ted to the Airedales, a streak of buff against the green of the
distant marsh. "Wireless couldn't cost much more."

"N--o, I don't believe it would," His Highness admitted slowly, the
contrast in their financial standards seeping in on him.

"Oh, I imagine I could have a set all right if I said the word,"
continued Dick, with the indifference of one to whom such presents
brought no agitation. "The question is, could we set it up if we had
it?"

"I couldn't," came promptly from Walter. "I think, though, that if Bob
was home on leave he might help us."

"Your brother? I had forgotten him. So he is at home sometimes?"

"Oh, yes. He gets off for a day now and then."

"It must be a whole lot of a bore to be tied down in a wireless
station listening for messages all the time," observed Dick
carelessly.

"Operators do not have to sit with their ears glued to the receivers
every second, man," declared the village lad. "The men are relieved at
regular hours. Besides, all stations both on shore and on shipboard
are divided into classes and have their hours carefully mapped out for
them. There are three different varieties of shipboard stations, for
example. Some have constant service; that is, operators are always
listening while the ship is underway. Then there is a second sort
where the operator listens in only during specified hours when the
office is open for business. A third class has no fixed hours at all,
the radio man just listening the first ten minutes of each hour."

"So the men just suit themselves, eh?"

"Suit themselves! You bet they don't," laughed Walter. "The government
defines their hours when their license is issued. The class they are
put in decides it."

"That's news to me," said Dick. "And the shore stations?"

"The shore stations are a chapter in themselves," Walter replied.
"There are several different kinds and each kind has its own rules."

"You don't propose to tell me about them, then," retorted the New
Yorker mischievously.

"It's too long a yarn," answered the other. "Besides, I might not get
it straight. Sometime, though, if you want me to, I'll pass on what I
know. But to-day I guess we ought to be hiking back. It is close onto
the time the pack is fed and I may have them yelping at my throat if I
don't hurry."

Quickening their pace the boys whistled to the dogs who came dashing
through the clumps of bayberry that dotted the field. They were
panting with thirst and only too read