"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."
CHAPTER XIII
THRASHING A BULLY
Stripping a length of copper wire, Bob nipped off two short lengths with his pliers and fastened them to opposite sides of the condenser with small staples. Then he brought all the tinfoil plate terminals on each side in contact with the wire on that side, and connected the terminals with their respective wires with a small drop of solder on each. Then he produced a roll of ordinary bicycle tire tape and wound the whole thing neatly in this, leaving only the ends of the two copper wires projecting a distance of perhaps a quarter of an inch.
"There!" he exclaimed, "we can solder our other wires up to them when we come to connect up the set. It isn't very fancy, but it ought to do the work."
"Gee, Bob, you must have been studying up on this," said Jimmy. "To look at your work, any one would think you'd been doing this all your life."
"I did look it up after you fellows went home last night," admitted Bob. "This condenser isn't made just the way they say, but the principle is the same, and I guess that is the main thing."