Lewis E. Theiss

CHAPTER I AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY

CHAPTER II AN ADVENTURE WITH A SECRET SERVICE MAN

CHAPTER III A TIP BY WIRELESS

CHAPTER IV THE CAPTURE OF THE WOOL SMUGGLERS

CHAPTER V ON THE TRAIL OF A COTTON THIEF

CHAPTER VI WHAT WAS BEHIND THE FALSE PARTITION

CHAPTER VII WILLIE GETS HIS CHANCE

CHAPTER VIII IN THE ARMENIAN QUARTER

CHAPTER IX UNDER A CLOUD

CHAPTER X THE CLOUD GROWS DARKER

CHAPTER XI WILLIE MAKES A DISCOVERY

CHAPTER XII THE MYSTERY OF THE WHEAT SACKS

CHAPTER XIII SAVED BY WIRELESS

CHAPTER XIV WHO MADE THE FALSE KEY?

CHAPTER XV A WATCH ON A DIAMOND SMUGGLER

CHAPTER XVI WHERE THE JEWELS WERE HIDDEN

CHAPTER XVII AFTER THE WHISKEY SMUGGLERS

CHAPTER XVIII THE PURSUIT IN THE DARK

CHAPTER XIX VICTORY

IN CAMP AT FORT BRADY. A Camping Story. 304 pages.

HIS BIG BROTHER. A Story of the Struggles and Triumphs of a Little Son of Liberty. 320 pages.

LUMBERJACK BOB. A Tale of the Alleghanies. 320 pages.

THE WIRELESS PATROL AT CAMP BRADY. A Story of How the Boy Campers, Through Their Knowledge of Wireless, “Did Their Bit.” 320 pages.

THE SECRET WIRELESS. A Story of the Camp Brady Patrol. 320 pages.

THE HIDDEN AERIAL. The Spy Line on the Mountain. 332 pages.

THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR—AFLOAT. How Roy Mercer Won His Spurs in the Merchant Marine. 320 pages.

THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR—AS A FIRE PATROL. The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol. 352 pages.

THE YOUNG WIRELESS OPERATOR—WITH THE OYSTER FLEET. How Alec Cunningham Won His Way to the Top in the Oyster Business. 328 pages.

Cloth Bound—Illustrated by Colored

Plates and Photographs

It may interest readers of The Young Wireless Operator series to know that most of the happenings in these books are based upon actual occurrences. Years ago, as a reporter, the author wrote for the New York Sun the stories of the auction of bled wool, the cotton-lined cabin, the mystery of the wheat sacks, and other accounts of the work of the United States Secret Service, that appear in this present volume. Although some of the characters in the book are of course fictitious, others, like Sheridan of the Secret Service, are real characters who actually did the things they are portrayed as doing. Of course names have been changed. The practice of keeping note-books and clippings that had to do with work the writer was engaged in, has made all this material available for present use, and brought it once more freshly to mind. The descriptions of parts of New York and her wonderful waterways are written from intimate, personal knowledge of the places described. In effect, therefore, The Young Wireless Operator—With the U. S. Secret Service is a true story.

To make all the tales in this series true has been the earnest desire of the writer. That does not mean that every incident described necessarily happened. It does mean that the incidents used are not only possible under the circumstances, but probable, and that the descriptions are exact and accurate. The picture of life portrayed is in each case as exact as careful observation and careful writing can make it.

Before the author prepared the preceding volume of this series, The Young Wireless Operator—With the Oyster Fleet, he first went to the Delaware Bay and made a cruise on an oyster boat, living aboard with the crew and sharing their life and labors. Furthermore, he had lived for twenty years in that country and had spent many weeks, in all, cruising about on oyster boats.

The writing of The Young Wireless Operator—Afloat, which deals with both New York City and ports on the Mexican Gulf was made possible by residence for some months on the Gulf, and through the coÖperation of Southern newspaper men. Practically all the incidents related concerning the tidal wave that destroyed Corpus Christi are stories of actual occurrences, gathered by newspaper men on the spot. Most of the ships described in that story are real vessels and were actually afloat at the time and in the positions given to them by the author. The wireless stations and wireless calls are also real.

Before writing The Young Wireless Operator—As a Fire Patrol, the writer spent many days in the forest with a District Forester, studying the actual working of the Pennsylvania State Forestry system, though in earlier years he had spent weeks camping and tramping in those same mountain forests. Many of the incidents used in the book were contributed by forest rangers. The manuscript of the book was read and approved by both the District Forester and Gifford Pinchot, then Pennsylvania Commissioner of Forestry and now Governor of Pennsylvania, in order that there might be no mistakes in the text. Mr. Pinchot also showed his approval of the book by writing a foreword for it.

This present wireless series really had its inception, years ago, with the appearance of In Camp at Fort Brady. Readers of that book showed so much interest in some of the characters that, when it came to writing further volumes, the author naturally went on with the history of some of those boys. Thus Roy Mercer and Alec Cunningham and Charley Russell and Willie Brown, who have figured in The Young Wireless Operator series, are really old acquaintances, and made their first appearance in In Camp at Fort Brady, and their next in The Secret Wireless and in The Hidden Aerial. The later volumes have dealt with individual members of the Camp Brady Wireless Patrol rather than with the Patrol as a whole. The author has become as much interested in this band of boys as he hopes any of his readers has. And it is his plan to go on with these individual histories until we know what became of each boy.