He drew his little axe and began clearing a space for the tent, cutting the rhododendron stems a little below the surface of the ground.  Lew piled the branches at one side.  Then the tent was dragged in and set up, the rope being used as a ridge and tied to two strong saplings.  The sides of the tent were squared and pegged down.

“Drive the pegs tight, Lew,” directed Charley.  “We don’t want to have anything crawling under the sides.  Thank goodness, we have a sod cloth.”

After they had completed this task and set about bringing in the duffel, Charley remarked, “We can’t go in and out this way, on our hands and knees.  We’ve got to make a path.  We’ll find the best way out and trim the bushes so that we can walk upright.”

“We’d better not make the path straight,” said Lew.  “If we zigzag it, nobody will know it really is a path.”

After they had picked out a level route they trimmed back the rhododendron branches so that they could walk through the thicket, though the branches at the very edge were left undisturbed.  The cut branches were added to the screen about the tent.  Then the duffel was carried in and stowed in the tent.

“What bothers me,” said Charley, “is to know how to put up our aerial.  We don’t dare hang it up where it can be seen, and I don’t know how well it will work among these hemlocks.”

“All we can do is to put it up and try it,” said the ever practical Lew, “and the sooner we do it the better.”

Quickly they had their wires suspended between two hemlock trees.  The aerial reached almost from trunk to trunk, and the wires were completely hidden by the branches that stood out all about them.

“If she’ll work,” commented Charley, “it’s a peach of an arrangement.  Nobody would discover that aerial in a hundred years.  I can hardly wait until evening to test it out.”

“Willie might be listening in again to-day,” suggested Lew.  “It will take him several days to get that new outfit made.  We’ll try him on the hour.”

“Good idea, Lew.”  He looked at his watch.  “It’s ten minutes to the hour now.  If Willie is listening in, we’ll soon know whether or not our aerial will work.”

They began putting the tent in order, stowing the duffel in neat little piles.  Just outside the tent Lew built a foundation for the alcohol stove, by leveling the earth and setting a flat stone for the stove to stand on.  Meanwhile, Charley was stuffing the tick with dry leaves.

Exactly on the hour Lew sat down at the wireless key and sent a call flashing into the air.  Promptly; his receiver buzzed in response.

“Got him,” said Lew, and while Charley went on filling the tick and bringing in hemlock branches to use like springs under the tick, Lew conversed with Willie.  The latter was still working at the new wireless set, and had listened in every hour during the day.  All the other members of the Wireless Patrol were likewise hard at work, and it was practically certain that by the time the vacation was ended each would have earned his share of the money needed to buy the desired battery.