Tom the Telephone Boy

    Tom Baldwin is a 15 year old boy living in Boston with his mother and aunt. Due to the death of his father several years ago Tom is the main financial provider for his family. As the book starts out Tom has just gotten a job at a bookstore, his last job being at a firm that recently closed down. However it is only for the Christmas rush and after the holiday Tom will need to find other employment.

    Tom is a dutiful employee and while working he ends up meeting a regular customer named Dr. Spidderkins. The doctor is a nice elderly man that is obsessed with books, buying multiple ones from various bookstores everyday. He can easily afford rare copies since he is very wealthy. After he orders several heavy books Tom is tasked with delivering them to his house that evening where he meets Mrs. Sandow. Mrs. Sandow was married to the doctors brother but after his passing she remarried to Mr. Sandow. Both of them live with the doctor and treat him rather rudely, which Tom is audience to on several more trips to the doctor's house.

    Once Christmas is over Tom finds himself out of a job and struggles terribly to find a new one. His friend, Charley Grove, suggest Tom look for a job as a telephone operator because it pays $10 a week, much higher than most other jobs offer. Charley has Tom come up to his work after hours and teaches him how to run a telephone switchboard so he will have a better opportunity to secure a job in the field. And he does just that when Charley gets word that a law office needs an operator. 

    Tom excels at his job and the head lawyer, Mr. Boise, admires his work ethic. However the junior lawyer, Mr. Cutter, seems to have a grudge against Tom and tries several times to have him fired.

    As Tom settles in to his new job he beings seeing Mr. Sandow in various places including Mr. Cutters office after hours. He also overhears Sandow's conversations with the lawyer which leaves him worried the two are scheme to steal Dr. Spidderkin's fortune.

    Tom is hesitant to tell anyone his suspicions due to lack of evidence but after Mr. Cutter leaks private business affairs to a rival law firm and blaming it on Tom he decides it's time to tell Mr. Boise.

    Mr. Boise has been suspicious of Mr. Cutter already and urges Tom to head to the doctor's house and have him secure his legal papers pertaining to his financial holdings. At the house Mrs. Sandow catches word that Tom has caught on to their sinister plot and once out of sight she and her husband flee. However they are caught once authorities are notified and let go after returning the doctor's property and promising to leave Boston at once.

    When the doctor visits Tom that evening he is surprised to find that Tom's mother and aunt are his childhood neighbors. After reconnecting he asks the women to move into his house as housekeepers and companions and sponsors Tom's scholarship to law school. The book ends giving us a glimpse into Toms future as a law partner at Mr. Boise's firm and married to Minnie, a telephone operator who helped defend Tom from Mr. Cutters earlier accusations.

    I discovered this book years ago when browsing books on eBay. It was published in 1909 so I was sure it would be available for free on Project Gutenberg. Unfortunately it wasn't so after several years I finally went ahead and purchased a copy. Well turns out just a month before my purchase it had been uploaded to Gutenberg, heck! 

    I enjoyed the story. I'm fascinated by early telephone technology and I've watch some documentaries on early operators and even training videos from the 1970's. If ever a switchboard appears on screen during an old movie or TV show my eyes are glued to it, watching how it's being used. So this book was right up my alley. 

    Tom is a very likeable character. I was worried he might have some undesirable views about women just because the Hardy Boys made me a little jaded with that kind of stuff but that wasn't the case at all with this.  

    I also really liked how relaxed the book was. Whenever Tom was falsely accused of something it was almost immediately cleared up. It didn't leave you hanging on for chapters hoping Tom can clear his name. And best of all Tom never gets fired over false accusations which is something I was dreading. 

    Overall it's a very enjoyable book.

Joyce of the Secret Squadron

    Captain Midnight is the chief of the Secret Squadron, a secret military force consisting of the best aviators and agents. Their base is located on a small camouflaged island in the pacific. One day he is visited by a man who gives his name as Mr. X. He says a new experimental and highly secretive plane called the Flying Wing has gone missing on it's first test flight. Capt Midnight is being tasked with searching for the plane around it's last known location out in the pacific.

    Meanwhile on another island not too far away is the base for The Barracuda and his "swarm" of cutthroats. The Barracuda is a sadistic outlaw whose allegiance lies with the highest bidder which happens to be Japan. He is aware of the Flying Wing's disappearance because it was him who made it disappear. His men managed to capture the pilot but the plane went missing when one of his swarm was flying it back to their base. It's current whereabouts are unknown to him. The Barracuda has hired Carla Rotan, a beautiful spy, to make contact with the squadron and discover the planes whereabouts so the Barracuda can swoop in and steal it after it's discovery.

    While young Joyce Ryan and Chuck Ramsay, both members of the squadron, are out for a pleasure flight, Carla and her pilot Jack Carson make contact with the two. Carla claims to be out searching the pacific for her lost brother but is in need of supplies. Joyce and Chuck reluctantly take the two back to the secret base where Capt. Midnight gives them supplies then orders them to be escorted to the mainland.

    The next day just as the group of searchers finishes loading their plane the noise of the Barracuda and his swarm flying into the vicinity can be heard. Midnight, Joyce, Chuck, and Ichabod Mudd, a mechanic and code maker, jump in the sky ship and take off along with Carla and Carson, and several other Squadron planes. A fight ensues in the air with the squadron losing one plane and the Barracuda many.

    Once it is over the four head to their destination area and after night has fallen they find an island they believe the Flying Wing might have landed on.

    The next day Carla and Jack show up at the same island and Carla attempts to get on friendly terms with the group who remain suspicious of her. They also discover a schooner with rough sailors anchored by the island. They assume they're pearl fishers and decide to stay away and try to stay unknown to the sea men.

    The next several days focus on a new code being made as it's clear the Barracuda has gotten hold of the squadron's old codebook. A new code had been locked away at the squadron base for just such an incident but Ichabod must remember how he created the code and recreate it or else the group will be left on the island with no means of safe communication back to their base.

    While he does this Joyce and Chuck venture around the island a little bit and find the area of a very old crash landing. They discover a 1920's airplane that has been destroyed and turned into a makeshift home, presumably by the surviving pilot. As they head back to their camp to inform the Midnight of this they hear their plane starting up and upon reaching their camp they see the castaway pilot attempting to steal their plane. He crashes it and is pulled out of the cockpit unconscious by Midnight and Ichabod. In his pockets they find a pilots license for Bill Madison, a famous flyer who went missing during a 1927 flight.

    Upon regaining consciousness Bill is terrified and speaks of a Capt. Burley who is trying to kill him to gain possession of a bag of pearls, a gift Bill had received from the native people of the island.
Capt. Burley soon arrives with armed men demands Bill be handed over to him. As the group is out dealing with these sailors Bill slips away.

    He returns the next night and the squadron promises Bill they will protect him and get him home. The sailors show up again and the squadron barricades themselves in the plane which the sailors then surround and are just about to unload their ammunition into when Bill uses a special call to bring his native friends to his rescue.

    The next day Carla is visited by the Barracuda who is losing patience with her. She is then visited by a desperate Capt. Burley who asked for her partnership in getting the pearls. She agrees to do this after the Flying Wing is discovered but Burley doesn't trust her so he goes to the Barracuda with the offer instead. Like Carla, the Barracuda agrees with the intent of double crossing him and keeping the pearls. All these events are being observed by Bill, Joyce, and Chuck who have climbed up an overlooking rock formation.

    Borrowing Bill's gun Joyce runs down to the beach where the schooner is anchored. She lights a small fire in the jungle to bring the Capt. on land then holds a gun on him while discussing a deal. She'll get Bill to give him half the pearls in exchange for use of the schooner. With Bills help the group has deduced that the Flying Wing crash landed on a nearby island but with their plane damaged by Bill they have no means of getting there. The Capt. enthusiastically agrees to this once Joyce informs these men, who have been at sea for a year, that the world is at war and the Barracuda and Carla are working against the United States.

    The group plans to sail out under cover of darkness which is quickly approaching. Capt. Midnight radios for more squadron members to meet him at the nearby island and just as he finishes sending the message the Barracuda flies over, dropping a bomb on the recently evacuated plane and spitting machine gun fire at the fleeing men and woman.

    They trek through the jungle and come to the anchored lagoon. A boat comes to the shore to meet them and on it is Carla and Jack. They order the group to give up the bag of pearls and location of the Flying Wing while pointing a sub machine gun at them. 

    After refusing Carla pulls Joyce out of the group to be executed first. Joyce, preying on Carla's womanly vanity, asks to powder her nose first. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out Bill's gun which she shoots at Jack. 

    The sight of the gun sets everyone in motion: Jack begins shooting, Midnight tackles Jack, and Chuck tackles Joyce. Midnight manages to beat Jack unconscious while Carla is restrained by Ichabod and Bill. The schooner is boarded and heads to the nearby island.

    They reach it as dawn approaches and as they are dropping boat for land the Barracuda approaches from air in a full out attack. Midnight is able to carefully aim and fires at the ammunition on the plane causing it to explode in air. The Barracuda's swarm arrive just as the requested Squadron members show up and an air battle ensues while Capt. Midnight finds the crashed plane in the jungle and sets it on fire, destroying it and keeping it's secrets safe from enemy hands. The battle is, of course, won by the squadron and all can head back to the secret base and the USA.

- Carla is said to be in her thirties and also called young throughout the book. I found this extremely refreshing.

- The secrecy of the location of the Secret Squadrons headquarters is stated very clearly right at the beginning of the book but then Joyce and Chuck bring two strangers to it without a second thought.

- I had written down a note about how I wished Joyce was written as less of a stereotyped woman of the time period but then I realize Joyce was not written as a stereotyped woman, she is simply illustrated as one. 

    Through out the book Joyce is described as wearing pants yet she is illustrated as wearing a dress. Even in the scene where Joyce is worried she will be mistaken as a man from a distance and accidentally shot because of her pants, she is still drawn as wearing a dress. In almost all the images of her she is wide eyed with her mouth open in shock or her brows furrowed in worry. Worst of all is the illustration of Chuck helping her climb a rock while she is on her hands and knees looking weak and fragile without the help of a man. This is not how she was written at all so it's quite annoying.

- Speaking of illustrations Ichabod is not illustrated at all, even in pictures of scene he is in and when the rest of the group are pictured he is still not illustrated, why?

- The more I read the more it became clear that Chuck has no business being in the secret squadron. He doesn't believe Carla is a spy cause she's pretty and flirty, he doesn't believe Joyce found a part of an airplane in the jungle because he doesn't want her to be right, and when Joyce sees Bill for the first time he accuses her of seeing things. If he were in charge the whole squadron would have already been captured or dead.

- Bill states that he has seen Capt. Burley kill a ton of natives on the island but once Burley agrees to work with them the squadron decides that he's actually a good guy. They ignore that he's a murderer who's been trying to kill Bill over pearls. And no, the pearls didn't belong to Burley. They belong to the island natives who gave them as gifts to Bill.

- Chuck gets so excited when a sub machine gun bullet goes through his trouser leg but misses his flesh because he can "tell this story for the rest of his life". I thought that was pretty cute.

- Capt. Midnight sets the flying wing on fire to destroy it, ignoring the fact that that's going to cause a huge gasoline fueled fire in the jungle and kill wildlife and possibly native inhabitants.

    Overall this book is so good! I loved it the first time I read it and I loved it this time. There's no boring parts and it moves along really smoothly. It appears this was the only Whitman book written by this author, Russ Winterbotham, and that makes me quite sad. This was excellently written and I would have loved to read more.

The Mystery at Rustlers Fort

    Cousins Phil McKenny and Buzz Fletcher are spending the summer camping at the grand canyon with the Fletcher family. Mr. Fletcher, or Chief as everyone calls him, is a college professor who spends every summer out in the wilderness doing field research on a selected animal. This year he is researching mountain lions.

    They will be staying at an isolated new deluxe campsite which has a fancy outdoor oven and running water on site. It's important that Chief camps here because after it's been used consistently by tourist the mountain lions will stop frequenting the area.

    The site is already being occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Post but the park ranger informs Chief that he has a letter for them which is calling them back home. Chief is suppose to deliver the letter which will free up the campsite for him and his family.

    Upon receiving the letter Mr. Post becomes angry. Although he admits the letter requires him to leave he still refuses to give up the campsite. He attempts to have his wife remain there while he is gone but she refuses to remain in the wilderness alone.

    After they leave the family sets up camp over the next few days including making a temporary shower behind the trees and bushes of the campsite. 

    Mr. Post later shows back up. He's in a better mood now and says he had to leave because his jewelry store was robbed. He's back for a short fishing trip and has come to the campsite to get his tackle box which he claims to have left behind however the box has not been seen and can not be found.

    Mr. Post tells the children about an old fort near camp which had been used by horse rustlers 50 years ago. The kids later venture over to it and see the back of a mysterious man in a suit as he's sneaking off through the tress. Phil notices that the location of the fort overlooks their camp and wonders if the man could have been spying on the family. 

    Once the three arrive back at the camp they see the same man in a suit talking to Chief. Phil and Buzz remark the man looks like a dinosaur and that becomes their name for him. Chief explains the man said he came just to look at the new campsite. Once the kids tell him about the man possibly spying on their camp Chief decides to tell the park ranger about him and ask to have a Private Road sign placed so no one else comes along and disturbed them.

    But he forgets when the ranger comes by that evening with a baby mountain lion for Buzz's little sister, Kitsy. The lion is an orphan and the ranger needs someone to bottle feed it every few hours. But Kitsy will have to return the lion at the end of the summer so it can eventually be released back into the park. Kitsy is excited and takes to her role as mother immediately and names the lion Oliver.

    Later that evening a group of teenagers show up asking for help getting their car out of a rut down the road. The whole family goes except for Kitsy who has to stay with the lion. When the family returns they find the little girl hiding under the picnic table with Oliver. She says that she was in the tent getting ready for bed when a man appeared behind the tent looking around by the shower. Kitsy turned on the water faucet, which is located in the middle of camp, to scare the man off then hid. Chief is eager to suggest what Kitsy really saw was a deer but she insists it was man.

    Buzz and Phil are directed to go fill up the deep ruts in the road the next day so no one else gets stuck and Buzz notices the piles of dirt on the side of the road indicating someone purposely dug the holes. Chief talks to the ranger about the goings-on at the camp but the ranger insists they're over reacting. He does however give them a Private sign to put on the road.

    One day the boys head with Chief into the woods where they help him rig up a camera trap to take a picture of an notorious mountain lion named Three Toes. While out there they find the body of a missing dog and Chief says something looks suspicious about it. 

    That evening everyone, including Oliver, drive out to an observation point of the grand canyon. When they pull back into their campsite it's dark but they can see a shadowy figure moving away. They assume its Lulubelle, a curious deer that keeps wondering into their camp. They soon notice that Chief's watch is missing from the table where he placed it which gets Phil wondering if it really was Lulubelle they saw fleeing.

    The next morning the boys and Chief go check the camera trap and see it's gone off. They then continue through the wilderness and observe some squirrels before going behind their camp to look for a pack rats nest which is where Chief thinks his watch has gone. He is right and the watch is found. 

    

    When they come back into camp Mrs. Fletcher is worried and says she and Kitsy had returned to camp earlier to find an intruder trashing Buzz and Phil's tent. Two men's boot prints are in the ground under where the tent had been secured. Chief insists it was just Lulubelle and Amy quickly goes along with this even though she clearly doesn't believe it. Kitsy insists several times it was a man and not a deer but Chief gaslights her.

    The whole family is going into town the next day so the boys decide to set up a camera trap to catch any prowlers. In town the boys secretly purchase a Geiger counter before the family goes and visits Mr. Post at his jewelry store. When leaving Buzz and Phil see the dinosaur staring at them from the window of the restaurant across the street. They tell Chief but he doesn't believe them. 

    Back at camp they find their camera trap has gone off. Chief is annoyed with them but the three go to the Park Rangers house to develop the film and find it was the Ranger himself who had stopped at the camp for a drink of water. That night Kitsy pulls them aside to tell them she still is firm in her conviction that a man had been prowling around their camp the other day and not a deer.

    The next day the boys go with Chief to study some bats and when they return to camp Mrs. Fletcher says they have had two visitors. First Mrs. Post came to bring them groceries but her car stalled down the road so Amy and Kitsy walked to pick them up. When they returned they found the dinosaur lurking about. He talks to them and says he's planning on building a motel in town and uses this excuse to pump Amy for information about what they're doing there.

    The next day the garbage man shows up baring a note for Chief from the park ranger. It's asking for him to come see him that afternoon. Chief is annoyed because this means he will miss a whole day of field work. However the ranger shows up soon and claims he never sent a note. The two men decide to go to the ranger station and ask the garbage man where the note had come from. 

    While they're gone Buzz and Phil discover foot tracks in the woods just outside their camp, both coming and going. They follow them all around the outside of their camp and it's clear someone had been there spying on them. They decide to walk up the road and meet Chief on his way back and tell him about their discovery. 

    After they do Chief explains that the garbage man claims the note had been left in his truck and he didn't know who it came from. Him and the rangers now believe something strange is going on so they've decided to have a man keep an eye on the campground. Chief also decides to postpone his field work until the situation clears up so that he can be around to protect his wife and daughter is something else happens. 

    Since he won't need the boys help he arranges for them to take a two day trip at Phantom Ranch; a resort ranch located in the Grand Canyon. Although they want to stick around camp and help with detective work they know this trip will be a good chance to use their Geiger counter.

    Not long into their hike the next day the Geiger counter goes off indicating they've found ore. They debate on going back to camp to tell Chief but decide he'd be mad at them, both for purchasing the Geiger counter and for the wasted money on ranch reservations. They decide to continue with their trip. They stop at a river to eat their lunch when a man approaches them. He's noticed their Geiger counter and informs them prospecting is not allowed in the park and they could get in trouble if a ranger sees it. He also informs them you have to be 21 to register a mine claim. The boys are quite disappointed both over losing their just discovered claim and having spent the money on a Geiger counter they can't use. They're moody for the rest of the hike. 

    When they get to the ranch they go for a swim in the pool and end up spotting the dinosaur which worries them. After dinner they encounter him on a bridge where he asks if the family is still at the camp grounds. They say yes and quickly flee back to their cabin. The next morning when they're returning from breakfast they spy the dinosaur in their cabin going through their backpacks. Once he's left they grab their things and flee back to camp as fast as possible.

    After spending a whole day resting back at camp Chief, Buzz, Phil, and Kitsy all go to bat cave 20 miles away. There they will catch and tag bats, then the park ranger will take them in cages to Amy back at camp who will release them. Chief and the kids will be spending the night in the cave and check the bats in the morning to see if the tagged ones have found their way home, this testing their homing ability. 

    Once there Buzz realizes he forgot to pack their food supply so Chief sends Phil and Kitsy back to camp for the night with the park ranger. They have him drop them and the bats off by the shortcut that leads past rustlers fort to their camp. The cousins stop at the fort and get a drink of water from the spring inside the building when someone closes the door and piles rocks up against it locking them in.

    Phil and Kitsy write help notes on postal stamps Phil has in his wallet then stick them to the bats and release them hoping they will find their way back to the cave and Chief will see. There plan works and Chief and Buzz show up the next morning before they all rush to camp to check on Mrs. Fletcher. She says camp was unbothered during the night, most likely due to her falling asleep with the lantern on.

    Chief is furious about what was done to the kids and wants to go immediately to the ranger station and have the police alerted but Amy suggest he wait and the two sit down to talk about moving camps first. While they are doing this Phil and Buzz go lay down in the tent and Buzz absentmindedly plays with the Geiger counter and is surprised to get a positive reading from below the middle of their tent.

    Just then the park ranger shows up saying he's had news that the lost dog Chief found in the woods had rabies (which explains what Chief said was suspicious). This means Three Toes also has rabies and it is no longer safe for the family to stay in the area. They immediately start packing up and the boys subtly dig up the ground after disassembling their tent. Buried in the ground they find Mr. Posts missing tackle box and inside is an array of jewelry, including watches with radium dials which is what triggered the Geiger counter.

    Once everything is packed up the ranger asks Chief to go out in the woods with him to try and find Three Toes but Chief insists he's not skilled with a gun and Phil goes instead since he's on his schools rifle team. Kitsy, who has been sitting playing with her mothers binoculars, announces that she's just seen Mr. Post in the woods. The ranger and Phil then dash over to warn him about the lion but he flees from them. Suddenly Phil realizes that it was Post who had robbed his own store and hid the jewelry in camp. This explains why he was so angry about leaving it and why someone was always sneaking around; he was trying to recover the valuables. 

    While fleeing Mr. Post comes upon the lion who Phil and the ranger shoot just as it's leaping upon the criminal. The two then start to bring the man back to the rangers truck at gunpoint when Buzz comes running saying they've captured the dinosaur. When driving out of camp Buzz spotted the man up by the fort so Chief and Buzz snuck up on him by the shortcut and trapped him in the fort while Amy and Kitsy drive into town for a policeman. 

    Once they get to the fort everyone begins to talk and it comes out that the dinosaur is a detective for Mr. Post's insurance company. Knowing that the robbery was an inside job he's been trailing Post to the camping spot for weeks. Seeing him be friendly with the family caused suspicion that they were in on it and that's why he followed the boys down the canyon. Post confesses to his crime and the book ends.

- Phil wants to buy a Geiger counter with the allowance his parents give him but Chief not only tells him he's not allowed to but he forbids him from even talking about it.

- Phil remarks that he likes that they all sleep in the clothes they wore for that day. I assume they're wearing jeans and sleeping in jeans is very uncomfortable. Why not just toss on a pair of sweats for the night.

- The trip to Phantom Ranch is fourteen miles each way. They're walking it two days in a row, how exhausting!

- Phantom Ranch is real and still exists. I'm unsure if the pool is still around though as I could find no modern photos of it and no mention. From what I read they didn't start requiring reservations until 1961 but Chief says the boys have to have reservations and this was published in 1957. Also you now have to make reservations 15 months in advance and you only can do that if you win the reservation lottery.

- When the boys reach Phantom Ranch a man working there asked if they're the two boys that have reservations there for the night and Phil gets suspicious, wondering how does this man know so much about them. Phil's not the brightest.

- I'm not sure why Post was so eager to reclaim the tackle box with the stolen jewelry. Surely it would be safer hidden than it would be in his possession. And he wouldn't be able to sell it while the robbery is still being investigated.

    Overall this book is good. It's a fun setting, eventful enough to keep the reader interested, and the details of the grand canyon are extremely accurate which is great. It was more fun to read the first time when I didn't know the ending. I only remembered half of it this time so it was still fun but I'm not sure how it would be on a third reading when I remember it all.