“I heard of that,” nodded Ben.
“He’s a fine man,” said Tom enthusiastically. “He’s taken all kinds of trouble to post me and explain things I wanted to know. This little side show of mine is just an experiment on a small scale. I don’t expect any grand results. It will work out the principle, though, and when I get to taking messages——”
“What! you don’t mean to say you can do that?”
“Just that, Ben,” declared Tom confidently.
“From where?”
“Well, mostly from Mr. Edson’s station at Sandy Point, and maybe some stray ones that may slip past him.”
“Say!” cried Ben, on fire at once with emulation and optimism, “what’s the matter with me starting a station, too, down at my house? Then we could have all kinds of fun over our line.”
“It isn’t much work nor expense,” said Tom. “You can get an outfit cheap for a home-made apparatus—you need some coarse and fine wire for the main coil, a glass tube, a bell, sounder and a buzzer, some electromagnets——”
“I see,” interrupted Ben with a mock groan, “just a few things picked up anywhere. Oh, yes!”
“You won’t be discouraged once you get interested, Ben,” assured Tom. “We’ll talk about your starting a station later. Just now you can help me quite a bit if you want to.”