<h2 id="c3"><span class="small">CHAPTER III</span> <br/>A CLUE</h2>
<p>After a hearty supper, Curlie brought forth
his instruments and carefully wound his coil
aerial.</p>
<p>The miner watched him for a long time in
silence. Having lived in out-of-the-way places,
he had learned nothing of this wonderful new
invention, the radiophone.</p>
<p>“You don’t mean to tell me,” he broke
forth at last, “that you can hear folks talk with
just that outfit, no wires at all, and them fifty
miles away?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” smiled Curlie, “five hundred miles or
a thousand if you like. Almost any distance
when conditions are right.”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</div>
<p>Dropping back upon his sleeping-bag the
miner watched with increasing interest. It
was evident that he found the thing hard to
believe and that at the same time he did not
wish to doubt the word of a boy who had
never told him a lie.</p>
<p>“Joe,” said Curlie, “here’s something brand
new. I think it’s going to help us a lot.”</p>
<p>He placed a small instrument on top of a
metal box, then connected it by a tube to a loud-speaker.
After that he tuned in on the 750
meter wave length and spoke a few words into
his transmitter. Having done this, he settled
back as if to await an answer.</p>
<p>Presently a loud jumble of sound, resembling
nothing quite so much as a flock of crows
fighting over a carcass, began coming forth
from the loud-speaker.</p>
<p>Joe Marion’s brow wrinkled. At the end
of three seconds he exploded:</p>
<p>“Tune her up, why don’t you!”</p>
<p>Curlie grinned, but did not move.</p>
<p>“No use letting it go on like that,” expostulated
Joe, making a move to take a hand
in the business. “He might be sending something
important.”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</div>
<p>“He is,” said Curlie, pushing his companion
back to his seat. “He’s saying something
mighty important. That’s why I don’t change
it. I told you I had something new. Can’t
you wait to see it tried out?”</p>
<p>Sinking back into his place, Joe listened to
the strange clack-clack in silence.</p>
<p>A few seconds later the sounds ceased.
Quickly removing a small instrument and disconnecting
the tube from the loud-speaker,
Curlie tuned in on 350 and, a moment later,
they were listening to a concert which was
being broadcasted somewhere on the Pacific
Coast.</p>
<p>“Do you mean to tell me that that thing is
a phonograph?” said Jennings.</p>
<p>“No,” said Curlie, “I don’t. That music
comes to us over five hundred miles of space,
perhaps a thousand; Seattle, Vancouver, San
Francisco, I don’t know which.”</p>
<p>Again the miner was silent.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</div>
<p>Removing a small disc from the instrument
which had produced the strange jumble of
sounds, Curlie slipped it upon a second instrument
which resembled a small phonograph.</p>
<p>“Now listen to this,” he said to Joe, as he
shut off the radiophone.</p>
<p>From the phonograph-like instrument there
came first a grating sound, then in a somewhat
metallic but very distinct tone:</p>
<p>“Valdez speaking. Your man is still active.
Doing much damage in air. Last night interrupted
an important U. S. army order. Seemed
nearer. Appears to be moving toward us. Location
somewhere south of Fort Yukon. Advise
speed and caution. N. T. S.”</p>
<p>“Well, now, what do you think of that!”
exclaimed Joe.</p>
<p>“I think,” said Curlie, “that we have put
one over on our old friend up north there who
persists in raising hob in the air.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</div>
<p>“You see,” he went on more soberly, “it’s
a very recent invention. You slip a little affair
on your sending instrument, which tears your
tones all into little bits and sends them out as
so much mental mince pie. But this little instrument
here straightens them out for the person
at the other end and gives them to him just
as they have been spoken. I feel sure that
the man we are after does not possess one of the
outfits. That means that we may speak with
Valdez at any time without fear of detection.
All that an outside party gets is a jumble of
sounds.</p>
<p>“If we ever get separated on the trail we
may speak to one another in the same way.
You have that small, reserve sending and receiving
set on your sled and I am going to
give you a set of these new instruments.</p>
<p>“Once more,” he smiled, “I want to state
that it is my belief that if you keep your little
radiophone dry and tuned up, it will help you
out of any dangerous position.”</p>
<p>Had they known under what strange circumstances
this belief would be tried in the days
to come and on this very trip, the two boys
might not have laughed quite so merrily as
Curlie again threw on the radiophone and they
listened to jazz being broadcasted from Seattle.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</div>
<p>Joe, tired out from the day’s struggle over the
glacier, feeling the cozy warmth of the fire,
stretched himself out on his sleeping-bag and fell
at once into a drowsy slumber.</p>
<p>“Here,” said Curlie, noting the eager manner
in which Jennings listened to the bits of
music and gossip which drifted in from the
air, “you listen with this.” He snapped a
receiver over the miner’s head. “I’ve got to
shut off that loud-speaker. Want to listen in
and see what I can catch.”</p>
<p>For a time he listened on short wave lengths
for his friend, the Whisperer. At last, having
given that up, he tuned in on long wave lengths
and at once began picking up something.</p>
<p>Having tuned his instrument accurately and
adjusted his coil aerial, he succeeded in listening
in in a very satisfactory matter.</p>
<p>“Big business,” he whispered to himself.
“Shouldn’t wonder if that was a clue.”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</div>
<p>It was indeed big business that was flashing
through the air that night. It was the report of
a government official, the announcement of the
securing of sufficient evidence at Nome, Alaska,
to convict a bold band of smugglers who had
been carrying valuable jewels, taken from rich
families in Russia, into America by way of
Alaska. These smugglers had escaped detection
for some time by traveling in native skin-boats
across Behring Straits. In some way,
Curlie could hardly make out how, the great
explorer Munson had been of assistance to the
government in bringing these men to justice.
Because of this service the government was
instructing all its officials, especially wireless
operators, to lend every assistance possible to
Munson in his dash to the Pole.</p>
<p>“Don’t see how a fellow three thousand miles
away can help an explorer reach the Pole,”
Curlie told himself, “but I suppose there must
be a way—”</p>
<p>His thoughts were cut short by an interruption
to the message. Someone with a powerful
sending set had cut loose into the air with
his sparker. The result was utter bedlam of
the air. Not one word could be recognized.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</div>
<p>“That’s the man,” Curlie breathed excitedly,
“that’s the fellow I’m after! Now for his location.”</p>
<p>His fingers moved rapidly from instrument
to pencil and paper, then back to instrument
again. There was a look of tense excitement on
his face, such a look as comes upon the hunter
as he sights a moose not a hundred yards away.
Curlie was a born hunter, a hunter of the air.
He had got scent of a prey, a dangerous prey,
and was at this moment hunting him down.</p>
<p>“There,” he breathed as the bedlam ceased,
and he drew the receiver from his head. “I
know where you are, at least. You’re moving. I
wonder if we’ll meet and when. I know what
I’m going to say to you when we meet. Wonder
if you know what you’re going to say to me!”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</div>
<p>Having packed his instruments away, he
stretched himself out before the fire to think.
Events were moving on apace. It looked as if
his journey would be shorter than he had at first
believed it would be. You never could tell,
though. He thought for the hundredth time of
the Whisperer; wondered who she really was
and why her whisper had been missing to-night.</p>
<p>At last, reaching over to Joe, he shook him
into wakefulness and told him to turn in. Having
undressed, he slipped on a suit of pajamas,
crept into his sleeping-bag and was soon fast
asleep.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</div>
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