The Boy Inventors Radio Telephone | Page 3

if their tips had been chopped off with
an ax.
Over his shoulder was slung a canvas bag which appeared to be heavy
and bulged as if several irregularly shaped, solid substances were inside

of it. The spot where this odd encounter took place was some distance
from any town, but a bicycle leaning against a tree at the roadside
showed how the little man had got there.
"Say, would you mind letting us get by?" asked Jack.
The little man raised a hand protestingly.
"I'll be delighted to in just a moment," he said, "but just now it's
impossible. You see, I've just discovered a vein of what I believe to be
Laurentian granite running across the road. I am trying to trace it
and--what's that? Good gracious! Back up your machine, please. I
believe it runs under your wheel. I must make sure."
Jack obligingly threw in the reverse to humor the little man, who darted
forward and began scraping up the dust in the road with his hands as if
he had been a dog scratching out a rabbit hole. He began chipping away
eagerly with his hammer at some rock that cropped up out of the road.
He broke off a piece with his hammer, which was an oddly shaped tool,
and drawing out a big magnifying glass scanned the chip intently. He
appeared to have forgotten all about the waiting boys. But now he
seemed to remember them. He looked up, beaming.
"A magnificent specimen. One of the finest I have ever seen. Most
remarkable!"
And with that he popped the bit of stone into his bag, which the boys
now saw was filled with similar objects.
"Maybe he'll let us get by now," remarked Tom, but a sudden
exclamation from Dick Donovan cut him short.
"Why, hullo, professor," he said, "out collecting specimens?"
The little man peered at him sharply. And then broke into a smile of
recognition.
"Why, it's Dick Donovan!" he beamed, hastening up to the car, "the

young journalist who wrote an article about my specimens once and
woefully mixed them up. However, to an unscientific mind----"
"They are all just rocks," finished Dick with a grin.
"I have had unusual success to-day," said the professor, who appeared
not to have heard the remark. "I must have at least fifty pounds of
specimens on my back at this minute."
He broke off suddenly. The next moment he darted off to the side of the
road and chipped off a fragment of rock from a bank that overhung it.
"This is lucky, indeed," he exclaimed, holding it up to the light so that
some specks in the gray stone sparkled. "An extremely rare specimen
of mica that I had no idea existed in this part of New England."
The odd little man opened his bag and introduced his latest acquisition
into it While he was doing this Dick had been explaining to the boys:
"He's a queer character. Professor Jerushah Jenks. They say he's a great
authority on mineralogy and so on. I interviewed him once. He's always
out collecting."
"Does he always carry a quarry like that around on his back?" asked
Tom.
"Always when he's getting specimens," Dick whispered back.
By this time the professor, his eyes agleam over his latest discovery,
was back at the side of the car.
"Ah, my beauty, I have you safe now," he said, patting the side of the
bagful of specimens. "Boys, this is my lucky day."
The boys could hardly keep from smiling at the little man's delight. It
appeared hard to believe that anyone could find pleasure in packing
about a sackful of heavy rocks on a hot day. But the professor's eyes
were sparkling. It was clear he considered himself one of the most
fortunate of men.

Dick introduced the boys and, to their surprise, the professor declared
that he had read of their various adventures and inventions.
"We are actually fellow adventurers in the field of science," he cried,
rattling his bag of specimens enthusiastically. "Some time I should like
to call on you and see your workshops."
"You will be welcome at any time," said Jack cordially, and then the
professor declared that he must be getting home.
"If we are going your way we can give you a ride," said Tom.
"Thank you, I'll accept that invitation. But what an odd-looking
automobile you have there."
The boys explained to him that it was a new type of car that they were
trying out for the first time and then Dick helped the scientist lift his
bicycle into the tonneau. He would have helped him with his weighty
load of specimens, but the professor refused to be parted from them. As
they started off again he sat with the bag firmly