dark?"

"Not quite that. Mother."

"Well, almost that, anyhow. It is all well enough for you to say so
jauntily that Bob doesn't mind being off there with the wind howling
round him and nothing to do but listen to it."

"Nothing to do!" repeated Walter. "Why, Ma, he's busy all the time."

"Tinkering with those wires, you mean?" was the indignant question.
"Yes, I grant he has plenty of that, especially in bad weather. But I
mean pleasures----"

"Moving pictures, church sociables, strawberry festivals," interrupted
the lad mischievously.

"Yes, I do," maintained Mrs. King stoutly. "Folks must have something
to brighten up their lives. Bob doesn't have a thing."

"He often has days that are lively enough, according to his stories."

"When there's wrecks, you mean?" She shook her head gravely. "It isn't
those that I'm talking about. It's sitting day after day and listening
to the meaningless taps and buzzings that come whining through that
instrument."

"They're not meaningless to him."

"No-o, I suppose not," sighed the woman. For a moment she paused only
to resume her complaints. "Then there's the responsibility of it. I
never did like to think of that. Should he tap once too much or too
little when sending one of those dot and dash messages, think what it
might mean! And suppose he heard a dot too much and didn't get the
thing the other fellow was trying to tell him straight?"

"But he has been trained so he does not make mistakes."

"All human clay makes mistakes," was the tragic answer, "although I
will say Bob makes fewer than most. And then the thunder storms--I'm
always worried about those."

"Yes, I'll confess there is some danger from lightning," owned Walter
unwillingly. "And of course there is danger from the current at all
times if one is not careful. Even then accidents sometimes happen.
However, Bob explained once that accidental shocks seldom result
fatally unless the person is left too long without help. The man in
charge of the radio outfit would almost never get the full force of
the current, because part of it would be carried off through the wires
and ground. Such accidents are mainly due to the temporary and faulty
contact of the conductors."

"I can't help what they're due to," sniffed Mrs. King. "The point is
that Bob might get knocked out and die."

"Nonsense, Mother. You would not worry if you understood more about
it. Besides, should a man get a shock, if you go promptly to wo