Charley looked at his watch.  “Willie will be at his instrument in three minutes, sure,” he said.  “He might even be there now.”

He drew the pack bags from the wireless instruments and sat down, watch in hand, beside them.  The forester looked on with keenest interest.  He no longer regarded the wireless outfit as a mere plaything.  If the boys could do what they said they could, he saw what a help wireless communication might be in protecting the forest.  He had always considered the telephone as about the last step that could be made in quick communication in the forest.  But his telephone was miles away and he had to get to it before he could talk with his office.  Here was a boy who could sit down anywhere and instantly talk to a wireless operator anywhere else within a reasonable distance—­that is, he could, if all that Charley said was true.  Of course the forester knew about radio-telegraphy, but he was like many other people who have not actually seen persons talk by wireless.  It seemed as though it could hardly be.

But he was not to remain long in doubt.  When the three-minute period had elapsed, Charley threw over his switch, and sent Willie’s call signal flashing abroad.  Hardly had he taken his finger from his key when the answer buzzed in his ear.

“Got him,” said Charley.

“Who?” asked the forester in astonishment.

“Willie Brown, at Central City.  I’m telling him to get your assistant on the telephone.”  And he made the sparks fairly tumble over one another, so rapidly did he manipulate the key.

“Willie’s going to get him,” he announced, a moment later.

They sat silent for several minutes.  Then a signal once more sounded in Charley’s ear.

“Willie’s got your assistant on the ’phone,” said Charley a little later.

“Tell him to tell my assistant that the fire is out, with little damage done; that the fire crew is on the way home, and that I have decided to remain here to look around a little.  Tell him that if he needs me he shall call your friend at Central City.  He’d better arrange with the telephone people for quick connections if he needs to talk to me.  I guess that’s about all.”

Charley flashed out the message to Willie and soon the assistant forester’s message came back.  Everything was O.K. and he would do as directed.  Then Charley talked to Willie on his own account, telling him they were going to move their aerial and asking Willie to listen in often.  Willie said he would sit by the wireless table and keep the receivers on his ears so that Charley could get him at any time.

While Charley was talking with Willie, Lew had been collecting and packing the camp utensils.  Now the wireless instruments were quickly uncoupled and stowed away in a bag, and the aerial taken down and loosely rolled around the spreaders so that it could be hoisted in a moment’s time.  Then the little party set off swiftly down the valley toward the point at which the fire started.