The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-01-06
BRoDERicK's INVENTION.


holidays. and No. III. who was ir for
dedication, had been explaining quietly
TO NO. 3,2 how easy it was for lot OF
gambling directors TO make bank cashie.
a scapegoat for their misdeeds-
Talking about scapegoats," said No
800, Il think l can beat your experience
! all hollow. 1t happened ike this. I'd
been in town about four weeks, looking
! for q job, tramping the streets all day
and reading all kinds OF advertise
nleRts. Finally L answered one win m
! 13. or something Ike that TO il, and in
few days got a letter asking me 10 call
a. an address il Blake street. / was down
II my last dollar about then and it didn
| take me half an hour to show up at the
/ place. The man who let me was a
I sGuare-jawed, solemn-lookins chap wear
ing d pretty swell smoking jacket and
! dressed ike man Of money. He took me
/ into the parlor and l saw right off that
the place was furnished to beat the band.
He wanted TO know what 1 could do,
and / had to admit that l had no trade.
unless you could call bookkeeping a
trade. Do you know anything about
chemistry or geology or mechanical en-
cheering? he asked OF course l dldn' {,
but l said I thought 1 could learn TO
help around at any kind OF work. DO
you know anything about tools. or inven-
tons? ne asked me. and when l said
TO, expecting to hear him end the deal.
he surprised me by saying, We'll, be-
lieve you're the very man I'm looking
for
Z He explained that he was an inventor
and had been busy for some time on a
continuance that would revolutioniZe GER
tain branches of trade and make him
enormously rich. His name was Brod-
erick, he said, and all he wanted me to
dc was to assume the ownership of the
contents of the fat, and keep visitors and
everybody away from the two back
rooms. He said that il l did exactly what
he wanted for three months he'd give
me a bill of sale for the furniture and
effects of the place, besides 81 a week
wages. to be paid every Saturday. i was
to stay in the fiat all the time except
while L was eating my meals. go to bed
I not later than 10 at night. and never open
/ up the rooms till in the morning.
THE two back rooms kitchen and
small dining-room, he reserved for HIM
self. saying that nobody but his wife
should be admitted TO them under any cir
cumstances. He admitted that he and
lis wife boarded in another place, and
that he was compelled to make arrange
ments of the kind mentioned for purposes
of absolute secrecy. ! generally work at
night he explained, my brain and hand
work better then. and besides I'm pretty
sure not to be disturbed. i so home about
Z in the morning
Il told him that I'd try to please him.
and we struck a bargain. l was to tell
everybody L had bought the flats con-
tents and that Mr.. Broderick had moved
away. 1t looked like very snug lay
out, and as he insisted that there was
ABSOLUTELY nothing for me to do except
tend the place as if II was my own, keep
out allivisitors except his wife and never
n ention the secret nature of his business,
L was delighted with the place. Then,
as a matter of good faith, he led me into
his locked rooms. They looked like a
machine or jewelry shop, all Uttered with
tools, cigar boxes, jugs. bottles and bar
rels. He had converted the gas range
into a kind of blacksmith's furnace, and
| noticed that the windows were boarded
Up on the inside. He gave me a bunch of
keys. showed me a pile of maya zines in
the front room and case full of books
all novels. and told me to go ahead and
try it for a week.
1T went all right for the first two or
three days. and then I began to get lone
some. i found I couldn't open the door
at the end of hte hall which led into his
laboratory and the empty house. with
nc company, began to get on my nerves.
. didn't know anybody in town, but Mr..
Frederick had expressly forbidden me to
have company. Sometimes in the night
when l couldn't sleep I could hear vague
sounds of tinkering from his quarters.
but | didn't see him again for nearly two
weeks. On Saturday morning | found my
wages in small yellow envelope on the
hall seat, and that night about o'clock
Mrs. Broderick-the wife-came to the
door. / knew her at once. because she
called me by name. said that her hus-
band had gone out of town for few days
and that she had no key to the rear en-
trance. l told her that 7 had none. either
but she insisted that try my best to let
her into her husbands laboratory l did
try. Jut failed. and she went away very
much annoyed. / thought, after asking
me if any visitors had called and if any
letters had come for them. Nobody ever
called and no letters ever came Even
Frederick let himself in and out by the
back door of the fiat, never came into the
forward rooms, and. SO far as | could dis
cover, never came to the building at all in
the daytime
After I'd been there about a month he
came in one night by the front door, look
ca cautiously and ii seemed to me- sus-
piciously about and said: Well are YOU
tired of your Job2 I had TO admit that
II was getting bit tedious. but he laugh
ec and said that If I'd stick it out the
three months he'd raise my wages to $40
q week right OF. And he did. But at
last. one night about midnight as l law
tC ssing-I never could sleep more than
six or seven hours in twenty-four-I sud
cenly heard his voice right at my elbow.
He asked IL / was asleep, and when |
said no. he told me he'd like me to step
irto his laboratory. IN give you another
raise he said. IF you'll do something for
me in the daytime. He had a lot of plas-
ter of paris and showed me how to make
i into a kind of paste. like clay and he
gave me a jug of acid and lot of old
pewterware and showed me how to polish
Vi. the metal. The next morning l no.
tieed that his door was open and / judged
that his intention was for me to get busy.
That day was Saturday. but | didn't ind
my envelope in its usual place But /
had some saved and wasn't worried, now
that had something 20 occupy my mind.
Brodericks didn't show up for another
week. and then. finding his doors locked.
concluded he had returned. Ny hands
we're all stained up with the acid and my
finger nails were chailly with the plaster.
but ! found my envelope that morning
with two weeks pay-thirty dollars-and
all in gold. | was surprised and delighted
you can bet. and that day at dinner time
j walked over TO the avenue and bought
myself new overcoat. got back 70 the
fiat my fat ! had commenced TO call
there was ring & the bell. / went 70
the door and saw two men. one the clerk
who had sold me the o-e-coat, and the
other a strapping. big Irishnan. with 4
fur cap and his collar turned W. I asked
them what they wanted. and FOR answer
the biz man put his fcot il the slightly
orened door and pushed IN. The clothing
clerk looked pretty scared. and ! guess
/ did too. bat the rrishT-an sat down
and e1-ulsirssf the whole truth
60 Yer silver amt 50 bad Iookin'.' he
said. hut yo- COLDS a dead gfre-5way.
Where's yer layout I Gidat under
stana frllv I'll ne tegan b search the