Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-11-09

taxi driver" (Slason thought a humor-
GUS thought, but did not express it,
II never tried to get into anybody's
place before, never in my life. And
what do you suppose l wanted in your
old shop? Some copper wire"
"To sell, eh?"
"To sell? No! For this"
There was an old black handbag on
the ground beside him that the repair
man had scarcely observed before.
Now the boy pried it open and pro-
duced a small model of a motor.
II had a pal In Michigan" said the
boy, land we worked this motor out,
all but n thing-it won't rum"
'eThat's quite some drawback"
~'But If she ever does runi" SAID tie
boy, patting the model and smiling
with the enthusiasm of the inventor,
"she will be some motorl"
"But there's good motors in automo-
biles now"
Automobile? Air-o-planei It was
more my pals idea. We're in pardners.
Funny thing, but he come into our
garage looking for some copper wire,
too. I saw he wasn't 10 bum-no real
bum. / give him the wire, and a place
to sleep. One night he let me in on
1t. Well, sir, we got so interested that
I jumped my job, and we tried to fig
ure this thing out. We thought we
could do it In a few days. Then he
says to me, We'll beat it to MuskegoD
or Dayton or Detroit or somewhere,
and see If we can't pick up a little in
formation around the shops And beat
1t we did, working on the little inven-
ton, it's really his invention, when
ever we got a-chance. Then we got
separated"
Separated? HowY
"Never mind how. But I beat 1t on
to Dayton, and I learned a few things
down there. Say, I worked right along
side of this man Kettering, the wizard
of Dayton and he never knew that I
was working in his old shop, and that
I was working on a motor, too"
"What was you trying to do-steal
his ideas?"
81 should say not!-and all Ketter-
ing cares, anyway, is that somebody
makes a better motor than has been
made yet him, or somebody"
sTet me see it." said the repairman.
The boy hesitated a moment, with the
inventors suspicious caution, and
looked the old mar keenly in the eye.
Then he passed 1t to him. you're the
first guy that ever saw it."Asaid the
boy, "except me and my pal"
The old mar turned it over in his
hands, slowly, carefully. He held 1t
up in the dawning light and looked at
1t from every angle. Then suddenly a
flash of inspiration leaped into his
eyes. 1t seemed to light his whole
body, just as the sun, rising over the
hills to the East, suddenly lighted the
whole world.
In the house Matte awoke and was
soon busy preparing the breakfast.
Her husband often got up quietly and
took ga turn around before he ate, so
his absence did not concern her. But
when the breakfast hour was past, she
began to search for him. He was not
up or down the road. He was not on
the postoface steps. He must be In
the shop.
He was and, to Mattie's surprise,
there was a rough-looking stranger
with him; they both were very busy
with a lot of tools and wire and things
that were beyond her comprehension
"Come in to your breakfast" she com
manded.
At the word 'breakfast" the gaunt
young man lifted his head for an in
slant. He had not eaten at a table In
three weeks. But his head bent again
Slason gave no sign.
Matte knew that mood. 1t was hel
only rival. She had had many jousts
with it-many in her early married
life, but few in her later years-ano
the rival had always won. When Sla
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