The Motor Boat Club and The Wireless Or, the Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise   By: H. Irving Hancock (1868-1922)

THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB

AND THE WIRELESS

OR

The Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise

By

H. IRVING HANCOCK

Author of The Motor Boat Club of the Kennebec

The Motor Boat Club at Nantucket

The Motor Boat Club off Long Island, Etc.

Illustrated

PHILADELPHIA

HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY

Copyright 1909, by Howard E. Altemus

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I. A Spark Puts Three Boys and a Boat on the Jump 7 II. Some of the Mystery Unraveled 26 III. Invisible Hands at the Wireless 39 IV. Taking a Great Chance 50 V. Tom Matches One Trick With Another 61 VI. Carrying Dangerous Live "Freight" 70 VII. Powell Seaton's Bad Case of "Forget" 78 VIII. The Red Message 85 IX. Mr. Seaton Unburdens Himself 92 X. The Traitor at the Aerials 105 XI. The Drab Boat Shows Her Nose 114 XII. The Searchlight Finds a "Double" 127 XIII. Tom Halstead Ready! 139 XIV. Grit Goes up the Signal Mast 151 XV. Playing Salt Water Blind Man's Buff 160 XVI. A Gleam of Hope Through the Shroud of Fog 171 XVII. When the Motor Boat Club Boys "Went Daffy" 179 XVIII. The First Kink of the Problem Solved 187 XIX. Helpless in the Northeaster! 196 XX. "C.Q.D! C.Q.D.! Help!" 207 XXI. The Spark Finds a Friend Through the Gale 219 XXII. Tom Halstead Springs the Climax 230 XXIII. Hank Becomes Really Terrible 244 XXIV. Conclusion 249

THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AND THE WIRELESS

CHAPTER I

A SPARK PUTS THREE BOYS AND A BOAT ON THE JUMP

"Ho, ho, ho hum!" grumbled Hank Butts, vainly trying to stifle a prodigious yawn. "This may be what Mr. Seaton calls a vacation on full pay, but I'd rather work."

"It is fearfully dull, loafing around, in this fashion, on a lonely island, yet in plain sight of the sea that we long to rove over," nodded Captain Tom Halstead of the motor yacht "Restless."

"Yet Hank just put us in mind of the fact that we're getting paid for our time," laughed Joe Dawson, the least restless of the trio of young Motor Boat Club boys.

"Oh it's all right on the pay end," agreed Hank, readily. "But just think of a young fellow, full of life and hope, with a dozen ambitions and a hustling nature, taking up with a job of this kind!"

"What kind of job?" inquired Captain Tom.

"The job of being bored," answered Butts, solemnly. "I could have had that kind of job back on Long Island."

"Without the pay," amended Joe Dawson, with another quiet smile.

"But ten days of being bored does grow rather wearisome, even with the pay for a solace," agreed Tom Halstead.

Ting ling ling! The soft jangling of a bell from one of the rooms of the seashore bungalow, on the porch of which the boys sat, broke in on them.

"Hurrah, Joe! Hustle and get that message," begged Hank, almost sitting up straight in the porch chair, with a comical pretense of excitement. "It's sure to be from Mr. Seaton this time."

"Likely," grinned Joe, as he rose and crossed the porch in leisurely fashion. The jangling of the bell continued. The bell was a rather clumsy, yet sufficing device that young Dawson had attached to the wireless telegraph apparatus.