Tom was the man who had taken them on the coon hunt, and one they had been suspicious of, but here he was with the loyal men.
Dick hurriedly opened the knapsack. Yes, there it was, safe and sound, the wireless outfit!
“Now one of you fellows get up there and dig a hole in the roof; it only need be a small one, that I can slide this aerial up through. It ought not to take more than an hour.”
“We haven’t any knife,” said one of the men. “They took away all our knives and matches from us.”
Dick secured his knife from its secret pocket in the lapel, and handed it to one of the men.
“One of you set to work, and the others keep talking so that the guards outside will not become suspicious and look in here.”
“Are you going to try something with the radio-phone,” asked Mr. Boone, who was the only one who grasped what Dick’s intentions were.
“Yes; it’s our only chance. I happened to notice that there were two aerials over houses in the last town we passed through before coming to the camp, and I saw some radio apparatus in a store window, so evidently some one there has an outfit. Fortunately I have the receiving apparatus here as well as a sender, and we can find out if my message is received by anyone.”
As he talked, he adjusted the apparatus, ready to send his plea for help through space and hope that someone would be listening in.
“Hurry!” he called to the man who was boring through the board roof with the knife. “It’s almost time for the usual radio broadcasting stations to stop sending, and I want to get someone while they are still listening in, just as the broadcasting station closes.”