XVI MIRACLES 197

XVII THE LAWS OF THE AIR 210

XVIII THE NET TIGHTENS 228

XIX WALTER STEPS INTO THE BREACH 238

XX THE RETURN OF THE WANDERERS 248

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"K Y W CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. STAND BY FIFTEEN MINUTES
FOR----" _Frontispiece_

PAGE

THE TWO BOYS WOULD DISCUSS BOATS, FISHING AND
KINDRED INTERESTS 76

"YOU WILL GET ALL THE WIRELESS COMING TO YOU,
THAT'S ALL. TAKE IT FROM ME" 154

CLEARLY AND EVENLY THE MESSAGE TICKED ITSELF OFF.
THEN THERE WAS SILENCE 240

WALTER AND THE WIRELESS

CHAPTER I

HIS HIGHNESS

His Highness came by the nickname honestly enough and yet those who
heard it for the first time had difficulty in repressing a smile at
the incongruity of the title. In fact perhaps no term could have been
found that would have been less appropriate. For Walter King possessed
neither dignity of rank nor of stature. On the contrary he was a
short, snub-nosed boy of fifteen, the epitome of good humor and
democracy.

His hair was red and towsled, his face spangled with great golden
freckles which sea winds and sunshine had multiplied until there was
scarce room for another on his beaming countenance. Hands and arms
were freckled too, for when one lives in a bathing suit six months of
the year and is either in the water or on it most of the time the skin
fails to retain its pristine whiteness of hue. But His Highness did
not care a fig for that. He was far too busy baiting eel and lobster
traps, mending fish nets, untangling lines, and painting boats to give
a thought to his personal beauty.

Indeed his mother often bewailed the fact that he was not more
interested in his appearance and there were times when it seemed as if
she were right. Certainly when her son ambled home at dusk with every
rebellious hair standing upended upon his head and a string of
flounders dripping salt from the tips of their slimy tails she was
justified to a degree in wishing he had more regard for the niceties
of life.

"Look at the mess you're making!" she would pipe indignantly. "I've
just mopped this floor, Walter."

"You have?