Then into the room burst the stirring strains of the "Stars and
Stripes Forever" played by a band that had a national reputation.
The rhythm and dash and fire of the performance were such that
the boys had all they could do to keep their seats, and, as it was,
their feet half unconsciously beat time to the music.
"Hit you hard, did it?" smiled Dr. Dale, who, to tell the truth, had
been keeping time himself. "Well, I don't wonder. I'd hate to see
the time when music like that wouldn't shake you up. But now we'll
go a few hundred miles farther and see what Detroit has to give us."
Jimmy was past speech by this time and could only look at his comrades
in helpless wonder. Then the twang of a banjo sounded through the
rooms and to the thrumming of the strings came a voice in rich negro
dialect
"It rained all night the day I left,
The next day it was dry,
The sun so hot I froze to death
Susanna, don't you cry."
CHAPTER IV
MYSTERIOUS FORCES
The boys broke out in roars of laughter in which the doctor joined
heartily.
"You see how it is," he said, as the song came to an end. "There's
hardly anything you can think of that you can't hear over the wireless
telephone. It takes you anywhere you want to go in a fraction of a
second. In the last few minutes, we've covered quite a section of the
United States, and with a still stronger instrument we could go right
out to the Pacific coast and hear the barking of the sea lions at the
Golden Gate.
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