The Radio Boys First Wireless | Page 3

you couldn't see it with a telescope. You're talking like a ham sandwich."
"Look out what you're saying, Joe Atwood, or I'll make you sorry for it," threatened Buck, as he clinched his fist, an ugly look coming into his eyes.
"I apologize," said Joe. "That is, I apologize to the ham sandwich."
Bob laid a restraining hand on his friend's arm.
"Easy, Joe," he counseled. "Listen, Buck," he went on. "Did you ever hear of Marconi?"
"Sure, I did," replied Buck. "He's the fellow that had the fight with Julius Caesar. The one that Cleopatra was dippy about."
"No," said Bob patiently. "You're thinking of Mark Antony. He's been dead for more than eighteen hundred years. The man I mean is a very live one. He's the inventor of wireless telegraphy."
"Never heard of him," muttered Buck sullenly.
"Well, since you never heard of him, we'll mention some one else," continued Bob. "I was only going to say that he's a pretty brainy fellow, and he believes in the wireless telephone. Then there's Edison. Perhaps you've heard of him?"
"Of course I have," blurted Buck furiously. "Say, what are you trying to do? Make a fool of me?"
"Nature's done that already," Joe put in, but Bob checked him.
"I'm simply trying to show," Bob explained, "that if we're 'easy,' as you call it, in 'falling for that stuff,' there are a lot of able men in the United States who are in the same boat with us. In fact there isn't a man of brains and education in the country who doesn't believe in it."
"Do you mean to say that I haven't any brains?" cried Buck in a fury.
"Not exactly that," replied Bob. "But perhaps you don't use what brains you have. That happens sometimes, you know."
"I guess a fellow's got a right to his own opinions," blustered Carl Lutz, coming to the rescue of his discomfited leader.
"Of course he has," retorted Joe. "But when it's that kind of opinion he ought to put on the soft pedal. Any one has a right to have a club foot or a hunched back or cross eyes, but he doesn't usually go round boasting of them."
"You're a wise bunch, I'll tell the world," sneered Buck in lieu of a more stinging retort.
"Not at all," replied Joe. "It's you that claim to be wiser than Edison and the rest of them. But you mustn't think because you have water on the brain that you're the whole ocean."
The air was full of electricity and matters were tense between the two groups when a diversion came in the form of a halloo from the other side of the street, and Herb Fennington, a special friend of Bob and Joe, came running over to greet them. They stopped for a moment, and Buck and his cronies passed on, favoring Bob, Joe and Jimmy with malignant scowls as they did so.
"Hello, Herb!" called Bob, as the latter came up to them, a little breathless from running.
"Hello, fellows!" returned Herb, as he looked after Buck and his companions. "What's up with Buck and his gang? Looked as if there was going to be a fight about something."
"Not so bad as that, I guess," replied Bob, with a laugh, "though Buck did look as though he'd like to take a swing at us."
"I only wish he had," grunted Joe. "That fellow certainly gets me mad, and I wouldn't mind at all having some excuse for pitching into him."
"What was it all about?" asked Herb, with lively curiosity.
"He heard us talking about the wireless telephone and butted in," explained Bob. "Practically told us we were fools for believing that there is such a thing."
Herb laughed outright.
"Sounds like Buck," he commented. "What he doesn't know would fill a book."
"A whole library you mean," corrected Joe.
"A library then," agreed Herb, as the boys resumed their walk, which had now brought them close to the business part of the town. "But say, fellows, forget about Buck and listen to this. It's a good one that I heard yesterday. Why is--"
He was interrupted by a shout from Bob.
"Look," he cried, "look at that auto! It's running wild!"
Their startled eyes followed the direction of Bob's pointing finger.
An automobile was describing curious antics in the middle of the street. It made short dashes here and there, hesitated, zigzagged. Then it turned suddenly toward the curb, dashed on the sidewalk and amid a crash of broken glass plunged through the plate glass windows of a store.
CHAPTER II
TAKING CHANCES
There was a moment of stupefaction on the part of the boys at the suddenness of what promised to be a tragedy. Then in a flash they came to life.
"There was a girl in that auto!" cried Bob, as he dashed toward the store, the others following close on his heels. "Hurry up, fellows. She may be badly hurt."
"More