CHAPTER XII
FORGING AHEAD
The Laytons had hardly finished supper that evening before Jimmy's cheery whistle was heard outside, and Bob jumped up to let him in.
"Come in, old timer," Bob called to him. "Where's the rest of the bunch?"
"Oh, I guess they'll be along pretty soon," said Jimmy. "I guess I'm a bit early, but I was so anxious to get around that I couldn't wait to come at a respectable time. I suppose I should be boning down for to-morrow's lessons, but I'd never be able to get my mind on them until we get our outfit going."
"I feel the same way," said Bob. "But at the rate we're going now it won't be very long."
"Joe told me you finished the tuning coil this afternoon," said Jimmy. "I don't understand how you ever did it without my being here to tell you how, though."
"Oh, we managed to patch it up some way," laughed Bob. "Come on down and look at it, and see if it's good enough to suit you."
"Lead me to it," said Jimmy, and the two boys went downstairs.
"Say, that's a pippin," said Jimmy, as Bob switched on the light and he caught sight of the finished tuner. "I couldn't have done it better myself. You've certainly made a first class job of it."
"We thought it wasn't so bad," admitted Bob modestly. "Especially when one stops to think that you weren't here to give us the benefit of your advice."
"That's the most surprising thing about it," said Jimmy. "But now that I'm here to-night, why, we can go right ahead and get a lot done. Seems to me it must be about time for Joe and Herb to show up."
As though in answer to this thought, they heard a tuneful duet, and a moment later came a vigorous ring on the doorbell.
"You go up and let them in, will you, Doughnuts?" said Bob. "I want to melt this paraffine and get things started right away."
"Sure I will!" And Jimmy hastened off, returning a few minutes later with the missing members of the quartette.
"It's about time you got here," said Jimmy. "Bob and I were wondering if we'd have to do all the work by our lonesome, as usual."
"Gee, you don't know what work means," returned Joe scornfully. "Last evening you pretty near wore a hole in that old couch resting on it, and this afternoon you were enjoying yourself, helping your father instead of coming here and doing a little honest work for a change."
"Oh, yes, I enjoyed myself a lot!" exclaimed Jimmy. "I sawed enough one inch planks this afternoon to make either one of you loafers cry for help! And then you talk about my having enjoyed myself!"
"Well, if you worked so hard, maybe your dad gave you enough money for it to buy a respectable piece of chocolate with instead of that measly little sample you brought around last night," said Herb.
"You're right he did, and here it is," said Jimmy. And from under his coat he produced an immense slab of delicious looking chocolate that must have weighed all of a pound.
The shout that went up from his three friends might well have startled the family upstairs.
"Jimmy, we've got to hand it to you; you're a good sport," cried Bob, laughing. "I never really thought you'd ever bring any more, after the way we ate what you had last night."
"I'm glad that you admit that you ate more than your share," said Jimmy, severely. "But I thought I'd bring enough around to-night, hoping there might be a little piece left over for me."
"I think that since he's so generous we ought to let him have a real big piece," said Joe.
"Yes," grinned Herb. "But remember that chocolate candy is about the worst thing a fat person can eat. It might be better for Doughnuts, after all, if we took this away from him right away. I'd rather get sick myself eating it than see him get any fatter."
"Say, how do you get that way?" demanded Jimmy in an aggrieved tone. "I've never been able yet to get hold of enough candy to make me too fat, and if I should, I'm the one that ought to worry about it."
"It looks to me as though there's enough there for all of us for a week," said Bob. "Let's break it up and put it in this box over here, and then anybody who wants any can help himself."
"That's fair enough," said Jimmy. "But I'll bet anything it won't last this bunch any week. If you were all like me it might, but I suppose that's too much to ask."
"I don't think that's asking very much, do you, fellows?" said Joe, with an exasperating grin.
"Wow!" exclaimed Herb, laughing. "That has all the appearance of a dirty dig, Joe. If I were you I wouldn't let him have a scrap of that chocolate, Jimmy."
"I suppose I shouldn't. I ought to let him chew on a piece of that paraffine that Bob's melting. He's so foolish sometimes that I don't think he'd ever know the difference."
"Well, we can't all of us be wise," said Joe. "But I've got a hunch that I'd rather have the chocolate, so here goes," and he helped himself to a generous piece. "When are you going to have that wax cooked good and tender, Bob?"
"Suppose you leave the wax to me, and you get busy cutting out some squares of tinfoil and paper," suggested Bob. "This wax will be done a long time before you're ready for it."
"All right, I'll do it," said Joe. "I don't suppose there's anybody in the world can beat me at cutting out squares of paper. There may be some things I can't do, but I sure shine at that."
"Yes, I guess you can do that all right," admitted Bob. "But I can't be real sure until you give us a demonstration."
"Here goes, then," replied Joe. "How big do they want to be?"
"Four inches square, the book says, and I suppose the man that wrote it knew what he was talking about," said Bob. "That will do to start on, anyway."
Joe carefully measured a square of paper to the required dimensions, and then used it as a pattern in cutting out the others. He soon had a number of neat squares ready, which he handed to Bob, who immersed them in the melted wax.
While the paper was soaking this up, Joe cut out a corresponding number of tinfoil squares, leaving a projecting tongue on each one to serve as a terminal.
"You're an expert at carpenter work, Doughnuts," said Bob. "If you feel as ambitious as usual you can cut a couple of squares out of that oak plank over in the corner. We'll need them for end pieces to this condenser."
"Oh, that will be lots of fun," said Jimmy, who had been casting longing glances toward the old sofa. "I'd a good deal rather saw some more wood than take it easy. How big shall I make them?"
"About five inches each way, I should say," answered Bob, reflectively. "That will give us room to drill holes in each corner to put the clamping bolts through. In that drawer under the table you'll find some drills. I think a three-sixteenth drill ought to be all right. There are four brass bolts in that bag on the table, and you can measure them and see what size drill you'll need. I bought them for three-sixteenth, anyway."
"You go ahead and cut out the pieces, Jimmy," said Herb. "I'll do the real hard work, like measuring the bolts and picking out the drill. Then when you get the end pieces cut out, the drill will be all ready for you to put the holes through."
Jimmy gave him a withering glance, but rolled up his sleeves and set to work. Once started he made the sawdust fly, and before very long had two stout looking pieces of solid oak cut out.
"Where's your drill, Herb?" he inquired then. "Don't tell me you haven't got that ready yet!"
"All ready and waiting," was the reply, and Herb handed over the required tool. "Go to it, and see that you make a first class job of it."
Clamping both pieces of wood in the vise, Jimmy ran the sharp hand drill through in a workmanlike manner, and then viewed his work with pardonable pride.
"There you are," he said. "If this condenser doesn't condense, it won't be because it hasn't got two good end pieces, anyway."
"It's funny that you should have to condense electricity," said Herb, with a twinkle in his eye. "It's just the same as milk, isn't it?"
"Yes, it isn't," said Bob. "Another wise remark like that, and you'll find yourself out in the wide, wide world, young fellow."
"I should say so," said Joe. "That was a fierce one, Herb."
"Well, I'll promise to be good," returned Herb. "But I still think that was a pretty fine joke, only you fellows haven't got enough sense of humor to appreciate it."
"We've got sense enough not to appreciate it, anyway," said Jimmy. "It's weakened me so that I'll have to have another piece of chocolate to brace me up," and he suited the action to the word.
"When you've all had all the candy you want, we can go ahead and make this condenser," said Bob. "Don't let me hurry you, though."
"No chance of your hurrying me," replied Jimmy. "I'm so all in now I can hardly move. But Herb and Joe will do anything you want them to. They've been taking it easy, right along, so they shouldn't mind working a little now."
"Jimmy has done more work to-night than I've seen him do altogether in the last six months," said Joe. "So we'd better let him rest himself awhile now. He's apt to get sick if we don't."
"Well, I guess this paper has soaked up all the wax it's going to, so we can go ahead with the rest of it," said Bob, as he started fishing squares of impregnated paper out of the saucepan.
He laid one sheet on one of the blocks that Jimmy had cut out, and on top of that laid a sheet of tinfoil, then another sheet of paper and one of tinfoil, alternating in this way until he had a number of sheets lined up. The little tabs or projections on each sheet of tinfoil he arranged in opposite directions, so that half of them could be attached to a wire on one side of the condenser and half to a wire on the other side. Then he placed the other wooden block on top of the whole thing, passed the four screws through, one at each corner, and tightened them up evenly. This squeezed all superfluous paraffine from between the plates, and held the whole assembly very securely and neatly.
"That looks fine so far," said Jimmy, critically. "But how do you mean to connect up all those tabs on the plates?"
"I guess about the only way will be to solder them," replied Bob. "I used to have a soldering iron around here somewhere." He rummaged in the big drawer under the bench and soon produced the iron, which he then proceeded to heat over a gas flame.
"While that iron's heating, I might as well follow Jimmy's example and rest," said Bob, throwing himself down on the sofa. "I've been thinking we haven't heard much lately of Buck Looker or any of his gang. Has anybody heard what he's up to now?"
"I saw him only this afternoon," said Joe. "He had Lutz and Mooney with him, of course, and they all looked at me as though they'd like nothing better than to heave a brick at me when I wasn't looking. Buck asked me how the wireless 'phone was coming along, and when I told him that we had our aerial up and expected to be receiving stuff within a few days, he seemed surprised."
"What did he say?" asked Herb.
"Oh, he just predicted that we'd never get it working, and as I didn't feel like arguing with him, I started on. I hadn't gone far though when that little sneak, Terry, yelled after me: 'Hey, Atwood, don't forget that all that goes up must come down.' The others snickered, and I had half a mind to go back and make him tell me what he meant. But then I thought he wasn't worth bothering with, and I went on home. What do you suppose he meant, anyway?"
Bob thought a moment before replying.
"You say you told him that we had our aerial up?" he asked, at length.
"Yes, I did tell him that."
"Well, it would be just like them to try to pull down our wires, if they thought they could get away with it. Maybe that's what Terry meant about 'all that goes up must come down.' What do you think?"
"Say!" exclaimed Joe, leaping to his feet, "I'll bet that was just what he meant, the little sneak. But he'd never have nerve enough to try anything like that himself."
"Maybe not. But I think Buck Looker might," said Bob. "If he does,
I only hope I'll have the luck to catch him at it."
"Those fellows need a good licking, and it's up to us to give it to them," said Herb indignantly. "I'm game to do my share any time."
"Oh, well, it may have been just some nonsense of Terry's. But we'd better be on our guard, anyway," said Bob, rising to get the soldering iron. "Whew! but this is hot now, all right. I'll let it cool a bit, and get the condenser ready for soldering."