The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-07-03

Gle William. "Have you got that con-
tract with you, sir? Right here in
your pocket, mean? Because if that's
Forster coming up the stairs we're go
ing to need it."
Uncle William, speeches. for once,
felt in his poc'-et and nodded.
Martin went out into the entry and
looked down the stairs. Its Forster"
he said as he came back into the
studio. "Conley's carrying him up"
No one spoke after that and the
wait while Conley struggled with his
burden up those long straight flights
of stairs seemed endless
Forster, by the time he'd been de-
posted in big chair, was DIS breath
less and as nearly exhausted-with
terror that he'd be dropped. most like
ly-as the man who carried him.
"Well," he painted, I've come-on
some FOOLS errand, l expect. l can't
think of anything among the pro-
fessor's papers that I'd be especially
interested in, now" But his look
darting rat-like about the studio, be-
lied his words, and when it lighted
upon the little hat trunk surrounded
by the heaps of yellow sheets, it re-
manned fixed, fascinated.
81 thought" Martin observed, that
you'd be interested in these notes.
You must have seen something very
like them before-in the laboratory
= just after Professor Mcfarland died. :"
Possibly" Forster admitted. "rd
been financing him for four yea,
while he was trying to discover an oil
process. He died without getting any
where with it. l hired another man
and he discovered the thing almost at
once. 1t was very valuable dscov-
cry and I've made a great deal of
none. on it. The professor didn't
make it. He tried to and he failed.
don't believe that these papers you've
got here are worth anything. But if
they are worth anything and the pro-
fessor held them out, they're my prop
erty. He was working under contract
with me and he had no right to hold
anything out"
HE didn't hold anything out" Mar
tin said. '"There was nothing In tina:
trunk that you didn't find the exact
duplicate of when you took possession
of the laboratory. And to put it the
other way around, there was nothing
among the notes in the laboratory that
there wasn't an exact duplicate of in
that trunk"
whats that?" cried Uncle William,
so sharply that Forster started in his
chair.
Martin turned to Rhoda. Don't you
see how it was? Your father safe
guarded himself against the very thing
that finally happened. During the
whole four years that he worked in
Forster's laboratory he kept a daily
record, sort Of log. of everything he
did, of his experiments, of his calcu-
lations, even his guesses as hey oc-
CURED to hiI He wrote them all
down in tablets which had alternate
pages that could be torn out, and he
kept carbon copy of every note and
diagram, every pencil scratch that he
made. Every night he brought home
the dated carbon copies of that days
notes and threw them in that trunk.
THAT'S what he almost always did !:
ninety-nine times out of hundred.
But once in a hundred times it hap
pened that what he brought home
weren't the carbons but the original
penciled notes. From his point of view
it wasn't important which he brought
home. He had with him In his per-
sonal possession all the time an abso-
lutely complete record of all the work
he had done, against the chance that
Forster might some time try to beat
him out of his dues.
swell, he completed his process right
up to the outline Of the last confirma-
tory experiments. He had It right, at
last, the day before he died."
"You can't prove thatl" Forster
snarled.
you're going to prove It for me-
Martin answered, within five min
utes." Then he turned back to Rhoda.
Forster had his process and he