y did so, and were amazed at hearing the selection as plainly as did
Bob himself.

The latter had been holding the disconnected wire so that his fingers
just touched the uncovered copper portion at the end. Now he hastily
scraped off several inches of the insulation and grasped the copper wire
with his hand. Instantly the volume of sound grew perceptibly greater.

Hardly knowing what to make of it, he scraped off still more of the
insulation.

"Here, you fellows," he shouted. "Each of you take hold of this."

Joe was the first to respond, and the sound became louder. Then Herb and
Jimmy followed suit, and it was evident that they served as amplifiers,
for with each additional hand the music swelled to greater volume.

The boys looked at each other as if asking whether this was all real or
if they had suddenly been transferred to some realm of fancy. They would
not have been greatly surprised to wake up suddenly and find that they
had been dreaming.

But there was no delusion about it and they listened without saying
another word until, in a glorious strain of melody, the selection came
to an end. Nor did they break the silence until a band orchestra was
announced and crashed into a brilliant overture.

While it was still in full swing, Bob had an inspiration. He took off
his headphones and clamped them on to the phonograph that stood on a
table near by. Instantly the music became intensified and filled the
room. When all their hands were on the wire, it became so loud that they
had to close the doors of the phonograph.

"Well," gasped Bob, when the last strain had died away and the
demonstration was complete, "that's something new on me."

"Never dreamed of anything like it," said Joe, sinking back in his
chair. "Of course we know that the human body has electrical capacity
and that operators sometimes have to use metal shields to protect the
tube from the influence of the hand. And in our loop aerial at Ocean
Point you noticed that the receptivity of the tube was modified when we
touched it with our fingers."

"Of course, in theory," observed Bob thoughtfully, "the human body
possesses inductance as well as capacity, and so might serve as an
antenna. But I never thought of demonstrating it in practice."

"So Bob is an aerial," grinned Herb. "I always knew he was a 'live
wire,' but I never figured him out as an antenna."

"And don't forget that if Bob is an aerial we're amplifiers," put in
Jimmy.

"There