CHAPTER XI A WIRELESS TELEPHONE
For a moment the oyster skipper was like one struck dumb. Then his usual explosive nature asserted itself.
"That's where my money went," he burst out, holding up the severed pocket. He leaped to his feet. "You look after this scoundrel and don't let him get away. I'll go take care of the lad. We gave him a rough deal."
Captain Bagley was out of the cabin and aboard the Bertha B in no time. He found Alec shivering by the fire. Without a word the skipper helped him peel off the last of his wet garments, and once more he set to rubbing Alec with a rough towel. As he rubbed, he talked.
"Lad," he said, "we done you wrong. The missing money was in Hawley's pocket."
Alec was too much astonished for words. The skipper mistook his silence. "I want you to let bygones be bygones. Will you?" He held out his hand.
Alec grasped it warmly. "It's all right," he said, "and we'll forget it. But I was pretty much cut up for a time. I realize now how bad things looked." Then, after a moment Alec asked, "How is Hawley? Thank God! I went after him. Now you know I'm honest."
"We know more. We know you're a mighty brave lad. There ain't many fellows around here who would take a chance like that to save a fellow who had tried to murder them."
"I don't seem to get warm," said Alec.
The captain rubbed him more briskly than ever. Still Alec remained chilly.
"Guess you'd better put on warm clothes and get right into your bunk," said the skipper, poking up the fire and shoving the coffee-pot over the warmest griddle.
Alec pulled on some clothes, then wrapped himself in a reefing-jacket and lay down on his bunk, drawing some heavy quilts over him. Still he shivered. The captain remained with him, dosing him from time to time during the night with hot drinks that he brewed on the stove. But this time nature was to take her toll. Morning found Alec with a high fever.
The instant Captain Bagley was satisfied that Alec was going to be ill, he telephoned Captain Rumford. Bivalve, which was nothing but a shipping port with practically no residences, possessed no physician. Captain Rumford said he would bring his family doctor down with him; and before many hours passed the physician stood by Alec's bedside.
"You'll have to take mighty good care of this lad if he is to escape having pneumonia," said the physician, after testing Alec's pulse and temperature. "It's a wonder the shock didn't kill him outright."
"If his condition is so serious as that," said the shipper, "he ought to be in a good home where he can have proper care."
"He should. If you were willing to take a deck-hand into your house, Captain, you would be doing an act of real charity."
"Not charity," said the phlegmatic shipper slowly. "Justice. We owe a lot to that lad."
That was all Alec ever heard Captain Rumford say by way of explanation or apology. He was a man who often found it difficult to express himself in words; but he had other ways of expressing himself, as Alec was soon to learn. Even the little he had said was much for him to utter. But little as it was, Alec had heard the statement, and it made him feel a great deal better than any of the doctor's medicines did.
For though he was speedily whisked away to the shipper's home, where he had the best of care, his illness was severe. Chills and high fever seized him alternately. So severe had been the shock of the two exposures that his system could not seem to rally and throw off the heavy cold that had seized upon him. Ten days passed before Alec was pronounced fit by the doctor to take his place on the deck of the Bertha B.
Irksome enough those ten days seemed to Alec; yet they were probably as profitable a ten-day period as he ever spent in his life. For not a day passed that Captain Rumford did not spend considerable time in the sick-room. In those ten days Captain Rumford came to know Alec better than he would ordinarily have known him in a year.
"Alec," he said one day, "did you know that the man who fell overboard was Hawley—that is, did you know it before you went over after him?"
"Yes, sir," said Alec.
"You were morally certain he had tried to kill you, and yet you went overboard after him?"
"Yes, sir."
"Why did you do it?"
"Because he had tried to kill me."
"I don't understand what you mean."
"I mean—I mean," stammered Alec, with burning cheeks and downcast eyes, "that for an instant I was glad he had fallen overboard. Then the thought came to me that in my mind, at least, I was a murderer, and that was a million times worse than being the thief you believed me to be. I couldn't stand it, sir. The thought drove me wild and I had only one idea—to save Hawley at any price."
Captain Rumford stared at Alec fixedly. Here was a degree of fineness he had never before encountered in a human being. "He's true as steel," he thought to himself. Aloud he said merely, "I see," and paused in thought.
"What became of Hawley?" asked Alec suddenly.
"Oh! He's all right. Bagley was for having him put in prison at first. Then he cooled down, gave the fellow a deuce of a blowing up, and ended by finding him a job—just like the captain. Looks as though the fellow is trying to brace up, too. He'd be a good oysterman if he'd stay sober. By the way, have you made up your mind what you are going to do with yourself?"
"Yes, sir," said Alec emphatically. "I'm going to be an oysterman." But he did not tell Captain Rumford when he had come to that decision or why.
"Do you have any definite plan in mind?"
"No, sir. I've got to learn more about the oyster business first. But I'm going to know everything there is to know. And I'm going to have an up-to-date outfit. No old done-over schooners for me. I'm going to have an oyster-boat that is an oyster-boat."
The captain smiled ever so faintly. "What is it going to be like?" he inquired.
"Well, it will be bigger and higher and faster and have more hold room than any oyster-boat now in the fleet. And it will be equipped with wireless, sir."
The lurking smile vanished from the captain's face. "Where did you get those ideas?" he demanded.
"Partly from hearing others talk and partly from my own observation."
"If you ever do," said the captain, "I reckon you'll make a lot of ship owners scrap their boats. They can't compete with an outfit like that. How are you expecting to get the money for a boat like that? Don't you know it will cost a lot more than the present type of boat, and goodness knows that costs enough."
"The minute I finish paying for my father's gravestone, sir, I'm going to begin saving for that boat. If these ordinary workers around here earn a thousand to twelve hundred dollars a year, working ten or twelve hours a day, as I understand they do, I can earn a lot more working sixteen hours, can't I? And I can save most of what I earn."
"So that's your plan," observed the shipper, without comment. Then he thrust his hand into his breast pocket and drew forth a letter. "Your mention of your father's gravestone reminds me that I have a letter for you." And he handed the envelope to Alec.
"You have made a mistake," said Alec. "This letter is addressed to you."
"I know. But it is really for you."
In wonderment Alec opened and read the letter. Moisture came in his eyes. "Oh, sir, how can I ever thank you?" he cried.
The letter was from the Central City monument dealer in reply to a sharp note from the shipper. It said the stone had been set up and that the dealer would be glad to have the remainder due as soon as Alec could forward it. Alec did not know it, but the captain had practically guaranteed the payment of that money. It was his method of making amends.
When Alec grew a little stronger and could get about a little, but was still far from able to go aboard ship, he began to grow very restless. Finally he asked if he might have his wireless outfit. The shipper got it for him. The outfit interested everybody in the household, especially the shipper's daughter Elsa, who was one year younger than Alec. Following his instructions, she made a single-wire aerial between a near-by tree and the window, brought the lead-in wire into the room through an insulating tube, and ran the wire round the edge of the room to a table beside Alec's bed. Then she ran a ground-wire to a water pipe and helped Alec wire up his outfit.
Necessarily this was of the simplest possible sort. There was an old Ford spark-coil, half a dozen dry cells, a spark-gap, a transmitting condenser, a helix, a transformer, a crystal detector, headpiece, and key. All these were of the simplest and cheapest sort. Most of them Alec had made himself; and though they did not look so nice as the bright, shiny instruments to be bought of manufacturers, they answered the purpose quite as well. As Alec and Elsa wired the spark-gap to the transformer, the transformer to the condenser, the condenser to the spark-coil, and added the key and the cells, Alec explained how messages were sent in varying wave-lengths, and how it was possible to listen to one message and tune out other messages of different wave-lengths.
"If only I had a little more powerful battery," said Alec, "I could talk to my old chums at home. I believe I can easily talk to the big steamers out on the Atlantic, and I'm going to try it. You know one of my chums is Roy Mercer, wireless man of the steamer Lycoming. His boat will be coming up the coast from Galveston in a few days and I'm going to try to get into communication with him. Won't he be surprised to find that I am down in New Jersey and in a fair way to be a sailor myself."
Elsa was fascinated by the wireless. When Alec picked up some of the messages that were flying through the air in the evenings, and copied them down for her, she was so excited she could hardly keep her mind on her lessons.
"If only I could understand what it means," she said, as she sat listening from time to time with the receivers strapped to her ears.
"That's easy," smiled Alec. "I can teach you and you'll be able to learn in a few weeks."
"But you won't be here in a few weeks," sighed Elsa, "and besides I want to communicate by wireless right away."
"The only way to do that," said Alec, "is to have a wireless telephone. But I don't have the instruments. They cost more than a wireless telegraph set, too."
"What would you use?" asked Elsa.
"If I just had a good storage battery instead of these dry cells, a V. T. socket and bulb, some B batteries and a telephone block to add to the instruments I already have, we could receive wireless telephone messages O. K. And it wouldn't take very much additional equipment for us to be able to send wireless telephone messages. Some day when I have the time and the money, I'm going to make and buy a complete outfit. With that, I can hold a conversation with any one else who has an outfit within range."
"Wouldn't that be wonderful!" cried Elsa. "Just to think of it! If I had an outfit here and you had one on the Bertha B we could talk to each other no matter where you were, whether you were tied up at your pier or out on the Bay! It would be wonderful."
When Alec looked at the bright face before him, with the flashing, blue eyes, pink cheeks, red lips, and curly brown hair, he, too, thought it would be wonderful. He also thought it would be worth quite as much as some of the dollars he might earn and save. Very quickly he decided that he could wait a few hours longer than he had expected for his ideal oyster-boat, and put those hours into the making of some wireless telephone sets. Of course they wouldn't look as nice as store goods, but they would be quite as effective; and when he and Elsa were talking to each other through miles of space and over leagues of tumbling water, he knew neither one would remember or care about the looks of their instruments. What they would be concerned about would be instruments that talked. That, he suddenly thought, was just what the shipper wanted and the Bertha B's captain wanted, and everybody else wanted—dependability, whether in men or instruments. It wasn't the varnish on the outside that made a man or a wireless instrument worth while. It was the quality of performance that came out of that man or instrument.
Alec had almost fallen into a day-dream when he was recalled by Elsa's voice. "Dad's crazy about music, you know, and nobody in the family knows one note from another. He promised me a fine piano on my next birthday if I'd learn to play it, but I don't want the old piano. I'm going to ask him to get me a wireless telephone set instead."
"If you get it," said Alec, "I'll make and buy the pieces I need to convert this outfit into a first-class telephone set. Then we'll be fixed. If your father won't buy you the set, then I'll make all the pieces I can for you, and we can manage to buy what is lacking. You know a fellow can make almost everything except the receivers and the battery."
In one respect Elsa was like Captain Bagley. To think was to act. No sooner had she decided to ask for a wireless telephone set than she made her request. She came back with a long face. Her father would none of it.
Alec became thoughtful. "If I just had those few pieces I need to add to this set," he said, "I believe I could make your father change his mind in regard to the matter."
"How?" cried Elsa.
"I believe if he once listened in with a wireless telephone, he'd want one himself."
"Impossible!" cried Elsa. "He's as set as Gibraltar in his ways. Why, it was years before we could get him to install an ordinary telephone, and he wouldn't get a motor-car until years after everybody else here had one. And I know he thinks this wireless set of yours is all nonsense."
"I'd bet a dollar to a doughnut he'd change his mind if I could just get a telephone set while I'm here."
"What is it you need? Tell me again."
"A good storage battery, a V. T. socket and bulb, some B batteries and a telephone block."
"Would a battery from a Ford car answer?"
"That's exactly what I want."
"Well, I have a Ford runabout, you know, and I take care of it myself. Dad kicks about it every time I come in smeared up with grease. But he can't stop me. I'll get that battery charged and uncouple it and bring it up here. And I've got enough money to buy those other things unless they're too awful expensive."
"They don't cost so much," said Alec. "It's the battery that's expensive."
"Tell me again what they were. Wait. Write it down."
Elsa brought a piece of paper and a pencil. Alec wrote down his list. Then he thought the matter over carefully. "Yes," he said, "those are all the pieces I need, though I ought to have a second set of receivers. They'd fix us up all right. If you get them, we can hear well, especially if the battery is freshly charged. We'll use them while I'm here, and after I go you can keep them as part of the set I'm going to make for you."
Elsa left the room. Presently Alec heard the purring of her motor-car. Then he sat in silence for a long time. Finally he heard a motor-car drive into the yard. Not long afterward Elsa came into the room, struggling with her Ford battery.
"Had it recharged," she panted, "and got all the things you wanted."
"Then we'll wire them right up," said Alec.
"I'm awful sorry, but I have to attend a rehearsal for our class play. I can't stay now."
Alec wired up the instruments himself. It was early evening, and atmospheric conditions seemed ideal for wireless communication.
"Now we'll see what the outfit will do," said Alec to himself, as he clamped a pair of receivers on his head and threw over his switch.
For a long time he listened and worked, tuning and adjusting his instruments. At first there was a frightful whistling and wailing in his ears. But gradually he tuned it out, eliminating all but the sounds he wished to hear.
"Now I guess I can handle her O. K.," muttered Alec.
Just then a voice came ringing through the air. "This is WJZ broadcasting. We will begin our concert this evening with the sextette from Lucia, rendered by singers from the Metropolitan Opera Company." Then, after a moment's pause, "Stand by for three minutes."
"Captain Rumford," called Alec loudly.
"Hello! What is it?" came the response from below.
"Won't you come here at once, please?"
Captain Rumford ran up-stairs to Alec's room, thinking something was the matter.
"Please sit down and put this on your head," said Alec.
The captain frowned. "What's this nonsense?" he said sharply. "I thought you were in trouble."
"Please do as I ask," said Alec. "I won't keep you five minutes."
The captain sat down, the frown still on his forehead. The music started. Clear as a bell on a frosty morning came the beautiful melody, now rising, now falling, every word clear and distinct. Captain Rumford's face was a study. Astonishment, incredulity, intense pleasure were reflected on his countenance. He sat as one entranced. Skilfully Alec shifted his tuning instruments, shutting out the occasional blurs and keeping the tone sharp and distinct. The selection ended. Captain Rumford turned toward Alec and started to remove his headpiece.
"Wait," said Alec. "Please sit still."
"The next number on our programme will be Humoresque, as played by Mischa Elman," came the voice in the air.
In another moment the strains of a violin were sounding in the captain's ears. For nearly an hour he sat in silence, listening to the world's most beautiful music, rendered by famous musicians. He was too amazed to speak. He sat there, drinking in the music, the very picture of ecstasy.
"Where's that from?" he demanded, when the announcer said the concert was ended.
"Newark," said Alec.
"Impossible! Why, Newark is more than one hundred miles distant. It can't be."
Alec smiled. "It was Newark just the same," he said. "That was the Newark station of the Westinghouse Manufacturing Company broadcasting."
"What do you mean?"
"Why, they send out stuff broadcast at every hour of the afternoon and evening. It's free for everybody. All you need is a wireless telephone set."
"Do you mean they send out music?"
"They send out everything you can think of—government weather forecasts, marine news, happenings of the day, baseball scores, stories for children, lectures by famous men and women, the finest kind of music, and lots of other stuff. They give a concert every night in the week. And they send their weekly programmes free to anybody that asks for them. And there are many other stations that broadcast, too. There are Pittsburgh and Chicago and Anacostia and ever so many others."
The captain was dumfounded. "Young man!" he said, "What did that outfit cost?"
"Very little," said Alec. "I made most of it myself. Elsa got these few things this afternoon. For a hundred or a hundred and fifty dollars you could get as fine a receiving set as you'd want. A sending set would cost more."
"You can! Alec, will you buy a good set for me and wire it up? I want the best you can get. You can spend as much money as you like, within reason."
"Certainly, sir," said Alec, trying to keep from shouting for very joy. "I'll be only too glad to. I'll write for catalogues at once and order the stuff. And when it comes, I'll install it and teach you and Elsa how to operate it."
"Fine!" sighed the shipper. "At last we are going to have some music in this house!"