s and gay
cushions were brought from the house and in his enthusiasm Dick even
went so far as to drape a flag over the entrance of the low room.

"We might have hung out bunting if we'd known sooner they were
coming," said he.

"I guess they won't care about the bunting once they are inside the
place," Walter asserted in a comforting tone.

"Don't you hope the outfit will show up well? I do," declared Dick.
"It would be just our luck to have something act up so we couldn't
hear anything. Then Dad, who is feeling pretty much on edge anyway,
would announce that a wireless was simply money thrown in a hole."

"We're not responsible for the conditions," laughed Bob. "If static is
bothersome it is not our fault."

"Nevertheless, Dad wouldn't understand that. He would just think we
did not know how to operate the thing."

"Well, we'll pray for moderate quiet," smiled Bob. "Of course I'd like
the apparatus to show off at its best. But like a child, it probably
won't. We shall have to take our luck; and if we do not get
satisfactory results to-night why the audience will have to come again
to-morrow or some other time."

"Maybe it won't--at least maybe Dad won't," Dick answered
incoherently. "If he starts off in the yacht to-morrow----"

"Oh, he won't set off to chase Daly to-morrow, don't you fret," put in
His Highness. "He was only sputtering. What good could he do? He
wouldn't have any right to search the _Siren_ even if he overtook her;
nor could he arrest the criminals aboard her. Daly would pitch Lola
over the side of the boat before he would stand by and let your father
board his yacht and he knows it."

"Maybe he does," admitted Dick. "Still, he was tremendously in earnest
this afternoon."

"He has calmed down some now," His Highness replied.

"I hope he'll stay calmed," Dick smiled. "Perhaps, unless our show
goes wrong and he gets irate at the radio company, he will."

In fact had the three young wireless operators been willing to admit
it they were far more perturbed when they heard the invited company
approaching than they would have been willing to confess. In the heart
of each of them was the same thought: the new radiophone must justify
itself and prove that it was worth all the money that had been
expended upon it.

"Well, here we are! And here's Jerry, too. He said he couldn't
possibly come--tried to make me believe he was too busy, the rascal.
But I labored with him and finally got him here," a