“Will you give me till then to—to try?” asked Tom.
“Surely. I hope you can make it, Tom. I like you very much. You are the right sort, and I think you should be encouraged in your interest in the wireless. I’ll show you just what the equipment here is.”
Ben voted the hour that followed the most interesting of his life. For the first time in his career he began to get a faint conception of spark lengths, spark voltage, condensers, circuits, vibrators, grounds, concentric radiations, wire cores and armatures. He had been dabbling for over a week with both Morse and the Continental alphabets, and when Tom mentioned the possibility of establishing a sub-station at the Dixon home instead of at the old blasted oak, Mr. Edson was quite encouraging, and offered to contribute some of the equipment necessary to carry out the idea.
The expert operator engrossed the attention of the boys. It was a ramble in a field of rare delight as they passed from one part of the wireless mechanism to another.
“Now then, sit down, boys, for a few minutes,” said Mr. Edson at length. “I don’t want you to buy a pig in a poke. There are a couple of attachments that go with the station, and you should know about them.”
“Attachments?” repeated Ben.
“What are they, Mr. Edson?” inquired Tom with curiosity.
“Spooks,” was the ominous reply.
[CHAPTER III—“SPOOKS!”]
“Spooks?” repeated Tom, with a stare of wonder.