The Young Wireless Operator—As a Fire Patrol: Or, The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire PatrolTheiss, Lewis E. (Lewis Edwin)
General
The Young Wireless Operator—As a Fire Patrol: Or, The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol
Theiss, Lewis E. (Lewis Edwin)
Forest fires -- Prevention and control -- Juvenile fiction; Radio operators -- Juvenile fiction
Darkness had already fallen, one night, when Charley drew near the Lumley
habitation. To his surprise he saw a light up-stairs in Lumley's room. As
he drew nearer, he could faintly discern the forms of two men in the
chamber. Involuntarily he stopped to scrutinize the figures. At the same
instant Lumley's dogs began to bark, as they always did when any one
approached. Quick as a flash the curtain of the chamber window was pulled
down. But in that brief instant Charley was sure he recognized the man
with Lumley. It was Bill Collins.
Charley was startled completely out of his weariness. A moment later he
got a second shock. Like a flash it came to him where he had first seen
Lumley. He had been with Collins the day the latter had appeared in the
forest. Collins had attracted Charley's attention so strongly that he had
hardly noticed Collins' companion. Yet now he was certain he was right. He
was certain that he was not mistaken.
From the beginning he had believed that he had seen Lumley somewhere
before the forester introduced Lumley to him. Now it came to him where he
had first seen Lumley. Lumley was the man he and Lew had seen with Bill
Collins.
Still another surprise awaited Charley. When he entered the house Lumley
was seated at the table opposite a stranger, and the stranger was not Bill
Collins. But he resembled Collins so much that Charley did not wonder
that, at such a distance, he had made the mistake of thinking the man was
Collins.
Chapter XXIII
A Startling Discovery
Charley was glad enough that the man was not Collins. Had he been Collins,
Charley would have had another matter to worry about. He was carrying such
a load of responsibility these days that he sometimes felt that he
couldn't stand another thing; and in moments of depression he thought he
could not continue to carry the load he already had.
For Charley was learning the lesson that every man in authority learns:
when the forester laid out a piece of work for him, the forester expected
him to get it done. No matter what the difficulties were, Charley had to
find a way to surmount them. Many and many a day he would gladly have
exchanged places with the humblest laborers in his crew.
All that was required of them was merely to do what they were told to do,
hour after hour or day after day. There was no need for them to lie awake
wrestling with problems that seemed impossible of solution, as Charley had
more than once lain awake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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