And so the concert finally came to a close and the boys took their happily weary guests home through the mellow late afternoon, promising to do the whole thing over some day.
"They sure seemed to enjoy themselves," said Bob as the radio boys started toward home. "Aunty Bixby is a nice old lady, and as for Joel Banks—"
"Say, isn't he a dandy?" Joe demanded, and this time Herb and Jimmy chimed in:
"He sure is!"
CHAPTER XXI
THE VOICE THAT STUTTERED
The following Saturday evening the radio boys were once more assembled at Bob's house. They were in high spirits, having prepared all their lessons for the following Monday, and were out for an evening's fun with their radio outfit. It was too early for the regular concert to start, but they were experimenting with the set, shifting the sliders around on the tuning coil in an effort to catch some of the messages sent out by near-by amateurs. It was sometimes great fun to listen in on these conversations, and often they wished that they had a sending set so that they could answer some of the remarks passed out by the ambitious senders.
For some time they had picked up nothing of interest, and were wishing for the time to come when the concert was to start, when suddenly a voice they had never heard before came out of the air. The boys gazed at each other in astonishment for a few moments, and then broke into irrepressible laughter. For the voice belonged to a man who stuttered terribly, and the effect was ludicrous indeed. The strange voice rasped and stuttered its difficult way along, until some one who possessed a sending as well as a receiving set, interrupted.
"Hey there!" it said. "You're engine's missing, old timer. Let it cool off a bit and then try again."
This was evidently heard by the stutterer, for he became excited, and that did not help him much.