Clearly to his ears, and interrupting the words of the mysterious man whom they had almost forgotten in their disappointment, came another voice, evidently that of a woman, and pitched in high tones. “Oh, yes!” it exclaimed. “I’m so glad, my dear. Do you know—” Tom drew his hand from the desk phone on which it had been resting and the words trailed off into a faint indistinct buzz. Tom and Frank grinned.
“Well, it works!” ejaculated Frank. “Of course it doesn’t make any difference if the receiver is off or not—we aren’t getting waves over wires. Henry kept the receiver on to-day, didn’t he?”
“I don’t know,” replied Tom. “But say, we’ve got to get busy. That chap’s been talking for the last five minutes and we haven’t put down a thing he’s said.”
Trying to make up for lost time, the two boys jotted down the words that came in, now and then placing a hand on the desk phone to see if they could hear the other party to the conversation,
but each time the nasal voice of the woman, gossiping with a friend, was all that came to them. Then the man’s voice ceased and after a few moments’ wait the boys rose from their seats.
“Darn that old hen!” exclaimed Tom, petulantly. “How the dickens could a fellow expect to hear anything with her tongue going like a house afire?”
“Just think what it’ll be when every one’s talking by radio,” chuckled Frank. “And won’t the women have the time of their lives hearing all their neighbors’ gossip?”
“Government’ll have to license ’em to talk, I guess,” muttered Tom. “Come on, let’s go over to Henry’s and see if he had any better luck.”
But Henry had nothing to tell them. He had heard no conversation over the phone except some man talking business with a friend, but he had written down all the words the mysterious man had spoken and showed them to the boys who had explained how they had forgotten to get the greater part of the conversation.
“Tuberose,” Tom read. “We’ll begin next week. Getting stocked up. I’ll bet it’ll wake things up.