Joe stopped directly in front of the bully, while Bob ranged alongside, keeping a sharp watch on the movements of Lutz and Mooney.

"Why did you take down that ladder the other afternoon, Buck Looker?"

asked Joe, looking his opponent straight in the eye.

Buck's look shifted before Joe's gaze, but he affected ignorance.

"What ladder and what afternoon?" he countered, sparring for time. "I don't know what you're talking about, and for that matter I guess you don't either."

"I know perfectly well what I'm talking about, and so do you," replied Joe, coming so near to him that Buck gave ground. "You and your gang took away the ladder from the side of Bob's barn, and in trying to get down I nearly broke my neck."

"Pity you didn't," bl.u.s.tered Buck. "If your ladder fell down and you didn't have sense enough to wait for some one to come along and put it up for you, that wasn't any fault of mine. I wasn't anywhere near Layton's barn that whole afternoon."

"We know better," said Joe. "Bob and I saw you going along the street a little while before we missed the ladder, and Herb Fennington and Jimmy Plummer saw you and your crowd running away like mad while I was hanging to the pipe alongside the barn."

"You shut up!" yelled Buck, in a burst of rage.

"Take off your coat, Buck Looker," cried Joe, dropping his books to the ground, "and I'll give you the same kind of a tr.i.m.m.i.n.g that Bob gave you the night you tried to wreck his aerial."

For answer Buck tightened his grip on the strap that held his books.

"You stand back, Joe Atwood," he cried, with a quaver in his voice, "or I'll soak you with these books!"

Joe laughed his disdain.

"You coward!" he exclaimed, and was springing forward when a warning exclamation came from Bob.

"Stop, Joe," he commanded. "Here comes Mr. Preston."

A look of vexation came into Joe's eyes and a look of relief into Buck's as they looked and saw the princ.i.p.al of the high school walking rapidly toward them.

CHAPTER V-A BIG ADVANCE

With the coming of the school princ.i.p.al and the certainty that the threatened row was over, for the present at least, all Buck Looker's usual truculence returned.

"It's lucky for you that Preston happened to turn up just now," he snarled. "I was just getting ready to give you the licking of your life."

"I noticed that," said Joe dryly, as he picked up his books. "Only instead of doing it with your fists, you were going to do it with your books, like the coward that you are. You gave yourself away that time, Buck. It isn't necessary for any one to show you up. You can be depended on to do that job yourself."

By this time the princ.i.p.al was only a few yards away, and Buck and his friends walked away rapidly, while Bob and Joe followed more slowly, so that Mr. Preston soon caught up with them.

"Good afternoon, boys," he said, as he came abreast of them. "You seemed to be a little excited about something."

"Yes, we were having a little argument," admitted Joe.

The princ.i.p.al looked at them sharply and waited as though he expected to hear more. But as nothing further was said, he did not press the matter.

If the trouble had taken place in the school or on the school premises, he would have felt it his duty to go to the bottom of the affair. But he had no jurisdiction here, and he was too wise a man to mix in things that did not directly concern him or his work.

"Well, how goes radio?" he asked, changing the subject. "Are you boys just as enthusiastic over it as you were the night you won the Ferberton prizes?"

"More so than ever," replied Bob, and Joe confirmed this with a nod of the head. "It's getting so that almost every minute we have out of school we're either tinkering with our set or listening in. We've just finished putting up a new umbrella aerial, and it's a dandy."

"I use that kind myself," said Mr. Preston. "I get better results with it than I do with anything else."

"Why, are you a radio enthusiast, too?" asked Bob, in some surprise. "I didn't have any idea you were interested in it."

"Oh, yes," affirmed the princ.i.p.al, with a smile. "I'm one of the great and constantly increasing army of radio fans. I understand there are more than a million of them in the United States now, and their ranks are being swelled by thousands with every day that pa.s.ses. I use it for my own personal pleasure and for that of my family, but I also have an interest in it because of my profession."

"I understand it's becoming quite a feature in education," remarked Joe.

"It certainly is," replied Mr. Preston. "Many colleges and high schools now have radio cla.s.ses as a regular part of their course. College professors give lectures that go by radio to thousands where formerly they were heard by scores. I've been thinking of a plan that might be of help in the geography cla.s.ses, for instance. Suppose some great lecturer or traveler who has been in faraway lands should give a travel talk from some broadcasting station. Then while he was describing China, for instance, we might have moving pictures thrown on a screen in the cla.s.sroom showing Chinese cities and customs and types. Both the eye and the ear would be taught at the same time, and in a most interesting way, it seems to me. What do you think of the idea?"

"Fine," said Bob.

"Dandy," agreed Joe. "There wouldn't be any lack of interest in those cla.s.ses. The boys would be eager to have the time for them come."

"Well," smiled Mr. Preston, "it's only an idea as yet, but it's perfectly feasible and I shouldn't be surprised to see it in general use in a year or two."

He turned into a side street just then with a pleasant good-bye, and the boys went on their way together, picking up Jimmy, who was just emerging from a store.

"What was Mr. Preston talking to you about?" asked Jimmy, with some curiosity, for he had witnessed the parting. "Hauling you over the coals, was he, for something you've done or haven't done?"

"Nothing like that," replied Joe. "We just found out that he is a radio fan like the rest of us."

"Funny, isn't it, how that thing is spreading?" murmured Jimmy musingly.

"You couldn't throw a stone now without hitting somebody who is interested in radio."

"All the same, I wish he hadn't caught up to us when he did," grumbled Joe. "I was just going to mix it with Buck Looker when he came along."

"Buck has lots of luck," commented Jimmy. "Tell me all about it."

They told him all the details of the meeting, and became so engrossed in it that they almost ran into Dr. Dale, who was just coming up from the railroad station.

He greeted them with great cordiality, which met with quite as hearty a response on their part, for the minister was a prime favorite with them and they always felt at their ease with him. There was nothing prim or professional about him, and his influence among the young people was unbounded.

He chatted with them for a few minutes until they reached Bob's gate.

"Won't you come up on the porch for a few minutes, Doctor?" asked Bob.

"There are some things we'd like to ask you about radio."

"Certainly I will," replied the doctor, with a smile. "There's not much that I'd rather talk about. In fact, I was just about to tell you of an interesting experience that I had this very afternoon."

He went with the boys up the steps and dropped into the chair that Bob drew up for him.

"Tell us about that first, Doctor," urged Bob. "Our questions can come afterward."