Doctor Field, much interested, accompanied the boys to the school broadcasting room, and after determining from some data at hand the wave lengths that would be receivable on the Marconi yacht, Tony began talking earnestly, almost too rapidly, into the horn, the crack and buzzing of the battery charges making a sound like that of a rifle gallery. The president, Bill and Gus also had receiving 'phones clamped to their ears.

"If he doesn't mind, you might ask him to reply in English, please," requested the Doctor, and Tony nodded.

And presently a reply did come, though in Italian. Tony got it, at some little length; then with a gesture of disappointment he turned to the others:

"It is an attend-an assister. He informs me that the wireless wizard, Signor Marconi, whom I explain is a friend to me and my family and he know our name, that the signor is away on the earth-no, on land, you say it,-attends some occasion, or is entertain of American friends and he will not return this many hour. So that it is no value, or you say useless, to cast wide to him again now at this moment and I am, as you say, deject?"

They all laughed and cheered Tony with the assurance that there would be another occasion. Then Bill offered his idea to the president:

"Doctor, we have a notion that this radio business right now ought to have a sort of celebration 'most everywhere; and our school might set the example. Radio is getting to be an awfully big thing, nearly as big as the movies. And now here's Marconi. Couldn't we start a general hurrah for radio, bring the apparatus down to the assembly room, have a big concert, send out some messages and get Tony here, who knows Marconi, to give us a talk on the inventor of the wireless when he was a boy, and that sort of thing? Of course, if this would interfere with studies, or--"

"It need not, Brown, it need not in the least," agreed the president. "I like your idea immensely and I foresee some features that we can add. Suppose we fix it for the latter part of this week, handbill it in the town also and make it a gala occasion. It is another way of calling attention to the school and the kind of work we do here. You will all help Professor Grant and the janitor with the mechanical details, which should not take long. And if Sabaste will communicate with Marconi so as to make sure we can get a message from him, that will be the climax."

The idea proved immensely popular. There are many such plans for calling students together to instil interest in various things that prove "wet blankets" when put into operation, but radio, as elsewhere, had taken the school by storm. Separate departments had been organized this year for it. It was equally an interesting plaything and a source of mental gymnastics. It was a matter of curiosity, and not to be interested, was to be out of the swim.

Bill got busy, as hardly ever before in his strenuous career. Because of his uncertain English, Tony balked at giving an address on Marconi, so Bill copied facts and wrote the whole thing out for Tony to memorize, putting in many of the Italian's phrases, corrected. And getting the Elettra again, Marconi's former and youthful neighbor was able to make a date for a message from the wireless wizard on the evening of the radio celebration.

That night there was a crowd in the assembly room. Every student was there, half the town, many people from the country around and a few friends of the school from various distances. Doctor Field introduced the occasion briefly. Professor Grant gave a talk on the history and rapid growth of radio communication. Professor Judson, assistant in physics, talked on the "little bottles," as the vacuum tubes are often called. Professor Search talked on the possible future of radio. Then the Doctor arose again and said:

"We want to have members of our student body, also, express to you our interest in this great subject. We are fortunate to have this year a pupil who, though yet a freshman, has shown an unusual grasp of the technicalities of radio. I am going to ask Mr. William Brown to explain briefly some of the methods employed in building, or selecting, a radio receiving set, such as those he has been engaged in making here at the school. His associate, Mr. Augustus Grier, who is an artist, in mechanical matters at least, will aid Mr. Brown at the blackboard."

Bill laid aside his crutch and hobbled forward to the platform, followed by Gus, whose easy motions were in direct contrast. A round of applause greeted the boys. This was increased and a burst of laughter added when Gus took a piece of chalk and with a few quick strokes made what suggested a broadcasting station, with a rooster shouting "cock-a-doodle-doo" into the transmitter. Then he drew a lot of zigzag lines to indicate the Hertzian waves, and at the other end of the board, a hen listening in and registering horror when she hears the sounds translated into "quack, quack." Meanwhile, Bill had plunged headlong into his subject.

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