"The sooner the better," answered Herb. "It seems to me that we've been at it an awfully long while."

"Not so long when you consider all the work that there is to a set like that," said Jimmy. "But here we are, and I'm beginning to feel hungry again, although it isn't very long since I had supper. I think I'll hunt around in the kitchen and see if I can't find a few doughnuts. I'm pretty sure that there are some left in the crock."

"I don't see how there can be, if you knew they were there," laughed Herb.

"But I hope you do find some. Your mother's doughnuts have a reputation, you know."

"We'll go up to my room first, and then I'll have a look," said Jimmy.

Herb had hardly gotten his coat off before Jimmy returned with several golden brown doughnuts.

"Here we are," he said, triumphantly. "Now to enjoy the radio!"

Herb had brought a pair of ear phones with him, and he and Jimmy connected their phones in series, so that they could both listen at the same time.

They had hardly got settled when they heard the resonant tones of the announcer.

"Mr. Robert Layton will ask a number of conundrums, the answers to come later." So spoke the announcer.

Herb and Jimmy gazed at each other open-mouthed.

"Wh-what did he say?" gasped Jimmy, at length. "Did you hear it the same as I did, Herb?"

"He said Robert Layton, all right!" exclaimed Herb. "What do you suppose----" But here he was interrupted by the well known voice of their friend.

"Give me a pencil!" exclaimed Herb. "I'll guess those before the answers come, or die trying. We can't let Bob get away with this altogether."

"I should say not!" agreed Jimmy, as Herb started scribbling furiously. "I can't believe yet that it's really Bob talking. How do you suppose he ever got on the programme?"

Herb shook his head without stopping his writing, and at last had all the riddles written down.

"Never mind the rest of the programme," he said. "We'll try to solve these things first."

But while they were still struggling to find answers to the knotty riddles, they nearly went over backward in their chairs as another familiar name sounded in their ears. The announcer was giving Joe's name this time, and all Herb and Jimmy could do was to sit and look at each other and mutter inarticulately as Joe recited his selections. When they were over, both boys took off their head phones and gazed solemnly at each other.

"Can you beat it?" asked Herb at length, in a bewildered way.

"Nope," responded Jimmy. "I'm not even going to try. Just think of those two Indians actually getting on a broadcasting programme! I'm knocked so hard that I'll have to eat another doughnut to set me straight again.

Finish 'em up, Herb."

And Herb "finished 'em up" while they both ruminated on the incomprehensible vagaries of fate.

"We've got to go over and see 'em do it," declared Jimmy.

"Right you are," returned his chum. "I won't believe it till I see it with my own eyes."

They saw it with their own eyes a week later when the radio boys gave a second performance which was even more successful than the first, since they had got over the nervousness that affected them at the start. The manager renewed his importunities for them to take a regular engagement, a.s.suring them that they had made a decided hit. The best the boys could see their way clear to agree to, however, was to appear one night in each week, and this programme was carried out for the several weeks ensuing, with ever-increasing ability on the part of Bob and Joe and marked satisfaction to the manager of the sending station.

CHAPTER XXV

SOLVING THE MYSTERY

One night after another performance all of the radio boys were waiting in the railroad station when Larry, who had stepped to the news stand to buy a paper, came hurrying back to where they were sitting.

"I've spotted the men who ran me down in the motor boat!" he gasped.

"They're talking together over in that corner!"

"Are you sure?" asked Bob, as he looked in the direction indicated.

"Dead sure," declared Larry. "The look I had at them as the motor boat was making for me is engraved on my memory so that I couldn't forget it if I wanted to. Now's the chance to get those fellows jugged. You know the police were looking for them after they ran us down and there's a warrant out for their arrest. The police didn't have their names, so the warrant read for John Doe and Richard Roe. We've got to act quickly, as they may get up to take a train at any minute."

"Keep your eye on them while I get a station policeman," admonished Bob, as he hurried off.

He found the officer, who listened attentively as he told his story. Then he walked with Bob toward the men who were still engaged in earnest conversation.

As the officer's eyes fell upon them, he gave a start.

"That's Red Pete and Bud McCaffrey, two of the oldest crooks in the business," he said. "They're wanted for more things than that affair of yours. It will be a feather in my cap if I gather them in."

He tightened his grip on the club as he came close to the two men. They looked up at him, and a startled look came into their eyes as they saw his uniform.

"h.e.l.lo, Pete. h.e.l.lo, McCaffrey," he greeted them. "I guess you'd better come right along to headquarters. The Chief would like to have a talk with you."

With a snarl the men leaped to their feet and sought to get past the officer. He was too quick for one of them, whom he grabbed by the collar and reduced to submission by two cracks with his club. The other eluded him, however, and promised to make good his escape. But quick as a flash Bob thrust out his foot and tripped him, at the same time falling upon him.

The fall knocked the breath out of the fugitive, and Bob had no trouble in holding him until Joe and the other boys came up, together with another policeman, who had been attracted by the fracas. A patrol wagon was summoned and the prisoners were conveyed to the nearest police station, where they and the bags they had carried were searched in the presence of the boys, who had missed their train in order to be present and give what information they could about the motor boat affair.

The bags were found to contain, among jewelry and other things that were apparently the proceeds of robberies, a number of p.a.w.ntickets calling for stickpins, watches and other articles which the police lieutenant at the desk announced would be looked up by some of his men. The prisoners were locked up to await a court examination, and the boys, after having given their names and addresses in case they were wanted later on as witnesses, left for home in a state of high excitement over the stirring events of the night.

Bob kept in touch with the case, and a few days later came rushing up to his friends in high glee.

"What do you think, fellows?" he announced. "After the extra performance I gave to-day at the broadcasting station, I dropped in at the police station and had a look at some of the loot the police had gathered up on the strength of the p.a.w.ntickets. And among them what do you think I saw?"

"The Crown Jewels of England," guessed Herb.

Bob withered him with a look.

"The stickpins and watches of Buck Looker and Carl Lutz!" announced Bob impressively. "Their initials were on the watches."

"Glory be!" cried Larry, who was present. "That clears me in that matter.

I know none of you fellows believed Buck's dirty fling, but all the same I've felt uncomfortable ever since."

"Now you'll get a nice letter of apology from Mr. Buck Looker--I don't think," remarked Joe.

The information was conveyed to Buck and Lutz, and they identified and recovered their property. But as Joe had predicted, not a word of apology for their unfounded charges was received from either one of the pair.