ch as I believe in you and Gus, seein' your
smartness, I got to doubt all that there bunk you give them young people
'bout that there what you call radier. I been borned a long time--goin'
on to seventy year now,--an' I seen all sorts of contraptions like
reapers an' binders, ridin' plows, typewritin'-machines, telephones,
phonygraphs, flyin'-machines, submarines an' all such, but b'jinks, I
ain't a-believin' that nobody kin hear jes' common talk through the air
without no wires. An' hundreds o' miles! 'Tain't natch'all an' 'taint
possible now, is it?"

"Why, yes, Mr. Hooper; it's both poss--"

"Come on, Billy! Good-night, Mr. Hooper and Mrs. Hooper. We all had a
dandy time." And Bill was led away. But he was able, by hanging back a
little, to whisper to Gus that he was on the track of something from
Thad,--for Bill could only think that the young man would make a
confession or commit himself in some way.

"See you in the morning," he added and turned back.

Thad was waiting and called to Bill from his seat on a bench beneath the
shade of a big maple. The fellow plunged at once into his subject,
evidently holding the notion that youth in general possesses a shady
sense of honor.

"See here, Brown. I think I get you and I believe you've got wit enough
to get Uncle Hooper. Did he say anything to you as you came out about
being shy on this radio business?"

Bill nodded.

"Say, he don't believe it's any more possible than a horse car can turn
into a buzzard! Fact! He told me you fellows might fool him on a lot of
things and that you were awful smart for kids, but he'd be hanged for a
quarter of beef if you could make him swallow this bunk about talking
through the air. You know the way he talks."

"I think he can and will be convinced," said Bill, "and you can't blame
him for his notion, for he has never chanced to inquire about radio and
I expect he doesn't read that department in the paper. If he meets a
plain statement about radio broadcasting or receiving, it either makes
no impression on him, or he regards it as a sort of joke. But, anyway,
what of it?"

"Why, just this and you ought to catch on to it without being told:
Unk's a stubborn old rat and he hasn't really a grain of sense, in spite
of all the money he made. All you've got to do is to egg him on as if
you thought it might be a little uncertain and then sort o' dare to make
a big bet with him. I'll get busy and tell him that this radio business
is