Читать книгу The Radio Boys with the Forest Rangers; Or, The great fire on Spruce Mountain - Chapman Allen - Страница 6

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Promptly at eight o’clock on the following night the Radio Boys gathered at Bob’s house to listen to Mr. Bentley’s talk over the radio on radio and forest fires. Even Jimmy, who as a rule lingered long at the supper table and could usually be depended on to be at the tail end of any procession, had made an exception on this occasion, and appeared before the clock struck, although slightly out of breath.

“You’re puffing like a grampus,” remarked Herb, as he surveyed his rotund friend critically.

“I don’t know what a grampus is,” returned Jimmy; “but I wouldn’t blame him for puffing if he’d hurried through his supper the way I did. Had some fresh doughnuts, too, for dessert, but I cut short on them.”

“Cut short!” snorted Herb, in frank disbelief. “How many did you eat?”

“Only seven,” returned Jimmy, unabashed. “I’m usually good for ten.”

“What’s making your pockets bulge so?” asked Joe suspiciously.

“Those are the other three doughnuts,” explained Jimmy placidly, as he took one out and began to munch on it. “I’ve got to keep up my strength, you know.”

“Well, here’s where you grow weaker,” declared Joe, as he made a dive for Jimmy’s pocket and snatched out one of the remaining doughnuts and began to devour it.

Jimmy made a wild dive for it, which gave Herb a chance to pull the last one from his pocket, a chance of which he availed himself with neatness and dispatch.

They dodged about the room while Jimmy tried in vain to regain his treasures, which, however, soon vanished to the last crumb.

“This joint ought to be pinched,” Jimmy said, in pronounced disgust, when all hope had gone. “I didn’t think that I was coming into a nest of crooks.”

“Never mind, Jimmy,” Bob laughed. “There’s a delicious apple pie in the pantry that mother has laid aside for us, and I’ll see that your slice is twice as big as those of these two highbinders.”

Jimmy brightened up visibly at this, and further hostilities were averted.

In deference to Mr. Layton’s condition, the loud speaker was not used that night, and the boys adjusted their respective earphones and prepared to listen in to the entertainment furnished by WJZ, the signal letters of the Newark broadcasting station.

Mr. Bentley’s talk was scheduled on the program to take place at nine, and the boys were so impatient for this to begin that they did not pay as much attention as usual to the other features that preceded it. Not but what they were well worth listening to. There was a glorious violin solo played by a celebrated master, the rich notes rising and falling in wonderful bursts of melody. Then there was a talk by a star third baseman of national reputation, telling how he played the “difficult corner” and narrating some ludicrous happenings in the great game. Following this was a jazz rendition of the “Old Alabama Moon,” and then came one of Sousa’s band pieces that set feet to jigging in time with the music. WJZ was surely putting on a most interesting program.

At last came the announcement for which the Radio Boys were waiting, and they straightened up in an attitude of intent listening.

“Mr. Payne Bentley, of the United States Forest Service,” stated the announcer, “will tell us of the work done by radio in the prevention and extinction of fires in the national forests. Mr. Bentley has spent many years in this important and hazardous work, both as aviator and radio operator, and speaks with authority.”

There was a moment’s pause, and then came the clear strong voice that the boys had been waiting for and which they recognized at once.

“There’s the old boy, sure enough,” murmured Jimmy delightedly.

“S-sh,” came from the others, as they settled down to listen.

“I am not a practiced orator,” Mr. Bentley began after the customary salutation to his invisible audience, “and if my talk shall prove of any interest to you, it will be due not to the way in which I express myself but to the importance of my subject.”

After this modest opening he plunged into his theme, and for a space of perhaps twenty minutes presented an array of facts and incidents that riveted the closest attention of his great audience. At least, that was the way it affected the Radio Boys, and they had no doubt that thousands of others were listening with the same fascinated interest. Nor was this due simply to the personal attraction the speaker had for the boys. Had they not known him at all, the subject matter of his talk would have been sufficient to hold them enchained.

With a few broad strokes the speaker sketched the awakening of the national Government to the value of its forest riches and the necessity of conserving them. Uncle Sam, he said, had been in the position of a prodigal father, so rich that he believed his wealth would never be used up, therefore perfectly willing that his sons should scatter it broadcast. Why worry, when there were millions and millions of acres teeming with trees that could scarcely be numbered? So he had shut his eyes to the denuding of the forests.

But suddenly he had awakened with a shock. For he had realized after all that his wealth was not limitless. Great tracts had been stripped of their trees to such an extent that the watercourses in their vicinity had dried up or greatly diminished in volume. After the great trunks had been borne away, tons of branches had been left to dry until they became like tinder needing only a spark to fan them into a holocaust of flame that swept over thousands of acres, leaving only blasted and charred skeletons of what had been living trees. Hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of valuable timber had literally vanished in smoke.

Fortunately the Government had not aroused itself too late. It was not a case of locking the stable door after all the horses had been stolen. There was still enough left, with careful husbanding, to provide against national disaster. But the waste must stop right here. Reforesting must keep pace with deforesting. For every tree taken away, another must be grown to take its place. And above all, the fires that had been taking such fearful toll of our forest wealth must be prevented as far as possible. And where prevention was unavailing, the best and most improved methods of getting the fires under control and extinguishing them must be adopted and applied.

So the United States Forestry Service had come into being, and the fire loss had been immeasurably reduced. Stations had been established in great tracts of woodland from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Men with special qualities had been picked for the hard and dangerous work of forest rangers. They were the policemen of the woods, authorized to take action against many grades of human malefactors, but cautioned to be on their guard especially against the great archdemon—Fire!

In the woods as in the cities, the speaker pointed out, time is the greatest element in the curbing of fire. That is why the great engines go thundering down city streets at such tremendous speed. The loss of one minute of time may mean the loss of millions of dollars. Time to a city fireman is measured not in minutes but in seconds, and sometimes even in tenths of a second.

The same thing was true in forest fires. The alarm must be given instantly. It must be flashed to scores of villages and settlements lying in the threatened area. It must call hordes of settlers and woodmen to join in the work of getting the fire under control. How could this most effectively be done? The answer was in one word. Radio!

For Uncle Sam had come to realize that in this wonderful agency he had found the solution of his problem. He had tried many others. There had been lofty stations that had wig-wagged signals from one height to another, but this method had only a limited range and was ineffective under conditions of cloud and fog and darkness. Telegraph and telephone lines had been strung through the woods between stations, but in many cases the trees to which they had been strung and the wires themselves had been burned in the very fire that the operators had been trying to control.

But radio had none of these handicaps. It could work by night as well as by day. There were no wires to be melted. It worked in the valleys as easily as in the hills. The tiniest glint of fire, the smallest thread of smoke—and instantly the message was flung out into the ether, reaching every camp, every settlement, every party in the woods who carried their radio receiving sets with them, telling them just where the fire was starting and summoning them to help.

And it did more than that. As soon as the fire was located, aviators whose planes were equipped with radio hovered above the line of flame and gave directions by wireless to the workers below. Those on the ground, blistered and blinded by the flame and smoke against which they were waging war, could not see where the fire was spreading nor the best means to combat it. But the aviator from his lofty perch surveyed the whole scene, could call the fire fighters to the point where they were most needed, could point out the place where ditches should be cut or backfires started, and in general direct the whole campaign.

It was not to be supposed, the speaker said, that the value of radio for this purpose was instantaneously recognized. Large bodies move slowly, and the national Government was very conservative and, like the man from Missouri, wanted to be “shown.” Objections were raised that the cost of carrying and setting up the radio apparatus in the wilderness would be prohibitive. But there were men of vision who knew better and they kept pounding away until their plans were put into execution. In the end the advocates of radio won. And what that wonderful radio has saved to the United States Government has run up already into the hundreds of millions.

Many incidents, some amusing, others thrilling, connected with the Forest Service were narrated by the speaker, who then finished his remarks in this fashion:

“Before I close, let me say that if the Radio Boys of Clintonia are listening in, I am sending my regards and will soon call upon them again.”