The Young Wireless Operator--As a Fire Patrol | Page 6

two boys stared at the lumberman in amazement. "Where
do we get our lumber from?" demanded Lew.
"Practically all of it comes from the South. That's one reason lumber
costs so much here. The people of Pennsylvania pay $25,000,000 a
year in freight charges on the lumber they use. That's one of the reasons
those cedar boards you were looking at cost so much. When the new
freight rates go into effect the cost of hauling our lumber to us will be
something like $40,000,000 a year."
The two boys were very thoughtful as they made their way back to
Charley's shop.
"What are people going to do for wood pretty soon?" Lew inquired of
his companion. "If we can't build a little boat because the wood costs
too much, how are people going to get homes and furniture and wagons
and motor-cars and a thousand other things? Seems to me pretty much
everything we use is made of wood."
"I don't know," replied Charley. "But what bothers me more just now is
to know what we are going to do during Easter vacation. It may be the
last vacation I shall ever have, and I'd like to have a good time."
"Why not follow the lumber dealer's suggestion and go out to the
forests? Easter doesn't come this year until after the trout season opens.
We could go out to our old camp in the mountains and spend the
vacation there, fishing and hiking."
"That's a mighty good suggestion, Lew. If we have our packs ready, we

can start from high school the minute it is dismissed. We can make that
early afternoon train and get off at that little flag-station at the foot of
Stone Mountain. Then we can hike through the notch and reach the far
slope of Old Ironsides before dark. We shall have to camp overnight
along the run from the spring there, as it is the only water for miles
around. Then the next day we can go on into that little valley where we
saw so many trout. That is so hard to reach that not many fishermen
ever go there. The little stream from the spring on Old Ironsides runs
into that brook. Do you remember what lots of little trout we saw not
far below the spring? They will have become big fellows by this time
and moved down into the larger stream. There ought to be some fine
fishing there this spring."
"They say it's an ill wind that blows nobody good. I'm sorry we can't
build the boat, but we shall have just as good a time in the mountains as
we should have had on the river. We'll borrow that little pup tent of
Johnnie Lee's, and take our blankets, hatchets, fishing-rods, and grub."
"I'd rather leave the tent at home and build a lean-to after we get there.
Then we could take a portable wireless outfit and talk to the fellows at
home here in the evening. Half a dozen dry cells would give us
one-sixth of a kilowatt of current, and that ought to carry a message
twenty-five or thirty miles easily. At night we might be able to talk fifty
miles. We can carry six cells easily. The remainder of the outfit won't
weigh much. We'll have to go as light as we can, for it's a mighty tough
hike over Old Ironsides and on into that little valley."
"Shall we take our pistols?" asked Charley.
"We'd better have at least one. You never can tell when you're going to
need a pistol in the forest. Remember the time that bear treed me on the
first hike of the Wireless Patrol? I don't ever want to get into another
situation like that without something to shoot with."
Charley chuckled. "It wasn't a pistol that saved you then," he smiled,
"but Willie Brown and his spark-gap."
"Then we'll be doubly armed," replied Lew. "Since you have so much

faith in wireless, you can carry the outfit. I'll pack the gun. We're
almost certain to have some kind of adventure, for every time the
Wireless Patrol or any of its members venture into the woods,
something exciting happens."
Chapter III
Off to the Mountains

Busy, indeed, were the succeeding ten days. The outfit that the two
boys were to carry was packed and repacked several times, and each
time it was overhauled something was eliminated from the packs; for
both boys knew well enough that the trip before them would test their
endurance even with the lightest of packs. Finally their outfit was
reduced to two fishing-rods, one hatchet, a first-aid kit, a flash-light,
the necessary food and dishes, one canteen, and one pistol, with the
wireless equipment.
This was made as simple as possible. Six new dry