“I’ll call you in about fifteen minutes,” Jack said a few minutes later as he stood in front of the house ready to mount his motor cycle.
“Better make it twenty,” Bob laughed. “You’ll have Switzer on your trail if you go to burning the road before you get out of town.”
“He’ll have a swell time catching me,” Jack declared as he started.
The motor cycle made not the slightest sound as he sped down the street. The putt-putt of the usual gas engine was absent as the wheel was equipped with a powerful electric motor driven by one of their new cells.
Lake Wesserunsette, a beautiful sheet of water, nearly five miles long, lies to the north of Skowhegan and about six miles distant. Here the Goldens had a summer cottage situated near the shore of the lake in the midst of the tall pines. “The Shadow of the Pines” as they had named the cottage, was a large comfortably furnished house and during July and August the family spent much of their time there. But this summer they were a little later than usual and had not as yet opened the house.
“Just sixteen minutes,” Jack declared after a glance at his watch, as he leaned the motor cycle against the steps of the front porch.
A moment later and he was sending the “call” to his brother by pressing a small switch at one end of the case. Almost at once the answer came as clear and distinct as on the previous night when they had been in the same house.
“Distance don’t seem to cut any figure at all does it?” he declared a moment later after they had congratulated each other.
“Doesn’t seem to, that’s a fact,” Bob replied. “I’m coming up and we’ll have a sail in the Sprite,” he added.
Leaving his motor cycle leaning against the steps Jack quickly ran down to the boat house. Fortunately he had the key in his pocket and in a moment he had the door open. Everything was as he remembered to have left it the previous summer. Slung above the water was the Sprite, an eighteen foot boat, which, the summer before, they had equipped with an electric motor in place of the gas engine.