ace to our troops on the ocean, they would
have been envious indeed.

But they could not know these things. And they recognized the fact
that Captain Hardy had asked for these four because of their superior
attainments, because they were best fitted to do the work in hand. So
the stay-at-homes loyally crushed down their feeling of envy and united
in a hearty send-off for their fellows. Every member of the patrol was
at the railroad station Friday morning to bid good-bye to their four
comrades who were to play no inconspicuous part in the stirring days to
come, and who were to make known to the country at large the name of
the Camp Brady Wireless Patrol.

CHAPTER IV

THE SCENE OF ACTION

As the conductor shouted "All aboard!" the little group of boys on the
station platform suddenly parted, and the four who had stood in the
centre of the ring, vigorously shaking hands, now moved hastily toward
the train and scrambled up the steps. The conductor waved his signal
to the engine-driver and swung aboard. The locomotive bell began to
ring, there was a hissing of steam, and a puffing of the great
locomotive, and the train slid gently forward. On the car platform
stood the four departing members of the wireless patrol, waving fond
farewells to their less fortunate members. Then they turned and
entered the coach, with the cheers of their comrades ringing in their
ears, their hearts beating with high determination to give all that
they had of strength and skill and courage and patience to the grim
task that lay ahead of them.

In no time Central City was lost from sight. The familiar fields and
woods vanished. The country grew strange. Soon they were passing
through a region entirely unknown to them. But so busy was each boy
with his thoughts that he hardly noticed what at other times would have
held his closest attention; for the pictures in each mind were just as
unfamiliar as the landscape through which they were speeding.

"What was to be the nature of their work?" each boy was asking himself.
"Would they sit and listen in, as they had done at Camp Brady, or would
they be set to roving about, trying to pick out suspicious characters,
or detect suspicious acts? And what would New York be like? What was
there about this great, roaring city of men that was so attractive,
that drew such multitudes to it, that grew with such uncanny swiftness?
What was New York like, anyway?"

And almost before they knew