that patch ought to hold by this time," suggested Jack.

"That's a good idea. What a pack of cowardly sneaks those chaps in
that car were."

"I wish we could have stopped them. It would give me real pleasure to
see a gang like that get its just deserts. They might have killed this
poor fellow."

The unconscious man was powerfully built, with face tanned brown above
a yellow beard, from exposure to sun and wind. As Jack had said, he
did not look like a tramp. Suddenly the boy noticed lying near him an
object which had evidently fallen from the man's pocket when he was
struck and flung through the air by the auto.

It was a small cylinder, apparently made of lead, and about three
inches long. Jack picked it up, and for the time being did not attempt
to examine it but thrust it into his pocket for safe keeping. Little
did either of the boys think how much that little cylinder was to mean
to them, and how it was to influence some of the most important
adventures of their lives.

Making the man as comfortable as they could, by rolling up their coats
and placing them under his head, the boys hurried back to the
Wondership. When they arrived there they saw that a feature of the
radio 'phone, which has not yet been mentioned, was working in urgent
appeal. This was a tiny red electric light attached to the top of the
case containing the sensitive parts of the apparatus.

By an ingenious device, worked as a call signal from the transmitting