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_THE RADIO BOYS SERIES_
(Trademark Registered)
THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS
OR
THE MIDNIGHT CALL FOR ASSISTANCE
BY ALLEN CHAPMAN
AUTHOR OF
THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS
THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT
RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE
RALPH THE TRAIN DESPATCHER, ETC.
WITH FORWARD BY
JACK BINNS
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
BOOKS FOR BOYS
By Allen Chapman
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
THE RADIO BOYS SERIES
(Trademark Registered)
THE RADIO BOYS' FIRST WIRELESS
Or Winning the Ferberton Prize
THE RADIO BOYS AT OCEAN POINT
Or The Message that Saved the Ship
THE RADIO BOYS AT THE SENDING STATION
Or Making Good in the Wireless Room
THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS
Or The Midnight Call for Assistance
THE RADIO BOYS TRAILING A VOICE
Or Solving a Wireless Mystery
THE RAILROAD SERIES
RALPH OF THE ROUNDHOUSE
Or Bound to Become a Railroad Man
RALPH IN THE SWITCH TOWER
Or Clearing the Track
RALPH ON THE ENGINE
Or The Young Fireman of the Limited Mail
RALPH ON THE OVERLAND EXPRESS
Or The Trials and Triumphs of a Young Engineer
RALPH THE TRAIN DESPATCHER
Or The Mystery of the Pay Car
RALPH ON THE ARMY TRAIN
Or The Young Railroader's Most Daring Exploit
GROSSET & DUNLAP, Publishers, New York
Copyright, 1922, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
_The Radio Boys at Mountain Pass_
FOREWORD
By Jack Binns
In the first chapter of this volume there appears a statement
by "Bob," one of the Radio Boys, as follows: "Marconi is one
of those fellows that can never rest satisfied with what's
been done up to date."
Perhaps no more concise summary of the driving force back of
the men responsible for the tremendous development of radio
could be made. It is just that refusal to be satisfied with
what has been accomplished that has made wireless the greatest
wonder development in the history of mankind.
Although the radio boys in this case are but creatures of the
author's imagination, nevertheless they are typical of all the
men who have taken part in bringing radio to its present
stage. Even Marconi himself likes to take pride in the
assertion that he too was at one time an amateur, because he
insists that during his early experiments he was only a boy
amateur tinkering with a little known subject.
There is undoubtedly a great deal of truth in his claim,
because the experiments that led to his success were made
while he was a youth studying at the Bologna University in
Italy.
What is true of Marconi is equally true of all the others. We
have only to think of a name prominent in the field of wireless,
and then trace back the history of the man who bears it,
and you will come to an enthusiastic amateur.
There is another fascinating thing about wireless, and it is
the fact that no matter how much work one may really expend in
tinkering with it, and no matter how valuable the results, it
does not seem like real work. This is aptly phrased by Joe in
the book who says:
"I'd like to take it up as a regular profession. Think of what
it must be for fellows like Armstrong and Edison, and De
Forest and Marconi. I'll bet they don't think it's work."
There is no doubt that Joe wins his bet.
Jack Binns
CONTENTS
I--The Bear Pursues
II--An Exciting Chase
III--An Amazing Discovery
IV--The Bully Appears
V--A Startling Accusation
VI--The Burned Cottage
VII--Radio Wonders
VIII--A Close Shave
IX--Bucking the Drifts
X--Convincing a Skeptic
XI--A Mountain Radio Station
XII--The Marvelous Science
XIII--Pressed into Service
XIV--Scoring a Triumph
XV--The Snowslide
XVI--The Modern Miracle
XVII--Thrashing a Bully
XVIII--A Nest of Conspirators
XIX--On Guard
XX--Broken Wires
XXI--A Sudden Inspiration
XXII--Putting It Through
XXIII--The Midnight Call
XXIV--A Plot That Went Wrong
XXV--Solving the Mystery
THE RADIO BOYS AT MOUNTAIN PASS
CHAPTER I
THE BEAR PURSUES
"Nothing to do till tomorrow!" sang out Bob Layton, as he came out of
high school at Clintonia on Friday afternoon, his books slung over his
shoulder, and bounded down the steps three at a time.
"And not much to do then, except just what we want to," chimed in Joe
Atwood, throwing his cap into the air and catching it deftly as it
came down.
"You fellows do just love to work, don't you?" put in Herb Fennington,
with an air of self-righteousness that was belied by the merry twinkle
in his eyes.
"Oh, we just dote on it," replied Bob.
"Work is our middle name," asserted Joe. "In fact we lie awake nights
trying to conjure up something to do."
"Regular pair of Work Hard twins--I don't think," declared Jimmy
Plummer. "Now as for me----"
"Yes?" said Herb, with an assumption of polite interest.
"As for me," repeated Jimmy, not at all daunted by the incredulity in
Herb's tone, "I've been working like a horse all this season. A little
more and I'll be only skin and bone."
As Jimmy was by all odds the fattest boy in school, this assertion was
greeted by a roar of laughter.
"Now I know why you look like a string bean," chuckled Joe.
"That explains why his clothes hang on him so loosely," laughed Bob,
pointing to Jimmy's trousers which were so filled out that they
resembled tights. "Jimmy, you may be an unconscious humorist, but
you're a humorist just the same."
Jimmy glared at his tormentors and tried to look wan and haggard, but
the attempt was not a pronounced success.
"All the same," he protested, "Doc. Preston has been rushing us like
the old Harry all this fall, and what with school work and home work
and radio work----"
"Radio!" interrupted Bob. "You don't call that work, do you? Why it's
fun, the greatest fun in the world."
"You bet it is," chimed in Joe enthusiastically. "We never knew what
real fun was until we took it up. Look at the adventures it's brought
us. If it hadn't been for radio, we wouldn't have won those Ferberton
prizes; we wouldn't have run down Dan Cassey and made him give back
the mortgage he was trying to cheat Miss Berwick out of; and we
wouldn't have got back the money he nearly got away with when he
knocked out Brandon Harvey."
"Right you are," agreed Bob. "And probably that boat our folks were on
would have gone down with all on board if it hadn't been for the radio
message that brought help to it. And see the good it did for Larry and
the experience we had in sending out from the broadcasting station in
Newark!"
"I tell you, fellows, there's nothing like radio in the universe!"
agreed Jimmy.
"I'd like to take it up as a regular profession," said Joe. "Think of
what it must be for fellows like Armstrong and Edison and De Forest
and Marconi. I'll bet they don't think it's work. They're eager to get
at it in the morning and sorry to knock off at night. There's no
drudgery in a profession like that."
"Speaking of Marconi," remarked Herb, "I see that he's just come over
to America again on that yacht of his where he thought he heard
signals that might have been from Mars. I wonder if he's heard any
more of them."
"I don't know," replied Bob thoughtfully. "Though I've become so used
to what seem to be almost miracles that I'm prepared for almost
anything. At any rate, the only thing one can do nowadays is to keep
an open mind and not say beforehand that anything is impossible. It
would be great, wouldn't it, if we could get in touch with another
planet? And if we could with one, there doesn't seem to be any reason
why we couldn't with all, that is if there's life and intelligence on
them. But after all, at present that's only speculation. What
interests me more just now is the discovery that Marconi is said to
have made by which he is able to send out radio waves in one given
direction."
"I hadn't heard of that," remarked Joe. "I thought they spread out
equally in all directions and that anybody who had a receiving set
could take them."
"So they have up to now," replied Bob. "But Marconi's one of those
fellows that can never rest satisfied with what's been done up to
date. That's what makes him great. I'm not exactly clear about this
new idea of his, but the gist of it is that he throws a radio wave in
a certain direction, much as a mirror throws a ray of light. He uses a
reflector apparatus and the wave is caught at the receiving end on a
horizontal metal standard. With a wave of only three and one half
meters he has thrown a shaft nearly a hundred miles in just the
direction he wanted it to go. The article I read said that he had some
sort of semicircular reflector covered with wires that resembled a
dish cut in half. When the open side is turned toward the receiving
station he wants to reach, the signals are heard loud and clear. When
the open part is turned away, the signals can't be heard. The whole
idea is concentration. Just what a burning glass does with the rays of
the sun, his device does with the radio waves. Marconi's a wizard, and
that's all there is about it. There's no knowing what he may do next.
But you can be sure that it'll be something new and valuable."
"He's a wonder," agreed Joe heartily. "And if he's the 'father of
wireless,' we've got to admit that he has a good healthy baby. I'm
going to try to get on friendly terms with that baby."
"We've already been introduced to it, if we haven't got much further,"
laughed Bob. "But say, fellows, what's the program for tomorrow?"
"Three square meals," was Jimmy's suggestion.
"Sure," agreed Herb. "Though in your run-down condition you ought to
have at least six."
"He'll get them, don't worry," chaffed Joe, unmoved by the reproach in
Jimmy's eyes.
"I was thinking----" Bob began.
"How do you get that way?" inquired Herb composedly.
"You'll never get that way," retorted Bob severely. "As I was saying
when this lowbrow interrupted me, I was thinking that it might be a
good idea to go nutting. The trees are full of nuts this year, and
that frost we had a couple of nights ago will make it easy to get a
raft of them. What do you say?"
"I say yes with a capital Y," replied Joe.
"Hits me just right," assented Herb.
"It's the cat's high hat," was the inelegant way that Jimmy phrased
it.
"It's a go then," said Bob. "Come around to my house a little after
eight tomorrow morning and we'll get an early start. Every fellow
brings his own lunch, and we'll take some potatoes along to roast in
the woods."
"Here's hoping it will be a dandy day," said Herb, as the boys parted
at Bob's gate.
"It looks as though it were going to be," replied Bob, looking at the
sky. "But after supper I'll tune in and get the weather report by
radio."
"Anything you don't do by radio?" asked Joe, with a grin.
"Oh, I set my watch by the Arlington signal every night and a few
other things," laughed Bob. "Fact is, I'm hanging around the receiving
set every spare minute I have for fear I'll let something get by me.
Radio has got me, and got me for fair."
The weather report was favorable and Bob slept in peace. And when he
opened his eyes on the following morning he found that Uncle Sam's
weather bureau had been right in this particular instance, for a
lovelier fall morning, to his way of thinking, had never dawned.
He ate breakfast a little more quickly than usual, and had barely
finished when the other radio boys were at his door loaded with
lunches and ready to start. Jimmy especially was well furnished in the
matter of provisions, for he carried two packages while the rest of
the boys were content with one.
"Aren't you afraid you'll be hunchbacked carrying both those bales of
goods?" asked Herb, with mock anxiety.
"Not a bit," responded Jimmy cheerfully. "One of them is full of
doughnuts, and I expect to eat them on the way. You see I was in such
a hurry that I didn't eat much of a breakfast----"
"What?" exclaimed Bob.
"Can I believe my ears?" asked Herb plaintively.
"Say it again and say it slow," urged Joe.
"I mean," Jimmy hurried to correct himself, "not so much as I might
have eaten. I had a bit of cereal----"
"Catch on to that 'bit,'" murmured Herb.
"And some bacon and eggs and a slice of cold meat from the roast last
night and some hot rolls and----"
"Outside of that you didn't have anything to eat," said Joe. "All
right, Jimmy, old boy, we understand. But shake a leg now and let's
get under way. This is too fine a day to be spending it in a chinfest,
and besides we can have plenty of that as we go along."
The air was brisk and stimulating, with just enough warmth imparted by
the sun to prevent its being cold, and a soft autumnal haze hung over
the landscape and clothed it in mellow beauty. It was the kind of day
when Nature is at her best and when it is good just to be alive.
The boys were like so many young colts turned out to pasture, and
joked and jested as they went along. Laughter came easily to their
lips and shone through their eyes, while the joy of youth ran through
their veins and made them tingle to their finger-tips. Life was
roseate and they had not a care in the world.
A walk of between two and three miles brought them to the woods for
which they had set out. The forest covered a great many acres and was
full of noble trees, chestnut, hickory, and many other varieties.
As Bob had said, the year had been an unusually good one for nuts, and
the trees were loaded with them. The frost of a little time before had
been just sufficient to make them ready to pick, and the ground was
already strewn with the half-opened burrs of many that had been shaken
from the trees. Others still hung to the boughs by so slender and
brittle a thread that it was only necessary to hurl clubs up into the
trees to have them come down in showers.
The boys had brought big bags along with them to carry the nuts they
might gather, and before long these had most of the wrinkles spread
out of them by the steadily accumulating collection of chestnuts that
formed the bulk of their treasure, although they had a good many
hickory nuts as well.
The active work gave them all an appetite, a thing that came to them
very easily under almost any circumstances, and a little before noon
they ceased for a while from gathering the nuts and bestirred
themselves in gathering leaves and brushwood for a fire. Their bags
were more than half full, and from what they had seen they knew they
would have little trouble in finishing filling them up to the very
drawing strings.
They gathered together a little cairn of rocks and built the fire
inside of it, keeping it fed to such effect that before long the
stones were at a white heat. Then they drew the fire away and on the
heated stones roasted their potatoes and a large number of the
chestnuts they had gathered. They had brought plenty of salt and
butter along, and when at last the potatoes were done they seasoned
them and ate them with a relish exceeding anything that would have
attended the eating of them at a regular meal in their homes. An
epicure might have complained of the smoky flavor, but to the boys,
seated on the leaf-carpeted ground flecked with the sunlight that
sifted through the trees, the food was simply ambrosial.
With the potatoes they dispatched the rest of the food they had
brought along. Then, with a feeling of absolute content, they
stretched out luxuriously on the ground and munched the roasted
chestnuts in beatific indolence.
For an hour or two they rested there, and then Bob rose and stretched
himself and called his reluctant friends to action.
"It would be a sin and a shame to go out of these woods without having
our bags crammed to bursting," he said. "Let's get a hustle on, and
just for variety let's try another part of the woods."
"All right," assented Joe, while Herb and Jimmy, though more slowly,
roused themselves.
They picked up their bags and moved from place to place, choosing
those sections where the trees grew thickest and the outlook for nuts
was most promising.
"Better be a little careful," warned Joe, after they had gone a
considerable distance. "Part of this wood belongs to Buck Looker's
father, and perhaps he'd have some objection to our nutting here."
"I don't think any one would kick," responded Bob. "Everybody around
here regards the woods as common property, as far as nutting is
concerned. Besides, there's no way of telling, as far as I know, what
section belongs to him and what to other people."
"There's something that will give us the tip," remarked Herb, pointing
through the trees to a clearing in which they saw a two-story cottage.
"That house belongs to Mr. Looker, though nobody has lived in it for a
long while and I guess he's just letting it go to rack and ruin."
The house did indeed look shaky and dilapidated. Some of the railing
and boards of the low veranda had been broken in or rotted away, and
the whole place bore the look of decay that comes to houses that for a
long time have been destitute of occupants.
"Looks as if it would fall to pieces if you breathed on it," said
Herb.
"Old enough to have false teeth," commented Jimmy. "I suppose Mr.
Looker lets it stand simply because it's cheaper than pulling it
down."
The boys gathered nuts for perhaps two hours longer, and then they had
to stop because their bags would not hold any more. Jimmy was already
groaning in anticipation of having to carry his home.
"That'll weigh a ton by the time we get to Clintonia," he grumbled, as
he eyed it with considerable apprehension.
"Hard to please some people," commented Herb. "You'd be kicking like a
steer if you didn't have any to carry, and now you're sore because
you've got enough to last all winter."
"Might as well leave enough for other people," said Jimmy, with a
spasm of generosity.
"There are more nuts here than will ever be picked," replied Herb.
"For that matter, some other people are getting them now. I've heard
them thrashing about in the brush for the last few minutes only a
little way from here."
"Funny we don't hear voices then," said Joe.
"Perhaps they're deaf mutes," suggested Jimmy, and adroitly ducked the
pass that Joe made at him.
The noise persisted and seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. There
was a crashing of bushes, as though some heavy body were being pushed
through them.
"Seem to be making heavy weather of it," commented Herb. "Don't see
why any one should make extra work for himself when there are plenty
of paths through the woods. Now if--Look!"
His voice rose in a shout that startled his comrades.
They turned and looked in the direction of his pointing finger. And
what they saw froze the blood in their veins.
A great shaggy bear had emerged from the brush into a path not more
than a hundred feet away and was lumbering rapidly toward them!