“By cracky! Radio must have been in the air over there and you caught it!” declared Gus. “Nobody could have it down any more pat than you have. Bill and I have got some dandy ideas from you.”
“That we have,” agreed Bill, thumping in. “What is it now, Gus, that our friend——”
“Why, Bill, Tony knows Marconi! Just telling me about it.” And Gus went on briefly to repeat that which the Italian had related. Bill, to use a terse but slangy term, proceeded to go up in the air.
“Why, holy cats, Tony, you are from henceforth the cheese! This school has gone wireless mad,—you know that,—and the country is pretty much in the same fix, and for the reason that radio is about the biggest thing in the world. And, fellows, this just fits. We are doing things—everybody is—in radio and now we are going—this school is going—to honor the situation if we can start it that way. For, fellows, Marconi’s yacht, the Elettra, is in New York Harbor, with Marconi on board most of the time. And Tony, we’ll get Doctor Field to let us have a whack at the transmitter and you can talk to your friend, or telegraph your dad and have him come up and radiophone Marconi. And then we’ll listen in for his reply, for I’ve read he’s awfully fine and good-natured. Isn’t that so?”
“It is so, sure and indeed!” declared the Italian youth. “I am overenjoyed; you say so, eh? that we shall do this. Let us now go, upon this moment, and talk to the good doctor. There will be no lecturing at this time over the casting abroad——”
“The broadcasting transmitter? No, we can surely get a whack at it.”