CHAPTER VI
A PRACTICAL OBJECT LESSON
The chums were joined outside the hotel by Herb and Jimmy, who had waited for them during their interview. To them they narrated what they had learned of Miss Berwick's story. Their friends shared their own indignation and were quite as keen as themselves to hear the end of the story.
"What did you say the fellow's name was?" asked Herb, as the quartette walked along Main Street.
"Cassey, she said it was—Dan Cassey," replied Bob. "Ever hear of any one by that name?"
"It sounds rather familiar," replied Herb, knitting his brows as he tried to remember.
"Wait!" he said suddenly. "I've almost got it—Cassey! Cassey! Does the man stutter, do you know?"
"She didn't say anything about that," replied Joe. "Why do you ask that question?"
"Because," answered Herb, "I remember a man of that name a few weeks ago calling at dad's store to get a bill of goods. The reason I remember was the way he stuttered when dad was making out the bill. He tried and tried to say something, and his eyes bulged out and his cheeks got all puffed and red while he was trying to get it out. Then he stopped and whistled, and that seemed to help him, for then he went right on talking, only stopping once in a while to whistle again and get a fresh start. I had to get out of the store to keep from bursting out laughing. I remember I felt rather sorry for the fellow at the time, but if he's the fellow who's trying to do Miss Berwick out of her money, nothing's too bad for him."
"Suppose you ask your father what he knows about him," suggested Bob eagerly. "He may know something that may prove of some help to the girl, either in getting her money back or putting the fellow in jail."
"I'll do it," agreed Herb. "By the way, fellows, I dropped into Dave Slocum's place yesterday afternoon and found out that he had a whole stock of material for making wireless telephone sets. Said a salesman from New York talked him into it, and he was wondering how he was going to get rid of them. Thought he'd been stocked up with more than he could sell, all through the salesman's slick tongue. I told him not to worry, that the boys would be standing in line before long and would clean him out of stock. He seemed to think I was kidding him, but he brightened up just the same."
"Dave's got a pleasant surprise coming to him," grinned Joe. "Just our bunch alone will make quite a hole in his stock."
"You bet," agreed Bob, as, having reached his gate, he said good-bye to his mates and went in. "Don't forget to ask your dad about that Cassey fellow," he called out after Herb.
That Herb did not forget was proved when he overtook his friends the next morning on the way to school.
"I asked dad about Cassey," were his first words, after greetings had been exchanged. "He said he thought very likely the man was the one you had in mind, for this stuttering fellow came from Elwood and his first name was Daniel. It's hardly likely there'd be two men of the same name in that little town."
"Did your father know anything about what kind of fellow he was?" asked Joe.
"Dad said that he had the reputation of being tricky and hard-fisted," answered Herb. "But as far as he knew he hadn't been caught in anything yet that could put him in jail. He went up in the air when I told him about Miss Berwick, and said he'd like to get hold of the fellow and break his neck. He thinks Miss Berwick ought to get a good lawyer and bring the rascal into court. But at the same time he thinks she may have a hard time proving her case, as she hasn't any receipt or any witnesses. She could simply say she'd paid him and he could say she hadn't. All he'd have to do would be to stand pat and put it up to her to prove her case. And how is she going to do it?"
"Do you mean to say that he could get away with a thing as raw as that?" asked Joe, in a white heat.
"He might," declared Bob. "Things just as rank have been pulled off again and again. But at any rate she ought to get after him right away. She's a dead loser as things stand, and if she can only get the rascal in court she may have a chance. Perhaps he hasn't covered his trail as well as he thinks he has, and when a good lawyer gets to questioning him the truth may come out. In any case it's the only way that will give her a ghost of a chance."
The days passed by swiftly until Saturday came and with it the opportunity the boys had looked forward to of going to Dr. Dale's workshop and getting a few practical points on the making of a wireless telephone set.
They found the doctor at a bench that he had rigged up in his barn. On the wall was arranged a large variety of tools and on the bench were strewn several coils of wire and a number of objects the name and use of which the boys did not know.
The doctor, who was in his shirt sleeves, extended a hearty welcome to the boys, who ranged themselves about him, and whose numbers were constantly augmented by newcomers until the barn was well filled.
"What I want to do to-day, boys," he said, "is to show you how easy and simple it is to put up a wireless telephone receiving set without having to spend very much money.
"Now the first thing you have to get and put up is the aerial," he remarked, as he unwound a large coil of copper wire. "You want about a hundred or a hundred and twenty feet of that. You can extend it horizontally for about fifty feet, say, for instance, from the side or back of your house to the barn or the garage, and then have it go up as high as it can go. The upper end doesn't have to be in the outer air, for the sound will come along it if it's in the attic. Still it's better to have it outside if possible. The lower end of the wire has to be connected with the ground in some way, and you can fix that by attaching it to a water pipe or any other pipe that runs into the ground. A good way is to let it down the side of the house and put it through the cellar window and fasten it to a pipe.
"After you have your aerial you want to get the rest of the apparatus together. The first thing to do is to get a baseboard which will serve as the bottom of the receiving box. Something like this," and he put his hand on a board about eighteen inches long, twelve inches wide, and about an inch thick. "This is the platform, as it were, on which the different parts of the apparatus are to rest.
"Now since your ear alone can't detect the waves that are coming to and along your aerial, you have to have a sort of electrical ear that will do this for you. Here it is," and he picked up a piece of crystal and a wire of phosphor bronze. "When this wire comes in contact with this bit of crystal the mysterious waves become audible vibrations.
"But this isn't enough. You've got to get in tune with the sending station in order to understand the sounds you hear. When your vibration frequency is the same as that from which the message is sent, you can hear as clearly as though the voice or instrument were in the next room. Now here's a piece of a curtain pole that's about a foot and a half long. You see that I've wound around its entire length, except for about a half inch at either end, a coil of wire. This is called the inductance coil. You will notice that the wire is covered with cotton except for this little strip of wire extending lengthwise where I've scraped the cotton off with sandpaper so as to accommodate the sliding contacts. These sliding contacts can be made from curtain rings with holes punched in them, through which are passed copper rivets. These rivets press against the bare path of the coil and can be moved to and fro until you find the exact point where your set is in tune with the sending station."