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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8680cf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #67259 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67259) diff --git a/old/67259-0.txt b/old/67259-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8695de3..0000000 --- a/old/67259-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2975 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Big Idea, by Ray Cummings - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Big Idea - -Author: Ray Cummings - -Release Date: January 27, 2022 [eBook #67259] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Roger Frank and Sue Clark - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIG IDEA *** - - - - - - THE BIG IDEA - - By Ray Cummings - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - JIMMY’S BIG IDEA. - - -Jimmy Rand came out of the wash-house that early April morning and -took his place in the line of men dressed in their black, greasy -mine-clothes. It was a long line—stretching past the power-house, past -the big tower where the coal came tumbling down with a great clatter -upon the sorting screens and into the waiting railroad flat cars -beneath, until finally it wound itself to the little iron gate and -gate-house near the mine-mouth where, through a tiny window, the men -gave their numbers to be checked down in a great book. - -It took Jimmy many minutes to reach the window that morning—minutes -that dragged slowly by as he impatiently shuffled forward with the -moving line. For this was the day he was to stop work at noon, and he -and Anne were to take that long walk together they had planned. Jimmy -looked up at the sky; it was a perfect day, almost cloudless, and with -just a hint of chill in the air. - -By birth and breeding Jimmy Rand was a coal miner. His father and -grandfather before him had been miners—his father, now dead some three -years, had worked in this same Fallon Brothers Mine. It was located -near the little town of Menchon, Pennsylvania, in the valley of the -Susquehanna. - -When he was fifteen Jimmy had left school and entered the mine as a -mule-boy. Now, at twenty-two, he was a full-fledged miner, and by his -record was one of the best “loaders” on the books; for he was a -stalwart young chap, deep of chest, and with long, powerful muscles. - -His work was to clean up the coal that had been undercut and then -blasted out in the little galleries down in the mine, loading it onto -the waiting mule-pulled cars that took it to the bottom of the shaft, -where it was hoisted to the surface and on up into the tipple-tower to -be dumped upon the screens. - -Jimmy did his work well; there were few other loaders who could -surpass him in tonnage. This the records showed, for each car bore a -little metal tag with the loader’s number, of which account was kept. - -But although Jimmy was a good coal miner by heredity and training, he -was by nature not a miner at all. He had known this now for many -years; but only to Anne, and to his mother, had he ever said so. - -Way back in the days when he was mule-boy Jimmy could remember sitting -alone in the great dark silences of the mine, listening to its vague, -distant, muffled sounds, and thinking of the great world outside—the -world of light and air and color, the world he knew so little about, -was in so seldom, and dreamed of so constantly. - -Jimmy Rand was by nature a dreamer. He had imagination, which, to one -who mines coal, is neither necessary nor desirable. It was not the -hours of active work in the mine that proved irksome to him. Stripped -to the waist, his lean torso covered with sweat and the grime of -coal-dust, he would load steadily. But when the little car was filled, -properly trimmed, and the last great, glistening chunk of coal heaved -to its top, there was nothing more to do but sit quiet while the -mule-boy took it away and brought him another “empty.” - -Then Jimmy would slip on his coat and sit down in the cool, damp air -to wait. He could hear his heart beat then in the sudden silence, and -curious noises filled his ears. The comforting noises of his own work -were gone; the distant, dull sounds of the mine seemed unreal, and -always a little sinister. - -He could hear trickling sounds near at hand—the gas seeping out of the -newly opened coal crevices. And far off would come faintly to him the -muffled thuds of the picks of the other miners. - -These were the minutes that Jimmy Rand hated—minutes that seemed to -drag sometimes into hours, as he waited for the dancing yellow light -on the mule-boy’s cap, the welcome grind of his car-wheels, and the -mule’s slow, tramping step. - -This particular April morning Jimmy’s work in the mine loomed ahead of -him more irksome, more confining, than ever before. But since it must -be done, he was anxious to get at it. He thought his turn at the -gate-house window would never come; but finally it did, and he slipped -past into the yard and took his place on the waiting cage that would -shortly lower him and his fellows out of the sunshine into the world -of unreality of the mine several hundred feet below. - -Jimmy worked hard that morning. His bunky, who worked at his side in -the little gallery, wondered at his unusual silence, although Jimmy -was always inclined to be silent. When the first car was loaded, Jimmy -fastened to it his metal tag—they took turns in labeling the cars they -jointly filled—and then sat down on a lump of coal with his cap in his -hands, trimming the wick of his little pit-lamp with a nail from his -pocket. - -His mind was far away. He read a good deal now—books from the public -library of Menchon, which he took home to read during the evenings. -Books of travel and adventure interested him; but more recently he had -been reading of industry, and the wonderful, gigantic projects that -other men—no smarter than himself, perhaps—had planned and executed, -stirred him profoundly. Some day he, too, would accomplish big -things—things of which Anne and his mother and sister would be proud, -things that would bring him great fame and wealth. - -That morning seemed interminable to Jimmy, but finally it came to an -end. His last car was loaded, and in a moment the cage had raised him -back into the warmth of the noonday sunshine. He checked out, passed -through the wash-house, and hurried home to lunch. Immediately after -lunch he went to meet Anne, as they had agreed. - -Anne Wolff was the sixteen-year-old daughter of one of the other -miners in the Fallon Brothers Mine. She was still going to school in -the little Menchon schoolhouse—a slender, dark-haired, shy little -girl, with a curious, wild sort of beauty and unnaturally big black -eyes. - -Anne was “Jimmy’s girl”—accepted as such by their fellows. It was the -only love that Anne had ever known, and to her it meant everything, -even though she had never given it voice. - -Jimmy had long since told Anne of his dreams, and in the girl’s love -he had found a ready response, even though at times she could hardly -understand these vague longings that he found so difficult to put into -words. She believed in him and she encouraged him; and so he made her -his confidant, telling her things he never told his sister or even his -mother. - -Anne was waiting for Jimmy this afternoon at the gate of her little -frame house, dressed in her newest print frock, her long black hair in -braids over her shoulders, and a gray woolen scarf wound about her -throat. Her cheeks were red with the color of youth and health, and -her eyes sparkled with pleasure at sight of him. Jimmy kissed her in -greeting, thinking as he did so that she was the most beautiful and -wonderful little girl in all the world. - -“Where we going?” asked Anne when he had released her. - -“I don’t know. Where?” - -“It’s a beautiful day,” said the girl, looking up into the blue of the -sky. Then she put her hand in his. “Let’s go—anywhere.” - -Walking hand in hand, they slipped past the little village—Jimmy -instinctively turned away from the mines—down the road, and out into -the open country. Distant blue hills lay ahead; on both sides of the -road lay rolling country, and sometimes they passed fields of wild -flowers. - -“It ain’t that I mind the work,” said Jimmy suddenly, when they had -been walking for some time. “The work’s all right. But up here—like -today, Anne—under the sky—it’s different up here. Seems like a fellow -had a chance to do something big up here. But down there, Anne—in the -dark and damp—all shut in—” - -He stopped as the girl tightened the pressure of her fingers upon his. -He had often spoken this way to her before—used the very same words, -perhaps—and he knew that she understood, and felt that way about it, -too. But today it seemed different, more important, more pressing a -problem—as though today, somehow, he must find some way out, some goal -ahead toward which he could strive. - -He did not care how long it might take to reach it, or what -difficulties might be in the way. He knew he would overcome them some -way, somehow, if only he could find some goal to head for—something -definite instead of just dreams. - -“Dad was a mule-boy, Anne,” he went on after a moment. “And he died -still working in the same mine where he started. Your dad’s there, -too. It ain’t that I’m any better than them, Anne. Only I’m—I’m -different. You know that. I want to do something—something big. And -all day I sit down there thinking and planning and scheming. And it’s -no good, Anne. It don’t get me anything—and sometimes I wonder if it -ever will.” - -The little girl pressed his hand again and looked shyly up into his -face. - -“It will, Jimmy,” she said softly. “You’re going to be a wonderful man -some day—I just know you will. And we’ll—we’ll all be so proud of -you.” - -Again they fell silent. The road they were following—they were now -some two miles from Menchon—was taking them directly toward the -burning mines that were famous throughout all that part of -Pennsylvania. These were a system of coalmines that years before had -been in active operation. They had caught fire, and eventually had to -be abandoned. - -And all these years since, far down in the great coal measures -underground, the fires had been raging. From one mine to another the -fire had spread, until now the whole region, several square miles in -extent, was honeycombed with uncontrollable subterranean fires. - -Through fissures in the ground in many places smoke and steam -continually issued; in other parts the fire had broken out to the -surface; it was burned out now, leaving a great, jagged, pitted hole. -But mostly the coal seams lay so far beneath the surface that only the -steam and the thick smoke of the partly consumed coal gases coming -through holes in the ground gave evidence of their presence. - -The fame of the burning mines of Menchon brought many tourists to -visit them. In the summer-time especially, on Sundays, crowds of them -came up from the cities of New York and Philadelphia to wander about -the region, testing the heat of the ground with amazement, and -picnicking beside the little holes that vomited their smoke into the -air above. - -To them the sight was interesting and wonderful; but to Jimmy and Anne -it was an old story—something they had known all their lives and -accepted without wonderment. - -This afternoon, as the smoke, rising near by, reminded them where they -were, they left the road, and with Anne still carrying a bunch of -daisies under her arm, approached the scarred region that, as Jimmy -had often said, looked for all the world like the volcano pictures in -the books. He made that remark again today as they sat down on a rock -to rest beside a little smoking crevice. - -“You ever seen a picture of the volcano in Hawaii, Anne?” he asked. -And when she told him no, he added almost eagerly: “It looks just like -this, only very much more wonderful.” And then to the admiring and -thrilled little girl he described the crater of the great volcano of -Mauna Loa as he had read of it. - -“It’s—it’s wonderful to know all those things,” said Anne when he -paused a moment. - -“Some day I’m going to see them all, too,” he answered. “Some day I’m -going everywhere in the world and see myself all the things in the -books—some day when I’m rich—when I’ve done something.” - -Then, as his problem came back to him with the words, he relapsed into -silence, sitting with his arm about the girl’s shoulders and staring -idly at the little stream of smoke coming up from the ground before -him. - -For a long time he sat silent. The familiar scene around, which he had -always accepted as usual and without interest, suddenly seemed -remarkable and inspiring. He thought of these vast fires in the ground -beneath his feet, burning away the coal year after year, and -discharging their heat upward into the air uselessly. This tremendous -waste seemed now suddenly appalling. - -He withdrew his arm from around Anne’s shoulder, and, leaning forward, -put his hand down close to the little crevice. It was hot there—hot -enough to boil water in a kettle, perhaps, he thought. A picture he -had seen once, in a book, of James Watt discovering the power of -steam, came to his mind. He sat up again and turned to the girl. - -“You ever heard of James Watt, Anne?” - -Anne shook her head. - -“He was the man who discovered about steam. He was just a boy, Anne. -One day he was sitting beside his mother’s hearth looking at a big -iron kettle that had water boiling in it. And he could see that the -steam was lifting up the lid of the kettle. And then all at once it -came to him how powerful the steam must be, and why couldn’t he do -something with it. - -“You see, Anne, nobody had ever thought of that before. It looks easy -enough to us—that you can make steam and use the power—but nobody had -ever thought of it then. And it was right in front of their eyes all -the time, and they couldn’t see it. But James Watt saw it. And when he -got the idea he wouldn’t give it up, no matter what anybody said. He -worked and worked, and finally he built an engine that would use the -power that steam has. - -“That was the first steam-engine, Anne. Just think of it—the first -steam-engine. And James Watt doped it out all by himself—just because -he had noticed how the steam lifted the lid of that kettle. And he had -seen it do that hundreds of times before—and so had everybody else—and -never thought anything about it. Isn’t that wonderful, Anne?” - -The girl’s eyes were very big and tender as she looked up into his -face. - -“Yes—it’s very wonderful, Jimmy. You know about so many wonderful -things,” she said softly. - -“I was just thinking, Anne—” He paused. “When coal burns underground, -you can get the heat out of it just the same. And then if—if—” His -voice trailed into silence; he sat staring straight ahead into the -distance. - -Anne sat quiet, gazing with awe up into his set face, as though she -was in the presence of genius. The minutes passed. Then abruptly Jimmy -spoke again: - -“Why—why do you have to mine coal at all?” he said slowly. “If you can -burn it in the ground and get the heat—why do you have to mine it at -all?” - -Anne did not understand, but she was thrilled by the new note of -tenseness in his voice. - -She put her hand over his, pressing it encouragingly. “Yes, -Jimmy—yes?” - -“If—if you could burn the coal right where it is in the ground—and—and -put your factory over the heat—then—why, then—” - -A long pause; then Jimmy suddenly sprang to his feet. - -“I’ve got it, Anne!” he cried excitedly. “I’ve got it—the big idea. -Why, it’s as clear as daylight, once you think of it. I’ve got it; -I’ve got it!” He threw his arms around the girl, kissing her and -hugging her to him with all the strength of his vigorous young arms. -“It’s the big idea, Anne—what I’ve always been trying to get. And now -I’ve got it!” - -Anne struggled from his embrace. - -“What, Jimmy?” she asked eagerly. “What is it?” - -Jimmy’s face was flushed; his eyes sparkled. - -“Why—why, just that, Anne! I’m going to build a factory over where the -coal is and burn the coal in the ground without bothering to mine it -at all, and just pipe the heat up to the boilers. Don’t you see, Anne? -Nobody ever thought of that before. They mine the coal now—dig it out -and bring it up to the top and take it away on railroads to factories -to be burned. And all you’ve got to do is leave it where it is, and -put the factory overhead. Look at the work you save, Anne! Look how -easy and simple it is. - -“And nobody ever thought of it before. But _I’ve_ thought of it now, -Anne. And I’m going to do it, no matter what anybody says—or how hard -I have to work—or how long it takes. I’m going to do it because it’s a -big idea—and nobody else thought of it, only me!” - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - THE FIRST SETBACK. - - -It was some minutes before Jimmy’s excitement had abated enough for -him to tell Anne his plan; or indeed to be able to formulate in his -own mind just what this wonderful new idea that had so suddenly come -to him would mean. He could understand now how James Watt must have -felt as he planned the first steam-engine—a sort of exaltation which -Jimmy could feel now in his own heart plainly. - -The idea had come to him abruptly, almost full-born, as Jimmy had read -such big ideas often do come. He had seized upon it at once with the -feeling that it _was_ his big idea, believing in it blindly, without -stopping to reason it out. - -Now with Anne sitting adoringly beside him, imploring him to explain -it to her, he felt suddenly self-conscious and embarrassed. The real -reason was that he had no knowledge of the subject, no technical -information upon which to base an opinion of whether the idea was -feasible or not. - -But Jimmy did not know that. He only knew, now that he thought it -over, that what he had already said was almost all he could say—all -that was in his mind, in fact. - -“Tell me about it, Jimmy,” Anne entreated. “How would it work?” Anne -looked up to Jimmy as to a vastly superior intellect. But she had -herself an acquisitive mind—untrained, immature, but naturally keenly -alert. Now that the first thrill of Jimmy’s announcement had passed, -she was interested in the subject not only because of Jimmy, but -because of the idea itself. And so, just a little with the air of one -who demanded to be convinced, Anne wanted to know how it would work. - -“Why—why, you see, Anne, it’s like this,” Jimmy explained. “The way -they do it now is to mine the coal—and you know all the expense and -time and hell that is—then when it is mined it has to be shipped away -hundreds of miles to the factories to be used. Now, if you don’t do -any of that, but just burn it in the ground where it is, you save all -that. Don’t you see?” - -“There ain’t any factories over coalmines,” said Anne. - -“No, but there could be just as easy as not. It don’t make so much -difference where a factory is, so long as it’s got a railroad. That’s -the idea—I’m going to build a factory where the coal is instead of -taking the coal to where the factory is.” - -“How you going to burn the coal in the ground?” Anne wanted to know. - -Jimmy thought a moment. - -“Why, just—just burn it,” he answered finally. “You see, Anne,” he -hastened to add, “the heat will come up in pipes to the factory -boilers at the top—just like the heat comes up.” Jimmy pointed to the -smoking crevice at their feet. - -“Why won’t it just get to be a big fire like this?” Anne objected. -“This is burning underground—” - -“It won’t.” - -“Why won’t it?” - -“Well, it won’t because, you see, Anne”—Jimmy was thinking fast -now—“because, don’t you see, a fire can’t burn without air. I won’t -give it only just so much air. This one got started and ran away with -itself before they could stop it. Mine will be ’way down very deep, -where there ain’t any air, only just what I pump down to it. - -“If I give it lots of air, it will burn hard, and there’ll be lots of -heat come up. Then if I don’t want so much heat, I won’t give it so -much air. And if I shut the air all off, it’ll go out altogether. -Don’t you see?” - -“Yes,” said Anne, convinced. “It’s wonderful, Jimmy.” She put her hand -with a sudden timidity on his shoulder. - -“You’re—you’re wonderful, too, Jimmy.” - -The boy kissed her abstractedly, his mind still busily groping with -the flood of ideas that were surging into it. “I can control it easy, -Anne, if I start it right, by the air I give it. Why, it’s just like -when we have a fire here in the mine. You remember the fire started in -C tunnel last fall—your father was working there. He found it when it -was only in that one room. All we did was wall up that room from the -main tunnel, and it went right out when it couldn’t get any air, -didn’t it?” - -Anne nodded. - -“Besides, over in Coatesville, didn’t a whole mine get away from them -a few years ago?” Jimmy continued earnestly. “The fire got to the -mine-bottom before they could shut it off, and the white-damp began -exploding, so they had to get out of the whole mine. All they did then -was seal up the shafts at the top to shut off all the air in the whole -mine. The fire went out of itself when all the air was used up.” - -Again the girl nodded; his arguments seemed sound and quite -unanswerable. - -“Well, that’s just the way I’m going to do it. It’ll work, Anne—I know -it will,” said Jimmy. - -“Yes,” said Anne. “So do I, Jimmy.” - -It would work. The more Jimmy thought about it, the more sure he was -that it would work. For a long time he sat silent, holding Anne’s hand -tightly clasped in his, planning in his mind the things he was going -to do. His ideas in detail were vague, absurd almost, from a practical -standpoint; but Jimmy did not realize that. They looked concise enough -to him. - -He would go to New York to live for a time while he was putting the -idea over. All the big business men that he would have to see and -convince were there. Jimmy had saved several hundred dollars from his -earnings in the Fallon Brothers Mine during the last few years, so -that lack of money offered no obstacle. Then, too, he realized with -satisfaction, his mother and sister were not dependent on his wages. -The large insurance that his father had scrupulously kept up, and the -money that he had saved and carefully invested, had left Mrs. Rand, -while not rich, at least comfortably independent. That made Jimmy -think of his mother’s farm property; and the fact that it might be -made to play a part in his big idea came to him at once. - -“Why, Anne,” he exclaimed suddenly, “it’s all as clear as daylight to -me now. You know mother’s old farm-land over near Coatesville? That’s -where I’m going to put the first factory. There’s coal under it—don’t -you remember they bored for it two or three years ago? Only it was so -deep and the seam was so shallow nobody would work it.” - -This piece of land—some two hundred acres—had been left Mrs. Rand by -her father. It was poor farm-land, mostly sand, and of little value. -Some three years before, a company in search of new coal measures -around Coatesville had made borings; but the seam they located was not -considered profitable to work, and the project which for a time had -promised to make the Rand family rich had been abandoned. - -But now, with his new idea, this coal could be used. There was a -railroad spur very near the property, Jimmy remembered. It would be an -ideal place for a factory. It was the only thing he needed to hook his -plan together. Now he could talk convincingly to any big man. - -Jimmy, with the optimism of youth, had a world of confidence in -himself, and he saw no great obstacles in the way of what he wanted to -do. A few weeks or months at the most in New York, and he would be -back, with a big factory going up, and all the thousand details of a -great enterprise under way. And _he_ would have a part in it all—he -would have been its originator. Then, when he was rich and famous, he -and Anne would be married. He slipped his arm again about the girl’s -shoulders and looked down into her sympathetic, eager little face. - -“I love you, Anne,” he said. - -“I love you, too, Jimmy,” she answered simply. - -He waited a moment. “Yes, but—but this is different, Anne. We’ve -always loved each other. But I’m a man now. And you’re a woman. Don’t -you see that’s different?” - -The girl met his glance squarely, and a little wave of color mounted -to her cheeks; but she did not answer. - -“I want to marry you, Anne. Some day—maybe soon—when I’ve put this -idea over—when I amount to something. I want you for my -wife—because—because I love you so much, and you love me. Will you, -Anne—will you?” - -The girl’s arms went up about his neck; her upturned face was tender -with love; her eyes, glistening with tears of happiness, met his -without a trace of coquetry. - -“Yes, Jimmy, I will,” she whispered. - - * * * * * - -The New York offices of the Wentworth Glass Company occupied an entire -floor of a large office-building on Broadway near Wall Street. At ten -o’clock on the Tuesday morning following his momentous walk with Anne -to the burning mines and the birth of his big idea, Jimmy entered the -Wentworth Company’s offices. He passed through a door marked -“Information,” and found himself in a little enclosure facing a low -wooden railing and a girl at a telephone switchboard. - -Behind her he could see a hundred other girls at typewriters, and the -steady click of their machines filled the air with a low, confused -hum. It seemed to Jimmy that all the business in the world was being -transacted in that room at that moment. For an instant he stood -appalled. Then he walked up to the switchboard and addressed the girl. - -“I want to see Mr. Wentworth—Mr. Robert G. Wentworth,” he said. “He’s -the president, isn’t he?” - -The girl stared; then she smiled. Jimmy smiled, too—a frank, friendly -smile, so ingenuous that it probably surprised the girl even more than -his request. - -“Have you got an appointment with Mr. Wentworth?” - -Jimmy smiled again. “No,” he admitted. “But I’ve something to say to -him—something important, that he’ll be glad to hear.” - -“Whom do you represent?” If he had only known it, Jimmy was passing -through a very critical moment in his business career. - -“Why, I—why, just me.” - -“What’s your name?” - -“Jimmy—I mean, James Rand.” - -The girl’s glance roved over his clothes appraisingly. “Where you -from?” - -“Menchon, Pennsylvania,” said Jimmy. - -His engaging smile and the extraordinary mixture of diffidence and -confidence in his manner won out. Besides, he was an extremely -good-looking young man. - -The telephone girl could not understand what he wanted, but she was on -his side anyway. - -“I’ll ask Mr. Cooper to see you. He’s the office manager,” she added -confidentially. - -Jimmy shook his head. “It’s too important for that,” he said -positively. “I can’t tell it to anybody but Mr. Wentworth.” - -The girl considered a moment. Then, with sudden decision, she made a -connection and spoke a few rapid words into the telephone. - -“I’m sorry,” she said as she turned back to Jimmy. “I thought maybe -Mr. Wentworth’s secretary would see you.” - -Jimmy looked blank. It had never occurred to him that any one he -selected to tell his big idea to would be reluctant to see him. He had -decided on the Wentworth Glass Company quite by accident—the name was -engraved on the glassware of the big Broadway restaurant at which he -had dined the evening before, and subsequent inquiries had convinced -him it was just the sort of organization he wanted—and so he had -planned to interview Robert G. Wentworth, its president, that morning. -Yet now it seemed impossible for him to see Mr. Wentworth—the -telephone girl seemed to think he was crazy to expect such a thing. -And even the president’s secretary was too busy to bother with him! -For an instant Jimmy felt his task hopeless. - -“Can’t see you,” the telephone girl repeated. - -“Wouldn’t Mr. Wentworth see me?” - -“Certainly not,” said the girl, with some asperity. “You’d better see -Mr. Cooper, if you can’t tell it to me. Maybe he would see you.” - -“No,” said Jimmy. “It’s too important.” - -“Then maybe if you’d come back tomorrow Mr. Wentworth’s secretary will -see you. You might try, anyway—if it’s so important,” she added, at -Jimmy’s helpless look of appeal. - -“I will,” said Jimmy. “Thank you very much.” - -And with sinking heart he turned from the first business interview he -had ever had in his life, and went down into the busy city street -below. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - THE INTERVIEW. - - -Jimmy went back despondently to his little boarding-house room. To him -the rebuff had been a severe one. He thought about it for an hour; -then he had lunch, and went haphazard, with renewed hope, to interview -several other big business men whose names he procured. - -But either his manner had lost some of its confidence, or else the -telephone girls he almost invariably encountered were less favorably -impressed with him than the girl at the Wentworth Company, for in no -other instance did he even receive that much encouragement. - -No one of importance in the whole great city of New York, it seemed to -Jimmy then, cared to see him or to hear about his big idea. He thought -about it that whole Tuesday evening, sitting alone in his little -bedroom, with his fists clenched and his face flushed and serious. - -Two conclusions he reached: one was that he would _not_ tell his -business to any telephone girl or clerk; and the other was that he -_would_ see somebody big, if he had to keep on trying till doomsday. - -The next morning he was back at the Wentworth Company offices, smiling -cheerfully at the girl he had seen the day before. And every day that -week he was there, still asking for “Mr. Wentworth’s secretary, -please.” - -Finally one morning, still protesting that his business was important, -and that he could not tell it either to her or to the suggested Mr. -Cooper, Jimmy heard the first encouraging words of his whole week of -waiting. - -“Mr. Wentworth’s secretary will see you in a few minutes,” the -telephone girl announced. - -“What’s her name?” - -“His name is Mr. Leffingwell Hope.” - -“Thank you very much,” said Jimmy, and sat down on a little bench to -wait. - -In about ten minutes Mr. Leffingwell Hope appeared. He was a man about -thirty, two or three inches shorter than Jimmy, and very much more -slender of build. He was immaculately dressed; his hair was straight, -slightly long, and neatly brushed; his face was thin, pale, and -sharp-featured, with gray eyes, and a long, thin nose with a bump on -its bridge, giving him a hawk-like expression. Jimmy disliked Mr. -Leffingwell Hope the minute he saw him—there was about him something -sinister, like a snake. - -“Are you James Rand?” the secretary began. - -If Jimmy Rand had disliked Mr. Hope from his appearance, he positively -hated him when he heard his voice. It was one of those soft, curiously -intoned, effeminate voices; Jimmy had never heard one before. - -“Damned sissy,” he thought. “Yes,” he answered. He smiled—as friendly -a smile as he could muster. - -The secretary did not smile. He came through the little wooden gate -and stood facing Jimmy, who had risen to meet him. Jimmy had decided -to tell his idea to Mr. Hope; now that he saw him, he decided he -wouldn’t. A sudden despairing courage made him decide at the same -instant to see the president himself. It must be possible to work it -some way. - -“I want to see Mr. Wentworth—Mr. Robert G. Wentworth,” said Jimmy -firmly. - -“What do you want to see him about?” - -Jimmy hesitated. “That’s what I’m going to tell him when I see him,” -he said finally. - -“Mr. Wentworth never sees anybody except by appointment.” - -“I’m in no hurry,” Jimmy grinned cheerfully; his courage began coming -back. This Mr. Leffingwell Hope, after all, didn’t seem so very -formidable. “I’ll make an appointment, then.” - -“If your business is important, I’ll hear it now.” The secretary -turned slightly away, as though he were being unnecessarily detained -from important work inside. “Tell it quick,” he added. “The young lady -says you don’t represent any one. What is it?” - -Jimmy’s anger flared up suddenly. He put out his hand and gripped Mr. -Leffingwell Hope by the arm, turning him around until they were again -face to face. - -“Say, listen, you—you don’t understand.” He tried to keep the anger -out of his voice; and when the secretary shook off his hold he let go -promptly. “I came all the way from Menchon, Pennsylvania, to see Mr. -Wentworth. And I’ve waited over a week. It’s an important thing—it’s -something he will be glad to hear.” - -“All right, then—tell it to me. If it’s important, I’ll ask Mr. -Wentworth if he’ll see you.” - -“I won’t tell it to you,” Jimmy said doggedly. “I _won’t_ tell it to -you or to anybody but him.” - -“Then I guess you won’t tell it,” said Mr. Hope, and turned back -toward the railing. - -This time Jimmy was really angry. He took a swift step forward and -again seized the secretary by the arm. “Look here, you—you’re not -giving me a square deal.” - -“Take your hands off me,” said Mr. Hope evenly. Evidently he was not a -coward, for there was no alarm in his eyes. - -Jimmy released the secretary reluctantly. “You’re not giving me a -square deal. You tell Mr. Wentworth I want to see him, and see what he -says.” - -The secretary looked Jimmy over from head to foot. “I don’t know what -your game is, young man, but I think you’re a damn fool.” - -“If you didn’t think so much you’d get along better,” Jimmy retorted. -“Will you tell him I’m here or won’t you?” - -Instead of making Mr. Hope angry, this seemed to strike him as -amusing, for he smiled. “If you’ll give me some idea of why you want -to see him, and why he should take his time to see you, I’ll tell him, -yes.” - -A flash of inspiration came to Jimmy. “You tell him I know a way to -make glass that will only use one-quarter as much coal for fuel as he -uses now. That’s important enough, isn’t it? And tell him it won’t -take me five minutes to explain it, either.” - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope looked at Jimmy as if he thought the visitor was -insane. Then he smiled again his nasty smile. “All right,” he said. -“If he’s not too busy I’ll tell him exactly what you say. And I don’t -think he’ll be interested in the least.” - -“I don’t care what you think, so long as you tell him,” said Jimmy; -and he sat down on the bench again to wait as the secretary departed. - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope revolved this extraordinary interview in his mind -as he went back to see his employer. A great curiosity consumed him to -know what it was this remarkable youth from the country had to say, so -that he almost hoped Mr. Wentworth would see his unknown visitor. - -As luck would have it for Jimmy, the president of the Wentworth Glass -Company was not in the least busy at that particular moment. As a -matter of fact, he was waiting for an expected visit from his -daughter. It did not promise to be particularly pleasant, for she had -just telephoned him she was coming down to get a check he had only -that morning at breakfast told her she could not have. - -All of which had made the company’s chief executive decide that he -would do no business that morning, for in his present perturbed state -of mind whatever business decisions he made probably would be -ill-advised. So when his secretary appeared with this unique tale of -an unknown youth who promised to tell him in five minutes how to -revolutionize completely his business, Mr. Wentworth welcomed the -diversion. He smiled quizzically, and directed Mr. Leffingwell Hope to -show the young man in at once. - -“Mr. Wentworth will see you now,” said the secretary sourly, -reappearing at the little wooden gate. - -“Thank you very much,” said Jimmy, rising with alacrity. He grinned at -Mr. Hope, but without a trace of triumph. - -The secretary said nothing more, but led Jimmy past endless rows of -stenographers, down a long corridor, through two or three small -semiprivate offices, until at last they reached the very innermost -private office of the president himself. - -With his hat clutched tightly in his hand and his heart beating so it -seemed about to smother him, Jimmy suddenly found himself facing a -large, flat-topped mahogany desk that stood in the center of the huge -office into which Mr. Hope had ushered him. - -At the desk sat a gray-haired, slightly stout gentleman of about -sixty. His mustache was very long and almost snow-white. His skin was -clear and ruddy, and his eyes that smiled at Jimmy as he entered were -very kindly. Jimmy liked him at once, but he was afraid of him just -the same. - -“This is the young man who wants to see you. He says his name is -Rand,” said Mr. Leffingwell Hope. - -“Sit down, Mr. Rand.” The president indicated a chair. “What can I do -for you?” - -Jimmy sat down. He expected Mr. Hope to take his departure, but -instead of leaving, the secretary went to a filing-cabinet and busied -himself at one of its drawers. Jimmy wondered if he dared ask him to -leave the room, and then decided he had better not. After all, he had -wanted to see this big business man, and here he was in his private -office, and Mr. Wentworth was waiting for him to begin telling his big -idea. He cleared his throat nervously. How would he begin? What was -the best thing to say first? - -“You were fortunate, Mr. Rand,” the president’s quiet voice -interrupted his reverie. “I’m not busy just at this moment. But I will -be shortly.” - -Jimmy noticed that there was nothing on Mr. Wentworth’s desk except -ink-well, pens, and blotter; not the slightest sign of any big -business to be attended to—and yet he knew Mr. Wentworth was the -biggest, most important man in the business world he had ever seen in -his life. He could not understand this fact; later he found out that -the higher up an executive is, the less he allows to accumulate on his -desk and the more leisure time he seems to have. - -“What is your business, Mr. Rand?” The president seemed slightly -surprised at his visitor’s continued silence. - -Jimmy drew a long breath. He felt infinitely small, insignificant. The -luxurious office seemed suddenly very vast, with great empty spaces -all around. He trembled at the thought of hearing his own voice in it. -But he knew he must speak—must say something. This was his big chance. -He opened his mouth, but before he could speak the words that trembled -on his lips the door of the office opened unceremoniously and a young -lady swept into the room. - -She was a girl about Jimmy’s own age—a very pretty girl with blond -hair, and blue eyes. She was more expensively dressed than Jimmy had -ever seen a girl dressed before—except on the stage, perhaps—in big, -flowing furs, a soft, sweeping, broad-brimmed hat, and with a huge -bunch of violets at her waist. She carried herself with the air of a -princess; and Jimmy felt suddenly abashed at being in her presence. - -As she came in the young lady nodded briefly to Mr. Hope, who smiled -at her easily yet with considerable deference. The president greeted -her with a little frown of annoyance. - -“I’m busy now, Estelle,” he said mildly, rising from his chair to face -her. Jimmy stood up also, which he felt somehow was the right thing to -do. - -The young lady evidently had no intention of withdrawing. She looked -Jimmy up and down from head to foot calmly, and then said to her -father: - -“Very well. Ill wait for you.” Then she turned away, and, drawing up a -little chair near the filing-cabinet, entered into a low-toned -conversation with Mr. Hope. - -The president sighed hopelessly. For one brief instant he seemed -undecided. Then he frowned. - -“I— Tell your business to my secretary,” he said abruptly to Jimmy, -waving his hand in dismissal. “He’ll take care of it for you. Oh, Mr. -Hope—if you please. Will you see this young man in your office? Thank -you. Good day, Mr. Rand.” - -Jimmy stood stock-still. He could feel himself flushing. A sudden hot -resentment toward this girl—this intruder—possessed him—that she -should have come into the room, at this of all times, just when he had -been given his big chance. And now she had spoiled it all! - -“This way, Mr. Rand”—the secretary was standing by his side—“I’ll see -you now.” - -Jimmy nodded confusedly. Mr. Wentworth inclined his head also, and -then turned aside to speak to his daughter. And Jimmy, not having -spoken a word since he entered the president’s office, turned and -followed Mr. Leffingwell Hope through the opened door. - -The private office of Mr. Wentworth’s secretary, into which Jimmy was -now ushered, was a smaller and only slightly less magnificent replica -of that of the president himself. - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope took a seat at his desk, and motioned Jimmy to -sit down also. - -“Mr. Wentworth is always very busy,” he began, in his soft, unpleasant -tones. “What is it you have to say?” - -Jimmy, in spite of his continued resentment at the way he had been -treated, and his increasing awe of Mr. Leffingwell Hope, was thinking -fast. He had decided before that he would not tell his plan to Mr. -Hope. But if he did not, probably he would never be able to tell it to -any one—in this company, anyway. And the other companies he had been -to had treated him even more coldly. - -If he did tell it to Mr. Hope, now while he had the opportunity, the -secretary undoubtedly would explain it to Mr. Wentworth. And the -president would be interested, of course, and then later on, he could -see him again about it. - -Jimmy resolutely put aside his dislike and distrust of Mr. Hope and -took the plunge. - -“It’s about the coal you burn in your factories for fuel, Mr. Hope,” -he began. And then after a brief pause, he went on with a rush: - -“I’ve been a coal miner all my life, and I’ve been thinking a lot -about coal. The coal you use in your glass factories has to be mined -and hauled from the mine to you. That’s what makes it cost you so -much. I—I know you burn a lot of it, and this year especially, with -all the labor trouble and the shortage, it is getting to be awful -expensive. And—and I’ve been thinking—why couldn’t the coal be burned -in the ground right where it is, and put the factory there—instead of -mining it? The heat would come up from below, you know.” - -Jimmy paused, a little out of breath. It wasn’t exactly what he had -wanted to say; somehow it didn’t seem to sound quite as forceful as he -had thought it would. - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps you’d better say -that over again,” he suggested. “I’m afraid I don’t understand you.” - -“Why, I—you see, Mr. Hope, my idea is to build a factory over some -coal deposit, and then, instead of mining the coal, just burn it in -the ground, and pipe the heat up to the factory boilers.” - -Once Jimmy got started he found it easier. Mr. Hope listened -casually—impatiently, Jimmy thought. But he did not notice the gleam -of interest in the secretary’s eyes so at variance with his -disinterested, almost sarcastic manner. Finally Mr. Hope interrupted -him. - -“Your idea is ingenious, young man, and certainly it is novel.” He -laughed. “I don’t mind saying, even if it were feasible, it perhaps -would be a good thing for us.” - -Jimmy flushed at the secretary’s sneering tone. “You—you don’t think -the idea’s any good, do you?” he asked aggressively. - -Mr. Hope’s manner suddenly changed. - -“You say you propose to burn this coal in the ground just where it -lies?” - -“Yes, sir.” Jimmy hated himself for the impulse that made him answer -so deferentially. - -“How would you control the fire?” - -Jimmy told him in detail as well as he could how he would supply the -air necessary to combustion. Mr. Hope smiled his nasty smile. But with -a wave of his hand to dismiss the subject he said: - -“Grant that. How far from the flames you will produce underground will -the furnaces of the factory be?” - -Jimmy thought a moment. “Why, maybe five hundred or a thousand feet.” - -“And you propose to transport the heat that distance and then apply it -to crucibles for the fusion of glass?” - -“Yes, sir,” Jimmy answered promptly, although he had only a vague idea -what Mr. Hope meant by these technicalities. - -“What temperature do you suppose you could attain?” - -“Why, I—I don’t know,” said Jimmy. - -“Could you get a temperature of say sixteen hundred degrees -centigrade?” - -“I—I—” Jimmy suddenly remembered how he had once boiled eggs over a -hole of the burning mines. “What’s the temperature of boiling water?” -he asked abruptly. - -Jimmy was holding his own, not by his ability to argue, but by his -astounding ingenuousness. The secretary gasped a little at such a -question coming at such a time. - -“One hundred degrees centigrade,” he managed to reply. - -One hundred degrees! And Mr. Hope had mentioned casually a temperature -sixteen times as great! Jimmy’s heart sank as he realized how -impossible it was. He realized, too, how little he knew about the -whole proposition, for the secretary had recovered from his surprise -and was saying quietly: - -“You asked me if I thought your idea was any good. I do not.” - -“But you’ll tell it to Mr. Wentworth?” Jimmy put in quickly. - -“Yes, I’ll tell it to Mr. Wentworth—and let you know.” Mr. Hope rose -to terminate the interview. - -Jimmy rose also. He realized now fully for the first time that there -were a thousand things about the plan that he had never even thought -of, much less understood. Mr. Hope would explain the idea to the -president, of course, but the way he would tell it made Jimmy feel -that Mr. Wentworth wouldn’t think any more of it than his secretary -did. - -Jimmy’s confidence in himself and in the idea was unshaken. But he saw -clearly that it would take a long time to get it into shape—for him to -understand it, anyway—and he wouldn’t want any one else to go ahead -with it unless he did understand it. - -Jimmy saw also that he would have to know a good deal about the -business of whatever company it was he was going to try and make adopt -the idea. There was no use going to any other company—the Wentworth -was as good as he could find. And all this time, while he was learning -all these things, he would have to live. - -The idea occurred to him then that perhaps he could get a job right -here in this very organization. Then he could learn the glass -business, and work out his idea at night. And when he was all ready -and had all his facts down pat he could tackle Mr. Hope and Mr. -Wentworth again. He could never find anybody better than Mr. -Wentworth, he was sure of that. - -All this flashed through Jimmy’s mind in an instant. Mr. Hope was -holding out his hand. - -“Good day, Mr. Rand. Thank you for coming in.” - -Jimmy shook hands. “Mr. Hope, can I have a job with your company?” he -asked abruptly. - -The secretary seemed very much taken aback by the directness of this -unexpected, but simple request. He hesitated; then with a curious -smile on his lips, seemed to reach a sudden decision. - -“What can you do? Do you know anything about the glass business?” - -“Why, I—why no, I don’t,” Jimmy stammered. “I don’t know anything -about any kind of business. But I can learn,” he added hopefully. “I -can learn anything.” - -Mr. Hope met his earnest eyes steadily. “You see Mr. Cooper as you go -out—he’s the man about that. Tell him you have seen Mr. Wentworth and -me this morning. Tell him I said to fix you up if he can.” - -The secretary’s words surprised Jimmy greatly. Mr. Leffingwell Hope -was not such a bad sort after all! - -“Yes, sir. And—and thank you very much,” said Jimmy. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - MR. HOPE’S IDEA. - - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope concluded his interview with Jimmy in a state of -mental excitement of which his calm, imperturbable demeanor gave no -sign. His keen mind had seen at once the possibilities in Jimmy’s -crude idea. - -Mr. Hope was not a technical man. But he understood, infinitely more -clearly than Jimmy possibly could, what this plan would accomplish for -the Wentworth Company, assuming it would work out. Mr. Hope had -imagination. He saw the technical difficulties standing in the -way—some of them he had pointed out to Jimmy. But he knew, also, that -probably the idea, thus crudely conceived, could be developed by some -one having the necessary technical knowledge. - -After Jimmy left, Mr. Hope sat alone at his desk for fully half an -hour, turning these thoughts over and over in his mind. Whoever -broached this plan to the Wentworth Company and proved it successful -would make a fortune. A fortune in a year or two! More than he could -make the way he was going in ten times that long! He could marry -Estelle, then; with the money, and the prestige such accomplishment -would give him, that would be easy! - -Only this youth from the country standing between him and a fortune -and a marriage with Estelle. And what did this boy have—nothing but an -idea. And now _he_ had the idea, too—he could develop it—put it forth -as his own when the proper time came. - -He would have to deal with this boy—that would be easy. Mr. -Leffingwell Hope smiled his thin smile as he mused on how easy that -would be. That was a clever stroke, too—helping him get a job right -here in the company. He could keep his eye on him better that way—and -then, when the proper time came, have him fired out of the -organization. - -Simplicity itself! Also, what a perfect alibi! Suppose anything did -leak out? Suppose the boy did make a fuss—claim the idea as his own? -Would it have been likely, then, under such circumstances, that he, -Leffingwell Hope, would have assisted in getting a job right here in -this same company for this boy whose idea he was about to use as his -own? Certainly not—a perfect alibi. And because the boy _was_ around -the offices, that could be shown to be the way _he_ had stolen the -idea from Mr. Hope. - -The thing was perfect—it couldn’t fail. All he needed now was some -technical dope. Merkle would be the man. He would see Merkle. Shifty -little man, but he could handle him. - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope felt very pleased with himself when his -meditations reached this point. He tossed his empty cigarette box into -the waste-basket and went in to see Mr. Wentworth. - -“About that boy who was in here just now,” he began casually, finding -the president disengaged at the moment. “I thought you might be -amused. A crazy, wild idea. It seems his mother or somebody owns some -land up in Alberta. Somebody else struck natural gas ten or twenty -miles away. He seemed to think we’d be anxious to drill on his -mother’s place and put a factory there if we were lucky enough to -bring in a well. Something like that, anyway—he talked so wild I -couldn’t follow him exactly.” - -The president smiled. “Why didn’t you tell him about the McKeesport -gas wells—that’s a little nearer home. They’re bringing one in every -day down there.” - -“I promised him I’d tell you what he said, so I’m doing it, but you -know—” Mr. Hope waved his hand vaguely. - -“Earnest-looking boy,” said Mr. Wentworth. “Tell him I’m sorry—not -interested.” - - * * * * * - -Isaac Merkle was a consulting chemist who did a considerable amount of -work for the Wentworth Glass Company. He lived and worked in a -six-room flat on the top floor of a tenement house in that somewhat -unsalubrious section of New York known as Hell’s Kitchen. His -laboratory consisted of one large room that had been formed by -knocking down the partitions of three smaller rooms; it was in the -other three rooms that Mr. Merkle, who was a bachelor, lived alone. - -The laboratory was a long, bare room, with a skylight. It was -furnished with two long wooden tables, littered with chemical -apparatus, several small chairs, and a wooden table. There was a large -soapstone sink over at one side, and a long, low shelf down one wall, -with a row of villainous-looking bottles upon it. - -To this laboratory, by appointment, came Mr. Leffingwell Hope that -very same evening. Mr. Merkle, as agreed, was quite alone when the -secretary arrived. The chemist was a fat, middle-aged little man, with -a round, very red, smooth-shaven face, an over-large nose, and -mouse-colored hair with a bald spot on top. - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope, seating himself uncomfortably on one of the -little wooden chairs, was at some trouble just how to begin the -business that had brought him. - -“Ike,” he said finally, “I’ve got an idea that might, if it is any -good, make us a lot of money.” He hesitated; and then, feeling that -frankness would be his best policy, went on: - -“I’m going to tell you all about it—everything I know. I want your -advice in the first place, and then, if the idea’s any good—which -maybe it’s not—we’ll go in it together—share and share alike, no -matter what we have to do to pull it through. That O. K.?” - -“The way you talk it’s crook stuff,” said Mr. Merkle. “You couldn’t -scare me if it’s to be made real money. Shoot.” - -“It isn’t crooked,” the secretary hastened to assure him. “But it’s a -matter requiring, for the present, absolute secrecy.” - -“Shoot,” said Mr. Merkle again. - -The secretary hesitated. He didn’t exactly trust Mr. Merkle. He -realized that he had nothing but an idea to tell. If the idea was -worth anything at all it was a big thing. He thought it best to set -this forth frankly to his friend at the outset. - -“To hell with that argument,” said Mr. Merkle, interrupting him, -though without sign of resentment. “I ain’t never double-crossed a -friend yet. If you couldn’t believe it shut up before you start.” - -Feeling that he had to be satisfied with that, the secretary went -ahead and recounted briefly the whole story of Jimmy’s idea. Only he -did not mention Jimmy—but set it forth as his own. - -The chemist listened attentively, with his eyes fixed on his -companion’s feet. - -“Well, go on, Ike, what about it?” said the secretary impatiently, -after a moment. “I’ve been thinking about it quite a while. Is it any -good?” - -“You could do it,” said Mr. Merkle with deliberation. - -“How?” The secretary’s eyes sparkled, but without waiting for his -question to be answered he went on to name all the objections he had -pointed out to Jimmy. - -“You ask me could it be done and right away you tell me why you -couldn’t do it,” said Mr. Merkle. - -“Well, all right, then. How?” - -“All what you say about piping up heat is bunk,” the chemist declared. -“You couldn’t make a fire four hundred feet in the ground and melt -glass with it so far away. Bunk. But listen, Leff, here is it what you -could do—in the ground you start a fire—” - -“How could you control it?” - -“Like you said—with air. That part, it’s all right. But the heat you -don’t pipe up—that’s bunk. You pipe up the gases from the coal—the -products of combustion that are only part used, and you burn them in -the regenerator furnace. Maybe you could get very good producer gas. -How could I tell till I work it out? Maybe producer gas forty-five per -cent combustible—how could I tell?” - -The chemist here plunged into a long dissertation of an exceedingly -technical nature, which Mr. Leffingwell Hope, even though he had some -knowledge of the types of furnaces used by the Wentworth Company, -followed with difficulty. But the gist of it was, he gathered, that in -all probability the idea could be worked out to a practical -conclusion. And as Mr. Merkle, finished, waxing enthusiastic as he -developed his thoughts by voicing them: “He was just the baby to work -it out, if there was enough money in it for him.” - -“That’s where I come in,” said the secretary. “I’ve doped out the -idea—now you work it out. I’ll see we get the money—we’ll split it -fifty-fifty!” - -“You could consider it done. Have you told it to the boss?” - -“No, certainly not. I want it in good shape first. That’s why I told -you it was a matter demanding secrecy. I haven’t told it to any -one—only you.” Mr. Hope thought a moment. “How about some other -company than this one—would that be better, do you think?” - -The chemist considered. “What it saves is only part of the cost of -coal,” he said finally. “It ain’t that every factory what you tell it -to right away breaks its neck to move to where the coal is.” - -“But it’s particularly good for the Wentworth Company, you mean?” - -“For them when they use so much fuel, and because, don’t you know -about the new plant what they expect to put up next year? For them it -would be a good thing.” - -Mr. Merkle referred to the fact that the Wentworth Company was -considering the building of another factory for the making of optical -glass. For some months they had been looking for a good location, one -preferably where they could use natural gas for fuel. - -“I know,” said Mr. Hope. “These new ‘gas babies’ at McKeesport got Mr. -Wentworth interested last winter. But I heard him say he had about -given up that locality as a possibility.” - -Merkle nodded. “Your idea beats that,” he said definitely. “You could -pick up a coal property cheap—where the coal was so deep you couldn’t -mine it with profit.” - -“Then we’ll put it through with Wentworth,” Mr. Hope announced with -finality. “You work it out—how long will it take?” - -“A month or two. Maybe more. You know it, Leff, I’m busy now.” - -“You rush it through. I’ll do the rest. Let me know how you get on. -And keep your mouth shut.” - -“You could count on me,” said Mr. Merkle. - - * * * * * - -It was a big thing! All the way home that evening, the secretary’s -heart beat fast at the thought of how big it was. A fortune in his -grasp at last! A fortune that would give him Estelle! And no one to -divide the money with except Merkle, and probably he could think of -some way of getting rid of him at the last. A fortune for himself! -Riches—the greatest thing in the world! - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - JIMMY FINDS A FRIEND. - - -Jimmy got his job. He wouldn’t have, probably, except for the fact -that his message from Mr. Hope enabled him to get an interview with -Mr. Cooper, during the course of which Jimmy convinced the office -manager that he was an extremely intelligent and likable young man. -Since he had no business experience whatever, all Mr. Cooper could -think of to give him was a sort of glorified office-boy job, at a -salary of fourteen dollars a week. - -Jimmy didn’t keep that job very long. Within a month he convinced the -office manager that he could dictate business letters, and that his -judgment on things he understood could be trusted. Also, Jimmy had -made it clear by his attitude during that month that he never would -tackle anything that he did not understand thoroughly; his encounter -with Mr. Hope had impressed the importance of that on his mind for all -time. - -So Jimmy was given a desk and a dictating machine, and a steady stream -of letters, comparatively unimportant letters at first, was diverted -in his direction. - -All that summer Jimmy worked very hard. He entered a night school -where three evenings a week he studied with a view to getting “dope” -on his big idea. He found this study helpful to him in general, but -not very useful in giving him specific information on how to burn coal -underground, especially since he was determined not to broach the -subject directly to any one. - -When he had been with the company about a week, Jimmy approached Mr. -Hope in the office and thanked him for the job. - -“All right,” said the secretary, and smiled. “I’m glad you like it.” - -Jimmy felt then that his first impression of Mr. Hope had been quite a -wrong one. - -“I do,” he answered earnestly. “Thank you very much—did you see Mr. -Wentworth yet about that—that idea of mine?” - -Mr. Hope looked him steadily in the eyes. “Yes. He said to tell you -he’s not interested. Sorry.” - -This was hardly a blow to Jimmy, for he had expected as much. But next -time he broached the subject—it would be different, then! - -“Take my advice, young man,” the secretary went on, “get that foolish -stuff out of your head. Stick to your job—you’ll get along—you look as -though you had brains.” - -“Thanks,” said Jimmy. He tried to avoid sarcasm, “I will.” - -Mr. Hope nodded and left him. - -That summer was a hard one for Jimmy. Even though he had an -all-absorbing idea to fill his thoughts, the utter loneliness of his -life was hard to bear. He worked all day at the office. Three evenings -a week he spent at the night school; and the others he wandered -aimlessly about, going to the movies often and to a play occasionally, -and always alone. - -At the office Jimmy made many business friends. Every one liked him; -his ready smile and his ingenuous manner made friends easily. Jimmy’s -work took him constantly into many different departments of the -organization, and in each of them he soon found opportunity to learn -what there was to know about that particular branch of the work. His -system, as he developed it in his mind, was not only to learn about -his own job, but about the jobs of as many others as he possibly -could. - -It wasn’t so very hard to do either, as he soon found out. There was -no particular mystery about business, as he had always supposed, and -among the clerks and under officials with whom he was working during -this period, the competition, so far as brains was concerned, was not -alarming. - -Jimmy was not the least inclined to be conceited, but there were at -least twenty young men in the company that he told himself he had -“skinned to death for brains.” - -It was just after his second visit home, and when he had been with the -Wentworth Company about three months, that he first made friends with -George Cooper outside of the office. - -The office manager was a lanky chap of thirty-one. He was -smooth-shaven, with big, rough-hewn features, piercing blue eyes, and -sparse, sandy hair. His voice had a deep, booming quality, and, around -the office, a vigorous note of authority that commanded respect. - -But at the theater, where he and Jimmy went that first evening, he was -very different—a modest, unassuming, laughing boy, years younger than -he appeared during business hours. The change surprised Jimmy -tremendously. He immediately lost the awe he had always unconsciously -felt for his business superior, without losing any of the respect or -admiration; and in consequence felt his own importance and confidence -in himself enhanced. - -This friendship of Jimmy and George Cooper grew rapidly; until -finally, one evening in September, Jimmy felt he could no longer keep -his great secret to himself. So he told his friend all about it, and -just what Mr. Hope had said. - -The office manager was enthusiastic. He knew no more than Jimmy about -the feasibility of the plan itself—and Jimmy up to this time had -learned very little—but he realized more than Jimmy possibly could how -beneficial to the company it would be if it worked. Also, Mr. Cooper -had a better idea of how to go about finding out the things Jimmy -wanted to know than he had. - -So they planned to “dope it out” together, and immediately started -spending two evenings a week at the public library looking it up. -After which, by Christmas at least, the office manager proposed taking -Jimmy to one of the company’s technical men. - -“I been thinking, George,” said Jimmy one evening, when they had been -working on his idea about a month. “I told Mr. Hope all about this -plan of ours that first day. He’s never said a word about it since, -except to tell me Mr. Wentworth said it was rotten. It worries me -sometimes to think he’s in the secret. I used to think I liked him. -But I don’t. I’m afraid of him, somehow. Do you like him?” - -“No, I don’t,” said Mr. Cooper decidedly. - -“I’ve been wondering,” Jimmy went on, “suppose he wanted to use the -idea for his own. It’s good—we know that now. And anybody who knows -about it could use it. That’s what worries me—to think Hope knows all -about it, too.” - -The office manager deliberated on this. - -“What could he do if he wanted to?” he asked finally. - -“I don’t know; what could he?” - -“Nothing that I know of. He told the boss about it—the boss knows it’s -your idea. You can trust R. G., Jimmy; he’s as square as they come.” - -“I believe you,” said Jimmy. “But just the same—” - -“Just the same, Hope will bear watching. You’re right on that. I’ll -watch him. But I don’t see what he could do. Probably he’s forgotten -all about it by now.” - -“I hope so,” said Jimmy fervently. - -With the office manager to help him, Jimmy progressed rapidly with his -big idea. - -It hadn’t taken them more than a few days to discover that the scheme -of piping up heat from a fire in the ground was impractical. Then, -when they came to study the company’s furnaces, about which Mr. -Cooper, being entirely an office man, was almost as ignorant as Jimmy, -they found that it was the unconsumed coal gases that could be piped -up, not the actual heat—a conclusion that to Isaac Merkle had been -immediately obvious. - -At this point in their investigations they were jubilant, for they -realized that the idea _was_ feasible. Mr. Cooper was for an immediate -consultation with one of the technical men of the company, but Jimmy -absolutely refused. There were too many who knew about it already. -Something might happen. And so the office manager had to give up that -plan, and they went ahead, studying the thing out alone. - -“I’d rather it took longer,” said Jimmy. “When we get it ready -ourselves we’ll put it up to Mr. Wentworth. After that, we can talk to -everybody all we want.” - -It was just after this—early in November—that Jimmy met Estelle -Wentworth socially. And the way it came about was this: - -Estelle Wentworth was typically a daughter of the rich, aptly -described by that familiar alliteration: pretty, proud and petulant. -In all her twenty-one years she had been cared for with that care that -only a misguided, adoring mother, a father weak enough to desire peace -above all else, and the character-enervating luxuries that unlimited -money can give. - -Estelle was neither weak, nor vicious. She was only normal—and with -her environment and upbringing was just what one would have expected -her to be. Her one creed, at the age of twenty-one, was to have a good -time. This, somehow, she found increasingly difficult. All the usual -forms of pleasure desired by young girls, were freely hers. Dances, -parties, the theater and opera, were all lavished upon her. - -For a time they sufficed; and yet, because she was a normal girl, no -finer or less fine than thousands of others of her race, inevitably -the time came when she found herself desiring something more. - -Affairs of the heart, which usually play so large a part in feminine -adolescence, had never seriously touched Estelle. That, too, was the -inevitable result of her environment. Young men admired her, adored -her, and plied her with attentions. But Estelle felt herself in some -way above them all. She accepted their adulation amusedly, just a -little as a princess of the middle ages might have accepted the -adulation of her courtiers—or laughed at the antics of her favorite -jester—but nothing more. - -Perhaps Estelle had no capacity for love; or perhaps, because of what -civilization had made her, those men of deeper feelings knew that she -had nothing to offer them—and so went their way. - -Estelle was mildly interested when she first saw Jimmy that morning in -her father’s office. He was a new type to her, so obviously different -from any man she had ever met. She had no thought of ever meeting him -socially; indeed, the idea then would have filled her with -indignation. But the sturdy manliness of him attracted her in spite of -herself. - -She liked Mr. Leffingwell Hope—better, perhaps, than most of the young -men of her acquaintance, for the secretary, seeing in her a practical -and easy route for his own self-advancement, had for nearly a year -been making himself as charming as possible; but she could not help -comparing him to Jimmy. - -They were as different as two individuals of the same sex could well -be, and although Estelle did not know it, Jimmy did not suffer by the -comparison. - -Estelle was mildly interested in Jimmy from the moment she first saw -him. There was no sentiment in her thoughts of him, merely curiosity. -She remembered, too, when he had first seen her, the look of awe that -had come to his face. And later she had seen plainly his resentment at -her presence in the office. Resentment from a young man was something -new to Estelle. It did not make her angry; it piqued her, and she -could not forget it. - -When Jimmy had been with the company about two weeks Estelle came to -the office again, and saw him there. Later she learned from George -Cooper how he happened to be there, and what he was doing. - -She felt a little ashamed of herself at the sudden realization that -she was interested in one of her father’s office boys, and decided to -forget all about him. Soon after that she went to the seashore with -her mother for the summer. - -When she returned to the city in the fall the very first time she went -to the office she passed Jimmy in the corridor. The change in his -appearance was startling. His hair was no longer close-cropped high -over his ears. His clothes were those of the city; his whole bearing -had changed. Nothing could make Jimmy look in the least foppish. He -was still rugged and manly looking, but, Estelle thought, no longer -uncouth. - -As he passed her he smiled an answer to her nod of recognition. There -was no resentment in his smile, but neither was there admiration for -her, nor awe. It was just a calm, impersonal smile as though he had -already forgotten her existence as soon as he passed. - -This piqued Estelle still more—and made her vaguely angry. She sought -out George Cooper at his desk. - -“I just passed that young man—Mr. Rand, isn’t that his name?—in the -corridor,” Estelle began, after they had exchanged a few remarks. “How -is he getting on?” - -Mr. Cooper was a little surprised at her question, but he did not show -it. “He’s getting along fine, Estelle,” he replied with enthusiasm. -“Have you met him—I didn’t know that.” - -“No,” said Estelle carelessly. “He was in father’s office one -morning—I thought he looked interesting. Why?” - -“He’s a dandy chap. Not a city boy at all—used to be a coal miner. -We’ve been out together a good deal—Marion likes him tremendously.” -(Marion was George Cooper’s sister.) - -“Oh,” said Estelle. Then, after a moment—“He was going to tell father -about some plan he had. Father told me it was some foolish idea. What -ever happened to it?” - -The office manager hesitated. He rather liked Estelle. She was a -silly, vain little thing, but he liked her—perhaps partly became his -sister seemed to be her only real girl friend. - -“Can you keep a secret, Estelle?” - -The girl nodded. - -“Honest?” Mr. Cooper’s manner was as boyish with her as it was stern -and authoritative toward his office employees. - -“Yes—surely.” - -“He and I have been working on it together, and—it’s going through!” -said the office manager impressively. - -“What does father say?” Estelle was thrilled more by the solemnity of -Mr. Cooper’s manner than by his words, for she had no idea what it was -Jimmy proposed doing. - -“That’s why it’s a secret, Estelle. We haven’t put it up to him yet. -But we’ve got it all ready—as near as we can without having broached -it to any one in the company. And we’re going to spring it in a day or -two.” - -The office manager was already sorry he had told the girl this much, -and he hastened to add: - -“You’ll be careful not to mention it, won’t you, Estelle? Not to any -one. It wouldn’t be very nice to have it get to your father before we -tell it to him ourselves.” - -Estelle frowned. “I told you I wouldn’t say anything. I’m not a -child.” - -“Don’t,” said Mr. Cooper briefly; and then changing suddenly, gaily -asked her when she was going to let him take her to the theater again. - -“Next Tuesday or Wednesday, if you like,” she replied. Then, as -another thought came to her, she added slowly: “Tomorrow’s our night -at the Metropolitan. Father said I could have all six seats. I -thought, perhaps, you and Marion would like to go with me?” - -“Fine,” agreed Mr. Cooper cordially. - -Estelle hesitated. “And if you say Marion likes this Mr. Rand, it -might be all right to take him, too. He would probably enjoy it.” - -The unconscious patronage in her tone was not lost on Mr. Cooper. -“I’ll ask him if you want me to,” he said with a smile. “He would -enjoy going, I’m sure.” - -“And I’ll ask two others,” said Estelle. - -“It’s ‘La Bohéme’ tomorrow night—it ought to be good.” - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - TWO DISCOVERIES. - - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope, passing down the corridor this same Friday -morning, saw Mr. Cooper escorting the president’s daughter to the -elevator. It so happened that Jimmy, with a sheaf of papers in his -hand, came through a near-by door at the same moment. - -The office manager, with a heartiness of manner that surprised Mr. -Hope greatly, introduced Jimmy to the girl. The secretary was too far -away to hear what was said, but the friendliness of the girl’s -greeting was only too apparent. Mr. Hope turned abruptly and reentered -the main office. - -With this visual evidence of the firm standing in the company that -Jimmy Rand had reached, Mr. Leffingwell Hope cursed himself for a -fool. He should never have let that boy get a job with them in the -first place. It had seemed all right then; he had never supposed that -a kid like that from the country would last in business. And his -having been around the office would have been a good alibi. - -Mr. Hope had always been convinced that something would turn up to -eliminate him—he would prove inefficient and be fired or something. -But that was just what Jimmy had not done—or been. On the contrary, he -had made good. He was still answering correspondence—but it was the -more important things that were given him now. And he had a way of -poking his head into every department of the organization. Even Mr. -Hope had noticed that. - -In late September Jimmy had been able to arrange a trip to one of the -company’s near-by factories, which was something Mr. Hope did not -learn until afterward. And he never knew that the real reason why -Jimmy went was so he could investigate the conditions under which -glass was made and apply them to some of the theories he and George -Cooper had worked out. - -The secretary was furious with himself for having allowed things to go -along this way. For some six months now he had been waiting for Merkle -to get the idea into shape. He had his own plans perfected—had -purchased with his own money a very likely coal property near Scranton -which he proposed to sell, at an enormous profit, to the Wentworth -Company. - -Mr. Hope had never told Merkle about that. As a matter of fact the -secretary was just getting ready to show Merkle that he didn’t figure -in the scheme as largely as he thought he did. But first Mr. Hope -wanted to be sure the chemist had finished his investigations. - -Now with the realization that Jimmy Rand, the originator of the idea, -was, instead of being fired, apparently in a fair way of obtaining a -most unlooked-for prestige with the company, Mr. Leffingwell Hope -cursed himself for a fool. Whatever he was going to do must be done -quickly. He would tell the idea as his own to the president at once; -after that, just let them try to prove he hadn’t originated it! - -That same evening Mr. Leffingwell Hope called on the chemist in his -laboratory. Mr. Merkle, it appeared, was quite ready to go to the -president at any time Mr. Hope desired. He was indignant at the -secretary’s implication that he had been laying down on the job. - -“Any time you could ask me now, I go to R. G. and show him absolutely -how this plan works to save him big money. What more could I do, I ask -you? I do my part—you ain’t done nothing yet that I can see.” - -“I’ll do enough,” said Mr. Leffingwell Hope. “Mr. Wentworth’s away,” -he added. “He’ll be back Tuesday noon. We’ll see him Tuesday afternoon -sure. About two o’clock. You’ll be there?” - -“Positively I’ll be there—two o’clock,” the chemist agreed. - -Mr. Hope hesitated. The time had come to show Merkle just where he -stood. - -“Oh, Ike,” he began thoughtfully. “Now that we’re all ready, we might -as well understand each other. As we agreed at the start, I’m to -handle this thing absolutely, and I’m to give you ten per cent of all -I make. Right?” - -The little chemist, his lower jaw dropping in astonishment, stared -blankly at Mr. Hope. - -“Ten per cent of any stock they give me, or anything I make on the -initial deal. That’s right, isn’t it?” - -It wasn’t right, and as soon as he recovered his power of speech, Mr. -Merkle said so, in the most emphatic words he could think of. -Fifty-fifty was what they had agreed. - -Mr. Hope, with an injured air, stated a remembrance of their first -agreement that was totally at variance with what Mr. Merkle’s own -memory told him were the facts. And he remained obdurate—ten per cent -or nothing. Hadn’t he originated the plan? Wasn’t he prepared now to -handle all the business details? If Mr. Merkle didn’t like the ten per -cent he needn’t accept it; Mr. Hope would consult another technical -man. - -The chemist, seeing that anger got him nothing, turned to appeal. He -wheedled; he cajoled; he pleaded friendship—all to no avail. Ten per -cent or nothing! - -Then Mr. Merkle, seeing he was beaten, suddenly capitulated. “You -could make it ten per cent,” he said with a sigh. “But in writing; -when you say it, with me it’s no good any more—that ain’t business.” - -And Mr. Hope, smiling triumphantly, wrote it out in due form. - -Estelle’s opera party that next evening was a great success. Jimmy -found himself, to his great surprise, liking Estelle. She was -different from any girl he had ever met. She made him feel small and -inadequate, somehow, and he knew he would never quite lose the awe she -inspired in him. But he liked her. - -Estelle, on her part, liked Jimmy, mostly because it enhanced her own -self-importance to feel how she must appear to him. And so, on the -surface at least, they got along famously. - -During the opera Jimmy’s mind, in spite of, his efforts, wandered from -the stage. He found himself once looking back over his shoulder at the -wonderful “horse-shoe” over his head—that long, curving line of boxes -where the most brilliant ladies of the world’s greatest city were -sitting now. In the dim light he could see the little spots of color -that marked them. The great, crowded auditorium awed him a little; and -he felt, too, a curious exaltation that he should be there—Jimmy Rand, -of the Fallon Brothers Mine, a part of all this splendor. - -He wished Anne could be with him, or could see him there, in his black -evening clothes sitting between these two dainty girls. It seemed to -symbolize success to Jimmy. He _was_ a success; he _was_ going up the -ladder—making himself into somebody. He was conscious of a vague pride -in what he had achieved already, and he would have liked Anne to have -seen this tangible evidence of it, so that she might be proud, too. - -It never occurred to Jimmy that the sight of him at that moment would -have caused Anne any pain. Her letters to him had always been so -tenderly proud of his great accomplishments. She was always so -interested and pleased at his accounts of the things he did. - -When he had seen her the last time, hardly a month before, Jimmy had -not noticed, nor would he have understood, the new, wistful look that -was in her eyes when she had told him timidly that he was “growing up -into a—a real gentleman.” Nor did he ever know that she cried over -many of his letters before she sat down bravely to answer them. - -Jimmy would have liked Anne to have seen him this night at the opera. -He wrote her a glowing account of it the very next day. And little -Anne replied that she was very glad, and proud of him; and in a -postscript added simply: “I got the story of ‘La Bohéme’ out of the -library, and I read it, and I like it very much.” The pathos of which -was entirely lost to Jimmy. - - * * * * * - -In the office the following Monday morning George Cooper came to Jimmy -in great excitement. - -“You were right to be afraid of this guy, Hope,” he announced without -preface. “I just found out—quite by accident—he’s bought himself a -coal property up near Scranton.” - -“What—” - -“Yes. I don’t know what it means, either. Maybe nothing. He’s got a -right to buy himself anything he pleases, I suppose. But it looks -suspicious. What does he want with it? From what I could learn, it’s -just the sort of place for your plan, too. Not a going coal mine; just -a farm with abandoned borings on it. It looks suspicious, doesn’t it?” - -Jimmy agreed anxiously that it did. “We’d better see Mr. Wentworth -right away, George.” - -“He’s away,” said the office manager. “He won’t be back till Tuesday. -We’ll see him Wednesday or Thursday; we’re all ready. Have you got -that last analysis? Was it the same as the other?” - -Jimmy nodded. - -“Then we’ll see him sure next week.” Luck was with Cooper and Jimmy -that morning, although they didn’t realize it then. Isaac Merkle -happened to stroll past them at that moment. A sudden thought came to -the office manager. - -“There’s Isaac Merkle, Jimmy. He’s a chemist. Let’s put him on this. -He may be able to advise us on something we’ve overlooked. It can’t -hurt anything now. Wait, I’ll call him over.” - -In spite of Jimmy’s protest Cooper summoned Merkle. The little chemist -sat down at the desk with them, and the office manager started to tell -him Jimmy’s idea. Mr. Merkle swallowed hard, with his eyes nearly -popping from his head. Then he abruptly interrupted Mr. Cooper and -began a series of swift questions, which threw both Jimmy and the -office manager into utter confusion. - -“Wait,” said Mr. Merkle, when finally George demanded an explanation. -“What was it the date when Mr. Rand came here?” - -The office manager consulted a little card-file on his desk. “He -started work on April 18—the next day after he first came in.” - -Mr. Merkle glanced at his little pocket notebook. Then without -preamble or hesitation, and with direct words unusual to him, he told -them all about his connection with Mr. Leffingwell Hope concerning -this same idea. - -“Well, I’ll be damned,” the office manager ejaculated, when he had -recovered from his first astonishment. - -Jimmy said nothing; but his lips were pressed very tight together; his -face was very white, and both his fists were clenched. If Mr. -Leffingwell Hope had chanced to pass by at that particular moment -there would probably have been a considerable disturbance of the -Monday morning office routine. - -Mr. Merkle dwelt with minute detail upon his own innocence in the -affair with Mr. Hope, as he had had no reason to suppose the idea had -originated anywhere but with the secretary. He expanded also upon the -dirty way in which he had been treated. He ended by pulling out his -notebook again. - -“I’m a methodical man, Mr. Cooper. Here is it the exact date Mr. Hope -told me his scheme—April 17—the evening.” - -“And you told Hope about it that same morning, didn’t you, Jimmy?” - -Jimmy nodded; he was still too angry to speak. - -“And Jimmy told it to me that same afternoon,” the office manager went -on; he felt the circumstances justified this slight inaccuracy. “So -you can see it’s a cinch where the idea originated, Mr. Merkle.” - -They compared notes still further. When the chemist mentioned that he -and Hope were to interview Mr. Wentworth the next afternoon as soon as -he returned from out of town, the office manager went up in the air. - -“And we were going to let it go till Wednesday or Thursday!” Mr. -Cooper whistled as he thought of their narrow escape. For if Hope had -broached the subject first and claimed the idea as his own, it might -have been difficult to disprove him. How lucky they had gotten hold of -Merkle this particular morning! And how lucky, too, that the chemist -was sore at Hope—and that he had jotted down the date of his first -conversation with the secretary about the scheme. - -Mr. Cooper brought his fist down on the desk with a thump. “We’ll give -this guy a run for his money. We’ll see the boss Tuesday afternoon, -right when he does, dammit, and have it out then and there. The point -is, Merkle, where do you stand?” - -Mr. Merkle had decided that some minutes before. He was not by nature -entirely averse to a crooked business deal—if it were not too crooked. -But he had learned from experience that the best place to be, if you -could choose, was on the winning side. And in this particular case his -judgment told him very clearly which side that was. - -“With you,” said Mr. Merkle succinctly. “You could count on me.” - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - JIMMY PLAYS TRUMPS. - - -The unpleasant scene that fate seemed preparing for Mr. Wentworth in -his office that Tuesday afternoon was avoided by the president’s -unexpected return on Tuesday morning. Mr. Leffingwell Hope, with his -plans all carefully laid, had taken advantage of his employer’s -supposed absence, and stayed away on business of his own. - -These two occurrences caused an eleventh-hour change in the plans of -Jimmy and the office manager. Jimmy was for avoiding trouble if it -were possible. - -“Why not go right ahead now, just as if Hope wasn’t in this at all?” -he urged. They talked it over, and decided that would be the better -way. - -“He’ll have a fine chance coming along all alone after us.” Jimmy -chuckled at the prospect. “Let’s do it right now, George, if we can -see Mr. Wentworth.” - -Mr. Wentworth would see them in half an hour. Then they hastily phoned -Merkle; the chemist promised to hurry right down. - -That half-hour of waiting was the hardest of Jimmy’s life. He went -over, seemingly for the hundredth time, all he planned to say to Mr. -Wentworth; and he chewed down all his finger-nails. It was decided -Jimmy was to do most of the talking; he wanted it that way; wanted to -put the idea over himself. - -The half-hour seemed interminable; but it was over at last, and again -Jimmy found himself in the president’s office ready to tell his big -idea. - -This second interview with Mr. Wentworth was as different from the -first as it well could be. For one thing, the president was in a more -receptive mood than he would have been before. Six months had put him -just that much nearer completion of his plans regarding the new -factory for the making of optical glass. The site had not yet been -selected; indeed, it looked as though finding a satisfactory one would -prove a difficult task. - -This time, too, Jimmy knew what he was going to talk about. He had the -facts—and he had the ability now to present them forcibly and -intelligently. Also he had George Cooper with him; and the technical -knowledge of Isaac Merkle to call upon. - -So Jimmy tackled the president with an assurance that lent force to -his arguments. The office manager sat with his chair tilted back -against the wall. Mr. Wentworth occupied his usual seat at his desk, -and Jimmy faced him across it. - -Jimmy had expected to ignore Mr. Leffingwell Hope and the part he had -played, but the secretary was injected into the conversation almost -immediately. Jimmy began by announcing that he realized Mr. Wentworth -had not been impressed with his idea when he had heard it before. Then -he went ahead and outlined it briefly. - -Whereupon the president, with a directness characteristic of business -men of his type, immediately rang his buzzer to summon Mr. Hope. - -“Is this what you told my secretary that first morning you were here, -Mr. Rand?” - -“Why—why yes, sir—nearly the same,” said Jimmy, surprised. - -Mr. Hope’s secretary announced that he had not come in that morning. -The president frowned, tapping his desk with a lead pencil -thoughtfully. Mr. Cooper, scenting something wrong, spoke up quickly. - -“Pardon me, chief. There’s something peculiar about this that you -don’t exactly understand. We’d rather not speak of it now; Mr. Rand -just wanted you to consider his plan in relation to our new factory. -This other matter—about Mr. Hope—we know a good deal about that, too, -but we’d rather let it go till some other time.” - -“Strange, very strange,” said the president musingly. - -“Mr. Hope _did_ tell you what I wanted that day, didn’t he?” Jimmy -ventured. - -“He told me about your mother’s potential gas-well in—Alberta, I think -it was.” - -Jimmy gasped. “Why—what—why, I never—” - -Again Mr. Cooper interposed. - -“Chief, listen,” he began vigorously. “Here are the facts: Mr. Rand -came into the company that morning to tell you what he has just told -you. At your direction he told it to Mr. Hope.” - -“How do you know what he told Mr. Hope?” the president snapped. - -“He repeated it all to me ten minutes afterward,” declared the office -manager unblushingly. “I was enthusiastic; I thought there was -something in it. Then, later, when Mr. Hope reported that you were not -interested, Rand and I thought we’d work it out together. That’s what -we’ve done, and now he’s ready to ask your opinion of it again. That’s -all we know about it.” - -Mr. Cooper waved his hand to silence Jimmy, and went on swiftly: - -“What Mr. Hope told you about it we don’t know. Evidently he didn’t -describe it very accurately, but perhaps that was because he thought -it unimportant, anyway. But Mr. Hope isn’t here now to explain his -actions if you think they need explanation. And, chief, I happen to -know that he’s coming in to consult you this afternoon on this very -matter. That’s a fact, chief, he is. You wait and hear what he has to -say, then you’ll understand it all. And Rand and I will both be here; -just send for us if you want us.” - -The president stared searchingly at his two employees an instant. Then -abruptly he resumed his former manner of attentive listening. - -“Go on with your scheme, Mr. Rand; you interest me.” - -Jimmy suppressed with an effort the anger that this new proof of Mr. -Hope’s duplicity had aroused in him, and resumed: “You understand, Mr. -Wentworth,” he interrupted himself when he had been talking perhaps -five minutes, “I’m not going to try and talk to you in technical -language. I’ve only studied these engineering problems a little with -George. I think I can make the thing clear in a general way, but I -can’t talk technically.” - -“I couldn’t understand you very well if you did,” the president -observed. “That’s always been up to my technical men.” - -“As I said, sir,” Jimmy went on, “the—” - -“The first problem is how you propose to burn the coal,” Mr. Wentworth -interrupted. “Tell me about that first.” - -Jimmy explained how they would bore down to the coal measures, just as -borings are made in prospecting. “This would be a small vertical -shaft,” he added. - -“How big in diameter?” - -“About twelve or fourteen inches. Then this shaft would be lined with -iron casing—” - -“Like an oil-well,” Mr. Cooper interjected. - -The president nodded. - -“At the top of this shaft we put a fan—just like the fan-house of a -coal mine, only very much smaller—to blow the air down. This is the -air-shaft; parallel with that we bore another just like it.” - -“How far away?” asked Mr. Wentworth. - -“The distance wouldn’t make much difference—say fifty feet,” Mr. -Cooper put in. - -Again the president nodded. - -Jimmy continued. “Then we blast a connection between the bottoms of -the two shafts through the coal.” - -This the president discussed at some length. “Why not put the shafts -closer together?” he finally asked. - -“No reason that we can see,” said Jimmy. “If they were closer it would -make the connection down below easier. This second shaft is the one -that brings up the gaseous products of combustion. - -“We’re going to use your regular regenerative furnace, or one -something like it. We can get you producer gas that is just as good as -any you’re getting—from the coal we burn in the ground, if we control -the air and steam right.” - -Although this was clear to Mr. Wentworth, it may perhaps need -explanation here. In modern furnaces, for the fusion of glass or other -operations where great heat is necessary, the process of combustion of -the fuel is carried on, not in one operation, as it is in the simple -furnaces with which every one is familiar, but in two distinct, -separate, progressive stages. - -The first stage takes place in a subsidiary furnace known as a “gas -producer.” Here part of the heat which the fuel is capable of -generating is utilized for the production of a combustible gas. In -other words the fuel is changed into gaseous form, but only partly -burned. - -A familiar example of this operation is seen in any ordinary fireplace -when the fire is first lighted. There is at first an inadequate -“draft.” This supplies the fire with an insufficient amount of oxygen, -and although the fuel—paper, for instance—is entirely volatilized it -is not entirely burned; there is smoke, which, if it could be mixed -with more air, and at a sufficiently high temperature, would burst -into flame. - -This was the process Jimmy proposed to carry on in the ground; that -is, only partly to consume the coal by supplying it with an -insufficient amount of oxygen. And it was the unburned coal gases—the -combustible smoke, in other words—that he proposed to pipe up to the -furnace at the surface—not the actual heat. The burning mine, hundreds -of feet down in the ground, was in effect to be his subsidiary -furnace—his gas-producer. - -These unburned gases, from the producer, pass, hot, into the furnace -proper; either directly or sometimes after being conveyed a -considerable distance—as they would have to be according to Jimmy’s -plan. In this latter event they cool off, but are heated up again by -the waste heat of the furnace. - -These hot gases, entering the main furnace, meet a current of hot air, -also heated by the waste heat of the furnace. The combination of hot -gas and hot air burns rapidly and completely, and yields very high -temperatures if properly proportioned. - -To the layman it may seem surprising that when part of the combustion -of the fuel takes place entirely away from the furnace—the heat of -this combustion being completely wasted—that a far greater heat can -subsequently be obtained. But it is a fact nevertheless. - -“How would you start the fire in the ground?” suggested Mr. Wentworth. - -“By dropping down incandescent coal,” Jimmy returned promptly. “And -then blowing air to it. You see—” - -The president raised his hand. “That’s only a detail. Then you really -think you could approximate a gas-producer with this burning mine of -yours?” - -“Yes, sir. By forcing down the proper proportions of air and steam. -You see, the hole in the burning coal-bed would gradually spread out. -But that wouldn’t make any difference, because it would only have two -outlets to the surface air, and both of them under control.” - -“The lower ends of your casing would melt,” said Mr. Wentworth. - -“What of it, chief?” Mr. Cooper interposed. “That wouldn’t hurt -anything.” - -The president considered. “No, I don’t suppose it would,” he admitted. -“It’s an interesting idea, especially if it would work. Have you -talked with any of our technical men? How about Merkle, seen him?” - -“He has been—” Jimmy hesitated; then meeting Mr. Cooper’s warning -glance, went on: - -“Yes, sir; he’s been studying it. He says it can be done; he knows -just how to do it.” - -“Oh, he does?” - -“Yes, sir. He’s outside now; we thought you might like to talk to him -about it.” - -“We’ll have him in at once.” The president reached for the button on -his desk, but Jimmy stopped him. - -“Just a minute, Mr. Wentworth—before you get Merkle. There’s another -point I wanted to make.” Jimmy still had his trump card, and he -thought this a good time to play it. - -“We understand around the office that this new factory you’re planning -is for the making of optical glass?” - -The president inclined his head. - -“And for optical glass you need a very good grade of sand; if it has -less than one-twentieth of one per cent of iron, and not more than -that of other impurities, it is satisfactory?” Jimmy was quoting -almost verbatim what he had carefully learned. - -Mr. Wentworth nodded again; his growing surprise and admiration for -Jimmy were evident from his expression. - -“Well, sir, when I found that out, I thought of a sand-bank that’s on -mother’s farm. It’s all sandy; that’s why it’s no good for a farm.” -Jimmy took a little bottle from his pocket and laid it on the desk -before the president. - -“There’s some of the sand, Mr. Wentworth, I had it analyzed.” He -produced a folded sheet of paper. “Here’s the analysis—over -ninety-nine and nine-tenths per cent pure silica.” He handed the paper -to Mr. Wentworth. - -“That’s mighty important, chief, as you know,” said Mr. Cooper -earnestly. “If you’ve got the fuel and the sand, that’s pretty near -everything, isn’t it?” - -The president glanced at the paper and the little bottle of sand lying -on his desk; then he sat up briskly. - -“We’ll have Merkle in here at once; see what he says. You’re certainly -interesting—mighty interesting. If it works—if it works—” - -“It’ll work, chief,” said Mr. Cooper confidently, as the president -rang his buzzer to summon Isaac Merkle. - -The conference with Mr. Merkle lasted over an hour. The little -chemist, forgetting the unsavory circumstances under which he had been -induced to begin work on Jimmy’s plan, plunged into a discussion of it -with enthusiasm. His ideas, as he outlined them now to Mr. Wentworth, -did not differ in any large essential from the way in which Jimmy had -explained how it should be done. - -Mr. Merkle was sure that coal burning under control in the ground -could be made to yield gas of a very satisfactory quality. In his -opinion the main furnaces that had already been decided upon for the -new optical glass factory could be used, unchanged. - -The president raised the question of the saving of the cost of coal; -whereupon Mr. Merkle surprised Jimmy and George Cooper greatly by -producing a sheet of paper with it all figured out. - -“Of course y’ understand, Mr. Wentworth, I couldn’t know what this -coal property is going to cost you. But when you own it—here is the -saving according to the estimate we made of the fuel consumption of -this new factory. But, Mr. Wentworth, coal’s going higher next year; -it would be more than this.” - -Mr. Wentworth looked over the figures attentively. Then he showed the -chemist the little bottle of sand on his desk, explaining briefly what -Jimmy had told him about it. Mr. Merkle’s eyes nearly popped from his -head. Here was something he and Hope had never thought of. He waved -his hands before him expressively. - -“With that and producer gas next to nothing you got a cinch, Mr. -Wentworth,” he stated emphatically. - -The interview ended with the president thoroughly convinced as far as -he had gone. He declared himself intensely interested, and stated -definitely that if the thing continued to work out theoretically as it -seemed now it would—and as he himself admitted he thoroughly believed -it would—he certainly would see that the company gave it a fair trial. - -“Too good to pass up; we’d be the first in the field to use it, too.” -He chuckled to himself. “They’d never catch up with us.” - -The president then said he would go into the matter thoroughly with -several of his technical men and the other officers of the company, -after which the directors would pass upon it—only a technicality, for -he’d “shove it through, whether they liked it or not,” if he thought -it feasible himself. - -Then he shook hands with Jimmy, patted him on the back, and told him -he was a “good boy.” Jimmy had never been so happy before in his life. -A great lump came up into his throat; he wanted to tell Mr. Wentworth -how he appreciated the way he had been treated, but the words wouldn’t -come. He stood staring at the president dumbly, and was able finally -only to mumble: “Thank you very much.” After which Cooper clapped him -on the back and pulled him through the door into the outer office. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - NEMESIS. - - -It was half an hour before Jimmy recovered sufficiently to talk the -thing over quietly with the office manager. The very imagination that -had troubled him for so many years—that had made his life as a coal -miner miserable, and finally had enabled him to conceive this idea—now -descended upon him with overpowering force. - -He forgot Mr. Hope—forgot the opposition to success that he had -met—had still to meet. In his mind’s eye the plan had already been -adopted, put into execution. The factory was built; the coal, lying -there all these years idle underneath his mother’s farm, was burning, -and yielding up its precious heat for the great furnaces. And he—Jimmy -Rand, once only a mule-boy and miner in the Fallon Brothers mine—had -done it all! - -After a time he calmed down. First he must telegraph his mother and -Anne; then he must arrange to go home for a day or two and see them. -Since the man from whom he had to obtain permission to absent himself -from work was Mr. Cooper, Jimmy had no difficulty in getting leave to -go. - -He settled that point quickly, and then went into one of the other -offices to send his telegram. - -At lunch that day, which the office manager, Jimmy and Mr. Merkle had -together, Cooper planned what they should do that afternoon to settle -Mr. Hope. - -“Just let him alone,” said Jimmy. “You don’t have to do anything. -He’ll settle himself if you let him alone, can’t you see that?” - -Mr. Merkle was obviously worried. “What should I say if R. G. sends -for me?” he wanted to know. - -“Tell him the truth,” said Jimmy. “That’s the easiest thing you could -do, isn’t it? You’ve nothing to hide.” - -“And you make that date clear,” added Mr. Cooper. “Just as you did to -us. That’s the big point—show him that Hope told you the idea the -evening of the same day Jimmy first came in here.” - -Merkle nodded. - -“And when Hope comes to you after lunch now, don’t you put him wise. -You keep mum. Act just as if nothing had happened. Tell him you’re -ready to tell the chief all you know.” Jimmy chuckled at the double -meaning of this. “Just let him go ahead with his plans in his own way. -He’ll get his, all right, or I don’t know a thing about the chief’s -methods.” - -The chemist nodded again emphatically. “He tried to pull that crooked -business on me—that you couldn’t do to Merkle and get away with it.” - -“And listen, Merkle”—the office manager laid his hand earnestly on the -little chemist’s arm—“there’s going to be a lot of money in this if it -goes through—plenty for everybody. I’ll see you get what you earn—and -that’ll be a good slice. You know me, and you know the chief. You -don’t want _that_ in writing, do you?” he finished with a grin as he -remembered Merkle’s account of his very last business transaction with -the secretary. - -Mr. Merkle offered his hand. “What you say it’s like a government bond -with me, Mr. Cooper,” he declared emphatically. - - * * * * * - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope had his interview with the president, just as he -had planned. He went in alone, directing Merkle to wait outside until -he sent for him. - -Mr. Wentworth listened with his customary attention to what his -secretary had to say. His eyes narrowed, and his lower jaw came out a -little when Mr. Hope stated specifically that the idea was his own; -but he did not interrupt. - -Mr. Hope was very brief. He merely set the salient features of the -scheme before his principal; then he called in Mr. Merkle. - -The chemist entered and seated himself silently; his face wore an -expression of grim determination. - -“Explain my idea to Mr. Wentworth, Merkle,” said the secretary -grandly, leaning back in his chair. - -The chemist swallowed hard. This was an outcome he had not expected at -all. He looked at Mr. Wentworth, wondering whether he should go all -over what he had already said just that morning, or whether he should -make a clean breast of the whole matter. Before he could reach a -conclusion the president took the decision entirely out of his hands. - -“Mr. Merkle, how long have you been working on this?” Mr. Wentworth -had not changed his easy position at his desk; but his voice now was -very alert—low-toned, almost soft, but tense and vibrant. It was the -real Mr. Wentworth talking now: the man of action; the forceful, -dominant personality that had placed him where he was in the business -world. - -Mr. Leffingwell Hope noticed the change at once, and opened his eyes -wide with surprise. - -“Be exact, Mr. Merkle; I mean exactly what date, if you can tell, did -Mr. Hope first consult you about this?” - -The chemist pulled out his little notebook. “I’m a methodical man, Mr. -Wentworth; the exact day it was April 17 last, in the evening.” - -“Thank you.” The president jotted down the date, and reached for his -telephone. “Mr. Cooper, please. Oh, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Wentworth -speaking. What was the date upon which Mr. James Rand was first -employed by us? Yes; April 18? Thank you. Was that the day after his -first interview with me, according to your remembrance? Thank you.” - -The president jotted that down also, hung up the receiver, and turned -briskly to his secretary. - -“Mr. Hope, when you repeated to me that conversation you had on April -17 with Mr. Rand, did you repeat it correctly?” - -“Why I—why, yes, sir, as near as I, could remember it,” stammered Mr. -Hope. - -“Thank you.” The president rang his buzzer. “Ask Mr. Rand to step in -here immediately.” - -The girl was back with Jimmy in less than a minute. The president did -not ask him to sit down, so he stood just inside the door, looking -from one to the other of the three men, and wondering what was about -to happen. - -“Mr. Rand, Mr. Cooper informs me that you were first employed by this -company on April 18 last.” - -“Yes, sir—I don’t remember.” - -“His records show that. You do remember your first interview with me?” - -“Yes, sir.” - -“Is it your remembrance that it occurred on the day before you started -with us?” - -“Yes, sir; I’m sure of that.” - -“When you left me that morning, you went directly into Mr. Hope’s -office?” - -“Yes, sir.” - -“And you told him the business that you had wanted to tell me?” - -“Yes, sir.” - -“Was it what you told me this morning—in substance, I mean?” - -“Why, yes, sir, of course.” - -“Did you mention a gas-well in Alberta?” - -“No, sir.” - -“Has your mother any property in Alberta?” - -“No, sir.” - -“Thank you.” Mr. Wentworth turned again to his secretary. Mr. Hope had -paled visibly. - -“Half an hour after you dismissed Mr. Rand you repeated his -conversation to me, Mr. Hope. It is my remembrance that it concerned a -natural gas strike in Alberta, near property held by this young man’s -mother. Is that correct?” - -“Yes, sir, I—yes, as near as I can remember it,” said Mr. Hope. - -“You said nothing to me about burning coal without mining it. I assume -he said nothing to you along those lines.” - -“No, sir, he did not.” Mr. Hope answered more firmly this time. - -“Just a moment, Mr. Rand.” Jimmy’s anger was proving too much for him; -he had taken a step forward toward Mr. Hope, with his fists clenched. - -The president went on swiftly: - -“Thank you, Mr. Hope. I think I understand the circumstances now. You -may go, gentlemen.” The president indicated Mr. Merkle and Jimmy. - -“Mr. Hope,” he went on, when they were alone, “for some years you have -been my secretary. I have had no cause to criticize your work unduly, -nor do I think I have treated you unfairly as an employer. - -“What has just transpired needs no additional words between us. It is -entirely self-evident. Explanations are futile, recriminations idle. -As you know, Mr. Hope, integrity of character is one thing this -company demands above all else. For a person without it there can be -no place in this organization. I must ask you therefore to let me have -your resignation, to take effect immediately.” - -Mr. Hope stood up. He hesitated an instant, then met the president’s -eyes squarely. - -“Very well, sir. If that is what you wish, you shall have it at once.” - -Then with a punctilious little bow, he turned and left the office. - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - THE MAINSPRING OF ENDEAVOR. - - -One morning, some two years after Mr. Leffingwell Hope was thus -summarily dismissed from the Wentworth company, Mr. James Rand, -assistant general manager of the Wentworth Optical Glass Company, was -seated in the private office of Robert G. Wentworth, president of the -parent organization. - -They had been two eventful years to Jimmy. For five months after his -momentous second interview with the president, the technical men of -the company had worked on the plan, making endless experiments. Then -there was the investigation of Mrs. Rand’s property. Additional -borings were made. The coal measures were estimated as to quantity and -extent, and the sand was similarly valued. - -With Jimmy’s mother the company dealt in a strictly businesslike -manner. Her property was purchased. She received an adequate amount in -cash, and a substantial block of stock in the new company. - -Then the legal department of the company took the matter up, and -innumerable applications for patents covering the special apparatus -that had been devised were made. - -Then the board of directors of the Wentworth company met, and plans -for the organizing and financing of a new company were outlined. - -Jimmy had not realized there were so many technical, legal, and -financial things in the world to do, let alone apply them all just to -one project—and especially to _his_ project. - -Jimmy, of course, had taken no active part in all this; but Mr. -Wentworth seemed desirous of having him in touch with it all, and he -was present at most of the conferences. - -During all this time Jimmy had continued in the employ of the -Wentworth Company, and at the end of the first year his salary was -fifty dollars a week. He no longer answered correspondence, but at the -president’s suggestion devoted his entire time to learning all there -was to know about the glass business—the making of optical glass -particularly. - -Then one day Mr. Wentworth had handed him a neat little -stock-certificate assigning to him an equal number of shares in the -new company with his mother. At the same time he was informed that his -position with this subsidiary company would be that of assistant -general manager, at a yearly salary of eight thousand dollars—which, -Mr. Wentworth said, patting him on the back, “For a kid like you, is -going some.” - -Mr. Cooper and Isaac Merkle both received stock, and the former a -position with the new company also. - -So matters stood when at last the new factory was put into successful -operation. And thus, from the brain of Jimmy Rand, coal miner in the -Fallon Brothers’ mine, came into being the first of the new factories -for the utilizing of coal without mining it. Coal was still mined, of -course, for the world had thousands of uses for it besides the needs -of factories. But Jimmy’s big idea used coal that never could have -been mined. And it postponed, for many years, that inevitable day when -the world’s coal supply was finally to come to an end. - -Mr. James Rand smiled cheerfully at his president, this morning in Mr. -Wentworth’s office, and the president, lighting himself another cigar, -smiled cheerfully back at his youthful protégé. - -“You always thought you were going to put it over, didn’t you, Jimmy?” -Mr. Wentworth was saying. - -Jimmy’s smile broadened to a grin. He looked fully six years older -than when he had first come to New York, a trifle heavier, and -infinitely more sophisticated; but he still had his ingenuous manner. - -“Yes, sir, I did,” he admitted. - -The president eyed him with affectionate appraisal. “You’re a pretty -smart kid—in some ways.” - -“They’ve been telling me that so much I’m getting to believe it,” said -Jimmy. - -Mr. Wentworth paused. Then, with a quizzical smile, “You’ll be getting -married I suppose, now that you’ve got a start in life.” - -The telephone rang sharply, and the incident closed. But it was enough -for Jimmy. With sudden realization he saw how foolish—how unfair, -perhaps—he had been. For during these past two years, since that first -morning Mr. Cooper introduced them, he and Estelle had become very -good friends. - -He had found the president’s daughter, when he got to know her better, -quite a likable girl; he was ashamed of his first impression of her. -As a matter of fact, Estelle was no different than she ever had been, -or ever would be. But Jimmy soon became the most promising young man -in her father’s company, if not of her entire acquaintance. She did -not exactly “set her cap for him”—she was too proud for that—but she -did seek his society upon every possible occasion. - -Jimmy had always imagined somehow that Estelle knew all about Anne; -but now he realized, with a sudden shock of surprise, that she -didn’t—couldn’t—for certainly he could never remember any specific -occasion when he had mentioned Anne—either to Estelle or to anybody -else. His love for Anne had always seemed so sacred, so far removed -from his business life in the city, that the impulse to tell of it -never had come to him. - -But now he suddenly found himself wondering what Estelle thought of -him. And that led him to consider what Anne might have been thinking -also. Dear little Anne! He had loved her so much always that he had -sometimes forgotten to tell her much about it. Instead, he had -described the wonderful business things that were happening to him—his -life in the city. - -And the things he and Estelle were doing—the opera, the theaters, and -all that—he had told it all to Anne with a great personal pride, -because it seemed to typify his own success. - -How Anne must have felt! Jimmy felt himself very small and mean when -his reflections reached this point. He had thought he had learned a -lot; but he could see now there were many, many things in life he had -yet to learn. - -Jimmy took the train for Menchon that same afternoon. He stayed there -three days. They were the three most important and wonderful days in -his whole life, notwithstanding the wonderful things that had already -happened to him. - -On the afternoon of the fourth day he was back again in New York, and -in Mr. Wentworth’s office. But this time he was not alone, for he held -firmly by the hand the shyest, prettiest, dearest little girl in all -the world. - -Anne was dressed in a mart little tailor-made suit. She wore her hair -up now, but her face still had that startled, shy look that always -made her seem, to Jimmy, anyhow, just like a sweet, half-frightened -little child. - -Jimmy was somewhat a privileged character by this time in the -Wentworth company, and he entered Mr. Wentworth’s office without much -ceremony. It so happened that at that moment its only two occupants -were the president and his daughter. - -Just inside the doorway Jimmy paused abruptly, with an apology on his -lips. Anne stood close beside him, holding tight to his arm. - -What Jimmy said by way of introduction is unimportant. But he finished -with: - -“And—and this is Anne—I mean my—my wife—Mrs. Rand. We were married -yesterday. And—and now we’re going away for a month—we’re going to -disappear. I wanted to tell you so you’d know where I was. And I -wanted you both to meet Anne.” - -He paused an instant, looked down into Anne’s adoring eyes, that -stared up into his face just as they always used to, and went on with -a rush: - -“You think I’ve put over something big with this company, don’t you, -Mr. Wentworth? You’ve said so, anyway. Well, I never would have been -able to do it only for Anne; she made me want to do it. She deserves -all the credit. - -“You’ll have to thank her, Mr. Wentworth.” - -And since all his life Jimmy believed that to be so, it probably was. - - (The End.) - - -[Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in the July 10, 1920 issue -of The Argosy magazine] - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIG IDEA *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Big Idea</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Ray Cummings</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 27, 2022 [eBook #67259]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Roger Frank and Sue Clark</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIG IDEA ***</div> - -<div class='section'> - -<div class='ce'> -<h1 style='margin-bottom:0em;'>The Big Idea </h1> -<div style='font-size:1.1em;margin-bottom:2em;'>By Ray Cummings </div> -</div> -<div id='001' class='mt01 mb01 w001'> - <img src='images/illus-001.jpg' alt='' style='width:100%' /> -</div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chI' title='I—Jimmy’s Big Idea'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER I.</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>JIMMY’S BIG IDEA.</span> -</h2> -<p>Jimmy Rand came out of the wash-house that early April morning and -took his place in the line of men dressed in their black, greasy -mine-clothes. It was a long line—stretching past the power-house, past -the big tower where the coal came tumbling down with a great clatter -upon the sorting screens and into the waiting railroad flat cars -beneath, until finally it wound itself to the little iron gate and -gate-house near the mine-mouth where, through a tiny window, the men -gave their numbers to be checked down in a great book.</p> - -<p>It took Jimmy many minutes to reach the window that morning—minutes -that dragged slowly by as he impatiently shuffled forward with the -moving line. For this was the day he was to stop work at noon, and he -and Anne were to take that long walk together they had planned. Jimmy -looked up at the sky; it was a perfect day, almost cloudless, and with -just a hint of chill in the air.</p> - -<p>By birth and breeding Jimmy Rand was a coal miner. His father and -grandfather before him had been miners—his father, now dead some three -years, had worked in this same Fallon Brothers Mine. It was located -near the little town of Menchon, Pennsylvania, in the valley of the -Susquehanna.</p> - -<p>When he was fifteen Jimmy had left school and entered the mine as a -mule-boy. Now, at twenty-two, he was a full-fledged miner, and by his -record was one of the best “loaders” on the books; for he was a -stalwart young chap, deep of chest, and with long, powerful muscles.</p> - -<p>His work was to clean up the coal that had been undercut and then -blasted out in the little galleries down in the mine, loading it onto -the waiting mule-pulled cars that took it to the bottom of the shaft, -where it was hoisted to the surface and on up into the tipple-tower to -be dumped upon the screens.</p> - -<p>Jimmy did his work well; there were few other loaders who could -surpass him in tonnage. This the records showed, for each car bore a -little metal tag with the loader’s number, of which account was kept.</p> - -<p>But although Jimmy was a good coal miner by heredity and training, he -was by nature not a miner at all. He had known this now for many -years; but only to Anne, and to his mother, had he ever said so.</p> - -<p>Way back in the days when he was mule-boy Jimmy could remember sitting -alone in the great dark silences of the mine, listening to its vague, -distant, muffled sounds, and thinking of the great world outside—the -world of light and air and color, the world he knew so little about, -was in so seldom, and dreamed of so constantly.</p> - -<p>Jimmy Rand was by nature a dreamer. He had imagination, which, to one -who mines coal, is neither necessary nor desirable. It was not the -hours of active work in the mine that proved irksome to him. Stripped -to the waist, his lean torso covered with sweat and the grime of -coal-dust, he would load steadily. But when the little car was filled, -properly trimmed, and the last great, glistening chunk of coal heaved -to its top, there was nothing more to do but sit quiet while the -mule-boy took it away and brought him another “empty.”</p> - -<p>Then Jimmy would slip on his coat and sit down in the cool, damp air -to wait. He could hear his heart beat then in the sudden silence, and -curious noises filled his ears. The comforting noises of his own work -were gone; the distant, dull sounds of the mine seemed unreal, and -always a little sinister.</p> - -<p>He could hear trickling sounds near at hand—the gas seeping out of the -newly opened coal crevices. And far off would come faintly to him the -muffled thuds of the picks of the other miners.</p> - -<p>These were the minutes that Jimmy Rand hated—minutes that seemed to -drag sometimes into hours, as he waited for the dancing yellow light -on the mule-boy’s cap, the welcome grind of his car-wheels, and the -mule’s slow, tramping step.</p> - -<p>This particular April morning Jimmy’s work in the mine loomed ahead of -him more irksome, more confining, than ever before. But since it must -be done, he was anxious to get at it. He thought his turn at the -gate-house window would never come; but finally it did, and he slipped -past into the yard and took his place on the waiting cage that would -shortly lower him and his fellows out of the sunshine into the world -of unreality of the mine several hundred feet below.</p> - -<p>Jimmy worked hard that morning. His bunky, who worked at his side in -the little gallery, wondered at his unusual silence, although Jimmy -was always inclined to be silent. When the first car was loaded, Jimmy -fastened to it his metal tag—they took turns in labeling the cars they -jointly filled—and then sat down on a lump of coal with his cap in his -hands, trimming the wick of his little pit-lamp with a nail from his -pocket.</p> - -<p>His mind was far away. He read a good deal now—books from the public -library of Menchon, which he took home to read during the evenings. -Books of travel and adventure interested him; but more recently he had -been reading of industry, and the wonderful, gigantic projects that -other men—no smarter than himself, perhaps—had planned and executed, -stirred him profoundly. Some day he, too, would accomplish big -things—things of which Anne and his mother and sister would be proud, -things that would bring him great fame and wealth.</p> - -<p>That morning seemed interminable to Jimmy, but finally it came to an -end. His last car was loaded, and in a moment the cage had raised him -back into the warmth of the noonday sunshine. He checked out, passed -through the wash-house, and hurried home to lunch. Immediately after -lunch he went to meet Anne, as they had agreed.</p> - -<p>Anne Wolff was the sixteen-year-old daughter of one of the other -miners in the Fallon Brothers Mine. She was still going to school in -the little Menchon schoolhouse—a slender, dark-haired, shy little -girl, with a curious, wild sort of beauty and unnaturally big black -eyes.</p> - -<p>Anne was “Jimmy’s girl”—accepted as such by their fellows. It was the -only love that Anne had ever known, and to her it meant everything, -even though she had never given it voice.</p> - -<p>Jimmy had long since told Anne of his dreams, and in the girl’s love -he had found a ready response, even though at times she could hardly -understand these vague longings that he found so difficult to put into -words. She believed in him and she encouraged him; and so he made her -his confidant, telling her things he never told his sister or even his -mother.</p> - -<p>Anne was waiting for Jimmy this afternoon at the gate of her little -frame house, dressed in her newest print frock, her long black hair in -braids over her shoulders, and a gray woolen scarf wound about her -throat. Her cheeks were red with the color of youth and health, and -her eyes sparkled with pleasure at sight of him. Jimmy kissed her in -greeting, thinking as he did so that she was the most beautiful and -wonderful little girl in all the world.</p> - -<p>“Where we going?” asked Anne when he had released her.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know. Where?”</p> - -<p>“It’s a beautiful day,” said the girl, looking up into the blue of the -sky. Then she put her hand in his. “Let’s go—anywhere.”</p> - -<p>Walking hand in hand, they slipped past the little village—Jimmy -instinctively turned away from the mines—down the road, and out into -the open country. Distant blue hills lay ahead; on both sides of the -road lay rolling country, and sometimes they passed fields of wild -flowers.</p> - -<p>“It ain’t that I mind the work,” said Jimmy suddenly, when they had -been walking for some time. “The work’s all right. But up here—like -today, Anne—under the sky—it’s different up here. Seems like a fellow -had a chance to do something big up here. But down there, Anne—in the -dark and damp—all shut in—”</p> - -<p>He stopped as the girl tightened the pressure of her fingers upon his. -He had often spoken this way to her before—used the very same words, -perhaps—and he knew that she understood, and felt that way about it, -too. But today it seemed different, more important, more pressing a -problem—as though today, somehow, he must find some way out, some goal -ahead toward which he could strive.</p> - -<p>He did not care how long it might take to reach it, or what -difficulties might be in the way. He knew he would overcome them some -way, somehow, if only he could find some goal to head for—something -definite instead of just dreams.</p> - -<p>“Dad was a mule-boy, Anne,” he went on after a moment. “And he died -still working in the same mine where he started. Your dad’s there, -too. It ain’t that I’m any better than them, Anne. Only I’m—I’m -different. You know that. I want to do something—something big. And -all day I sit down there thinking and planning and scheming. And it’s -no good, Anne. It don’t get me anything—and sometimes I wonder if it -ever will.”</p> - -<p>The little girl pressed his hand again and looked shyly up into his -face.</p> - -<p>“It will, Jimmy,” she said softly. “You’re going to be a wonderful man -some day—I just know you will. And we’ll—we’ll all be so proud of -you.”</p> - -<p>Again they fell silent. The road they were following—they were now -some two miles from Menchon—was taking them directly toward the -burning mines that were famous throughout all that part of -Pennsylvania. These were a system of coalmines that years before had -been in active operation. They had caught fire, and eventually had to -be abandoned.</p> - -<p>And all these years since, far down in the great coal measures -underground, the fires had been raging. From one mine to another the -fire had spread, until now the whole region, several square miles in -extent, was honeycombed with uncontrollable subterranean fires.</p> - -<p>Through fissures in the ground in many places smoke and steam -continually issued; in other parts the fire had broken out to the -surface; it was burned out now, leaving a great, jagged, pitted hole. -But mostly the coal seams lay so far beneath the surface that only the -steam and the thick smoke of the partly consumed coal gases coming -through holes in the ground gave evidence of their presence.</p> - -<p>The fame of the burning mines of Menchon brought many tourists to -visit them. In the summer-time especially, on Sundays, crowds of them -came up from the cities of New York and Philadelphia to wander about -the region, testing the heat of the ground with amazement, and -picnicking beside the little holes that vomited their smoke into the -air above.</p> - -<p>To them the sight was interesting and wonderful; but to Jimmy and Anne -it was an old story—something they had known all their lives and -accepted without wonderment.</p> - -<p>This afternoon, as the smoke, rising near by, reminded them where they -were, they left the road, and with Anne still carrying a bunch of -daisies under her arm, approached the scarred region that, as Jimmy -had often said, looked for all the world like the volcano pictures in -the books. He made that remark again today as they sat down on a rock -to rest beside a little smoking crevice.</p> - -<p>“You ever seen a picture of the volcano in Hawaii, Anne?” he asked. -And when she told him no, he added almost eagerly: “It looks just like -this, only very much more wonderful.” And then to the admiring and -thrilled little girl he described the crater of the great volcano of -Mauna Loa as he had read of it.</p> - -<p>“It’s—it’s wonderful to know all those things,” said Anne when he -paused a moment.</p> - -<p>“Some day I’m going to see them all, too,” he answered. “Some day I’m -going everywhere in the world and see myself all the things in the -books—some day when I’m rich—when I’ve done something.”</p> - -<p>Then, as his problem came back to him with the words, he relapsed into -silence, sitting with his arm about the girl’s shoulders and staring -idly at the little stream of smoke coming up from the ground before -him.</p> - -<p>For a long time he sat silent. The familiar scene around, which he had -always accepted as usual and without interest, suddenly seemed -remarkable and inspiring. He thought of these vast fires in the ground -beneath his feet, burning away the coal year after year, and -discharging their heat upward into the air uselessly. This tremendous -waste seemed now suddenly appalling.</p> - -<p>He withdrew his arm from around Anne’s shoulder, and, leaning forward, -put his hand down close to the little crevice. It was hot there—hot -enough to boil water in a kettle, perhaps, he thought. A picture he -had seen once, in a book, of James Watt discovering the power of -steam, came to his mind. He sat up again and turned to the girl.</p> - -<p>“You ever heard of James Watt, Anne?”</p> - -<p>Anne shook her head.</p> - -<p>“He was the man who discovered about steam. He was just a boy, Anne. -One day he was sitting beside his mother’s hearth looking at a big -iron kettle that had water boiling in it. And he could see that the -steam was lifting up the lid of the kettle. And then all at once it -came to him how powerful the steam must be, and why couldn’t he do -something with it.</p> - -<p>“You see, Anne, nobody had ever thought of that before. It looks easy -enough to us—that you can make steam and use the power—but nobody had -ever thought of it then. And it was right in front of their eyes all -the time, and they couldn’t see it. But James Watt saw it. And when he -got the idea he wouldn’t give it up, no matter what anybody said. He -worked and worked, and finally he built an engine that would use the -power that steam has.</p> - -<p>“That was the first steam-engine, Anne. Just think of it—the first -steam-engine. And James Watt doped it out all by himself—just because -he had noticed how the steam lifted the lid of that kettle. And he had -seen it do that hundreds of times before—and so had everybody else—and -never thought anything about it. Isn’t that wonderful, Anne?”</p> - -<p>The girl’s eyes were very big and tender as she looked up into his -face.</p> - -<p>“Yes—it’s very wonderful, Jimmy. You know about so many wonderful -things,” she said softly.</p> - -<p>“I was just thinking, Anne—” He paused. “When coal burns underground, -you can get the heat out of it just the same. And then if—if—” His -voice trailed into silence; he sat staring straight ahead into the -distance.</p> - -<p>Anne sat quiet, gazing with awe up into his set face, as though she -was in the presence of genius. The minutes passed. Then abruptly Jimmy -spoke again:</p> - -<p>“Why—why do you have to mine coal at all?” he said slowly. “If you can -burn it in the ground and get the heat—why do you have to mine it at -all?”</p> - -<p>Anne did not understand, but she was thrilled by the new note of -tenseness in his voice.</p> - -<p>She put her hand over his, pressing it encouragingly. “Yes, -Jimmy—yes?”</p> - -<p>“If—if you could burn the coal right where it is in the ground—and—and -put your factory over the heat—then—why, then—”</p> - -<p>A long pause; then Jimmy suddenly sprang to his feet.</p> - -<p>“I’ve got it, Anne!” he cried excitedly. “I’ve got it—the big idea. -Why, it’s as clear as daylight, once you think of it. I’ve got it; -I’ve got it!” He threw his arms around the girl, kissing her and -hugging her to him with all the strength of his vigorous young arms. -“It’s the big idea, Anne—what I’ve always been trying to get. And now -I’ve got it!”</p> - -<p>Anne struggled from his embrace.</p> - -<p>“What, Jimmy?” she asked eagerly. “What is it?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy’s face was flushed; his eyes sparkled.</p> - -<p>“Why—why, just that, Anne! I’m going to build a factory over where the -coal is and burn the coal in the ground without bothering to mine it -at all, and just pipe the heat up to the boilers. Don’t you see, Anne? -Nobody ever thought of that before. They mine the coal now—dig it out -and bring it up to the top and take it away on railroads to factories -to be burned. And all you’ve got to do is leave it where it is, and -put the factory overhead. Look at the work you save, Anne! Look how -easy and simple it is.</p> - -<p>“And nobody ever thought of it before. But <i>I’ve</i> thought of it now, -Anne. And I’m going to do it, no matter what anybody says—or how hard -I have to work—or how long it takes. I’m going to do it because it’s a -big idea—and nobody else thought of it, only me!”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chII' title='II—The First Setback'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER II.</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>THE FIRST SETBACK.</span> -</h2> -<p>It was some minutes before Jimmy’s excitement had abated enough for -him to tell Anne his plan; or indeed to be able to formulate in his -own mind just what this wonderful new idea that had so suddenly come -to him would mean. He could understand now how James Watt must have -felt as he planned the first steam-engine—a sort of exaltation which -Jimmy could feel now in his own heart plainly.</p> - -<p>The idea had come to him abruptly, almost full-born, as Jimmy had read -such big ideas often do come. He had seized upon it at once with the -feeling that it <i>was</i> his big idea, believing in it blindly, without -stopping to reason it out.</p> - -<p>Now with Anne sitting adoringly beside him, imploring him to explain -it to her, he felt suddenly self-conscious and embarrassed. The real -reason was that he had no knowledge of the subject, no technical -information upon which to base an opinion of whether the idea was -feasible or not.</p> - -<p>But Jimmy did not know that. He only knew, now that he thought it -over, that what he had already said was almost all he could say—all -that was in his mind, in fact.</p> - -<p>“Tell me about it, Jimmy,” Anne entreated. “How would it work?” Anne -looked up to Jimmy as to a vastly superior intellect. But she had -herself an acquisitive mind—untrained, immature, but naturally keenly -alert. Now that the first thrill of Jimmy’s announcement had passed, -she was interested in the subject not only because of Jimmy, but -because of the idea itself. And so, just a little with the air of one -who demanded to be convinced, Anne wanted to know how it would work.</p> - -<p>“Why—why, you see, Anne, it’s like this,” Jimmy explained. “The way -they do it now is to mine the coal—and you know all the expense and -time and hell that is—then when it is mined it has to be shipped away -hundreds of miles to the factories to be used. Now, if you don’t do -any of that, but just burn it in the ground where it is, you save all -that. Don’t you see?”</p> - -<p>“There ain’t any factories over coalmines,” said Anne.</p> - -<p>“No, but there could be just as easy as not. It don’t make so much -difference where a factory is, so long as it’s got a railroad. That’s -the idea—I’m going to build a factory where the coal is instead of -taking the coal to where the factory is.”</p> - -<p>“How you going to burn the coal in the ground?” Anne wanted to know.</p> - -<p>Jimmy thought a moment.</p> - -<p>“Why, just—just burn it,” he answered finally. “You see, Anne,” he -hastened to add, “the heat will come up in pipes to the factory -boilers at the top—just like the heat comes up.” Jimmy pointed to the -smoking crevice at their feet.</p> - -<p>“Why won’t it just get to be a big fire like this?” Anne objected. -“This is burning underground—”</p> - -<p>“It won’t.”</p> - -<p>“Why won’t it?”</p> - -<p>“Well, it won’t because, you see, Anne”—Jimmy was thinking fast -now—“because, don’t you see, a fire can’t burn without air. I won’t -give it only just so much air. This one got started and ran away with -itself before they could stop it. Mine will be ’way down very deep, -where there ain’t any air, only just what I pump down to it.</p> - -<p>“If I give it lots of air, it will burn hard, and there’ll be lots of -heat come up. Then if I don’t want so much heat, I won’t give it so -much air. And if I shut the air all off, it’ll go out altogether. -Don’t you see?”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said Anne, convinced. “It’s wonderful, Jimmy.” She put her hand -with a sudden timidity on his shoulder.</p> - -<p>“You’re—you’re wonderful, too, Jimmy.”</p> - -<p>The boy kissed her abstractedly, his mind still busily groping with -the flood of ideas that were surging into it. “I can control it easy, -Anne, if I start it right, by the air I give it. Why, it’s just like -when we have a fire here in the mine. You remember the fire started in -C tunnel last fall—your father was working there. He found it when it -was only in that one room. All we did was wall up that room from the -main tunnel, and it went right out when it couldn’t get any air, -didn’t it?”</p> - -<p>Anne nodded.</p> - -<p>“Besides, over in Coatesville, didn’t a whole mine get away from them -a few years ago?” Jimmy continued earnestly. “The fire got to the -mine-bottom before they could shut it off, and the white-damp began -exploding, so they had to get out of the whole mine. All they did then -was seal up the shafts at the top to shut off all the air in the whole -mine. The fire went out of itself when all the air was used up.”</p> - -<p>Again the girl nodded; his arguments seemed sound and quite -unanswerable.</p> - -<p>“Well, that’s just the way I’m going to do it. It’ll work, Anne—I know -it will,” said Jimmy.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” said Anne. “So do I, Jimmy.”</p> - -<p>It would work. The more Jimmy thought about it, the more sure he was -that it would work. For a long time he sat silent, holding Anne’s hand -tightly clasped in his, planning in his mind the things he was going -to do. His ideas in detail were vague, absurd almost, from a practical -standpoint; but Jimmy did not realize that. They looked concise enough -to him.</p> - -<p>He would go to New York to live for a time while he was putting the -idea over. All the big business men that he would have to see and -convince were there. Jimmy had saved several hundred dollars from his -earnings in the Fallon Brothers Mine during the last few years, so -that lack of money offered no obstacle. Then, too, he realized with -satisfaction, his mother and sister were not dependent on his wages. -The large insurance that his father had scrupulously kept up, and the -money that he had saved and carefully invested, had left Mrs. Rand, -while not rich, at least comfortably independent. That made Jimmy -think of his mother’s farm property; and the fact that it might be -made to play a part in his big idea came to him at once.</p> - -<p>“Why, Anne,” he exclaimed suddenly, “it’s all as clear as daylight to -me now. You know mother’s old farm-land over near Coatesville? That’s -where I’m going to put the first factory. There’s coal under it—don’t -you remember they bored for it two or three years ago? Only it was so -deep and the seam was so shallow nobody would work it.”</p> - -<p>This piece of land—some two hundred acres—had been left Mrs. Rand by -her father. It was poor farm-land, mostly sand, and of little value. -Some three years before, a company in search of new coal measures -around Coatesville had made borings; but the seam they located was not -considered profitable to work, and the project which for a time had -promised to make the Rand family rich had been abandoned.</p> - -<p>But now, with his new idea, this coal could be used. There was a -railroad spur very near the property, Jimmy remembered. It would be an -ideal place for a factory. It was the only thing he needed to hook his -plan together. Now he could talk convincingly to any big man.</p> - -<p>Jimmy, with the optimism of youth, had a world of confidence in -himself, and he saw no great obstacles in the way of what he wanted to -do. A few weeks or months at the most in New York, and he would be -back, with a big factory going up, and all the thousand details of a -great enterprise under way. And <i>he</i> would have a part in it all—he -would have been its originator. Then, when he was rich and famous, he -and Anne would be married. He slipped his arm again about the girl’s -shoulders and looked down into her sympathetic, eager little face.</p> - -<p>“I love you, Anne,” he said.</p> - -<p>“I love you, too, Jimmy,” she answered simply.</p> - -<p>He waited a moment. “Yes, but—but this is different, Anne. We’ve -always loved each other. But I’m a man now. And you’re a woman. Don’t -you see that’s different?”</p> - -<p>The girl met his glance squarely, and a little wave of color mounted -to her cheeks; but she did not answer.</p> - -<p>“I want to marry you, Anne. Some day—maybe soon—when I’ve put this -idea over—when I amount to something. I want you for my -wife—because—because I love you so much, and you love me. Will you, -Anne—will you?”</p> - -<p>The girl’s arms went up about his neck; her upturned face was tender -with love; her eyes, glistening with tears of happiness, met his -without a trace of coquetry.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Jimmy, I will,” she whispered.</p> - -<div style='height:1em;'></div> -<p>The New York offices of the Wentworth Glass Company occupied an entire -floor of a large office-building on Broadway near Wall Street. At ten -o’clock on the Tuesday morning following his momentous walk with Anne -to the burning mines and the birth of his big idea, Jimmy entered the -Wentworth Company’s offices. He passed through a door marked -“Information,” and found himself in a little enclosure facing a low -wooden railing and a girl at a telephone switchboard.</p> - -<p>Behind her he could see a hundred other girls at typewriters, and the -steady click of their machines filled the air with a low, confused -hum. It seemed to Jimmy that all the business in the world was being -transacted in that room at that moment. For an instant he stood -appalled. Then he walked up to the switchboard and addressed the girl.</p> - -<p>“I want to see Mr. Wentworth—Mr. Robert G. Wentworth,” he said. “He’s -the president, isn’t he?”</p> - -<p>The girl stared; then she smiled. Jimmy smiled, too—a frank, friendly -smile, so ingenuous that it probably surprised the girl even more than -his request.</p> - -<p>“Have you got an appointment with Mr. Wentworth?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy smiled again. “No,” he admitted. “But I’ve something to say to -him—something important, that he’ll be glad to hear.”</p> - -<p>“Whom do you represent?” If he had only known it, Jimmy was passing -through a very critical moment in his business career.</p> - -<p>“Why, I—why, just me.”</p> - -<p>“What’s your name?”</p> - -<p>“Jimmy—I mean, James Rand.”</p> - -<p>The girl’s glance roved over his clothes appraisingly. “Where you -from?”</p> - -<p>“Menchon, Pennsylvania,” said Jimmy.</p> - -<p>His engaging smile and the extraordinary mixture of diffidence and -confidence in his manner won out. Besides, he was an extremely -good-looking young man.</p> - -<p>The telephone girl could not understand what he wanted, but she was on -his side anyway.</p> - -<p>“I’ll ask Mr. Cooper to see you. He’s the office manager,” she added -confidentially.</p> - -<p>Jimmy shook his head. “It’s too important for that,” he said -positively. “I can’t tell it to anybody but Mr. Wentworth.”</p> - -<p>The girl considered a moment. Then, with sudden decision, she made a -connection and spoke a few rapid words into the telephone.</p> - -<p>“I’m sorry,” she said as she turned back to Jimmy. “I thought maybe -Mr. Wentworth’s secretary would see you.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy looked blank. It had never occurred to him that any one he -selected to tell his big idea to would be reluctant to see him. He had -decided on the Wentworth Glass Company quite by accident—the name was -engraved on the glassware of the big Broadway restaurant at which he -had dined the evening before, and subsequent inquiries had convinced -him it was just the sort of organization he wanted—and so he had -planned to interview Robert G. Wentworth, its president, that morning. -Yet now it seemed impossible for him to see Mr. Wentworth—the -telephone girl seemed to think he was crazy to expect such a thing. -And even the president’s secretary was too busy to bother with him! -For an instant Jimmy felt his task hopeless.</p> - -<p>“Can’t see you,” the telephone girl repeated.</p> - -<p>“Wouldn’t Mr. Wentworth see me?”</p> - -<p>“Certainly not,” said the girl, with some asperity. “You’d better see -Mr. Cooper, if you can’t tell it to me. Maybe he would see you.”</p> - -<p>“No,” said Jimmy. “It’s too important.”</p> - -<p>“Then maybe if you’d come back tomorrow Mr. Wentworth’s secretary will -see you. You might try, anyway—if it’s so important,” she added, at -Jimmy’s helpless look of appeal.</p> - -<p>“I will,” said Jimmy. “Thank you very much.”</p> - -<p>And with sinking heart he turned from the first business interview he -had ever had in his life, and went down into the busy city street -below.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chIII' title='III-The Interview'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER III.</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>THE INTERVIEW.</span> -</h2> -<p>Jimmy went back despondently to his little boarding-house room. To him -the rebuff had been a severe one. He thought about it for an hour; -then he had lunch, and went haphazard, with renewed hope, to interview -several other big business men whose names he procured.</p> - -<p>But either his manner had lost some of its confidence, or else the -telephone girls he almost invariably encountered were less favorably -impressed with him than the girl at the Wentworth Company, for in no -other instance did he even receive that much encouragement.</p> - -<p>No one of importance in the whole great city of New York, it seemed to -Jimmy then, cared to see him or to hear about his big idea. He thought -about it that whole Tuesday evening, sitting alone in his little -bedroom, with his fists clenched and his face flushed and serious.</p> - -<p>Two conclusions he reached: one was that he would <i>not</i> tell his -business to any telephone girl or clerk; and the other was that he -<i>would</i> see somebody big, if he had to keep on trying till doomsday.</p> - -<p>The next morning he was back at the Wentworth Company offices, smiling -cheerfully at the girl he had seen the day before. And every day that -week he was there, still asking for “Mr. Wentworth’s secretary, -please.”</p> - -<p>Finally one morning, still protesting that his business was important, -and that he could not tell it either to her or to the suggested Mr. -Cooper, Jimmy heard the first encouraging words of his whole week of -waiting.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Wentworth’s secretary will see you in a few minutes,” the -telephone girl announced.</p> - -<p>“What’s her name?”</p> - -<p>“His name is Mr. Leffingwell Hope.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you very much,” said Jimmy, and sat down on a little bench to -wait.</p> - -<p>In about ten minutes Mr. Leffingwell Hope appeared. He was a man about -thirty, two or three inches shorter than Jimmy, and very much more -slender of build. He was immaculately dressed; his hair was straight, -slightly long, and neatly brushed; his face was thin, pale, and -sharp-featured, with gray eyes, and a long, thin nose with a bump on -its bridge, giving him a hawk-like expression. Jimmy disliked Mr. -Leffingwell Hope the minute he saw him—there was about him something -sinister, like a snake.</p> - -<p>“Are you James Rand?” the secretary began.</p> - -<p>If Jimmy Rand had disliked Mr. Hope from his appearance, he positively -hated him when he heard his voice. It was one of those soft, curiously -intoned, effeminate voices; Jimmy had never heard one before.</p> - -<p>“Damned sissy,” he thought. “Yes,” he answered. He smiled—as friendly -a smile as he could muster.</p> - -<p>The secretary did not smile. He came through the little wooden gate -and stood facing Jimmy, who had risen to meet him. Jimmy had decided -to tell his idea to Mr. Hope; now that he saw him, he decided he -wouldn’t. A sudden despairing courage made him decide at the same -instant to see the president himself. It must be possible to work it -some way.</p> - -<p>“I want to see Mr. Wentworth—Mr. Robert G. Wentworth,” said Jimmy -firmly.</p> - -<p>“What do you want to see him about?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy hesitated. “That’s what I’m going to tell him when I see him,” -he said finally.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Wentworth never sees anybody except by appointment.”</p> - -<p>“I’m in no hurry,” Jimmy grinned cheerfully; his courage began coming -back. This Mr. Leffingwell Hope, after all, didn’t seem so very -formidable. “I’ll make an appointment, then.”</p> - -<p>“If your business is important, I’ll hear it now.” The secretary -turned slightly away, as though he were being unnecessarily detained -from important work inside. “Tell it quick,” he added. “The young lady -says you don’t represent any one. What is it?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy’s anger flared up suddenly. He put out his hand and gripped Mr. -Leffingwell Hope by the arm, turning him around until they were again -face to face.</p> - -<p>“Say, listen, you—you don’t understand.” He tried to keep the anger -out of his voice; and when the secretary shook off his hold he let go -promptly. “I came all the way from Menchon, Pennsylvania, to see Mr. -Wentworth. And I’ve waited over a week. It’s an important thing—it’s -something he will be glad to hear.”</p> - -<p>“All right, then—tell it to me. If it’s important, I’ll ask Mr. -Wentworth if he’ll see you.”</p> - -<p>“I won’t tell it to you,” Jimmy said doggedly. “I <i>won’t</i> tell it to -you or to anybody but him.”</p> - -<p>“Then I guess you won’t tell it,” said Mr. Hope, and turned back -toward the railing.</p> - -<p>This time Jimmy was really angry. He took a swift step forward and -again seized the secretary by the arm. “Look here, you—you’re not -giving me a square deal.”</p> - -<p>“Take your hands off me,” said Mr. Hope evenly. Evidently he was not a -coward, for there was no alarm in his eyes.</p> - -<p>Jimmy released the secretary reluctantly. “You’re not giving me a -square deal. You tell Mr. Wentworth I want to see him, and see what he -says.”</p> - -<p>The secretary looked Jimmy over from head to foot. “I don’t know what -your game is, young man, but I think you’re a damn fool.”</p> - -<p>“If you didn’t think so much you’d get along better,” Jimmy retorted. -“Will you tell him I’m here or won’t you?”</p> - -<p>Instead of making Mr. Hope angry, this seemed to strike him as -amusing, for he smiled. “If you’ll give me some idea of why you want -to see him, and why he should take his time to see you, I’ll tell him, -yes.”</p> - -<p>A flash of inspiration came to Jimmy. “You tell him I know a way to -make glass that will only use one-quarter as much coal for fuel as he -uses now. That’s important enough, isn’t it? And tell him it won’t -take me five minutes to explain it, either.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope looked at Jimmy as if he thought the visitor was -insane. Then he smiled again his nasty smile. “All right,” he said. -“If he’s not too busy I’ll tell him exactly what you say. And I don’t -think he’ll be interested in the least.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t care what you think, so long as you tell him,” said Jimmy; -and he sat down on the bench again to wait as the secretary departed.</p> - -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope revolved this extraordinary interview in his mind -as he went back to see his employer. A great curiosity consumed him to -know what it was this remarkable youth from the country had to say, so -that he almost hoped Mr. Wentworth would see his unknown visitor.</p> - -<p>As luck would have it for Jimmy, the president of the Wentworth Glass -Company was not in the least busy at that particular moment. As a -matter of fact, he was waiting for an expected visit from his -daughter. It did not promise to be particularly pleasant, for she had -just telephoned him she was coming down to get a check he had only -that morning at breakfast told her she could not have.</p> - -<p>All of which had made the company’s chief executive decide that he -would do no business that morning, for in his present perturbed state -of mind whatever business decisions he made probably would be -ill-advised. So when his secretary appeared with this unique tale of -an unknown youth who promised to tell him in five minutes how to -revolutionize completely his business, Mr. Wentworth welcomed the -diversion. He smiled quizzically, and directed Mr. Leffingwell Hope to -show the young man in at once.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Wentworth will see you now,” said the secretary sourly, -reappearing at the little wooden gate.</p> - -<p>“Thank you very much,” said Jimmy, rising with alacrity. He grinned at -Mr. Hope, but without a trace of triumph.</p> - -<p>The secretary said nothing more, but led Jimmy past endless rows of -stenographers, down a long corridor, through two or three small -semiprivate offices, until at last they reached the very innermost -private office of the president himself.</p> - -<p>With his hat clutched tightly in his hand and his heart beating so it -seemed about to smother him, Jimmy suddenly found himself facing a -large, flat-topped mahogany desk that stood in the center of the huge -office into which Mr. Hope had ushered him.</p> - -<p>At the desk sat a gray-haired, slightly stout gentleman of about -sixty. His mustache was very long and almost snow-white. His skin was -clear and ruddy, and his eyes that smiled at Jimmy as he entered were -very kindly. Jimmy liked him at once, but he was afraid of him just -the same.</p> - -<p>“This is the young man who wants to see you. He says his name is -Rand,” said Mr. Leffingwell Hope.</p> - -<p>“Sit down, Mr. Rand.” The president indicated a chair. “What can I do -for you?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy sat down. He expected Mr. Hope to take his departure, but -instead of leaving, the secretary went to a filing-cabinet and busied -himself at one of its drawers. Jimmy wondered if he dared ask him to -leave the room, and then decided he had better not. After all, he had -wanted to see this big business man, and here he was in his private -office, and Mr. Wentworth was waiting for him to begin telling his big -idea. He cleared his throat nervously. How would he begin? What was -the best thing to say first?</p> - -<p>“You were fortunate, Mr. Rand,” the president’s quiet voice -interrupted his reverie. “I’m not busy just at this moment. But I will -be shortly.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy noticed that there was nothing on Mr. Wentworth’s desk except -ink-well, pens, and blotter; not the slightest sign of any big -business to be attended to—and yet he knew Mr. Wentworth was the -biggest, most important man in the business world he had ever seen in -his life. He could not understand this fact; later he found out that -the higher up an executive is, the less he allows to accumulate on his -desk and the more leisure time he seems to have.</p> - -<p>“What is your business, Mr. Rand?” The president seemed slightly -surprised at his visitor’s continued silence.</p> - -<p>Jimmy drew a long breath. He felt infinitely small, insignificant. The -luxurious office seemed suddenly very vast, with great empty spaces -all around. He trembled at the thought of hearing his own voice in it. -But he knew he must speak—must say something. This was his big chance. -He opened his mouth, but before he could speak the words that trembled -on his lips the door of the office opened unceremoniously and a young -lady swept into the room.</p> - -<p>She was a girl about Jimmy’s own age—a very pretty girl with blond -hair, and blue eyes. She was more expensively dressed than Jimmy had -ever seen a girl dressed before—except on the stage, perhaps—in big, -flowing furs, a soft, sweeping, broad-brimmed hat, and with a huge -bunch of violets at her waist. She carried herself with the air of a -princess; and Jimmy felt suddenly abashed at being in her presence.</p> - -<p>As she came in the young lady nodded briefly to Mr. Hope, who smiled -at her easily yet with considerable deference. The president greeted -her with a little frown of annoyance.</p> - -<p>“I’m busy now, Estelle,” he said mildly, rising from his chair to face -her. Jimmy stood up also, which he felt somehow was the right thing to -do.</p> - -<p>The young lady evidently had no intention of withdrawing. She looked -Jimmy up and down from head to foot calmly, and then said to her -father:</p> - -<p>“Very well. Ill wait for you.” Then she turned away, and, drawing up a -little chair near the filing-cabinet, entered into a low-toned -conversation with Mr. Hope.</p> - -<p>The president sighed hopelessly. For one brief instant he seemed -undecided. Then he frowned.</p> - -<p>“I— Tell your business to my secretary,” he said abruptly to Jimmy, -waving his hand in dismissal. “He’ll take care of it for you. Oh, Mr. -Hope—if you please. Will you see this young man in your office? Thank -you. Good day, Mr. Rand.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy stood stock-still. He could feel himself flushing. A sudden hot -resentment toward this girl—this intruder—possessed him—that she -should have come into the room, at this of all times, just when he had -been given his big chance. And now she had spoiled it all!</p> - -<p>“This way, Mr. Rand”—the secretary was standing by his side—“I’ll see -you now.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy nodded confusedly. Mr. Wentworth inclined his head also, and -then turned aside to speak to his daughter. And Jimmy, not having -spoken a word since he entered the president’s office, turned and -followed Mr. Leffingwell Hope through the opened door.</p> - -<p>The private office of Mr. Wentworth’s secretary, into which Jimmy was -now ushered, was a smaller and only slightly less magnificent replica -of that of the president himself.</p> - -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope took a seat at his desk, and motioned Jimmy to -sit down also.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Wentworth is always very busy,” he began, in his soft, unpleasant -tones. “What is it you have to say?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy, in spite of his continued resentment at the way he had been -treated, and his increasing awe of Mr. Leffingwell Hope, was thinking -fast. He had decided before that he would not tell his plan to Mr. -Hope. But if he did not, probably he would never be able to tell it to -any one—in this company, anyway. And the other companies he had been -to had treated him even more coldly.</p> - -<p>If he did tell it to Mr. Hope, now while he had the opportunity, the -secretary undoubtedly would explain it to Mr. Wentworth. And the -president would be interested, of course, and then later on, he could -see him again about it.</p> - -<p>Jimmy resolutely put aside his dislike and distrust of Mr. Hope and -took the plunge.</p> - -<p>“It’s about the coal you burn in your factories for fuel, Mr. Hope,” -he began. And then after a brief pause, he went on with a rush:</p> - -<p>“I’ve been a coal miner all my life, and I’ve been thinking a lot -about coal. The coal you use in your glass factories has to be mined -and hauled from the mine to you. That’s what makes it cost you so -much. I—I know you burn a lot of it, and this year especially, with -all the labor trouble and the shortage, it is getting to be awful -expensive. And—and I’ve been thinking—why couldn’t the coal be burned -in the ground right where it is, and put the factory there—instead of -mining it? The heat would come up from below, you know.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy paused, a little out of breath. It wasn’t exactly what he had -wanted to say; somehow it didn’t seem to sound quite as forceful as he -had thought it would.</p> - -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps you’d better say -that over again,” he suggested. “I’m afraid I don’t understand you.”</p> - -<p>“Why, I—you see, Mr. Hope, my idea is to build a factory over some -coal deposit, and then, instead of mining the coal, just burn it in -the ground, and pipe the heat up to the factory boilers.”</p> - -<p>Once Jimmy got started he found it easier. Mr. Hope listened -casually—impatiently, Jimmy thought. But he did not notice the gleam -of interest in the secretary’s eyes so at variance with his -disinterested, almost sarcastic manner. Finally Mr. Hope interrupted -him.</p> - -<p>“Your idea is ingenious, young man, and certainly it is novel.” He -laughed. “I don’t mind saying, even if it were feasible, it perhaps -would be a good thing for us.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy flushed at the secretary’s sneering tone. “You—you don’t think -the idea’s any good, do you?” he asked aggressively.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope’s manner suddenly changed.</p> - -<p>“You say you propose to burn this coal in the ground just where it -lies?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.” Jimmy hated himself for the impulse that made him answer -so deferentially.</p> - -<p>“How would you control the fire?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy told him in detail as well as he could how he would supply the -air necessary to combustion. Mr. Hope smiled his nasty smile. But with -a wave of his hand to dismiss the subject he said:</p> - -<p>“Grant that. How far from the flames you will produce underground will -the furnaces of the factory be?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy thought a moment. “Why, maybe five hundred or a thousand feet.”</p> - -<p>“And you propose to transport the heat that distance and then apply it -to crucibles for the fusion of glass?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir,” Jimmy answered promptly, although he had only a vague idea -what Mr. Hope meant by these technicalities.</p> - -<p>“What temperature do you suppose you could attain?”</p> - -<p>“Why, I—I don’t know,” said Jimmy.</p> - -<p>“Could you get a temperature of say sixteen hundred degrees -centigrade?”</p> - -<p>“I—I—” Jimmy suddenly remembered how he had once boiled eggs over a -hole of the burning mines. “What’s the temperature of boiling water?” -he asked abruptly.</p> - -<p>Jimmy was holding his own, not by his ability to argue, but by his -astounding ingenuousness. The secretary gasped a little at such a -question coming at such a time.</p> - -<p>“One hundred degrees centigrade,” he managed to reply.</p> - -<p>One hundred degrees! And Mr. Hope had mentioned casually a temperature -sixteen times as great! Jimmy’s heart sank as he realized how -impossible it was. He realized, too, how little he knew about the -whole proposition, for the secretary had recovered from his surprise -and was saying quietly:</p> - -<p>“You asked me if I thought your idea was any good. I do not.”</p> - -<p>“But you’ll tell it to Mr. Wentworth?” Jimmy put in quickly.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I’ll tell it to Mr. Wentworth—and let you know.” Mr. Hope rose -to terminate the interview.</p> - -<p>Jimmy rose also. He realized now fully for the first time that there -were a thousand things about the plan that he had never even thought -of, much less understood. Mr. Hope would explain the idea to the -president, of course, but the way he would tell it made Jimmy feel -that Mr. Wentworth wouldn’t think any more of it than his secretary -did.</p> - -<p>Jimmy’s confidence in himself and in the idea was unshaken. But he saw -clearly that it would take a long time to get it into shape—for him to -understand it, anyway—and he wouldn’t want any one else to go ahead -with it unless he did understand it.</p> - -<p>Jimmy saw also that he would have to know a good deal about the -business of whatever company it was he was going to try and make adopt -the idea. There was no use going to any other company—the Wentworth -was as good as he could find. And all this time, while he was learning -all these things, he would have to live.</p> - -<p>The idea occurred to him then that perhaps he could get a job right -here in this very organization. Then he could learn the glass -business, and work out his idea at night. And when he was all ready -and had all his facts down pat he could tackle Mr. Hope and Mr. -Wentworth again. He could never find anybody better than Mr. -Wentworth, he was sure of that.</p> - -<p>All this flashed through Jimmy’s mind in an instant. Mr. Hope was -holding out his hand.</p> - -<p>“Good day, Mr. Rand. Thank you for coming in.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy shook hands. “Mr. Hope, can I have a job with your company?” he -asked abruptly.</p> - -<p>The secretary seemed very much taken aback by the directness of this -unexpected, but simple request. He hesitated; then with a curious -smile on his lips, seemed to reach a sudden decision.</p> - -<p>“What can you do? Do you know anything about the glass business?”</p> - -<p>“Why, I—why no, I don’t,” Jimmy stammered. “I don’t know anything -about any kind of business. But I can learn,” he added hopefully. “I -can learn anything.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope met his earnest eyes steadily. “You see Mr. Cooper as you go -out—he’s the man about that. Tell him you have seen Mr. Wentworth and -me this morning. Tell him I said to fix you up if he can.”</p> - -<p>The secretary’s words surprised Jimmy greatly. Mr. Leffingwell Hope -was not such a bad sort after all!</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir. And—and thank you very much,” said Jimmy.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chIV' title='IV—Mr. Hope’s Idea'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER IV.</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>MR. HOPE’S IDEA.</span> -</h2> -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope concluded his interview with Jimmy in a state of -mental excitement of which his calm, imperturbable demeanor gave no -sign. His keen mind had seen at once the possibilities in Jimmy’s -crude idea.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope was not a technical man. But he understood, infinitely more -clearly than Jimmy possibly could, what this plan would accomplish for -the Wentworth Company, assuming it would work out. Mr. Hope had -imagination. He saw the technical difficulties standing in the -way—some of them he had pointed out to Jimmy. But he knew, also, that -probably the idea, thus crudely conceived, could be developed by some -one having the necessary technical knowledge.</p> - -<p>After Jimmy left, Mr. Hope sat alone at his desk for fully half an -hour, turning these thoughts over and over in his mind. Whoever -broached this plan to the Wentworth Company and proved it successful -would make a fortune. A fortune in a year or two! More than he could -make the way he was going in ten times that long! He could marry -Estelle, then; with the money, and the prestige such accomplishment -would give him, that would be easy!</p> - -<p>Only this youth from the country standing between him and a fortune -and a marriage with Estelle. And what did this boy have—nothing but an -idea. And now <i>he</i> had the idea, too—he could develop it—put it forth -as his own when the proper time came.</p> - -<p>He would have to deal with this boy—that would be easy. Mr. -Leffingwell Hope smiled his thin smile as he mused on how easy that -would be. That was a clever stroke, too—helping him get a job right -here in the company. He could keep his eye on him better that way—and -then, when the proper time came, have him fired out of the -organization.</p> - -<p>Simplicity itself! Also, what a perfect alibi! Suppose anything did -leak out? Suppose the boy did make a fuss—claim the idea as his own? -Would it have been likely, then, under such circumstances, that he, -Leffingwell Hope, would have assisted in getting a job right here in -this same company for this boy whose idea he was about to use as his -own? Certainly not—a perfect alibi. And because the boy <i>was</i> around -the offices, that could be shown to be the way <i>he</i> had stolen the -idea from Mr. Hope.</p> - -<p>The thing was perfect—it couldn’t fail. All he needed now was some -technical dope. Merkle would be the man. He would see Merkle. Shifty -little man, but he could handle him.</p> - -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope felt very pleased with himself when his -meditations reached this point. He tossed his empty cigarette box into -the waste-basket and went in to see Mr. Wentworth.</p> - -<p>“About that boy who was in here just now,” he began casually, finding -the president disengaged at the moment. “I thought you might be -amused. A crazy, wild idea. It seems his mother or somebody owns some -land up in Alberta. Somebody else struck natural gas ten or twenty -miles away. He seemed to think we’d be anxious to drill on his -mother’s place and put a factory there if we were lucky enough to -bring in a well. Something like that, anyway—he talked so wild I -couldn’t follow him exactly.”</p> - -<p>The president smiled. “Why didn’t you tell him about the McKeesport -gas wells—that’s a little nearer home. They’re bringing one in every -day down there.”</p> - -<p>“I promised him I’d tell you what he said, so I’m doing it, but you -know—” Mr. Hope waved his hand vaguely.</p> - -<p>“Earnest-looking boy,” said Mr. Wentworth. “Tell him I’m sorry—not -interested.”</p> - -<div style='height:1em;'></div> -<p>Isaac Merkle was a consulting chemist who did a considerable amount of -work for the Wentworth Glass Company. He lived and worked in a -six-room flat on the top floor of a tenement house in that somewhat -unsalubrious section of New York known as Hell’s Kitchen. His -laboratory consisted of one large room that had been formed by -knocking down the partitions of three smaller rooms; it was in the -other three rooms that Mr. Merkle, who was a bachelor, lived alone.</p> - -<p>The laboratory was a long, bare room, with a skylight. It was -furnished with two long wooden tables, littered with chemical -apparatus, several small chairs, and a wooden table. There was a large -soapstone sink over at one side, and a long, low shelf down one wall, -with a row of villainous-looking bottles upon it.</p> - -<p>To this laboratory, by appointment, came Mr. Leffingwell Hope that -very same evening. Mr. Merkle, as agreed, was quite alone when the -secretary arrived. The chemist was a fat, middle-aged little man, with -a round, very red, smooth-shaven face, an over-large nose, and -mouse-colored hair with a bald spot on top.</p> - -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope, seating himself uncomfortably on one of the -little wooden chairs, was at some trouble just how to begin the -business that had brought him.</p> - -<p>“Ike,” he said finally, “I’ve got an idea that might, if it is any -good, make us a lot of money.” He hesitated; and then, feeling that -frankness would be his best policy, went on:</p> - -<p>“I’m going to tell you all about it—everything I know. I want your -advice in the first place, and then, if the idea’s any good—which -maybe it’s not—we’ll go in it together—share and share alike, no -matter what we have to do to pull it through. That O. K.?”</p> - -<p>“The way you talk it’s crook stuff,” said Mr. Merkle. “You couldn’t -scare me if it’s to be made real money. Shoot.”</p> - -<p>“It isn’t crooked,” the secretary hastened to assure him. “But it’s a -matter requiring, for the present, absolute secrecy.”</p> - -<p>“Shoot,” said Mr. Merkle again.</p> - -<p>The secretary hesitated. He didn’t exactly trust Mr. Merkle. He -realized that he had nothing but an idea to tell. If the idea was -worth anything at all it was a big thing. He thought it best to set -this forth frankly to his friend at the outset.</p> - -<p>“To hell with that argument,” said Mr. Merkle, interrupting him, -though without sign of resentment. “I ain’t never double-crossed a -friend yet. If you couldn’t believe it shut up before you start.”</p> - -<p>Feeling that he had to be satisfied with that, the secretary went -ahead and recounted briefly the whole story of Jimmy’s idea. Only he -did not mention Jimmy—but set it forth as his own.</p> - -<p>The chemist listened attentively, with his eyes fixed on his -companion’s feet.</p> - -<p>“Well, go on, Ike, what about it?” said the secretary impatiently, -after a moment. “I’ve been thinking about it quite a while. Is it any -good?”</p> - -<p>“You could do it,” said Mr. Merkle with deliberation.</p> - -<p>“How?” The secretary’s eyes sparkled, but without waiting for his -question to be answered he went on to name all the objections he had -pointed out to Jimmy.</p> - -<p>“You ask me could it be done and right away you tell me why you -couldn’t do it,” said Mr. Merkle.</p> - -<p>“Well, all right, then. How?”</p> - -<p>“All what you say about piping up heat is bunk,” the chemist declared. -“You couldn’t make a fire four hundred feet in the ground and melt -glass with it so far away. Bunk. But listen, Leff, here is it what you -could do—in the ground you start a fire—”</p> - -<p>“How could you control it?”</p> - -<p>“Like you said—with air. That part, it’s all right. But the heat you -don’t pipe up—that’s bunk. You pipe up the gases from the coal—the -products of combustion that are only part used, and you burn them in -the regenerator furnace. Maybe you could get very good producer gas. -How could I tell till I work it out? Maybe producer gas forty-five per -cent combustible—how could I tell?”</p> - -<p>The chemist here plunged into a long dissertation of an exceedingly -technical nature, which Mr. Leffingwell Hope, even though he had some -knowledge of the types of furnaces used by the Wentworth Company, -followed with difficulty. But the gist of it was, he gathered, that in -all probability the idea could be worked out to a practical -conclusion. And as Mr. Merkle, finished, waxing enthusiastic as he -developed his thoughts by voicing them: “He was just the baby to work -it out, if there was enough money in it for him.”</p> - -<p>“That’s where I come in,” said the secretary. “I’ve doped out the -idea—now you work it out. I’ll see we get the money—we’ll split it -fifty-fifty!”</p> - -<p>“You could consider it done. Have you told it to the boss?”</p> - -<p>“No, certainly not. I want it in good shape first. That’s why I told -you it was a matter demanding secrecy. I haven’t told it to any -one—only you.” Mr. Hope thought a moment. “How about some other -company than this one—would that be better, do you think?”</p> - -<p>The chemist considered. “What it saves is only part of the cost of -coal,” he said finally. “It ain’t that every factory what you tell it -to right away breaks its neck to move to where the coal is.”</p> - -<p>“But it’s particularly good for the Wentworth Company, you mean?”</p> - -<p>“For them when they use so much fuel, and because, don’t you know -about the new plant what they expect to put up next year? For them it -would be a good thing.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Merkle referred to the fact that the Wentworth Company was -considering the building of another factory for the making of optical -glass. For some months they had been looking for a good location, one -preferably where they could use natural gas for fuel.</p> - -<p>“I know,” said Mr. Hope. “These new ‘gas babies’ at McKeesport got Mr. -Wentworth interested last winter. But I heard him say he had about -given up that locality as a possibility.”</p> - -<p>Merkle nodded. “Your idea beats that,” he said definitely. “You could -pick up a coal property cheap—where the coal was so deep you couldn’t -mine it with profit.”</p> - -<p>“Then we’ll put it through with Wentworth,” Mr. Hope announced with -finality. “You work it out—how long will it take?”</p> - -<p>“A month or two. Maybe more. You know it, Leff, I’m busy now.”</p> - -<p>“You rush it through. I’ll do the rest. Let me know how you get on. -And keep your mouth shut.”</p> - -<p>“You could count on me,” said Mr. Merkle.</p> - -<div style='height:1em;'></div> -<p>It was a big thing! All the way home that evening, the secretary’s -heart beat fast at the thought of how big it was. A fortune in his -grasp at last! A fortune that would give him Estelle! And no one to -divide the money with except Merkle, and probably he could think of -some way of getting rid of him at the last. A fortune for himself! -Riches—the greatest thing in the world!</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chV' title='V—Jimmy Finds a Friend'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER V.</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>JIMMY FINDS A FRIEND.</span> -</h2> -<p>Jimmy got his job. He wouldn’t have, probably, except for the fact -that his message from Mr. Hope enabled him to get an interview with -Mr. Cooper, during the course of which Jimmy convinced the office -manager that he was an extremely intelligent and likable young man. -Since he had no business experience whatever, all Mr. Cooper could -think of to give him was a sort of glorified office-boy job, at a -salary of fourteen dollars a week.</p> - -<p>Jimmy didn’t keep that job very long. Within a month he convinced the -office manager that he could dictate business letters, and that his -judgment on things he understood could be trusted. Also, Jimmy had -made it clear by his attitude during that month that he never would -tackle anything that he did not understand thoroughly; his encounter -with Mr. Hope had impressed the importance of that on his mind for all -time.</p> - -<p>So Jimmy was given a desk and a dictating machine, and a steady stream -of letters, comparatively unimportant letters at first, was diverted -in his direction.</p> - -<p>All that summer Jimmy worked very hard. He entered a night school -where three evenings a week he studied with a view to getting “dope” -on his big idea. He found this study helpful to him in general, but -not very useful in giving him specific information on how to burn coal -underground, especially since he was determined not to broach the -subject directly to any one.</p> - -<p>When he had been with the company about a week, Jimmy approached Mr. -Hope in the office and thanked him for the job.</p> - -<p>“All right,” said the secretary, and smiled. “I’m glad you like it.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy felt then that his first impression of Mr. Hope had been quite a -wrong one.</p> - -<p>“I do,” he answered earnestly. “Thank you very much—did you see Mr. -Wentworth yet about that—that idea of mine?”</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope looked him steadily in the eyes. “Yes. He said to tell you -he’s not interested. Sorry.”</p> - -<p>This was hardly a blow to Jimmy, for he had expected as much. But next -time he broached the subject—it would be different, then!</p> - -<p>“Take my advice, young man,” the secretary went on, “get that foolish -stuff out of your head. Stick to your job—you’ll get along—you look as -though you had brains.”</p> - -<p>“Thanks,” said Jimmy. He tried to avoid sarcasm, “I will.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope nodded and left him.</p> - -<p>That summer was a hard one for Jimmy. Even though he had an -all-absorbing idea to fill his thoughts, the utter loneliness of his -life was hard to bear. He worked all day at the office. Three evenings -a week he spent at the night school; and the others he wandered -aimlessly about, going to the movies often and to a play occasionally, -and always alone.</p> - -<p>At the office Jimmy made many business friends. Every one liked him; -his ready smile and his ingenuous manner made friends easily. Jimmy’s -work took him constantly into many different departments of the -organization, and in each of them he soon found opportunity to learn -what there was to know about that particular branch of the work. His -system, as he developed it in his mind, was not only to learn about -his own job, but about the jobs of as many others as he possibly -could.</p> - -<p>It wasn’t so very hard to do either, as he soon found out. There was -no particular mystery about business, as he had always supposed, and -among the clerks and under officials with whom he was working during -this period, the competition, so far as brains was concerned, was not -alarming.</p> - -<p>Jimmy was not the least inclined to be conceited, but there were at -least twenty young men in the company that he told himself he had -“skinned to death for brains.”</p> - -<p>It was just after his second visit home, and when he had been with the -Wentworth Company about three months, that he first made friends with -George Cooper outside of the office.</p> - -<p>The office manager was a lanky chap of thirty-one. He was -smooth-shaven, with big, rough-hewn features, piercing blue eyes, and -sparse, sandy hair. His voice had a deep, booming quality, and, around -the office, a vigorous note of authority that commanded respect.</p> - -<p>But at the theater, where he and Jimmy went that first evening, he was -very different—a modest, unassuming, laughing boy, years younger than -he appeared during business hours. The change surprised Jimmy -tremendously. He immediately lost the awe he had always unconsciously -felt for his business superior, without losing any of the respect or -admiration; and in consequence felt his own importance and confidence -in himself enhanced.</p> - -<p>This friendship of Jimmy and George Cooper grew rapidly; until -finally, one evening in September, Jimmy felt he could no longer keep -his great secret to himself. So he told his friend all about it, and -just what Mr. Hope had said.</p> - -<p>The office manager was enthusiastic. He knew no more than Jimmy about -the feasibility of the plan itself—and Jimmy up to this time had -learned very little—but he realized more than Jimmy possibly could how -beneficial to the company it would be if it worked. Also, Mr. Cooper -had a better idea of how to go about finding out the things Jimmy -wanted to know than he had.</p> - -<p>So they planned to “dope it out” together, and immediately started -spending two evenings a week at the public library looking it up. -After which, by Christmas at least, the office manager proposed taking -Jimmy to one of the company’s technical men.</p> - -<p>“I been thinking, George,” said Jimmy one evening, when they had been -working on his idea about a month. “I told Mr. Hope all about this -plan of ours that first day. He’s never said a word about it since, -except to tell me Mr. Wentworth said it was rotten. It worries me -sometimes to think he’s in the secret. I used to think I liked him. -But I don’t. I’m afraid of him, somehow. Do you like him?”</p> - -<p>“No, I don’t,” said Mr. Cooper decidedly.</p> - -<p>“I’ve been wondering,” Jimmy went on, “suppose he wanted to use the -idea for his own. It’s good—we know that now. And anybody who knows -about it could use it. That’s what worries me—to think Hope knows all -about it, too.”</p> - -<p>The office manager deliberated on this.</p> - -<p>“What could he do if he wanted to?” he asked finally.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know; what could he?”</p> - -<p>“Nothing that I know of. He told the boss about it—the boss knows it’s -your idea. You can trust R. G., Jimmy; he’s as square as they come.”</p> - -<p>“I believe you,” said Jimmy. “But just the same—”</p> - -<p>“Just the same, Hope will bear watching. You’re right on that. I’ll -watch him. But I don’t see what he could do. Probably he’s forgotten -all about it by now.”</p> - -<p>“I hope so,” said Jimmy fervently.</p> - -<p>With the office manager to help him, Jimmy progressed rapidly with his -big idea.</p> - -<p>It hadn’t taken them more than a few days to discover that the scheme -of piping up heat from a fire in the ground was impractical. Then, -when they came to study the company’s furnaces, about which Mr. -Cooper, being entirely an office man, was almost as ignorant as Jimmy, -they found that it was the unconsumed coal gases that could be piped -up, not the actual heat—a conclusion that to Isaac Merkle had been -immediately obvious.</p> - -<p>At this point in their investigations they were jubilant, for they -realized that the idea <i>was</i> feasible. Mr. Cooper was for an immediate -consultation with one of the technical men of the company, but Jimmy -absolutely refused. There were too many who knew about it already. -Something might happen. And so the office manager had to give up that -plan, and they went ahead, studying the thing out alone.</p> - -<p>“I’d rather it took longer,” said Jimmy. “When we get it ready -ourselves we’ll put it up to Mr. Wentworth. After that, we can talk to -everybody all we want.”</p> - -<p>It was just after this—early in November—that Jimmy met Estelle -Wentworth socially. And the way it came about was this:</p> - -<p>Estelle Wentworth was typically a daughter of the rich, aptly -described by that familiar alliteration: pretty, proud and petulant. -In all her twenty-one years she had been cared for with that care that -only a misguided, adoring mother, a father weak enough to desire peace -above all else, and the character-enervating luxuries that unlimited -money can give.</p> - -<p>Estelle was neither weak, nor vicious. She was only normal—and with -her environment and upbringing was just what one would have expected -her to be. Her one creed, at the age of twenty-one, was to have a good -time. This, somehow, she found increasingly difficult. All the usual -forms of pleasure desired by young girls, were freely hers. Dances, -parties, the theater and opera, were all lavished upon her.</p> - -<p>For a time they sufficed; and yet, because she was a normal girl, no -finer or less fine than thousands of others of her race, inevitably -the time came when she found herself desiring something more.</p> - -<p>Affairs of the heart, which usually play so large a part in feminine -adolescence, had never seriously touched Estelle. That, too, was the -inevitable result of her environment. Young men admired her, adored -her, and plied her with attentions. But Estelle felt herself in some -way above them all. She accepted their adulation amusedly, just a -little as a princess of the middle ages might have accepted the -adulation of her courtiers—or laughed at the antics of her favorite -jester—but nothing more.</p> - -<p>Perhaps Estelle had no capacity for love; or perhaps, because of what -civilization had made her, those men of deeper feelings knew that she -had nothing to offer them—and so went their way.</p> - -<p>Estelle was mildly interested when she first saw Jimmy that morning in -her father’s office. He was a new type to her, so obviously different -from any man she had ever met. She had no thought of ever meeting him -socially; indeed, the idea then would have filled her with -indignation. But the sturdy manliness of him attracted her in spite of -herself.</p> - -<p>She liked Mr. Leffingwell Hope—better, perhaps, than most of the young -men of her acquaintance, for the secretary, seeing in her a practical -and easy route for his own self-advancement, had for nearly a year -been making himself as charming as possible; but she could not help -comparing him to Jimmy.</p> - -<p>They were as different as two individuals of the same sex could well -be, and although Estelle did not know it, Jimmy did not suffer by the -comparison.</p> - -<p>Estelle was mildly interested in Jimmy from the moment she first saw -him. There was no sentiment in her thoughts of him, merely curiosity. -She remembered, too, when he had first seen her, the look of awe that -had come to his face. And later she had seen plainly his resentment at -her presence in the office. Resentment from a young man was something -new to Estelle. It did not make her angry; it piqued her, and she -could not forget it.</p> - -<p>When Jimmy had been with the company about two weeks Estelle came to -the office again, and saw him there. Later she learned from George -Cooper how he happened to be there, and what he was doing.</p> - -<p>She felt a little ashamed of herself at the sudden realization that -she was interested in one of her father’s office boys, and decided to -forget all about him. Soon after that she went to the seashore with -her mother for the summer.</p> - -<p>When she returned to the city in the fall the very first time she went -to the office she passed Jimmy in the corridor. The change in his -appearance was startling. His hair was no longer close-cropped high -over his ears. His clothes were those of the city; his whole bearing -had changed. Nothing could make Jimmy look in the least foppish. He -was still rugged and manly looking, but, Estelle thought, no longer -uncouth.</p> - -<p>As he passed her he smiled an answer to her nod of recognition. There -was no resentment in his smile, but neither was there admiration for -her, nor awe. It was just a calm, impersonal smile as though he had -already forgotten her existence as soon as he passed.</p> - -<p>This piqued Estelle still more—and made her vaguely angry. She sought -out George Cooper at his desk.</p> - -<p>“I just passed that young man—Mr. Rand, isn’t that his name?—in the -corridor,” Estelle began, after they had exchanged a few remarks. “How -is he getting on?”</p> - -<p>Mr. Cooper was a little surprised at her question, but he did not show -it. “He’s getting along fine, Estelle,” he replied with enthusiasm. -“Have you met him—I didn’t know that.”</p> - -<p>“No,” said Estelle carelessly. “He was in father’s office one -morning—I thought he looked interesting. Why?”</p> - -<p>“He’s a dandy chap. Not a city boy at all—used to be a coal miner. -We’ve been out together a good deal—Marion likes him tremendously.” -(Marion was George Cooper’s sister.)</p> - -<p>“Oh,” said Estelle. Then, after a moment—“He was going to tell father -about some plan he had. Father told me it was some foolish idea. What -ever happened to it?”</p> - -<p>The office manager hesitated. He rather liked Estelle. She was a -silly, vain little thing, but he liked her—perhaps partly became his -sister seemed to be her only real girl friend.</p> - -<p>“Can you keep a secret, Estelle?”</p> - -<p>The girl nodded.</p> - -<p>“Honest?” Mr. Cooper’s manner was as boyish with her as it was stern -and authoritative toward his office employees.</p> - -<p>“Yes—surely.”</p> - -<p>“He and I have been working on it together, and—it’s going through!” -said the office manager impressively.</p> - -<p>“What does father say?” Estelle was thrilled more by the solemnity of -Mr. Cooper’s manner than by his words, for she had no idea what it was -Jimmy proposed doing.</p> - -<p>“That’s why it’s a secret, Estelle. We haven’t put it up to him yet. -But we’ve got it all ready—as near as we can without having broached -it to any one in the company. And we’re going to spring it in a day or -two.”</p> - -<p>The office manager was already sorry he had told the girl this much, -and he hastened to add:</p> - -<p>“You’ll be careful not to mention it, won’t you, Estelle? Not to any -one. It wouldn’t be very nice to have it get to your father before we -tell it to him ourselves.”</p> - -<p>Estelle frowned. “I told you I wouldn’t say anything. I’m not a -child.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t,” said Mr. Cooper briefly; and then changing suddenly, gaily -asked her when she was going to let him take her to the theater again.</p> - -<p>“Next Tuesday or Wednesday, if you like,” she replied. Then, as -another thought came to her, she added slowly: “Tomorrow’s our night -at the Metropolitan. Father said I could have all six seats. I -thought, perhaps, you and Marion would like to go with me?”</p> - -<p>“Fine,” agreed Mr. Cooper cordially.</p> - -<p>Estelle hesitated. “And if you say Marion likes this Mr. Rand, it -might be all right to take him, too. He would probably enjoy it.”</p> - -<p>The unconscious patronage in her tone was not lost on Mr. Cooper. -“I’ll ask him if you want me to,” he said with a smile. “He would -enjoy going, I’m sure.”</p> - -<p>“And I’ll ask two others,” said Estelle.</p> - -<p>“It’s ‘La Bohéme’ tomorrow night—it ought to be good.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chVI' title='VI—Two Discoveries'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER VI.</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>TWO DISCOVERIES.</span> -</h2> -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope, passing down the corridor this same Friday -morning, saw Mr. Cooper escorting the president’s daughter to the -elevator. It so happened that Jimmy, with a sheaf of papers in his -hand, came through a near-by door at the same moment.</p> - -<p>The office manager, with a heartiness of manner that surprised Mr. -Hope greatly, introduced Jimmy to the girl. The secretary was too far -away to hear what was said, but the friendliness of the girl’s -greeting was only too apparent. Mr. Hope turned abruptly and reentered -the main office.</p> - -<p>With this visual evidence of the firm standing in the company that -Jimmy Rand had reached, Mr. Leffingwell Hope cursed himself for a -fool. He should never have let that boy get a job with them in the -first place. It had seemed all right then; he had never supposed that -a kid like that from the country would last in business. And his -having been around the office would have been a good alibi.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope had always been convinced that something would turn up to -eliminate him—he would prove inefficient and be fired or something. -But that was just what Jimmy had not done—or been. On the contrary, he -had made good. He was still answering correspondence—but it was the -more important things that were given him now. And he had a way of -poking his head into every department of the organization. Even Mr. -Hope had noticed that.</p> - -<p>In late September Jimmy had been able to arrange a trip to one of the -company’s near-by factories, which was something Mr. Hope did not -learn until afterward. And he never knew that the real reason why -Jimmy went was so he could investigate the conditions under which -glass was made and apply them to some of the theories he and George -Cooper had worked out.</p> - -<p>The secretary was furious with himself for having allowed things to go -along this way. For some six months now he had been waiting for Merkle -to get the idea into shape. He had his own plans perfected—had -purchased with his own money a very likely coal property near Scranton -which he proposed to sell, at an enormous profit, to the Wentworth -Company.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope had never told Merkle about that. As a matter of fact the -secretary was just getting ready to show Merkle that he didn’t figure -in the scheme as largely as he thought he did. But first Mr. Hope -wanted to be sure the chemist had finished his investigations.</p> - -<p>Now with the realization that Jimmy Rand, the originator of the idea, -was, instead of being fired, apparently in a fair way of obtaining a -most unlooked-for prestige with the company, Mr. Leffingwell Hope -cursed himself for a fool. Whatever he was going to do must be done -quickly. He would tell the idea as his own to the president at once; -after that, just let them try to prove he hadn’t originated it!</p> - -<p>That same evening Mr. Leffingwell Hope called on the chemist in his -laboratory. Mr. Merkle, it appeared, was quite ready to go to the -president at any time Mr. Hope desired. He was indignant at the -secretary’s implication that he had been laying down on the job.</p> - -<p>“Any time you could ask me now, I go to R. G. and show him absolutely -how this plan works to save him big money. What more could I do, I ask -you? I do my part—you ain’t done nothing yet that I can see.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll do enough,” said Mr. Leffingwell Hope. “Mr. Wentworth’s away,” -he added. “He’ll be back Tuesday noon. We’ll see him Tuesday afternoon -sure. About two o’clock. You’ll be there?”</p> - -<p>“Positively I’ll be there—two o’clock,” the chemist agreed.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope hesitated. The time had come to show Merkle just where he -stood.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Ike,” he began thoughtfully. “Now that we’re all ready, we might -as well understand each other. As we agreed at the start, I’m to -handle this thing absolutely, and I’m to give you ten per cent of all -I make. Right?”</p> - -<p>The little chemist, his lower jaw dropping in astonishment, stared -blankly at Mr. Hope.</p> - -<p>“Ten per cent of any stock they give me, or anything I make on the -initial deal. That’s right, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p>It wasn’t right, and as soon as he recovered his power of speech, Mr. -Merkle said so, in the most emphatic words he could think of. -Fifty-fifty was what they had agreed.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope, with an injured air, stated a remembrance of their first -agreement that was totally at variance with what Mr. Merkle’s own -memory told him were the facts. And he remained obdurate—ten per cent -or nothing. Hadn’t he originated the plan? Wasn’t he prepared now to -handle all the business details? If Mr. Merkle didn’t like the ten per -cent he needn’t accept it; Mr. Hope would consult another technical -man.</p> - -<p>The chemist, seeing that anger got him nothing, turned to appeal. He -wheedled; he cajoled; he pleaded friendship—all to no avail. Ten per -cent or nothing!</p> - -<p>Then Mr. Merkle, seeing he was beaten, suddenly capitulated. “You -could make it ten per cent,” he said with a sigh. “But in writing; -when you say it, with me it’s no good any more—that ain’t business.”</p> - -<p>And Mr. Hope, smiling triumphantly, wrote it out in due form.</p> - -<p>Estelle’s opera party that next evening was a great success. Jimmy -found himself, to his great surprise, liking Estelle. She was -different from any girl he had ever met. She made him feel small and -inadequate, somehow, and he knew he would never quite lose the awe she -inspired in him. But he liked her.</p> - -<p>Estelle, on her part, liked Jimmy, mostly because it enhanced her own -self-importance to feel how she must appear to him. And so, on the -surface at least, they got along famously.</p> - -<p>During the opera Jimmy’s mind, in spite of, his efforts, wandered from -the stage. He found himself once looking back over his shoulder at the -wonderful “horse-shoe” over his head—that long, curving line of boxes -where the most brilliant ladies of the world’s greatest city were -sitting now. In the dim light he could see the little spots of color -that marked them. The great, crowded auditorium awed him a little; and -he felt, too, a curious exaltation that he should be there—Jimmy Rand, -of the Fallon Brothers Mine, a part of all this splendor.</p> - -<p>He wished Anne could be with him, or could see him there, in his black -evening clothes sitting between these two dainty girls. It seemed to -symbolize success to Jimmy. He <i>was</i> a success; he <i>was</i> going up the -ladder—making himself into somebody. He was conscious of a vague pride -in what he had achieved already, and he would have liked Anne to have -seen this tangible evidence of it, so that she might be proud, too.</p> - -<p>It never occurred to Jimmy that the sight of him at that moment would -have caused Anne any pain. Her letters to him had always been so -tenderly proud of his great accomplishments. She was always so -interested and pleased at his accounts of the things he did.</p> - -<p>When he had seen her the last time, hardly a month before, Jimmy had -not noticed, nor would he have understood, the new, wistful look that -was in her eyes when she had told him timidly that he was “growing up -into a—a real gentleman.” Nor did he ever know that she cried over -many of his letters before she sat down bravely to answer them.</p> - -<p>Jimmy would have liked Anne to have seen him this night at the opera. -He wrote her a glowing account of it the very next day. And little -Anne replied that she was very glad, and proud of him; and in a -postscript added simply: “I got the story of ‘La Bohéme’ out of the -library, and I read it, and I like it very much.” The pathos of which -was entirely lost to Jimmy.</p> - -<div style='height:1em;'></div> -<p>In the office the following Monday morning George Cooper came to Jimmy -in great excitement.</p> - -<p>“You were right to be afraid of this guy, Hope,” he announced without -preface. “I just found out—quite by accident—he’s bought himself a -coal property up near Scranton.”</p> - -<p>“What—”</p> - -<p>“Yes. I don’t know what it means, either. Maybe nothing. He’s got a -right to buy himself anything he pleases, I suppose. But it looks -suspicious. What does he want with it? From what I could learn, it’s -just the sort of place for your plan, too. Not a going coal mine; just -a farm with abandoned borings on it. It looks suspicious, doesn’t it?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy agreed anxiously that it did. “We’d better see Mr. Wentworth -right away, George.”</p> - -<p>“He’s away,” said the office manager. “He won’t be back till Tuesday. -We’ll see him Wednesday or Thursday; we’re all ready. Have you got -that last analysis? Was it the same as the other?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy nodded.</p> - -<p>“Then we’ll see him sure next week.” Luck was with Cooper and Jimmy -that morning, although they didn’t realize it then. Isaac Merkle -happened to stroll past them at that moment. A sudden thought came to -the office manager.</p> - -<p>“There’s Isaac Merkle, Jimmy. He’s a chemist. Let’s put him on this. -He may be able to advise us on something we’ve overlooked. It can’t -hurt anything now. Wait, I’ll call him over.”</p> - -<p>In spite of Jimmy’s protest Cooper summoned Merkle. The little chemist -sat down at the desk with them, and the office manager started to tell -him Jimmy’s idea. Mr. Merkle swallowed hard, with his eyes nearly -popping from his head. Then he abruptly interrupted Mr. Cooper and -began a series of swift questions, which threw both Jimmy and the -office manager into utter confusion.</p> - -<p>“Wait,” said Mr. Merkle, when finally George demanded an explanation. -“What was it the date when Mr. Rand came here?”</p> - -<p>The office manager consulted a little card-file on his desk. “He -started work on April 18—the next day after he first came in.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Merkle glanced at his little pocket notebook. Then without -preamble or hesitation, and with direct words unusual to him, he told -them all about his connection with Mr. Leffingwell Hope concerning -this same idea.</p> - -<p>“Well, I’ll be damned,” the office manager ejaculated, when he had -recovered from his first astonishment.</p> - -<p>Jimmy said nothing; but his lips were pressed very tight together; his -face was very white, and both his fists were clenched. If Mr. -Leffingwell Hope had chanced to pass by at that particular moment -there would probably have been a considerable disturbance of the -Monday morning office routine.</p> - -<p>Mr. Merkle dwelt with minute detail upon his own innocence in the -affair with Mr. Hope, as he had had no reason to suppose the idea had -originated anywhere but with the secretary. He expanded also upon the -dirty way in which he had been treated. He ended by pulling out his -notebook again.</p> - -<p>“I’m a methodical man, Mr. Cooper. Here is it the exact date Mr. Hope -told me his scheme—April 17—the evening.”</p> - -<p>“And you told Hope about it that same morning, didn’t you, Jimmy?”</p> - -<p>Jimmy nodded; he was still too angry to speak.</p> - -<p>“And Jimmy told it to me that same afternoon,” the office manager went -on; he felt the circumstances justified this slight inaccuracy. “So -you can see it’s a cinch where the idea originated, Mr. Merkle.”</p> - -<p>They compared notes still further. When the chemist mentioned that he -and Hope were to interview Mr. Wentworth the next afternoon as soon as -he returned from out of town, the office manager went up in the air.</p> - -<p>“And we were going to let it go till Wednesday or Thursday!” Mr. -Cooper whistled as he thought of their narrow escape. For if Hope had -broached the subject first and claimed the idea as his own, it might -have been difficult to disprove him. How lucky they had gotten hold of -Merkle this particular morning! And how lucky, too, that the chemist -was sore at Hope—and that he had jotted down the date of his first -conversation with the secretary about the scheme.</p> - -<p>Mr. Cooper brought his fist down on the desk with a thump. “We’ll give -this guy a run for his money. We’ll see the boss Tuesday afternoon, -right when he does, dammit, and have it out then and there. The point -is, Merkle, where do you stand?”</p> - -<p>Mr. Merkle had decided that some minutes before. He was not by nature -entirely averse to a crooked business deal—if it were not too crooked. -But he had learned from experience that the best place to be, if you -could choose, was on the winning side. And in this particular case his -judgment told him very clearly which side that was.</p> - -<p>“With you,” said Mr. Merkle succinctly. “You could count on me.”</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chVII' title='VII—Jimmy Plays Trumps'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER VII.</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>JIMMY PLAYS TRUMPS.</span> -</h2> -<p>The unpleasant scene that fate seemed preparing for Mr. Wentworth in -his office that Tuesday afternoon was avoided by the president’s -unexpected return on Tuesday morning. Mr. Leffingwell Hope, with his -plans all carefully laid, had taken advantage of his employer’s -supposed absence, and stayed away on business of his own.</p> - -<p>These two occurrences caused an eleventh-hour change in the plans of -Jimmy and the office manager. Jimmy was for avoiding trouble if it -were possible.</p> - -<p>“Why not go right ahead now, just as if Hope wasn’t in this at all?” -he urged. They talked it over, and decided that would be the better -way.</p> - -<p>“He’ll have a fine chance coming along all alone after us.” Jimmy -chuckled at the prospect. “Let’s do it right now, George, if we can -see Mr. Wentworth.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Wentworth would see them in half an hour. Then they hastily phoned -Merkle; the chemist promised to hurry right down.</p> - -<p>That half-hour of waiting was the hardest of Jimmy’s life. He went -over, seemingly for the hundredth time, all he planned to say to Mr. -Wentworth; and he chewed down all his finger-nails. It was decided -Jimmy was to do most of the talking; he wanted it that way; wanted to -put the idea over himself.</p> - -<p>The half-hour seemed interminable; but it was over at last, and again -Jimmy found himself in the president’s office ready to tell his big -idea.</p> - -<p>This second interview with Mr. Wentworth was as different from the -first as it well could be. For one thing, the president was in a more -receptive mood than he would have been before. Six months had put him -just that much nearer completion of his plans regarding the new -factory for the making of optical glass. The site had not yet been -selected; indeed, it looked as though finding a satisfactory one would -prove a difficult task.</p> - -<p>This time, too, Jimmy knew what he was going to talk about. He had the -facts—and he had the ability now to present them forcibly and -intelligently. Also he had George Cooper with him; and the technical -knowledge of Isaac Merkle to call upon.</p> - -<p>So Jimmy tackled the president with an assurance that lent force to -his arguments. The office manager sat with his chair tilted back -against the wall. Mr. Wentworth occupied his usual seat at his desk, -and Jimmy faced him across it.</p> - -<p>Jimmy had expected to ignore Mr. Leffingwell Hope and the part he had -played, but the secretary was injected into the conversation almost -immediately. Jimmy began by announcing that he realized Mr. Wentworth -had not been impressed with his idea when he had heard it before. Then -he went ahead and outlined it briefly.</p> - -<p>Whereupon the president, with a directness characteristic of business -men of his type, immediately rang his buzzer to summon Mr. Hope.</p> - -<p>“Is this what you told my secretary that first morning you were here, -Mr. Rand?”</p> - -<p>“Why—why yes, sir—nearly the same,” said Jimmy, surprised.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope’s secretary announced that he had not come in that morning. -The president frowned, tapping his desk with a lead pencil -thoughtfully. Mr. Cooper, scenting something wrong, spoke up quickly.</p> - -<p>“Pardon me, chief. There’s something peculiar about this that you -don’t exactly understand. We’d rather not speak of it now; Mr. Rand -just wanted you to consider his plan in relation to our new factory. -This other matter—about Mr. Hope—we know a good deal about that, too, -but we’d rather let it go till some other time.”</p> - -<p>“Strange, very strange,” said the president musingly.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Hope <i>did</i> tell you what I wanted that day, didn’t he?” Jimmy -ventured.</p> - -<p>“He told me about your mother’s potential gas-well in—Alberta, I think -it was.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy gasped. “Why—what—why, I never—”</p> - -<p>Again Mr. Cooper interposed.</p> - -<p>“Chief, listen,” he began vigorously. “Here are the facts: Mr. Rand -came into the company that morning to tell you what he has just told -you. At your direction he told it to Mr. Hope.”</p> - -<p>“How do you know what he told Mr. Hope?” the president snapped.</p> - -<p>“He repeated it all to me ten minutes afterward,” declared the office -manager unblushingly. “I was enthusiastic; I thought there was -something in it. Then, later, when Mr. Hope reported that you were not -interested, Rand and I thought we’d work it out together. That’s what -we’ve done, and now he’s ready to ask your opinion of it again. That’s -all we know about it.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Cooper waved his hand to silence Jimmy, and went on swiftly:</p> - -<p>“What Mr. Hope told you about it we don’t know. Evidently he didn’t -describe it very accurately, but perhaps that was because he thought -it unimportant, anyway. But Mr. Hope isn’t here now to explain his -actions if you think they need explanation. And, chief, I happen to -know that he’s coming in to consult you this afternoon on this very -matter. That’s a fact, chief, he is. You wait and hear what he has to -say, then you’ll understand it all. And Rand and I will both be here; -just send for us if you want us.”</p> - -<p>The president stared searchingly at his two employees an instant. Then -abruptly he resumed his former manner of attentive listening.</p> - -<p>“Go on with your scheme, Mr. Rand; you interest me.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy suppressed with an effort the anger that this new proof of Mr. -Hope’s duplicity had aroused in him, and resumed: “You understand, Mr. -Wentworth,” he interrupted himself when he had been talking perhaps -five minutes, “I’m not going to try and talk to you in technical -language. I’ve only studied these engineering problems a little with -George. I think I can make the thing clear in a general way, but I -can’t talk technically.”</p> - -<p>“I couldn’t understand you very well if you did,” the president -observed. “That’s always been up to my technical men.”</p> - -<p>“As I said, sir,” Jimmy went on, “the—”</p> - -<p>“The first problem is how you propose to burn the coal,” Mr. Wentworth -interrupted. “Tell me about that first.”</p> - -<p>Jimmy explained how they would bore down to the coal measures, just as -borings are made in prospecting. “This would be a small vertical -shaft,” he added.</p> - -<p>“How big in diameter?”</p> - -<p>“About twelve or fourteen inches. Then this shaft would be lined with -iron casing—”</p> - -<p>“Like an oil-well,” Mr. Cooper interjected.</p> - -<p>The president nodded.</p> - -<p>“At the top of this shaft we put a fan—just like the fan-house of a -coal mine, only very much smaller—to blow the air down. This is the -air-shaft; parallel with that we bore another just like it.”</p> - -<p>“How far away?” asked Mr. Wentworth.</p> - -<p>“The distance wouldn’t make much difference—say fifty feet,” Mr. -Cooper put in.</p> - -<p>Again the president nodded.</p> - -<p>Jimmy continued. “Then we blast a connection between the bottoms of -the two shafts through the coal.”</p> - -<p>This the president discussed at some length. “Why not put the shafts -closer together?” he finally asked.</p> - -<p>“No reason that we can see,” said Jimmy. “If they were closer it would -make the connection down below easier. This second shaft is the one -that brings up the gaseous products of combustion.</p> - -<p>“We’re going to use your regular regenerative furnace, or one -something like it. We can get you producer gas that is just as good as -any you’re getting—from the coal we burn in the ground, if we control -the air and steam right.”</p> - -<p>Although this was clear to Mr. Wentworth, it may perhaps need -explanation here. In modern furnaces, for the fusion of glass or other -operations where great heat is necessary, the process of combustion of -the fuel is carried on, not in one operation, as it is in the simple -furnaces with which every one is familiar, but in two distinct, -separate, progressive stages.</p> - -<p>The first stage takes place in a subsidiary furnace known as a “gas -producer.” Here part of the heat which the fuel is capable of -generating is utilized for the production of a combustible gas. In -other words the fuel is changed into gaseous form, but only partly -burned.</p> - -<p>A familiar example of this operation is seen in any ordinary fireplace -when the fire is first lighted. There is at first an inadequate -“draft.” This supplies the fire with an insufficient amount of oxygen, -and although the fuel—paper, for instance—is entirely volatilized it -is not entirely burned; there is smoke, which, if it could be mixed -with more air, and at a sufficiently high temperature, would burst -into flame.</p> - -<p>This was the process Jimmy proposed to carry on in the ground; that -is, only partly to consume the coal by supplying it with an -insufficient amount of oxygen. And it was the unburned coal gases—the -combustible smoke, in other words—that he proposed to pipe up to the -furnace at the surface—not the actual heat. The burning mine, hundreds -of feet down in the ground, was in effect to be his subsidiary -furnace—his gas-producer.</p> - -<p>These unburned gases, from the producer, pass, hot, into the furnace -proper; either directly or sometimes after being conveyed a -considerable distance—as they would have to be according to Jimmy’s -plan. In this latter event they cool off, but are heated up again by -the waste heat of the furnace.</p> - -<p>These hot gases, entering the main furnace, meet a current of hot air, -also heated by the waste heat of the furnace. The combination of hot -gas and hot air burns rapidly and completely, and yields very high -temperatures if properly proportioned.</p> - -<p>To the layman it may seem surprising that when part of the combustion -of the fuel takes place entirely away from the furnace—the heat of -this combustion being completely wasted—that a far greater heat can -subsequently be obtained. But it is a fact nevertheless.</p> - -<p>“How would you start the fire in the ground?” suggested Mr. Wentworth.</p> - -<p>“By dropping down incandescent coal,” Jimmy returned promptly. “And -then blowing air to it. You see—”</p> - -<p>The president raised his hand. “That’s only a detail. Then you really -think you could approximate a gas-producer with this burning mine of -yours?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir. By forcing down the proper proportions of air and steam. -You see, the hole in the burning coal-bed would gradually spread out. -But that wouldn’t make any difference, because it would only have two -outlets to the surface air, and both of them under control.”</p> - -<p>“The lower ends of your casing would melt,” said Mr. Wentworth.</p> - -<p>“What of it, chief?” Mr. Cooper interposed. “That wouldn’t hurt -anything.”</p> - -<p>The president considered. “No, I don’t suppose it would,” he admitted. -“It’s an interesting idea, especially if it would work. Have you -talked with any of our technical men? How about Merkle, seen him?”</p> - -<p>“He has been—” Jimmy hesitated; then meeting Mr. Cooper’s warning -glance, went on:</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir; he’s been studying it. He says it can be done; he knows -just how to do it.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, he does?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir. He’s outside now; we thought you might like to talk to him -about it.”</p> - -<p>“We’ll have him in at once.” The president reached for the button on -his desk, but Jimmy stopped him.</p> - -<p>“Just a minute, Mr. Wentworth—before you get Merkle. There’s another -point I wanted to make.” Jimmy still had his trump card, and he -thought this a good time to play it.</p> - -<p>“We understand around the office that this new factory you’re planning -is for the making of optical glass?”</p> - -<p>The president inclined his head.</p> - -<p>“And for optical glass you need a very good grade of sand; if it has -less than one-twentieth of one per cent of iron, and not more than -that of other impurities, it is satisfactory?” Jimmy was quoting -almost verbatim what he had carefully learned.</p> - -<p>Mr. Wentworth nodded again; his growing surprise and admiration for -Jimmy were evident from his expression.</p> - -<p>“Well, sir, when I found that out, I thought of a sand-bank that’s on -mother’s farm. It’s all sandy; that’s why it’s no good for a farm.” -Jimmy took a little bottle from his pocket and laid it on the desk -before the president.</p> - -<p>“There’s some of the sand, Mr. Wentworth, I had it analyzed.” He -produced a folded sheet of paper. “Here’s the analysis—over -ninety-nine and nine-tenths per cent pure silica.” He handed the paper -to Mr. Wentworth.</p> - -<p>“That’s mighty important, chief, as you know,” said Mr. Cooper -earnestly. “If you’ve got the fuel and the sand, that’s pretty near -everything, isn’t it?”</p> - -<p>The president glanced at the paper and the little bottle of sand lying -on his desk; then he sat up briskly.</p> - -<p>“We’ll have Merkle in here at once; see what he says. You’re certainly -interesting—mighty interesting. If it works—if it works—”</p> - -<p>“It’ll work, chief,” said Mr. Cooper confidently, as the president -rang his buzzer to summon Isaac Merkle.</p> - -<p>The conference with Mr. Merkle lasted over an hour. The little -chemist, forgetting the unsavory circumstances under which he had been -induced to begin work on Jimmy’s plan, plunged into a discussion of it -with enthusiasm. His ideas, as he outlined them now to Mr. Wentworth, -did not differ in any large essential from the way in which Jimmy had -explained how it should be done.</p> - -<p>Mr. Merkle was sure that coal burning under control in the ground -could be made to yield gas of a very satisfactory quality. In his -opinion the main furnaces that had already been decided upon for the -new optical glass factory could be used, unchanged.</p> - -<p>The president raised the question of the saving of the cost of coal; -whereupon Mr. Merkle surprised Jimmy and George Cooper greatly by -producing a sheet of paper with it all figured out.</p> - -<p>“Of course y’ understand, Mr. Wentworth, I couldn’t know what this -coal property is going to cost you. But when you own it—here is the -saving according to the estimate we made of the fuel consumption of -this new factory. But, Mr. Wentworth, coal’s going higher next year; -it would be more than this.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Wentworth looked over the figures attentively. Then he showed the -chemist the little bottle of sand on his desk, explaining briefly what -Jimmy had told him about it. Mr. Merkle’s eyes nearly popped from his -head. Here was something he and Hope had never thought of. He waved -his hands before him expressively.</p> - -<p>“With that and producer gas next to nothing you got a cinch, Mr. -Wentworth,” he stated emphatically.</p> - -<p>The interview ended with the president thoroughly convinced as far as -he had gone. He declared himself intensely interested, and stated -definitely that if the thing continued to work out theoretically as it -seemed now it would—and as he himself admitted he thoroughly believed -it would—he certainly would see that the company gave it a fair trial.</p> - -<p>“Too good to pass up; we’d be the first in the field to use it, too.” -He chuckled to himself. “They’d never catch up with us.”</p> - -<p>The president then said he would go into the matter thoroughly with -several of his technical men and the other officers of the company, -after which the directors would pass upon it—only a technicality, for -he’d “shove it through, whether they liked it or not,” if he thought -it feasible himself.</p> - -<p>Then he shook hands with Jimmy, patted him on the back, and told him -he was a “good boy.” Jimmy had never been so happy before in his life. -A great lump came up into his throat; he wanted to tell Mr. Wentworth -how he appreciated the way he had been treated, but the words wouldn’t -come. He stood staring at the president dumbly, and was able finally -only to mumble: “Thank you very much.” After which Cooper clapped him -on the back and pulled him through the door into the outer office.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chVIII' title='VIII—Nemesis'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER VIII.</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>NEMESIS.</span> -</h2> -<p>It was half an hour before Jimmy recovered sufficiently to talk the -thing over quietly with the office manager. The very imagination that -had troubled him for so many years—that had made his life as a coal -miner miserable, and finally had enabled him to conceive this idea—now -descended upon him with overpowering force.</p> - -<p>He forgot Mr. Hope—forgot the opposition to success that he had -met—had still to meet. In his mind’s eye the plan had already been -adopted, put into execution. The factory was built; the coal, lying -there all these years idle underneath his mother’s farm, was burning, -and yielding up its precious heat for the great furnaces. And he—Jimmy -Rand, once only a mule-boy and miner in the Fallon Brothers mine—had -done it all!</p> - -<p>After a time he calmed down. First he must telegraph his mother and -Anne; then he must arrange to go home for a day or two and see them. -Since the man from whom he had to obtain permission to absent himself -from work was Mr. Cooper, Jimmy had no difficulty in getting leave to -go.</p> - -<p>He settled that point quickly, and then went into one of the other -offices to send his telegram.</p> - -<p>At lunch that day, which the office manager, Jimmy and Mr. Merkle had -together, Cooper planned what they should do that afternoon to settle -Mr. Hope.</p> - -<p>“Just let him alone,” said Jimmy. “You don’t have to do anything. -He’ll settle himself if you let him alone, can’t you see that?”</p> - -<p>Mr. Merkle was obviously worried. “What should I say if R. G. sends -for me?” he wanted to know.</p> - -<p>“Tell him the truth,” said Jimmy. “That’s the easiest thing you could -do, isn’t it? You’ve nothing to hide.”</p> - -<p>“And you make that date clear,” added Mr. Cooper. “Just as you did to -us. That’s the big point—show him that Hope told you the idea the -evening of the same day Jimmy first came in here.”</p> - -<p>Merkle nodded.</p> - -<p>“And when Hope comes to you after lunch now, don’t you put him wise. -You keep mum. Act just as if nothing had happened. Tell him you’re -ready to tell the chief all you know.” Jimmy chuckled at the double -meaning of this. “Just let him go ahead with his plans in his own way. -He’ll get his, all right, or I don’t know a thing about the chief’s -methods.”</p> - -<p>The chemist nodded again emphatically. “He tried to pull that crooked -business on me—that you couldn’t do to Merkle and get away with it.”</p> - -<p>“And listen, Merkle”—the office manager laid his hand earnestly on the -little chemist’s arm—“there’s going to be a lot of money in this if it -goes through—plenty for everybody. I’ll see you get what you earn—and -that’ll be a good slice. You know me, and you know the chief. You -don’t want <i>that</i> in writing, do you?” he finished with a grin as he -remembered Merkle’s account of his very last business transaction with -the secretary.</p> - -<p>Mr. Merkle offered his hand. “What you say it’s like a government bond -with me, Mr. Cooper,” he declared emphatically.</p> - -<div style='height:1em;'></div> -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope had his interview with the president, just as he -had planned. He went in alone, directing Merkle to wait outside until -he sent for him.</p> - -<p>Mr. Wentworth listened with his customary attention to what his -secretary had to say. His eyes narrowed, and his lower jaw came out a -little when Mr. Hope stated specifically that the idea was his own; -but he did not interrupt.</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope was very brief. He merely set the salient features of the -scheme before his principal; then he called in Mr. Merkle.</p> - -<p>The chemist entered and seated himself silently; his face wore an -expression of grim determination.</p> - -<p>“Explain my idea to Mr. Wentworth, Merkle,” said the secretary -grandly, leaning back in his chair.</p> - -<p>The chemist swallowed hard. This was an outcome he had not expected at -all. He looked at Mr. Wentworth, wondering whether he should go all -over what he had already said just that morning, or whether he should -make a clean breast of the whole matter. Before he could reach a -conclusion the president took the decision entirely out of his hands.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Merkle, how long have you been working on this?” Mr. Wentworth -had not changed his easy position at his desk; but his voice now was -very alert—low-toned, almost soft, but tense and vibrant. It was the -real Mr. Wentworth talking now: the man of action; the forceful, -dominant personality that had placed him where he was in the business -world.</p> - -<p>Mr. Leffingwell Hope noticed the change at once, and opened his eyes -wide with surprise.</p> - -<p>“Be exact, Mr. Merkle; I mean exactly what date, if you can tell, did -Mr. Hope first consult you about this?”</p> - -<p>The chemist pulled out his little notebook. “I’m a methodical man, Mr. -Wentworth; the exact day it was April 17 last, in the evening.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you.” The president jotted down the date, and reached for his -telephone. “Mr. Cooper, please. Oh, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Wentworth -speaking. What was the date upon which Mr. James Rand was first -employed by us? Yes; April 18? Thank you. Was that the day after his -first interview with me, according to your remembrance? Thank you.”</p> - -<p>The president jotted that down also, hung up the receiver, and turned -briskly to his secretary.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Hope, when you repeated to me that conversation you had on April -17 with Mr. Rand, did you repeat it correctly?”</p> - -<p>“Why I—why, yes, sir, as near as I, could remember it,” stammered Mr. -Hope.</p> - -<p>“Thank you.” The president rang his buzzer. “Ask Mr. Rand to step in -here immediately.”</p> - -<p>The girl was back with Jimmy in less than a minute. The president did -not ask him to sit down, so he stood just inside the door, looking -from one to the other of the three men, and wondering what was about -to happen.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Rand, Mr. Cooper informs me that you were first employed by this -company on April 18 last.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir—I don’t remember.”</p> - -<p>“His records show that. You do remember your first interview with me?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Is it your remembrance that it occurred on the day before you started -with us?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir; I’m sure of that.”</p> - -<p>“When you left me that morning, you went directly into Mr. Hope’s -office?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p>“And you told him the business that you had wanted to tell me?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Was it what you told me this morning—in substance, I mean?”</p> - -<p>“Why, yes, sir, of course.”</p> - -<p>“Did you mention a gas-well in Alberta?”</p> - -<p>“No, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Has your mother any property in Alberta?”</p> - -<p>“No, sir.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you.” Mr. Wentworth turned again to his secretary. Mr. Hope had -paled visibly.</p> - -<p>“Half an hour after you dismissed Mr. Rand you repeated his -conversation to me, Mr. Hope. It is my remembrance that it concerned a -natural gas strike in Alberta, near property held by this young man’s -mother. Is that correct?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir, I—yes, as near as I can remember it,” said Mr. Hope.</p> - -<p>“You said nothing to me about burning coal without mining it. I assume -he said nothing to you along those lines.”</p> - -<p>“No, sir, he did not.” Mr. Hope answered more firmly this time.</p> - -<p>“Just a moment, Mr. Rand.” Jimmy’s anger was proving too much for him; -he had taken a step forward toward Mr. Hope, with his fists clenched.</p> - -<p>The president went on swiftly:</p> - -<p>“Thank you, Mr. Hope. I think I understand the circumstances now. You -may go, gentlemen.” The president indicated Mr. Merkle and Jimmy.</p> - -<p>“Mr. Hope,” he went on, when they were alone, “for some years you have -been my secretary. I have had no cause to criticize your work unduly, -nor do I think I have treated you unfairly as an employer.</p> - -<p>“What has just transpired needs no additional words between us. It is -entirely self-evident. Explanations are futile, recriminations idle. -As you know, Mr. Hope, integrity of character is one thing this -company demands above all else. For a person without it there can be -no place in this organization. I must ask you therefore to let me have -your resignation, to take effect immediately.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Hope stood up. He hesitated an instant, then met the president’s -eyes squarely.</p> - -<p>“Very well, sir. If that is what you wish, you shall have it at once.”</p> - -<p>Then with a punctilious little bow, he turned and left the office.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - -<h2 class='nobreak' id='chIX' title='IX—The Mainspring of Endeavor'> - <span style='font-size:1.2em'>CHAPTER IX.</span><br /><span style='font-size:1.1em'>THE MAINSPRING OF ENDEAVOR.</span> -</h2> -<p>One morning, some two years after Mr. Leffingwell Hope was thus -summarily dismissed from the Wentworth company, Mr. James Rand, -assistant general manager of the Wentworth Optical Glass Company, was -seated in the private office of Robert G. Wentworth, president of the -parent organization.</p> - -<p>They had been two eventful years to Jimmy. For five months after his -momentous second interview with the president, the technical men of -the company had worked on the plan, making endless experiments. Then -there was the investigation of Mrs. Rand’s property. Additional -borings were made. The coal measures were estimated as to quantity and -extent, and the sand was similarly valued.</p> - -<p>With Jimmy’s mother the company dealt in a strictly businesslike -manner. Her property was purchased. She received an adequate amount in -cash, and a substantial block of stock in the new company.</p> - -<p>Then the legal department of the company took the matter up, and -innumerable applications for patents covering the special apparatus -that had been devised were made.</p> - -<p>Then the board of directors of the Wentworth company met, and plans -for the organizing and financing of a new company were outlined.</p> - -<p>Jimmy had not realized there were so many technical, legal, and -financial things in the world to do, let alone apply them all just to -one project—and especially to <i>his</i> project.</p> - -<p>Jimmy, of course, had taken no active part in all this; but Mr. -Wentworth seemed desirous of having him in touch with it all, and he -was present at most of the conferences.</p> - -<p>During all this time Jimmy had continued in the employ of the -Wentworth Company, and at the end of the first year his salary was -fifty dollars a week. He no longer answered correspondence, but at the -president’s suggestion devoted his entire time to learning all there -was to know about the glass business—the making of optical glass -particularly.</p> - -<p>Then one day Mr. Wentworth had handed him a neat little -stock-certificate assigning to him an equal number of shares in the -new company with his mother. At the same time he was informed that his -position with this subsidiary company would be that of assistant -general manager, at a yearly salary of eight thousand dollars—which, -Mr. Wentworth said, patting him on the back, “For a kid like you, is -going some.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Cooper and Isaac Merkle both received stock, and the former a -position with the new company also.</p> - -<p>So matters stood when at last the new factory was put into successful -operation. And thus, from the brain of Jimmy Rand, coal miner in the -Fallon Brothers’ mine, came into being the first of the new factories -for the utilizing of coal without mining it. Coal was still mined, of -course, for the world had thousands of uses for it besides the needs -of factories. But Jimmy’s big idea used coal that never could have -been mined. And it postponed, for many years, that inevitable day when -the world’s coal supply was finally to come to an end.</p> - -<p>Mr. James Rand smiled cheerfully at his president, this morning in Mr. -Wentworth’s office, and the president, lighting himself another cigar, -smiled cheerfully back at his youthful protégé.</p> - -<p>“You always thought you were going to put it over, didn’t you, Jimmy?” -Mr. Wentworth was saying.</p> - -<p>Jimmy’s smile broadened to a grin. He looked fully six years older -than when he had first come to New York, a trifle heavier, and -infinitely more sophisticated; but he still had his ingenuous manner.</p> - -<p>“Yes, sir, I did,” he admitted.</p> - -<p>The president eyed him with affectionate appraisal. “You’re a pretty -smart kid—in some ways.”</p> - -<p>“They’ve been telling me that so much I’m getting to believe it,” said -Jimmy.</p> - -<p>Mr. Wentworth paused. Then, with a quizzical smile, “You’ll be getting -married I suppose, now that you’ve got a start in life.”</p> - -<p>The telephone rang sharply, and the incident closed. But it was enough -for Jimmy. With sudden realization he saw how foolish—how unfair, -perhaps—he had been. For during these past two years, since that first -morning Mr. Cooper introduced them, he and Estelle had become very -good friends.</p> - -<p>He had found the president’s daughter, when he got to know her better, -quite a likable girl; he was ashamed of his first impression of her. -As a matter of fact, Estelle was no different than she ever had been, -or ever would be. But Jimmy soon became the most promising young man -in her father’s company, if not of her entire acquaintance. She did -not exactly “set her cap for him”—she was too proud for that—but she -did seek his society upon every possible occasion.</p> - -<p>Jimmy had always imagined somehow that Estelle knew all about Anne; -but now he realized, with a sudden shock of surprise, that she -didn’t—couldn’t—for certainly he could never remember any specific -occasion when he had mentioned Anne—either to Estelle or to anybody -else. His love for Anne had always seemed so sacred, so far removed -from his business life in the city, that the impulse to tell of it -never had come to him.</p> - -<p>But now he suddenly found himself wondering what Estelle thought of -him. And that led him to consider what Anne might have been thinking -also. Dear little Anne! He had loved her so much always that he had -sometimes forgotten to tell her much about it. Instead, he had -described the wonderful business things that were happening to him—his -life in the city.</p> - -<p>And the things he and Estelle were doing—the opera, the theaters, and -all that—he had told it all to Anne with a great personal pride, -because it seemed to typify his own success.</p> - -<p>How Anne must have felt! Jimmy felt himself very small and mean when -his reflections reached this point. He had thought he had learned a -lot; but he could see now there were many, many things in life he had -yet to learn.</p> - -<p>Jimmy took the train for Menchon that same afternoon. He stayed there -three days. They were the three most important and wonderful days in -his whole life, notwithstanding the wonderful things that had already -happened to him.</p> - -<p>On the afternoon of the fourth day he was back again in New York, and -in Mr. Wentworth’s office. But this time he was not alone, for he held -firmly by the hand the shyest, prettiest, dearest little girl in all -the world.</p> - -<p>Anne was dressed in a mart little tailor-made suit. She wore her hair -up now, but her face still had that startled, shy look that always -made her seem, to Jimmy, anyhow, just like a sweet, half-frightened -little child.</p> - -<p>Jimmy was somewhat a privileged character by this time in the -Wentworth company, and he entered Mr. Wentworth’s office without much -ceremony. It so happened that at that moment its only two occupants -were the president and his daughter.</p> - -<p>Just inside the doorway Jimmy paused abruptly, with an apology on his -lips. Anne stood close beside him, holding tight to his arm.</p> - -<p>What Jimmy said by way of introduction is unimportant. But he finished -with:</p> - -<p>“And—and this is Anne—I mean my—my wife—Mrs. Rand. We were married -yesterday. And—and now we’re going away for a month—we’re going to -disappear. I wanted to tell you so you’d know where I was. And I -wanted you both to meet Anne.”</p> - -<p>He paused an instant, looked down into Anne’s adoring eyes, that -stared up into his face just as they always used to, and went on with -a rush:</p> - -<p>“You think I’ve put over something big with this company, don’t you, -Mr. Wentworth? You’ve said so, anyway. Well, I never would have been -able to do it only for Anne; she made me want to do it. She deserves -all the credit.</p> - -<p>“You’ll have to thank her, Mr. Wentworth.”</p> - -<p>And since all his life Jimmy believed that to be so, it probably was.</p> - -<div class='ce'> -<div style='font-size:0.8em;'>(The End.) </div> -</div> -<div class="tn"> - <p style='text-indent:0'>Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in - the July 10, 1920 issue of <i>The Argosy</i> magazine.</p> -</div> -</div> -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIG IDEA ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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