. But there was a fellow named
Adams who thought he knew better."

"Adams!" repeated Bob breathlessly. "Wasn't he the fellow who had charge
of the Mud Creek ranger station at Montana?"

The visitor nodded and gazed at Bob with interest. "How did you know?"
he asked.

"Oh, I read something about him a while ago," answered Bob vaguely. He
was chiefly interested in having Mr. Bentley go on.

"I should think," said Herb, "that it would be pretty hard work carrying
delicate radio apparatus into the lumber country."

"You bet your life it is," replied Mr. Bentley. "The only way the
apparatus can be carried is by means of pack horses, and as each horse
can't carry more than a hundred and fifty pounds you see it takes quite
a few of the animals to lug even an ordinary amount of apparatus.

"The hardest part of the whole thing," he went on, warming to his
recital as the boys were so evidently interested, "was packing the
cumbersome storage batteries. These batteries were often lost in
transit, too. If a pack horse happened to slip from the trail, its pack
became loosened and went tumbling down the mountain side----"

"That's the life!" interrupted Jimmy gleefully, and the visitor smiled
at him.

"You might not think so if you happened to be the one detailed to travel
back over the almost impassable trails for the missing apparatus,"
observed Mr. Bentley ruefully. "It wasn't all fun, that pioneer
installation of radio. Not by any means."

"But radio turned the trick just the same," said Bob slangily. "I've
read that a message that used to take two days to pass between ranger
stations can be sent now in a few seconds."

"Right!" exclaimed Mr. Bentley, his eyes glinting. "In a little while
the saving in the cost of forest fires will more than pay for the
installation of radio. We nose out a fire and send word by wireless to
the nearest station, before the fire fairly knows it's started."

"But just what is it that you do?" asked Joe, with flattering eagerness.

"I do scout work," was the reply. "I help patrol the fire line in cases
of bad fires. The men fighting the fire generally carry a portable
receiving apparatus along with them, and by that means, I, in my
airplane, can report the progress of a fire and direct the distribution
of the men."

"It must be exciting work," said Herb enviously. "That's just the kind
of life I'd like--plenty of adventure, something doing every minute."

"There's usually plenty doing,