Mr. Golden was proud of his boys and with good reason. They were large for their age, Bob standing 5 feet 10 inches in his stockings and Jack being but two inches shorter. They were fine, manly, looking fellows, and their clean-cut open faces told that they were generous to a fault and were boys to be trusted.
The rest of the family consisted of Mrs. Golden, a small lovable woman, and a daughter Edna, 14 years old, who was almost worshipped by her big brothers. Altogether they were as happy and jolly a family as one would find in a long journey.
Through the center of the town ran the Kennebec river, and six miles to the north lay a beautiful sheet of water, five miles long by two wide, known as Hayden Lake. Here the boys kept their motorboat, and as Mr. Golden had a large cottage on the shore of the lake, the family spent the greater part of the summer there. The shores of the lake were dotted with cottages, and probably thirty or more motor boats were owned by the people who made the place their summer home. During each summer many races were held, and proud indeed was the boy or man who secured the blue ribbon given to the winner of the final race held the first week in August.
"I say, Jack," shouted Bob from the farther side of the room where he was closely watching a piece of electrical apparatus, "shut down the dynamo, will you? I want to look at these cells and see how they are coming. We ought to have about enough in the first one."
"Right you are, son!" replied Jack as he turned a lever, and as the hum, which had filled the room ceased, he added, "There you are."
Bending over a glass tank, which was about 12 inches square by 8 deep, and nearly filled with dilute sulphuric acid, Bob disconnected two wires and reaching in his hand, lifted out a cylinder of metal about 6 inches long and 1½ inches thick.
"Hurrah," he shouted, "she's almost full. Now in about a minute we'll know whether or not we've wasted our time during the last week. Have you got those caps all ready and is the motor in trim?"
"Sure thing," replied Jack. "But say, Bob, I'm mighty nervous; suppose it don't work."
"Well," said Bob slowly, "it won't be the first time we've had to try again. If there is any trouble I feel sure it's in the caps, for this manganese dioxide was made by the electric current, and if the caps make it decompose into manganese and oxygen, the same amount of electricity will be produced as was used in making it. It's the same principle as the regular storage battery, only we are going to do without the plates and sulphuric acid."
"That's all right," said impatient Jack, "but hurry up and hitch it on and let's get the anxiety over with."