e stranger was big, over six feet, and his face and hands were like a
Cuban's, they were so dark. Even his fair hair seemed to have been burnt
a darker hue by the sun. There was a tang of the great out-of-doors
about him, a hint of open spaces and adventure that fascinated the radio
boys.

"This is my son, Mr. Bentley," said Mr. Layton to the lounging stranger,
still with a twinkle in his eye. "And the other boys are his inseparable
companions. Also I think they are almost as crazy about radio as you
are."

The stranger laughed and turned to Bob.

"I've been upstairs to see your set," he said, adding heartily: "It's
fine. I've seldom seen better amateur equipment."

If Bob had liked this stranger before, it was nothing to what he felt
for him now. To the radio boys, if any one praised their radio sets,
this person, no matter who it was, promptly became their friend for
life.

"I'm glad you think it's pretty good," Bob said modestly. "We fellows
have surely worked hard enough over it."

"This gentleman here," said Mr. Layton to the boys, "ought to know quite
a bit about radio. He operates an airplane in the service of our
Government Forestry."

"In the United States Forest Service?" cried Bob, breathlessly, eyeing
the stranger with increasing interest. "And is your airplane equipped
with radio?"

"Very much so," replied Mr. Bentley. "It seems almost a fairy tale--what
radio has done for the Forest Service."

"I've read a lot about the fighting of forest fires," broke in Joe
eagerly. "But I didn't know radio had anything to do with it."

"It hadn't until the last few years," the visitor answered, adding, with
a laugh: "But now it's pretty near the whole service!"

"Won't you tell us something about what you do?" asked Bob.

Mr. Bentley waved a deprecating hand while Mr. Layton leaned back in his
chair with the air of one who is enjoying himself.

"It isn't so much what I do," protested this interesting newcomer, while
the boys hung upon his every word. "It is what radio has done in the
fighting of forest fires that is the marvelous, the almost unbelievable,
thing. The man who first conceived the idea of bringing radio into the
wilderness had to meet and overcome the same discouragements that fall
to the lot of every pioneer.

"The government declared that the cost of carrying and setting up the
radio apparatus would be greater than the loss occasioned every season
by the terribly destructive forest fires