CHAPTER XVI

THE MODERN MIRACLE

"I bet you're cold," said Bob, sympathetically. "Never mind, we'll have you warmed up in a jiffy now."

As a matter of fact, the big hotel was even then looming before them, and in a moment more they entered its doors, to find to their delight that a roaring fire was burning in the grate of the big living room.

The two girls rushed to it joyfully, holding out their chilled hands to the blaze, snuggling to its warmth like two half-frozen kittens.

They happened to have the big room all to themselves at that moment, and, after having drawn chairs up to the fire for Mrs. Salper and the girls, the boys excused themselves and hurried back to the spot where they had dropped their bags of nuts when the cry for help had interrupted them in their occupation.

"Never do to lose the fruits of our labor," said Herb, grinning, as he picked up his own particular bag.

The other boys did likewise, and they were soon hurrying back to the hotel again, talking excitedly about the rescue of the Salper girls.

"It's mighty lucky we happened to be near enough to hear the cries for help," said Joe, soberly. "It would have been pretty hard for them to have forced their way through those drifts alone, half numbed as they were."

"Yes," agreed Bob. "It's pretty nice to think of them warm and snug before the fire just now."

"Queer," observed Jimmy as they neared the house, "that we should have been talking about them just at the time the thing happened."

"Queer," said Herb patronizingly, "but not half so queer, Doughnuts, as the modern miracles that happen every day----"

"Take radio, for instance," finished Bob, and they entered the hotel laughing.

They found the two girls recovered from their fright and quite a good deal happier than they had been a few minutes before. They regarded the radio boys with interest, and it was clear that the girls and Mrs. Salper had been talking about them during their absence.

"You're often called the 'radio boys,' aren't you?" challenged Edna, as the boys drew chairs up to the fire.

"Why, I guess so," said Bob, with a smile. "Lots of folks call us that."

"Dad was up at the radio station the other day and the operator there was enthusiastic about you," said Ruth Salper, in her direct way. "Said that if you kept on the way you were going, you would soon know more about radio than he does himself."

"That's mighty nice of him, but I'm afraid he was boosting us too high," replied Bob, trying hard not to show how pleased he was.

"That fellow at the station has forgotten more about radio than we ever knew," added Joe modestly, but in his heart he was as pleased at the praise as Bob was. It is always nice to receive commendation from some one who is an authority.

"You're very modest," teased Edna gaily. "But when dad says anything nice about anybody he generally means it. He doesn't say nice things very often----" She caught a glance of reproof from her mother and bit her lip penitently.

"You mustn't say unkind things about your father, Edna," said Mrs. Salper, gently. "You know he is worn to death with business worries. If we could once succeed in making him forget his responsibilities, he would be as jolly and fun-loving as he used to be."

"Yes, dad used to be no end of fun," said Ruth, adding, with a fierce little frown and a clenching of her fists; "I just wish I could get hold of whoever's worrying him so. I'd give them something to worry about for a change."

Then, seeming to realize that the boys might not be interested in her personal affairs--though as a matter of fact they were interested, extremely so--the girl tactfully turned the conversation to something which she thought might interest them.

"Could we see your radio set?" she asked, impulsively. "We'd just love to have you tell us about it. As much as we could understand," she added, with a smile for the boys.

Mrs. Salper protested feebly, but so eager were the boys to show off their set to the girl radio fans that her opposition was overcome almost at once.

Then followed a happy hour during which the radio boys talked learnedly of condensers and amplifiers and different kinds of receivers until the admiration of the girls mounted almost to awe.

"My, but it sounds worse than Greek!" cried Edna Salper once, as she bent absorbedly over the apparatus that worked such miracles and bore such high-sounding names. "This is the tuning apparatus, isn't it?" she asked, gingerly touching the wire coil. "It seems almost impossible that you can tune to any wave length with this thing, just as the piano tuner can tune the wires of his instrument to the proper sound vibration."

"It--the whole thing--seems impossible," added Ruth, while Mrs. Salper found herself quite as interested as her daughters.

"Yes, that's the way it seemed to us at first," agreed Bob, his eyes shining. "When Doctor Dale told us we could make a set for ourselves we could hardly believe him. But it didn't seem a bit hard once we got started and learned the hang of it."

"You mean to say that you made this set yourselves?" asked Mrs. Salper, with interest.

"Oh, this is nothing. We've made lots of 'em," said Jimmy proudly, at which Herb promptly kicked him under the table. The injured Jimmy glared at his assailant, but the others were too much interested in the subject to notice him.

"You see this is a comparatively small set," Bob explained.

"But we're working on a powerful apparatus now," broke in Joe eagerly. "And when we have that in working shape we'll be able to send as well as receive."

"Well, I think you're just as smart as father said you were," said Ruth, and at this candid compliment the confused boys thought it time to change the subject.

"How about listening in a while?" suggested Bob, struck by a sudden inspiration. "We ought to be just about in time to catch the afternoon concert--if there is one. Would you like to find out?"

"Would we?" cried Edna, enthusiastically. "Indeed we would!"

"Just try us," added Ruth happily.

So the boys showed them how to fit the head-phones, not using the loudspeaker they had made from the phonograph horn, and adjusted the tuning apparatus to the proper wave length, and the girls answered to the thrill of catching music magically from the ether just as the boys had done on that never-to-be-forgotten evening when their first concert had reached them over the wires of their first receiving set. Crude it seemed to them now in the light of later improvements, but an instrument of magic it had been to them that night.

No wonder that the boys felt a warm and real friendship for the Salper girls--and Mrs. Salper, too--a friendship that would have been surprising, considering the shortness of their acquaintance, had it not been that they were all radio fans, dyed in the wool.

So quickly did the time fly that Mrs. Salper was amazed and apologetic when she found how long they had lingered.

"We must hurry!" she exclaimed, starting toward the door, the girls reluctantly following. "Your father will surely think we are all lost in a snowdrift."

"Which two of us came very near being," added Edna, with a laugh.

"Don't joke about it," said Ruth, with a shiver. "I must say being buried in a snowdrift wasn't very pleasant--while it lasted."

The radio boys insisted upon accompanying the Salpers home, explaining that they could show them the shortest path. Gaily they started out and before they had reached the Salper place the friendship which had begun the evening of the concert with their mutual interest in radio, became steadily stronger.

It was plain that, besides being grateful to them for having come to the help of the girls, Mrs. Salper liked the boys for their own sakes.

When they reached the house she begged them to come in with her so that Mr. Salper might have the opportunity of thanking them for their kindness.

The boys skillfully avoided accepting this invitation by pointing out that it was getting late and the path would be hard to find in the dusk.

"Thanks ever so much for everything," Ruth Salper called after them as they started off, and Edna added:

"We're going to frighten dad into getting us a radio set by threatening to make one ourselves!"

"I shouldn't wonder if they could make a set, at that," said Bob thoughtfully, as they tramped on alone. "They're smart enough."

"For girls," added Herb, condescendingly.

Whereupon Jimmy turned and eyed him scornfully.

"Say, where do you get that stuff?" he jeered. "If those girls couldn't make a better radio set than you, I'd sure feel sorry for them."

"Ha! I'll wash your face for saying that," was the quick answer, and the next instant Jimmy felt some snow on his ear. Then began a snow battle between all the boys which lasted until they reached the hotel.