“Right,” said Jack, laying his hand on a case, “and here it is. Now to get it set up.”
The blacks, with the exception of Matse who sat dozing on the bank, were not in sight, having retired to a glade back amongst the trees and gone to sleep. Their philosophy seemed to be to leave worry to the young white men.
“Anyhow, we wouldn’t need them,” decided Jack. “Because we won’t have to take this stuff ashore to set it up. We can put it up right here on the raft. Water is a fine conductor and will give us a good ground. And we can have better luck out here in the open with our aerial than in amongst the trees.”
With this the others agreed, and all went to work unpacking the apparatus. Little was said as they worked, and so expert were they at this job of putting up a set in double-quick time in the wilds that in a very short space the loop aerial was in place, all the wires were connected, and then Jack sat down at the instrument and began tuning in to the wave length his father would be employing.
At first there was no response, try as he would. And Jack feared that perhaps water had penetrated the packing boxes and saturated some of the wiring. He put off the headpiece, and the three boys went over every inch of wire. True enough, what Jack feared had really occurred. But only one small wire was wet. Armature windings and other portions of the apparatus which could not have been dried out readily had they become saturated, had escaped.
“I suppose now we’ll have to build a fire and dry this out,” said Jack, detaching the three foot strand of insulated wire connecting one post of the tuning coil with one of the end posts of the switch. “It’s a nuisance, but I can’t find any replacement wire.”
“No use building a fire,” said Frank. “This sun is hot enough, goodness knows. That strand ought to dry out soon enough. Let’s put it here,” he added, indicating a packing case standing in the sun from the surface of which heat waves visibly radiated.
That was done and then the boys sought the shaded end of the raft where they crouched, talking intermittently, while awaiting the result of the drying-out process. Several times one or other went and turned over the wire and at length Jack triumphantly declared it thoroughly dry. Then the connection was restored, and again he put on the headpiece and tuned in.
Bob and Frank looked on anxiously. Almost at once a broad grin broke over Jack’s face.
“It’s Dad,” he cried; “calling for us.”