“Well, well, well!” he said, heartily. “If I’m not glad to see you boys! Come on in and make yourselves at home.”
The three men who had been in conversation with Mr. Bentley were introduced by the latter as fellow rangers, and it was not long before the Radio Boys felt as though they had known these rugged fine fellows all their lives.
Then Mr. Bentley showed them through the station himself, “introducing them” as he said, “to the whole works.”
The boys were intensely interested in everything, feeling, since Mr. Bentley’s memorable talk to them at Bob’s house on that day when they had first met the forest ranger, as though the whole place were familiar to them.
They were shown the “quarters” of the rangers. These were fitted up quite comfortably, considering the rough work of the men. And there also was the apartment where were stored the weapons used in the fighting of that great forest enemy, fire.
But, needless to say, interested as they were in other departments of the station, the one that interested them most powerfully was the radio room.
The huge dynamo absorbed them and the tremendously complicated mechanism of the set itself held them rapt and awed. The operator, a nice young chap with crisp curling red hair, was instantly won by the boys’ admiration of the apparatus and, led on by their intelligent eager questions, he gave them many technical details which fascinated them.
“No wonder,” Bob breathed at last, “you have been so successful in the fighting of forest fires. With a set like this——”
“Yes, it’s a wonder,” broke in the red-haired chap quickly. “There’s no denying that our apparatus is the best of its kind. But even at that, we, here at the station, wouldn’t be able to do very much without the cooperation of our radio-equipped air force. They are the real eyes of our organization. We merely receive information from them and act upon it. Mr. Bentley here,” he turned with a smile to the latter, “will tell you how important the air service is.”
Payne Bentley grinned good-naturedly.