The Brighton Boys in the Radio Service

The Brighton Boys in the Radio
Service, by

James R. Driscoll
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Title: The Brighton Boys in the Radio Service
Author: James R. Driscoll

Release Date: July 15, 2007 [eBook #22079]
Language: English
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THE BRIGHTON BOYS IN THE RADIO SERVICE
by
LIEUTENANT JAMES R. DRISCOLL
Illustrated

[Illustration: "At Least Ten Thousand of Them," He Announced.]

The John C. Winston Company Philadelphia
Copyright, 1918, by John C. Winston Company

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. "FOR UNCLE SAM" 9 II. INTO THE SERVICE--A SPY 21 III.
UNEXPECTED ACTION 34 IV. FAREWELL, UNITED STATES 43
V. THE FIGHT IN THE WIRELESS ROOM 54 VI. THE MYSTERY
OF THE IRON CROSS 67 VII. THE TIMELY RESCUE 77 VIII. THE
DEATH OF THE SPY 88 IX. THE PERISCOPE AT DAWN 101 X.
FRANCE AT LAST 110 XI. TAPPING THE ENEMY'S WIRE 118
XII. THE S O S WITH PISTOL SHOTS 131 XIII. THE CAVE OF
DEATH 140 XIV. DESPERATE MEASURES 153 XV. THE
SURPRISE ATTACK--PROMOTION 164 XVI. A TIGHT PLACE
176 XVII. THE LIEUTENANT'S INVENTION 191 XVIII. SLIM

GOODWIN A PRISONER 200 XIX. TURNING THE TABLES 211
XX. THE GREAT NEWS 221

ILLUSTRATIONS
"At Least Ten Thousand of Them," He Announced Frontispiece
PAGE
There was an Instant of Terrible Whirling about the Room 66
They had Accidentally Discovered an Enemy Wire and had Tapped It
130
Scores of Huge Armored Tanks Rolled Through 168

The Brighton Boys in the Radio Service
CHAPTER I
"FOR UNCLE SAM"
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their----"
It was that old practice sentence of typists, which is as old as are
typewriting machines, and Joe Harned, seated before the told-style,
noisy, but still capable machine in Philip Burton's telegraph office, had
rattled it off twenty-five times and was on his twenty-sixth when
suddenly, very suddenly, his mind began to work.
Or rather it might be said that an idea, the big idea, danced
unceremoniously into his brain, and, beginning to take definite and
concrete form, chased a score of other smaller ideas through all the
thought-channels of his handsome, boyish, well-rounded head.
He came to a full stop and gazed steadily at the upturned paper in the

typewriter in front of him. Twenty-fives times he had written that
sentence, and twenty-five times with mechanical precision and true
adherence to time-honored custom he had finished it by tapping off the
word "party."
It was a formula of words which some genius had devised for the
fingering practice it gave one on the keyboard, and Joe Harned had
written it hundreds of times before, just as thousands of others had
done, without giving a thought to its meaning, or the significance that
the substitution of a single word would give it.
He read it again, and as if it were the result of an uncontrollable
impulse, his fingers began the rapid tap-tap-tap. And this time he
substituted the new word that the big idea had suddenly thrust into his
mind.
Joe gave the roller a twirl, the paper rolled out, dropped to the floor,
and he grasped for it eagerly.
Even Joe was surprised. He hadn't realized that in his enthusiastic haste
he had pushed down the key marked "caps."
In bold, outstanding letters near the bottom of the sheet was an historic
sentence, and Joe Harned--Harned, of Brighton Academy--had devised
it.
"NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE
AID OF THEIR COUNTRY!"
Joe gazed at it again for a moment, and then let his eyes travel across
the little office to where red-headed, freckle-faced, big-hearted and
impetuous Jerry Macklin was rapping away at another typewriter, and,
two feet away from Jerry, "Slim" Goodwin, "one-hundred-and-seventy
pounds in his stockinged feet, and five-feet-four in his gym suit," was
working the telegraph key with a pudgy hand.
"Jerry!" he called. "Oh, Slim! Come over here a moment, both of you. I
want to show you something."

Jerry immediately ceased typewriting, but Slim was reluctant to release
the telegraph key. However, as Joe began folding the paper in such a
way that only the last sentence showed, their aroused curiosity brought
both of them to his side.
"Read that,"