"I guess we don't have to tell you how much we enjoyed everything, Mrs. Layton," said Herb. "Actions speak louder than words, you know."

"I'm glad you liked it," she said. "I guess you'll all be able to get along till supper time now," she added, with a smile.

"Let's go out on the gra.s.s awhile," proposed Jimmy. "I've got to lie down and rest a bit before I can do anything else. You slaves can work if you want to, but not for little Jimmy."

It must be confessed that the others felt about the same way, so they all went out and lay on the soft gra.s.s under a big apple tree that grew near the kitchen door.

"Ah, this is the life!" sighed Jimmy, as he stretched out luxuriously on his back and gazed up at the cloud-flecked sky.

"It isn't so bad," admitted Bob, biting on tender blades of young gra.s.s. "But I'd enjoy it more if we had our outfit together and working."

"It won't take long to finish it now, do you think?" asked Joe.

"Not unless we strike a snag somewhere," said Bob. "After we get everything a.s.sembled, we've still got to run our leading-in wire down to my bedroom. But I don't think that will take us very long."

"By ginger, I just can't loaf around until we do get it working!"

exclaimed Joe, springing to his feet. "Come on, fellows, let's get busy. We can take it easy after we have everything fixed up."

"I'm with you," said Bob. "I feel the same way myself."

Herb jumped up too, but the only sound from Jimmy was a raucous snore ending in a gurgle.

"Poor old Jimmy!" said Bob. "We've had him working hard the last few days, and I suppose he's tired out. Let him sleep awhile."

So Jimmy was left to blissful slumber, and the others returned to their fascinating task.

CHAPTER XV

THE FINISHING TOUCH

The three chums set to work with a will, cutting, stripping, and soldering wires, and while the afternoon was still young they made their last connection and found themselves possessed of a real honest-to-goodness radio receiving outfit, not quite so beautifully finished and polished off as a set bought readymade in a store, perhaps, but still serviceable and practical.

"Hooray!" shouted all three together, so loudly that the sound reached Jimmy, still lying on the gra.s.s, and roused him from his blissful slumber.

"What's the matter here?" he asked a few moments later, coming sleepily down the stairs. "Is the place on fire, or what?"

"No, but we've got the whole set together at last, and we thought we were ent.i.tled to a yell or two," explained Bob.

"Gee, that's fine! I didn't mean to sleep so long. Why didn't you wake me sooner?"

"You seemed to be enjoying that snooze so much that we hated to disturb you," said Bob "There wasn't very much you could have done, anyway."

"Well, I certainly feel a lot better," said Jimmy, with a prodigious yawn. "What's the next thing on the program?"

"All we've got to do now is to hook up our leading-in wire and ground wire and we'll be all set," said Bob. "I've got a fine big table in my bedroom, and I was thinking that that would be a fine place to mount all our things and keep them together."

This was agreeable to all concerned, so they repaired forthwith to Bob's room. This was situated on the top floor, and, as it happened, almost under the scuttle leading onto the roof. This made it comparatively easy to connect up with the antenna, as all they had to do was to bring the leading-in wire through the frame of the scuttle, drill a hole through the attic floor and the ceiling of Bob's room, and drop the insulated leading-in wire through. To make it perfectly safe, they surrounded the wire, where it pa.s.sed through the scuttle and ceiling, with a fire proof asbestos bushing or sleeve.

In this work they received some advice from Dr. Dale, who chanced to drop in.

All this work took some time, and it was nearly dark when they had made all their connections, including the ground connection to a water pipe.

On one corner of Bob's big table they had inserted a small knife-blade switch in the leading-in wire, so that the set could be disconnected from the aerial when not in use, or during storms so as to guard against lightning.

When all was finished the boys viewed the result of so many hours of hard work and planning with mingled feelings of delight at its business-like appearance and apprehension that, after all, it might not work.

"Gee, I'm almost afraid to try it," said Bob. "But we've got to find out what rotten radio constructors we are some time, so here goes,"

and he produced his set of head phones. So did Joe and Herb, but Jimmy was struck with a sudden unpleasant thought.

"Great Scott!" he exclaimed. "I've gone and left my set home. I'll get it and come back as soon as I can," and he dived precipitately out of the room.

"He didn't need to be in such a hurry," laughed Bob. "We could have taken turns with ours."

"Well, let's connect up, anyway, and see if we can hear anything,"

said Joe. "There's no use waiting until Jimmy gets back. It won't take him a long while, and likely enough he'll be back before we raise any signals, anyway."

"Well, pull up your chairs, and we'll plug in," said Bob, adjusting the ear phones over his head.

"I saw in this morning's paper that the Newark broadcasting station was going to send out an orchestra concert this afternoon, and if our set is any good we ought to hear part of it."

They all adjusted their ear phones and then drew up chairs and inserted the plugs in the spring sockets designed for their reception.

They had connected four pairs of these sockets in parallel, so that all four head sets could be used at once.

Now was the crucial moment, and the boys waited breathlessly for some sound to come out of the air to them.

CHAPTER XVI

SWEETS OF VICTORY

Bob set one of the sliders about at the middle of the tuning coil, and set the other--the one connected to the leading-in wire--about opposite. Then he adjusted the sharp pointed wire on the detector until the point was just touching the crystal. Still there was no sound in the ear phones, and the boys looked at one another in bitter disappointment. Bob moved the antenna slider slowly along the tuning coil, and suddenly, faint, but very clear, the boys heard the opening chords of an overture played by a famous orchestra nearly a hundred miles away! Sweet and resonant the distant music rose and fell, growing in tone and volume as Bob manipulated the contacts along the coil. The boys sat spellbound listening to this miracle, to this soul stirring music that seemed as though it must surely be coming from some other world. Hardly breathing, they listened until the last blended chords whispered away into s.p.a.ce, and then looked at each other like people just awakened from a dream.

Bob was the first to speak.

"I think we can call our set a success, fellows," he said, with a quiet smile.

"Bob, that was simply wonderful!" cried Joe, jumping up and pacing about the room in his excitement. "Why, we can sit here and hear that orchestra just as well as though we were in the same hall with it. It seems like a fairy tale."

"So it is," said Bob. "Only this is a fairy tale that came true.

I wish Jimmy had been here to listen in with us."

"He's here now, anyway," said a familiar voice, and Jimmy burst into the room, puffing and blowing. "Does it work, fellows? Tell me about it."