When they came in Mr Carter was preparing his lesson for the afternoon.
'Sir, please, sir, have you any empty tobacco tins that you can give me, please, sir?'
'A lot. What do you want them for?'
'I have a wonderful idea, sir. I'll tell you about it if you like, sir.'
Mr Carter listened, and then said, 'All right, Jennings, I'll give you some tins. But I'll tell you that I don't like your idea very much. I am sure you can spend your free time on something much more useful.'
'But it is useful, sir. It's a new idea,' you see...'
'New! It's as old as the hills.'
'Well, it's new to us, sir. And I think the teachers will be very happy, really. You see, we shan't make so much noise in the common room as we usually do, because we shall whisper into our tins instead of shouting across the room, sir.'
'That's good. But why do you have to whisper?' asked Mr Carter. 'Will it not work if you just speak?'
'Oh, yes, sir, it will work, but we shall have to whisper because the boy to whom we were speaking could hear us without his earphone, sir.'
Mr Carter smiled to himself when he opened the cupboard door and looked for empty tobacco tins. He was sure that the whole idea was nonsense. But at the same time he decided not to argue, because he was sure it was useless to argue with Jennings and Darbishire now. So he gave them two empty tobacco tins and the boys were happy.
'Very decent of Mr Carter, wasn't it?' Darbishire said when he followed his friend into the corridor and closed the staff room door.
There was no time to begin their work, because the bell for afternoon school rang when the boys came back to their classroom. But after the lessons that evening they hurried to the common room and began to work. Some other third form boys gathered round and watched them.
Jennings and Darbishire made little holes in the tins, put a piece of string through them and secured each end with a knot.
'The most wonderful thing the world has ever known!' said Jennings loudly.
'I'm sure it doesn't work,' said Atkinson. 'Where are the batteries? Where is the electricity?'
'It doesn't need anything like batteries or electricity,' said Darbishire. 'Jennings says that the sound waves go along the string and make the tin vibrate.'
'Look, I'll show you,' said Jennings.
He gave one of the tins to Darbishire and went to the common room door with the other tin in his hand.
'I'll go out of the room. You speak first, Darbi, and I'll answer,' said Jennings and hurried out of the room.
He put his ear to the tin. Time passed but he did not hear anything.
The door opened and Temple's head appeared.
'Darbi wants to know if you are ready,' I he said.
'Of course, I'm ready,' answered Jennings.
After some time he heard some noise in the earphone. 'Awah buss oojah barn.'
These were the words that Jennings heard. But what did they mean? After some moments his ear got used to the sounds and he heard: '...five elevens are fifty-five and five twelves are sixty...' It was Darbishire's voice! Jennings was happy. 'Well, Jen, you can speak now.'
Jennings put his earphone to his mouth and thought for a moment. 'What shall I say?
Well, I shall be a space pilot, the first man on the Moon.'
'Hallo, Earth!.. Hallo, Earth! Moon calling Earth. This is Space Pilot Jennings speaking from the Moon. Do you hear me?.. Do you hear me?' And he put the earphone to his ear again.
'Yes, I hear you,' he heard Darbishire's voice...
The teacher on duty that evening was Mr Wilkins. When he walked along the corridor he saw Jennings at the door of the common room. Mr Wilkins noticed that the boy was talking to himself. Of course strange things sometimes happened at Linbury Court Boarding School; but when he saw Jennings speaking into a tin, he decided that he must ask for an explanation.
'Why are you talking to yourself, Jennings?' asked Mr Wilkins. ? 'Oh, I am not, sir,' the boy answered. 'I am talking to somebody down on the Earth, sir - I mean somebody in the common room.'
Mr Wilkins looked at the closed door.
'I spoke over the space telephone, sir,' explained Jennings, 'from the Moon, sir. You can hear their answer if you listen through this earphone, sir.'
But Mr Wilkins did not want to know 'about the life on the Earth.
'Another of your hobbies!' he said. 'I can never understand why you silly little boys spend your free time on such silly things. Well, what I mean Jennings, is this. If this hobby leads you into trouble, as it did last time, I'll - I'll... Well, it had better not lead to trouble, that's all.'
Mr Wilkins left, and Jennings went into the common room where he and Darbishire repeated their tests. The tests showed that their home-made telephone could send messages any distance up to about ten yards. So they went to bed quite happily.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jennings writes his name on his eraser
The next morning Jennings and Darbishire spent every moment of their free time with ears or mouths in a tobacco tin. They talked about the weather or asked about each other's health. At last they were tired of their homemade telephone.
'You know, Darbi, we have to think of something else that we can do with our homemade telephone,' said Jennings. 'It's silly to say 'How are you?' and 'I'm all right. How are you?' again and again.'
'Yes, I see what you mean,' answered Darbishire. 'But it's very difficult to know what else to say after the first half an hour.'
'Well, never mind, I expect I'll think of something,' said Jennings.
The next lesson was geography, but Mr Wilkins, who taught this subject to Form Three decided to spend the first ten minutes on an inspection of books and stationery.
'Well, boys! Take out your books in all subjects and lay them on your desks,' said Mr Wilkins.
Form Three were surprised.
'All our books, sir? But it's a geography lesson, sir,' said Bromwich.
'You heard what I said. And I also want to see your pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, everything.'
'Is it an inspection, sir?' asked Atkinson.
'Of course it's an inspection. You don't think I'm organizing an exhibition, do you? I want to be quite sure that each thing has its owner's name on it.'
Form Three liked book and stationery inspections as it was a pleasant change. The boys decided to make it last till the end of the lesson.
'Sir, please, sir, what shall I do, sir? I haven't got my name on my algebra book, sir,' Temple began.
'Write it on the book at once then,' came the answer.
Darbishire decided to ask the next pointless question.
'Please, sir, I've only got two inches of my ruler.'
'Well?'
'Well, sir, my name is too long, sir, and I can't write it on one side. So will it be all right if I write Darbi on one side and shire on the other, sir?'
'I... I... Don't ask such silly questions, you silly little boy!'
'But, sir, I was only thinking...'
'Well, don't think!' said Mr Wilkins angrily. 'Now the first thing I want to do is to make a list of all boys who need stationery. So, please, be quiet and put your hands up if you need anything.'
Now Atkinson was the first. 'Please, sir, I would write my name on my ruler, if I had one, but I gave it to Bromwich who says that he has lost it.'
