The Result of a Radio Hazing
The raid was a speedy success. "Captain" Howard and his crew of
lawbreakers offered no resistance when they saw the odds against them,
for each of the men from the revenue cutter was armed and promised to
shoot to kill if a hostile hand was raised against them.
Then they made an inspection of the cave, which was of considerable size
and lighted with an oil lamp, and there the lost victim of a radio
college hazing was found chained to a post that had been driven into the
ground floor. He had not suffered from malicious mistreatment in any
way, but was chafing under restraint and confinement. He was a little
older than the Catwhisker boys, but he had no "college airs" and was
soon telling his story as one boy to a group of chums, while the men
stood around and drank it all in as eagerly as if they themselves were
boys again.
"Bill Howard made the biggest mistake of his life when he confederated
with three other sophomores to haze me," Alvin began. "He didn't know his
father had a hide-out here when they marooned me on Friday Island. His
father owns several motor boats that are used for pleasure excursions,
but, I suspect, he wasn't making money fast enough and fell for a scheme
put up to him from the other men who are now his companions in crime.
They were in touch with a gang of burglars and hold-up men who wanted a
means of disposing of their loot. They induced Mr. Howard to consent to
the use of one of his boats to convey stolen property of various kinds to
this cave as a hiding place, and from here, occasionally, to places of
disposal, principally in the United States. Well, Bill's band of hazers
unwittingly brought me to these islands, and before long there was a
pretty mix-up. The operators of this burglars' 'fence' found me on Friday
Island and got the idea, I suppose, that I was spying on them. At first I
hoped they would let me go, but I made some foolish remarks, based merely
on suspicion, about the character of their business, and they concluded
the jig was up and brought me right to this cave, and, of course, after
that I could see everything that was going on. Then the hazers appeared
on the scene. I suppose they became a little nervous about me. I gathered
from conversation I overheard that they stumbled into this place while
searching for me and then they were taken partly into the confidence of
the lawbreakers. But they're pretty smart boys, if they are sophomores
and if their leader is a son of a smuggler of stolen goods, and soon were
putting two and two together--"
"More mathematics," interrupted Mr. Perry gravely.
Alvin looked at him curiously, but this was no time for academic
digression, and the veiled quip had to await later explanation.
Of course there was more discussion of the strange tangle of events,
which now seemed to be about to be cleared up. Indeed, it took many days
for them to thrash the subject out completely, but it would hardly do to
write another book on matters now essentially explained so we must leave
those details to the diversion of Friday Island camp.
The camp was rehabitated, Hal's radio outfit was hooked up again with the
island aerial, and all of the Catwhiskerites and their newly discovered
radio friends enjoyed a week's undisturbed outing in the midst of recent
personal romantic associations.
As for the "radio hazers," they went back home with no spirit of "brag"
over their achievements, and the members of the band of smugglers of
stolen goods were held in custody and eventually punished under sentences
returned in a Canadian court.
Meanwhile Mr. Perry took steps looking toward the purchase of the Friday
Island group from the Canadian government as a summer camping place for
the Catwhiskerites and their friends.
The next volume of this series will be RADIO BOYS AND THE SKY PLOT or
BOTTLING THE BOREALIS.