Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-12-16

lie reflected, put his palm up to his smooth
check. looked gravely down and gravely up
again, before he said:
u want to sell out to you for cash. !
gotta dig out of this? -
Harwood was half amused and half an.
noyed. PLENTY Of cash as soon as we get
the patents" he replied lightly.
Royalties and all that" Krom returned.
Take a long while to get all that going. I
want to sell out for cash. l gotta get away"
"Why?" HARDWOOD asked. with a faint
smile. ~
Krom put a hand up to his brow with an
unusual gesture, and was silent a moment
then again the eye with the cast in it seemed
especially to fix itself upon the lawyer.
II had some bad luck" he said delaber-
.ately. II killed Steinman up at Slow River
last Tuesday night He gave a sigh, but
his face was composed: while HARDWOOD. with
a thrill Of horror, stared at him.
"Of course, I didn't mean to-" Krom ex-
planned, looking at the. floor. but l might
as Well tell you, first as last, because you'1
be wanting Steinman's signature-I suppose:
wanting him to sign the patent applications
and fixing up the contracts and SO on. Sol
might as well tell you, first as last"
AS HARDWOOD stared >he thought. THE fel.
low'is lying!" Yet there was no real convic-
ton in the thought-only a catch at a straw,
1t was an accident" Krom repeated, eyes
TO floor. ut wouldn't have happened, only
I was drunk at the time. We'd got it fin.
.ished. 1t was all done. you see. OF course,
I felt good over that. l had half a case of
whisky left upfthere--in the cellar. timber
tied a taste for liquor. Every so often I go
on a bat. I was drinking all the afternoon.
steady.
Steinman, you know, was. IA nut-aside
from inventions. He was more like a monkey
than any man / ever heard Of. Childish
about a lot of thingss-no more nerve.n q
rabbit, You see. he'd got it in his nut. about
old man Curtin; thought Curlin'd be sure to
kill MIN. Curtin did come VI there and broke
into the factory one day-scared steinman
stiff. I told you about it,
He looked gravely up at HARDWOOD for con-
frmation, and the lawyer nodded. His lips
felt dry.
We'll, now that we'd got the invention
done. Steinman was nuttier'n ever about
Curlin-hadn't anything else to think about;
you see. So I told him to skip up to Sagi-
nav and stay a couple weeks until we got the
patent all fixed up and then he could 70 to
Germany If he wanted to. Anything to keep
him quiet, you see. He agreed to that before
dinner. He had kind of a Curtin At on. I
went over to his boarding house, and got his
dinner for him SO he wouldn't have to go
outside. And I was going to drive him up
TO Valley City In the, evening, where he;
could, take u train. We had 1t all. fixed MP"
In the pause that followed Krom again
audibly drew breath-a long. signing dnlnla-
ton. Again he shifted his glance from the
floor to the lawyers face.
1T made me sore. as hell-all that silly
fuss about old Curtin. I'd been arguing with
,Steinman all afternoon I kept looking good
\ snaturad. but it was making mo sore az hell
40 unreasonable. you know. And Steinman.
looking 20 much like a monkey. Long about
hnlf5 past eight he broke out all over aEain4-3
Nwhen 1t was pretty near time to start.