The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Radio Boys in the Thousand Islands , by J. W. Duffield

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Title: The Radio Boys in the Thousand Islands

Author: J. W. Duffield

Release Date: July 10, 2004 [eBook #12878]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RADIO BOYS IN THE THOUSAND ISLANDS ***

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team

RADIO BOYS IN THE THOUSAND ISLANDS

or, The Yankee-Canadian Wireless Trail

by

J. W. DUFFIELD

Author of

RADIO BOYS IN THE SECRET SERVICE; or, Cast Away on an Iceberg.
RADIO BOYS IN THE FLYING SERVICE; or, Held For Ransom by Mexican Bandits.
RADIO BOYS IN THE ROCKIES; or, The Mystery of the Lost Valley.

1922

CONTENTS

Chapter

I Vacation Plans

II Tragedy or Joke

III Talking it over

IV The Catwhisker

V A Baffling Situation

VI A Mystery and Cub's "Goat"

VII Returning Cub's "Goat"

VIII Mathematics or Geography?

IX The Radio Diagram

X The Island-Surrounded Island

XI The Deserted Camp

XII Hal's Discovery

XIII "Robinson Crusoe's" Diary

XIV More Light and More Mystery

XV The Hook-up on Shore

XVI Running down a Radio Fake

XVII Bud's Discovery

XVIII Unwelcome Visitors

XIX "S.O.S." from Friday Island

XX Four Prisoners

XXI The Hostage

XXII The "Crusoe Mystery" Deepens

XXIII "Sweating" the Prisoner

XXIV "Something Happens"

XXV Bud Shoots

XXVI The Slingshot Victim

XXVII Chased out

XXVIII A Radio Eavesdropper

XXIX The End of the "Mystery"

XXX The Result of a Radio Hazing

CHAPTER I

Vacation Plans

"Now, fellows, what are we goin' to do this vacation?" demanded Cub Perry as he leaned back in his upholstered reed rocker and hoisted his size 8 shoes onto the foot of his bedstead. "School's all over, we've all passed our exams, and now we've got a long vacation before us with nothing to do. It's up to yo-uns to map out a program."

"Why can't you help map it out?" asked Bud Taylor with something of a challenge in his voice. "You always have the last word?"

"Cub's the dictator of our outfit, and we do the work, that's why," declared Hal Stone. "We always have to listen to him, you know that, Bud. So what's the use o' kickin'?"

"Oh, I'm not kickin'," Bud replied. "It's no use. Cub 'u'd drown us out with his voice if we hollered. You know you made 'im admit once that noise was the only thing that 'u'd convince him."

"You c'n change that now and call it static instead of noise since we've all become radio experts," smirked Cub with characteristic superiority.

"Ha, ha," laughed Bud.

"Tee-hee," tittered Hal.

By the way, it was from this peculiar manner of laugh, that Hal got his nickname, Tee-hee. Cub's given name was Robert, shortened sometimes to Bob and Bud's was Roy. Cub and Bud were always known by their nicknames, but Hal was addressed as Tee-hee only on fitting or intermittent occasions.

The three boys were seated in Cub's room at the Perry home, one of the largest and most interesting samples of domestic architecture in the City of Oswego, on the shore of Lake Ontario. Cub was a rich man's son, but he was constitutionally, almost grotesquely, democratic. There was nothing that would make him angrier, to all appearance at least, than open reference in conversation to the wealth of his father. For such offense he was ever ready to "take off the head" of the offender. However, once in a while one of the bolder of his friends would beard the lion in his den more or less successfully. But it was necessary for such venturesome person to be ever in command of ready wit in order to emerge with a whole skin, figuratively speaking, and Bud and Tee-hee were the real leaders of this victorious few. That was the reason why they were chums of Cub.

The fact of the matter, to be perfectly frank, was that Cub was a good deal of an actor. Whether he was conscious of this fact we will not venture to say. He is the only one who knows, and we have never broached the subject to him. The average person on first making his acquaintance doubtless would set him down as a very domineering youth; some might even call him a bully, but they would change their minds eventually if the acquaintance continued. Perhaps the best way one could judge Cub, without being Cub himself, would be to characterize him as being fond of playing the bully just for fun. Indeed, it is quite probable that Cub carried a perpetual laugh in his sleeve.

This dominant youth was tall and lanky. He was only 17 years old, but as big as a man, so far as altitude and the size of his feet were concerned. He lacked one inch of being six feet tall, and he wore size 8 shoes. The hope for his proportion was expansion, and judging from the hereditary history of his paternal ancestry, there was good prospect for him in this regard. His father was a large man and well built.

To complete the description of Cub, he was a youth of very wise countenance. He liked to read "highbrow stuff" and reflect and inflict it on such victims as were unable to counter his domination.

Bud was a short, quick, snappy, bold fellow, "built on the ground". It is possible that he might have upset Cub in a surprise wrestle, but nobody ever dared to "mix" with Cub in such manner; the lanky fellow seemed to be able to out-countenance any suggestion of physical hostility. The glower of his face seemed to spell subjection for all the boy world about him.

But Bud would blurt out something now and then that seemed to startle Cub into a mood of reflection, and whenever Cub reflected his dominance wavered. Tee-hee was able to accomplish the same effect without a "blurt". Tee-hee was sly, "as sly as they make 'em", but it was a kind of slyness that commands respect. It even gave an air of respectability to his laugh, for, ordinarily, a "tee-hee" sounds silly. But Hal's "tee-hee" was constitutional with him, and his sly shrewdness gave it real dignity.

Cub was usually the dominating factor in all the boy arguments of their "bunch", which varied in numbers from ten to twenty, according to the motive of interest that drew them together. He seldom started an argument, unless his disposition to "bawl" somebody out for uttering a, to him, foolish opinion, he regarded as a starter. He seldom spoke first, but