Radio Boys Loyalty Part 2

The contortions, the writhings, the shrieks and cries that followed quite surpa.s.sed the former exhibitions. The well-worn woolen rug that fitted from wall to wall across the end of the room where stood the seven seemed to be charged with red hot needles. Suddenly these ceased to leap and jump and burn; the old rug and the hidden wires under it were again quiescent. But the strident voices of the afflicted prisoners were not silenced, though the late lamentings were given over to a medley of condemnations, appeals and pleadings.

"Say, go a little slow on this!"

"Call it off, confound you!"

"Are you trying to electrocute us?"

"Say, Brown, please----"

"Let's call it quits, fellows!"

"We'll call it quits if you want. I suppose we've got to hand it to you two." This last from Siebold.

"Going to call it all off, then? Give us your word! We can't believe that any fellows in Marshallton Tech would go back on their word." Bill was smiling genially.

"That can't be called in question. All off. You're exempt." There was a general acquiescence to this. The door slowly and to the seven quite mysteriously swung open; the seven started to file out.

"Good-by, fellows, and no hard feelings. We were only having a little fun with you as you were going to have with us. You can't----"

"Well, but you two have still got to remember," said Siebold, shaking his finger at Bill and Gus, "that you are fres.h.i.+es and must keep in your places. You've got a little the better of us this time, but----"

"Golly, Dan," spoke up a fellow hazer, "a _little_ the better? Strikes me we've all been good and licked and these chaps ought to get the credit for----" The voice died away along the hall and Bill turned to his chum.

"We don't want any credit, do we, Gus? But we will get it just the same when this gets out. I sort o' think our little stock has gone up about one thousand percentum, even though we _are_ fres.h.i.+es."

This proved quite correct. In a few minutes a lot of freshmen had crowded into the room and there was a sprinkling of sophs also.

Questioned eagerly, Bill explained quite freely the purpose of the encounter and its result. Whereupon a big, fat soph declared quite vehemently:

"Huh! They were easily licked. No pluck. You're lucky to have run into a bunch of quitters."

"You wouldn't have quit, eh, Jumbo?" ventured another, grinning.

"Huh! Nothing like this contraption--" began the husky fellow, advancing and laying his hand on the top cross wire.

"Not even for a little thing like this?" queried Bill, reaching the wall b.u.t.ton.

"Ow! Blazes! Quit! Don't! Oh, darn! Stop! Turn--it--off! E-e-e-e-e-!

Help!" And the instant the stabbing current ceased, Fatty fell back from it and glared at Bill.

"You really can't blame them for quitting, can you?" asked Bill, and for answer the husky soph turned and fled from the room, followed by the jeering laughter of the crowd.

And that ended it. After Bill had asked the crowd if any or all of them wanted to test the "convincer," as he called the electrical rigging, he bade the onlookers who filled the hallway a pleasant _au revoir_, and Gus again pulled the strings that closed the door.

CHAPTER V

FAME AND FINANCES

Nothing could have taken place to put the lads from Freeport on the pedestal of fame more noticeably than this experiment. They had easily and modestly staged a complete breakdown of the hazing habit at Marshallton Tech. Strangely perhaps there was no blame nor suspicion put upon Bill and Gus for the subsequent edict from the faculty forbidding it. That seemed to be considered a natural aftermath to the news of the electrical reception of the hazers.

The stunt did more than earn the boys a large share of fame. It made them so deservedly popular, even with most of the upper cla.s.smen, that they soon counted a good many friends and a considerable number of patrons for radio construction. It is a rather odd fact that methods already mastered by those of their own age appeal to boys more than the teachings of their elders. So, although the students were getting, or had got, the theory of radio activity and the practice of wireless fully stuffed into them, they turned often to Bill and Gus for help. There were a number of the well-to-do, even among the seniors, who wanted radio receivers made, or coaching in making their own, and to this Bill and Gus responded out of school hours, with the consent of the president, thus earning a good many dollars.

So as not to interfere in any way with the school-shop program, and not to crowd those lads who were finding the room in the shop and the tools to their advantage, Bill and Gus rented an unused storeroom in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the dormitory. They cleared it out, sent for their own tools at Freeport, purchased others--a foot-power lathe, a jigsaw and a hand wall-drill--and put up some benches. Besides working therein themselves, they charged also the modest price of twenty-five cents an hour to others mechanically inclined.

The liberal-minded school faculty found no fault with an arrangement which could only mean a more thorough learning and a finer comrades.h.i.+p among the students. The professors, who often visited and even worked in the little shop--some of them paying their quota also--came to refer familiarly to the place as the "commercial and sales department."

Professor Grant, the very able teacher of physics, who possessed far more theoretical knowledge than practice, gave the boys many valuable ideas out of cla.s.s, and got some himself, being also a deadhead. And Search, the manual-training teacher, who knew the use of tools as a bee knows honey, got a few ideas while imparting many, as he also was made welcome to tinker around the boys' shop.

These were truly strenuous days and weeks for Bill and Gus. They had little studying to do, for Bill grasped problems as a trout takes in minnows, and he needed but to coach Gus briefly. The latter spent only a quarter-hour each day in the gym, never indulging in contests, but content to work hard at the things that best kept him fit. He had elected not to put himself under the instructor, grudging the time. But one day when he went over and, with his bare, work-hardened fists, punched a lively rubber bag for several minutes, Professor LeRoy, who had been watching, came to Gus with almost a demand that he join the boxing cla.s.s in view of the Marshallton Tech entering contests with other schools during the coming winter. But Gus declined.

"No; I haven't the speed and I am weak with my left, as you may have noticed. Hurt it once on a lathe in my father's shop; never will be any good for quick work."

"We will overcome that," said the instructor, "develop it."

"Also," declared the boy, "I have neither the time nor the inclination.

Must work and nothing much else. But I thank you, Professor."

"Sorry, my boy; you've certainly got a wicked right and you can use the other."

"I'd want to use both," a.s.serted Gus, laughing.

As for Bill, the hours each day and all of Sat.u.r.day spent in the shop sufficed for exercise; the rest was spent in study, brief eating and no more sleep than he needed. And nearly every moment that could be spared found both boys in their shop.

They had under way the construction of five radio receivers of the finer type, for each of which they would get sixty dollars, the materials costing about fifteen dollars. These receivers were equal to more than a thousand miles, with strong, durable batteries and very wide amplification. As with their first radio and the one for their good old friend, Mr. Hooper, they made nearly all the parts themselves, even to the switch arms, contacts, buzzer and binding posts, cutting all threads with a fine set of standard taps and dies.

They also had two crystal sets to make, for which they charged twenty dollars each, and made a profit of seventeen dollars over the cost of the materials.

The most interesting was the making of four portable sets, with vacuum tube detectors and loop aerials not over six inches in diameter, each packed in small, neatly made wooden cases about the size of an ordinary paper shoe box, the lids when opened forming the upright panels and the loop aerials hinged to open out and upright. Being rather unique in design, and satisfying fads for unusual construction, the boys felt they should get at least fifty dollars for each of these sets, the materials costing about twelve dollars.

Earning enough in this way to help them along very nicely with their schooling, and being more deeply interested in their work than in anything else, it was not surprising that Bill and Gus found little time for play.

When they had finished one of the larger and two cheaper sets, that upon installation at fraternity and boarding houses were found to work most satisfactorily, the cash was quickly paid over. Bill divided it equally and handed half to Gus.

"No, you don't, old fellow!" Gus demurred. "You get this and you can pay me a sort of wages if you want to, or you needn't. You did all of the planning, the--" He got no further for Bill started in with this indignant tirade:

"You're a fatheaded, heterogeneous, quadrangular parallelepipedon! What are you trying to get through your topknot, anyway? Don't we always work together? Isn't it a partners.h.i.+p?"

"But--er--Bill----"

"'b.u.t.ter bill'? Sure. This will pay our bread bill, too, and our entire board bill for some time. And what we'll get out of these other sets will see us through all of next year nicely, without worrying. Then something will turn up for the third year. Now, then, will you write to Cotton & Staples for that additional wire, or shall I?"

"I will, of course, but this money----"

"Oh, shut up! If you say another word about it, I'll lam a battery coil at you--'b'gorry'--as Mr. Hooper says. Well, now, reckon I'd better turn up and thread some more binding posts."