to try it, anyway," said Joe, picking up a magazine. "I'll
send right out of this magazine, so when you say 'stop' we'll be able to
check up how much you've caught."

"All right, that's fair enough," agreed Bob. "Just wait a minute until I
get a paper and pencil, then shoot as fast as you can."

Seating himself at the table, with a blank sheet of paper before him, Bob
made ready to scribble at high speed, while Herb held a watch to time him.
As for Jimmy, he was content to curl up on a sofa and act the part of
self-appointed judge.

"Start sending as soon as you like, Joe," said, Jimmy. "I'm all ready for
you. I'll bet I can fall asleep before you can send fifty words."

"I wouldn't take that bet, because I believe you can," replied Joe. "I'd
be betting against your specialty, and there's no percentage in that, you
know."

"Don't forget me, though, will you?" said Bob, in a resigned tone. "I
don't want to hurry you, but any time you're both through that interesting
conversation I'm waiting to begin."

"All right, then, here goes!" said Joe, and started sending as rapidly as
he could with the practice key and buzzer.

Bob's pencil fairly flew over the paper, and for five minutes there was no
sound in the room save the strident buzz of the sender and the whisper of
Bob's pencil as it moved rapidly over the paper.

Then, "Time," called Herb, and Bob threw down the pencil.

"Whew!" he exclaimed, reaching for a handkerchief. "That's pretty hot
work, if any one should ask you. Count 'em up, Herb, will you, and see how
many there are? Seems to me there must be a million words there, more or
less."

"Quite a little less," laughed Herb, after he had counted the words as
requested. "But you've written ninety-one, which is mighty good."

"That's a little over sixteen a minute," said Bob. "It's not near as fast
as I want to get, but it's fast enough to get a license, anyway."

"You bet it is!" exclaimed Herb. "And there are very few mistakes," he
added, as he compared what Bob had written with the magazine text.

"Joe's getting to be some bear at sending, too," remarked Bob.

"Oh, the sending is a lot easier than receiving," said Joe. "But now, if
you don't mind, Bob, you can send me something, and I'll see how fast I
can take it. I'm afraid I can't come up to your record, though."

Joe did very well, however, averaging about fourteen words a minute.

Then Herb took a turn at sending and receiving, as did Jimmy, a