The Radio Boys in the Thousand Islands | Page 2

just for fun. Indeed,
it is quite probable that Cub carried a perpetual laugh in his sleeve.
This dominant youth was tall and lanky. He was only 17 years old, but
as big as a man, so far as altitude and the size of his feet were
concerned. He lacked one inch of being six feet tall, and he wore size 8
shoes. The hope for his proportion was expansion, and judging from
the hereditary history of his paternal ancestry, there was good prospect
for him in this regard. His father was a large man and well built.
To complete the description of Cub, he was a youth of very wise
countenance. He liked to read "highbrow stuff" and reflect and inflict it
on such victims as were unable to counter his domination.
Bud was a short, quick, snappy, bold fellow, "built on the ground". It is
possible that he might have upset Cub in a surprise wrestle, but nobody
ever dared to "mix" with Cub in such manner; the lanky fellow seemed
to be able to out-countenance any suggestion of physical hostility. The
glower of his face seemed to spell subjection for all the boy world
about him.

But Bud would blurt out something now and then that seemed to startle
Cub into a mood of reflection, and whenever Cub reflected his
dominance wavered. Tee-hee was able to accomplish the same effect
without a "blurt". Tee-hee was sly, "as sly as they make 'em", but it was
a kind of slyness that commands respect. It even gave an air of
respectability to his laugh, for, ordinarily, a "tee-hee" sounds silly. But
Hal's "tee-hee" was constitutional with him, and his sly shrewdness
gave it real dignity.
Cub was usually the dominating factor in all the boy arguments of their
"bunch", which varied in numbers from ten to twenty, according to the
motive of interest that drew them together. He seldom started an
argument, unless his disposition to "bawl" somebody out for uttering a,
to him, foolish opinion, he regarded as a starter. He seldom spoke first,
but usually last. One day he "bawled" Tee-hee for the latter's "silly
laugh", telling him that he would never be a man unless he learned to
"laugh from his lungs".
"You seem to like a lot of noise," Hal observed.
"Yes, it's the only thing that convinces me," Cub shot back rashly.
He realized his rashness, but it was too late. Tee-hee "got" him.
"I understand you now," the sly youth announced. "Whenever we have
a dispute, the only way for me to win is to make a bigger noise than
you do."
But Cub was not slow, and he evened matters up by roaring:
"You can't do it; you ain't got the lungs."
However, there was a serious side to this trio of radio boys. They were
not known chiefly for their frivolity, which probably would have
characterized them if they had got into any bad scrapes. Their
deportment was really above reproach, so that their parents reposed a
good deal of confidence in them and allowed them to do pretty much as
they wished in the matter of their recreation and sports. On the occasion

with which the narrative opens we find them very serious minded over
a very important problem, although it seemed well nigh impossible for
them, even under such circumstances, to bar severely all manner of
gaieties.
"I don't see where there's anything new for us to do this summer," said
Bud after the merriment over the "static repartee" with Cub had
subsided. "We c'n go camping or fishin', or we c'n stay at home and
listen in."
"Oh, you haven't got any invention in that head o' yours, Bud," declared
Cub with tone of disgust. "Tee-hee, take your turn and see if you can't
hand us somethin'."
"Aw, why don't you furnish some brains for us, Cub," Bud objected
with spirit. "I never knew you to yet. You just razz us till we turn up the
thing all of us wants, and then you act as if you'd done all the work."
"Well, what do I pay you for?" Cub demanded, with an air of final
judgment.
Of course, Cub did not pay them anything; that was just a little
evidence of his exasperating domination. Bud saw, as usual, that there
was no use of trying to carry his protest further, so he gave way to Hal,
who looked as if eager to take his turn.
"I tell you what let's do," proposed the latter. "Let's go campin' and take
one of our radio sets with us."
Cub leaped to his feet enthusiastically, bringing his feet down on the
floor with a force that seemed to jar the whole house. Fortunately there
was a substantial rug between his descending number