“Comes right in the nick of time,” affirmed Herb.
The boys bombarded Doctor Dale with eager questions, but the doctor was adamant and reiterated his suggestion that they should remove the marks of battle. This was considerable of a task, after the furious scrimmage with Buck and Lutz; but they did it, and had repaired the damage to the lead-in wire and were back in the living room of the parsonage and starting to tune up the radio set again when the doorbell rang.
The doctor himself answered the summons, and promptly ushered the newcomer into the room. No introductions were needed, for all the boys knew Mr. Strong well. He was a parishioner of Doctor Dale’s, one of the leading men of the town and an especially close friend of Joe’s father, who was his family physician.
“At the radio, I see,” Mr. Strong remarked, with a genial smile, as he took the chair that the doctor drew out for him.
“Trying out a new set,” said the doctor. “You’re just in time to see how it works.”
Mr. Strong himself was a radio enthusiast, and he shared with the boys the interest elicited by the very satisfactory way in which the set worked. Several selections from that evening’s program were received with special sweetness and clearness which justified all the doctor’s predictions.
The Radio Boys, however, paid less attention to it than they would otherwise have done, for their minds were full of the hint that the doctor had given to them about the prospective tour. For the moment, that was the real question of the evening and eclipsed everything else in importance.
Perhaps a little tinge of mischief caused their host to prolong the concert as he did, but at last he took pity on their impatience and broached the subject that was uppermost in their minds.
“I haven’t forgotten the splendid fight you boys put up to save the property of the Old First Church in those forest fires on Spruce Mountain,” he began, looking around on the eager group. “Ever since that time I’ve been casting around to see if I couldn’t do something to cancel the debt.”
“There’s no debt at all,” put in Bob. “We were only too glad to do what we did, and we never had any thought of payment.”