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
Charley then told the forester how he had used a tree for an aerial. "It
was my last chance," he said. "If it hadn't worked, the forest would have
burned. I had read about the use of trees to receive by, and I thought I
had read that messages had been sent through trees, but I wasn't sure. It
was my only chance and I took it."
"You're a wonder, Charley. I take back everything I ever said about the
wireless. I have telegraphed for the Commissioner to come on from the
capital. I shall put this entire matter before him and urge the
installation of a wireless outfit in every district of the state forests.
No matter what is done elsewhere, we're going on a wireless basis here as
soon as we can get the outfit, just as I told you. If I can't get money
from the state for the outfit, I'll pay for it myself and have your
Wireless Club make it. This coming winter we'll start a radio school and
you shall have charge of it. Maybe Jim can help you now."
"That will be grand," said Charley with sparkling eyes. "If only we had
the money Lumley robbed the state of, we could buy a dozen outfits."
"We'll get every cent of it," said the forester with decision. "Don't you
worry about that. When we went to the lumber camp after Lumley last night,
I stopped all cutting. Before another stick is felled, you and I are going
in there and measure every stump. Then we'll estimate the timber that
came from those stumps and the lumber operators will pay for it or they
will face a criminal prosecution. If we catch Lumley, we've got the
operators dead to rights. He's the kind of a rat that will squeal quick
when he's caught."
They reached the road, jumped into the forester's car and sped away to
Lumley's house. Half an hour later they entered the forester's office,
carefully carrying a window-sash. As the forester reached his desk, the
man in charge handed him a message from the state police at Maple Gap. It
read, "Have arrested three men who came out of the forest here and tried
to board a train. They give fictitious names, but no doubt two of the men
are wanted. Third has gold teeth and scar over right cheek. Do you want
him?"
"Do we want him?" echoed the forester, as he began to write an answer.
"Well, I should say we do."
He dashed off his message, and handed it to his assistant. "Rush that," he
directed.
Then he took a long coil of wire from a closet and led the way back to his
car. "That's for a temporary aerial in case you decide to make one," he
said, as Charley climbed up beside him and they went whirling back to the
fire-tower in the mountains.
Chapter XXVIII
Victory
In due time Ranger Morton came out of the forest with his big crew. The
men were black with smoke and their hands and faces were blistered and
scratched. But they were a happy crew for all that. They had extinguished
what at first bade fair to be the worst fire ever seen in their district.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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