The ejaculation was wrenched from him by the fact that although he had disconnected the wire he still heard the music—a little fainter than before but still with every note distinct.
He could scarcely believe his ears and looked at his friends in great bewilderment.
“What’s the matter?” asked Joe, jumping to his feet. “Get a shock?”
“Not in the sense you mean, but in another way, yes,” replied Bob, still holding the exposed end of the copper wire in his fingers. “What do you think of that, fellows? I’m an aerial!”
“Come out of your trance,” adjured Herb unbelievingly. “They talk that way in the insane asylums.”
“Clap on your headphones,” cried Bob, too intent on his discovery to pay any attention to the gibe.
They did so, and were amazed at hearing the selection as plainly as did Bob himself.
The latter had been holding the disconnected wire so that his fingers just touched the uncovered copper portion at the end. Now he hastily scraped off several inches of the insulation and grasped the copper wire with his hand. Instantly the volume of sound grew perceptibly greater.
Hardly knowing what to make of it, he scraped off still more of the insulation.
“Here, you fellows,” he shouted. “Each of you take hold of this.”