb. "Nobody could really be as smart as you Indians
think you are and live to tell the story."
"That's one of the failings of human nature to rate ourselves too highly,"
interposed Dr. Dale, with a smile. "But now, how would you all like to go
in and hear the rest of the concert? We've missed only the first part, and
there's still quite a good deal to come."
They all acceded to this proposal with alacrity, and found that, as the
doctor had said, they had not missed much of the programme. The wireless
apparatus worked to perfection, and they could hear everything
perfectly.
"The static isn't nearly as bad to-night as it was a month or two ago,"
said Dr. Dale. "At times last summer it interfered a good deal with my
receiving."
"Yes, it's always a good deal worse in summer than in winter," remarked
Frank Brandon. "I always advise beginners not to start at wireless in
mid-summer, as they sometimes get such poor results with their small sets
that they get discouraged and give up the game altogether. It's better to
wait until fall, and then by the next summer they've had experience enough
to know how to reduce the bad effects of static."
"It used to get pretty bad sometimes at Ocean Point last summer," observed
Bob. "Once or twice our concerts were almost spoiled by it, while at other
times we'd hardly notice it."
"With that set, you ought to be able to get any broadcasting station in
the Eastern States," said Brandon. "And if you have luck, and conditions
happened to be just right, you might even get something from the other
side, although of course that isn't very likely."
"Oh, we've been talking about that, but we don't really expect to," said
Joe. "We might be able to get the wireless telegraph signals from the
other side, though, don't you think?"
"That's likely enough," answered Brandon. "The best time to get them is
late at night, when the broadcasting and amateur stations are not sending.
I've often sat and listened with Brandon Harvey to the big station at
Nauen, Germany, or to the Eiffel Tower in Paris."
"Jimminy!" exclaimed Herb. "We'll have to bone down at our language
courses at high school, fellows. I suppose that they send in whatever
language the people speak where the sending station is located, don't
they?"
"As a rule they do, but not always," replied Frank Brandon. "It depends to
a great extent where the message is being sent to. If it is being sent to
this country, it is often in English, while if it were being sent to
France, it would be in French, naturally."
"Yes, I suppose it would have to be that way," said Bob, thoughtfully,
"although I never thought about that side of it before. It won't make much
difference what language they're sending in, though, so long as we know
that we can get their signals. It will be a lot of fun, though, trying to
make out what they're saying."
"It will be a good alibi, anyway," said Jimmy. "If we can't understand the
dots and dashes, we can just say that they're sending in German or French
or Italian. Nobody could expect us to know all those languages."
"If they did expect it, they'd be badly disappointed," said Herb. "I've
been wrestling with French for three terms now, but I don't seem to know
much more about it than when I started."
"I can believe that, all right," said Jimmy. "Only day before yesterday
you flunked your recitation in French, and the professor told you that you
were forgetting your French faster than you were learning it. He was
right, wasn't he?"
"I'll say he was," said Herb, shamelessly. "At the rate I'm learning it,
it would be strange if I weren't forgetting it faster. I'll have to do a
lot of cramming to pass the mid-term exams."
"You fellows had better quit your talking and listen to the music,"
suggested Joe. "Here's a swell quartette that has just been announced. Can
the chatter and do a little listening."
"That's easy," said Herb. "I'd rather hear a good quartette than almost
anything else I know of."
For another hour or so they listened to the concert, which turned out to
be an unusually fine one. Then, when the last selection had been given,
Mr. Brandon rose to go.
"I've had a wonderful afternoon and evening," he said, "and I've enjoyed
every minute of it. I hope the next time you give a party like this,
Doctor Dale, that I'll be invited again."
"You surely will," replied the doctor, heartily. "The latch string always
hangs outside the door for you, you know."
The radio boys also expressed their appreciation of the entertainment they
had received, and Doctor Dale invited them cordially to come again.
"I'd like to be at the station to-morrow to meet Larry," he said. "But as
to-morrow is Sunday, I shall be unable to get there. But don't forget to
give him my congratulations on his success, will you?"
This the boys promised to do, and then they and Mr. Brandon said
good-night and started homeward.
"My, but this has been a full day," said Bob. "We've certainly been moving
some since this morning. And think of all we've accomplished. I'll bet
Larry will get well so fast now that he'll surprise the whole lot of us."
"I'll bet Tim will be glad to hear about it,'" remarked Joe. "I wonder if
he's got an engagement yet."
"He hadn't, up to a few days ago," said Bob. "Larry told me that in one of
the letters he had received from him he said he had several prospects, but
nothing definite. You know, of course, that Chasson wouldn't keep Tim
after Larry's accident broke up the act."
"Yes, Larry told me about that," replied Joe. "I guess poor Tim has had
pretty hard sledding lately, too. But he has his health, and I guess
he'll land an engagement soon, if he hasn't already got one."
"He's too clever a dancer to be out of work very long, it seems to me,"
said Herb. "If I were manager of a show, you can bet I'd snap him up
pretty quick."
"That's right," agreed Jimmy. "He's certainly a crackerjack dancer, but
there is one thing about him that I never thought much of."
"What's that?" asked Bob, curiously.
"Why, haven't you ever noticed what a light appetite he has?" asked Jimmy.
"I'd be ashamed of myself if I couldn't eat more than he does. He's always
through a meal before I've fairly got started."
Frank Brandon laughed at this and interrupted.
"Guess I'll have to say good-night, fellows," he said. "Here's my hotel,
and I, for one, feel tired enough to sleep. I'll try to be at the station
to-morrow to meet Larry, but I won't promise. I'm expecting instructions
from the government that may change my plans at any time."
"You don't expect to have to leave Clintonia soon, do you?" asked Bob,
anxiously.
"No, I hardly think so. Not right away, anyway," answered the wireless
man. "I may have to be away a few days, but I'll be back again soon."
"We're all hoping that you'll be stationed here permanently," said Bob, as
all paused in front of Mr. Brandon's hotel. "We'd hate to see you
transferred away from here."
"That's mighty nice to hear," said the radio expert, and his tone left no
doubt that he was in earnest. "You may believe that I'll do my best to
stay here, anyway. This is the center of a pretty large territory, and the
wireless business is growing so fast that it's possible I'll be able to.
We'll make the most of the time I'm here, anyway."
"You bet we will," said Bob. "We'll be looking for you at the station
to-morrow, anyway, but if you're not there we'll tell Larry why you
couldn't come."
The boys said good-night to Frank Brandon, and started on the short walk
to Main Street and their homes.