Chapter 30

MORE MESSAGES

Oysterman Dan's little cottage became the scene of more than a reunion of old friends and of glad father and son. The news reporters also came, and, somewhat to his disgust, old Dan had to submit to his "pixture bein' took," along with the banker, Bill, Gus, Tony, and some of the insistent police and detectives who are often too eager for notoriety.

The Malatesta brothers, too, were not forgotten. Before they were taken off to a well deserved imprisonment, they were pictured and thus indelibly branded. Later they were returned to their native country.

All this business having been accomplished and Oysterman Dan rewarded utterly beyond his imagination, Mr. Sabaste took command with a lavish hand, and the return of the four principals, by yacht and motor car, became a gala affair. Bill and Gus refused beyond parley to accept the reward Mr. Sabaste had offered. What the boys had done was in friendship only. Expenses? The banker had the say as to that.

Tony, in spite of his long imprisonment, was speedily restored to his happy, kindly state of mind. A long, roundabout trip took them all back to the Marshallton Tech where the late unfortunate could again outfit himself from an ample wardrobe, while Bill and Gus restored, with the janitor's knowledge, the radio transmitting set and the portable receiver. A new receiving set was to be completed soon and set up for Oysterman Dan.

The Farrells were visited; Tony went to the room he had occupied, but he could not remember a thing that had occurred there in connection with his mysterious disappearance. The farmer's wife and daughter set them all down to a good, old-fashioned American dinner that the Sabastes laughingly declared did not need spaghetti to make it perfect.

Then, at the school again, the banker requested the use once more of the radio transmitter. Bill sat, listening in. Gus and Tony stood in the doorway, talking of school days.

"This is Angelo Sabaste speaking. I wish especially to convey a message to my old friend Guglielmo Marconi, on his yacht, the _Elettra_."

Then followed many words in Italian, interspersed only here and there with an American proper name.

At the end of the message there was the usual pause. The banker took up the phones, Gus and Tony rushed to others. Presently they heard, in quiet, even tones, the hoped-for reply in English, as Mr. Sabaste had requested it should be:

"Senatore Marconi sends congratulations to Signor Sabaste that his son is restored to him and that two criminals, though they are our countrymen, are to be sent from America, where too many such have come and belittled the name of Italy. But men like Signor Sabaste will lift that estimate.

"Senatore Marconi suggests, at your request, that the finest reward that could come to these young Americans who have shown such loyalty to your son, with such ingenuity and mechanical ability, is that they be encouraged to complete their technical education and then, with your son, to use their talents in a commercial way. Again congratulations for your son and those young Americans and--the best of success!"

How Mr. Sabaste, eager to carry out this suggestion from the famous inventor of wireless communication, joined with the boys' old friend Mr. Hooper in the establishment of a company in mechanical and electrical engineering, under the name of The Loyalty Company, will be told in "Bill Brown, Radio Wizard."

THE END