Here are a few funny ones," he said. "You can practice up on the delivery
of them, and Larry will give you some pointers about the best way to say
them. I don't imagine you'll have any trouble when the time comes."

CHAPTER XXIV

WINNING OUT

"It seems to me he takes a lot for granted," said Bob, after the manager
had left the room. "How does he know that both of us won't get rattled
right in the middle of the thing and ball up the whole programme?"

"I guess it's because he's heard something about both you and Joe from Mr.
Brandon, and he's pretty sure you'll come up to the scratch," said Larry.
"That's the way I figure it out, anyway."

"Well, we'll do the best we can to live up to our reputation, if that's
the case," said Bob. "I'll read these things aloud the way I think they
should go, Larry, and you correct me if I'm wrong."

"Go ahead," replied Larry. "You've been telling me so much about radio
that I ought to be willing to tell you something about how to put a joke
over."

Bob settled down to his task in earnest then, and for an hour rehearsed
the jokes with Larry, who drilled him in the most effective way to tell
them to advantage.

"There!" exclaimed Larry, at the end of that time. "I think you ought to
get by all right now, Bob. You're doing fine."

"Well, if they don't like me, I can't help it," said Bob. "At any rate,
they won't be able to throw any dead cats at me. That's one big advantage
that radio entertainers have."

"That's true enough," laughed Larry, "although I hadn't thought about it
before. Maybe I'd have had a poor pussy cat wrapped about my neck before
this if I'd been doing my act in a regular theater."

"Nonsense!" replied Bob. "Nobody threw anything at you when you were
acting in a regular theater, did he?"

"No," admitted Larry. "That is, nothing except big bunches of American
Beauty roses," he hastily added.

"Oh, of course, that's understood," gibed Joe. "I suppose you had to hire
a big truck every evening to cart them away."

"Yes, every evening," grinned Larry. "And the applause----good gracious!
The people for blocks around used to complain about it."

"You don't get much applause now," laughed Bob. "How does it seem to
perform for the benefit of a telephone transmitter instead of an
audience?"

"It never bothered me much," replied Larry. "It seems to be pretty hard
for some of the actors, though, especially the comedians. When they spring
a funny joke they'