“It wouldn’t take long out in that sun to get cooked nice and brown on both sides,” said Bob. “It’s going to be hot work putting up the aerials.”
“Yes, but the best of it is that, no matter how hot you get, you can always cool off again in jig time by taking a dive in the ocean,” said Joe. “And that’s what I’m going to do pretty soon, too.”
“You won’t have to go alone, I can promise you that,” said Jimmy. “I don’t want to go in before we get the antenna strung up, though, because when I once do get there, I shan’t want to come out in a hurry.”
“You’ll come out soon enough, Doughnuts, when you find a big shark chasing you,” said Herb, with a sly wink at the others. “I’ve been told that there’s a big man-eating shark around here that’s just lying in wait for somebody to come in and furnish a nice dinner for him.”
“Shark, nothing!” exclaimed Jimmy. “Anyway, if there were sharks around here, they’d be just as apt to eat you or Bob or Joe as they would be to go after me.”
“Not a bit of it,” said Herb seriously. “This shark I’m telling you about doesn’t care for any one but very fat people. That’s what makes me think it would be dangerous for you to go in.”
“Well, I don’t know that I can blame the shark for preferring me to you,” said Jimmy, refusing, with the wisdom born of long experience, to take Herb’s story seriously. “If the shark swallowed you, I’ll bet he’d die of indigestion afterwards.”
“All right, then, do as you please, but don’t say I didn’t warn you,” said Herb resignedly. “You don’t get much gratitude for trying to do people favors anyway, I’ve found.”
“If you fellows put as much energy into getting that aerial strung as you do in chinning with each other, we’d be receiving messages by now,” said Bob, laughing. “Let’s get busy and get things fixed up, and then we’ll go down and see if there’s any sign of that shark friend of Herb’s.”
The radio boys all agreed to this, and without further delay took up the business of stringing the antenna. They had brought two masts with them, and these they proceeded to mount on the roofs of the two bungalows occupied by the Laytons and the Atwoods. These were so situated that the umbrella antenna ran directly over the community living room, thus giving an ideal condition for sending, as the boys intended to set up their apparatus in the big living room, so that everybody in the little colony could get the benefit of the nightly concerts and news bulletins sent out by the big broadcasting stations.