he things which could not be grown nor mined nor manufactured
nor transported without the help of wood from the forest.

Pennsylvania--Penn's Woods--is the greatest industrial commonwealth in the
world. Without its woods, it could never have been made so. Unless its
woods are restored, it cannot continue to be so, and unless forest fires
are stopped, there is no way to restore Penn's Woods.

I have read "The Young Wireless Operator--As a Fire Patrol" with the
keenest interest, not only because it is about the forest, but because it
is a thrillingly interesting story of a real boy and the real things he
did in the woods. I like it from end to end, and that is why, when Mr.
Theiss asked me to write this foreword, I gladly consented.

No one loves the woods more than I, as boy and man, or loves to be in them
better. One of the things I want most is to see more and better forests in
our great State of Pennsylvania, and in the whole United States. Without
our forests we could not have become great, nor can we continue to be so.
For the men and boys who love the forest and understand it are of the kind
without whom great nations are impossible.

Gifford Pinchot.

Contents

I. Vacation Plans
II. What Came of Them
III. Off to the Mountains
IV. In the Burned Forest
V. A Lost Opportunity
VI. Trout Fishing in the Wilderness
VII. The Forest Afire
VIII. Making an Investigation
IX. Charley Becomes a Fire Patrol
X. An Encounter with a Bear
XI. The Secret Camp in the Wilderness
XII. On the Trail of the Timber Thieves
XIII. Spying Out the Land
XIV. The Trail in the Forest
XV. The Telltale Thumb-Print
XVI. Good News for the Fire Patrol
XVII. An Accident in the Wilderness
XVIII. The First Clue to the Incendiary
XIX. The Forester's Problem
XX. Charley Wins His First Promotion
XXI. A Trouble Maker
XXII. Charley Finds Another Clue
XXIII. A Startling Discovery
XXIV. Checkmated
XXV. The Crisis
XXVI. More Thumb-Prints
XXVII. Trapped
XXVIII. Victory

The Young Wireless Operator--As a Fire Patrol

Chapter I

Vacation Plans

Charley Russell sat before a table in the workshop in his father's back
yard. In front of him were the shining instruments of his wireless
outfit--his coupler, his condenser, his helix, his spark-gap, and the
other parts, practically all of which he had made with his own hands.
Ordinarily he wo