The Coolidge examiner., 1932-04-15
CHAPTER III-Continued

All the buOyancy and confidence
that had marked his manner while
he talked about the invention was
gone now. He was again the shabby,
necessitous failure he had looked
when he took his seat beside Ed
wards desk.
Edwards heart sank. "Well," he
said, trying to speak cheerfully,
lets come down to figures. It's
just a question of arithmetic now,
you know"
1t turned out just about as he'd
guessed. The policy was worth
little over fourteen hundred dollars.
He wrote it on slip of paper and
slid 1t across the desk to Mariner.
1T isn't so much as you hoped" he
remarked, "but still it's a tidy little
sum. 1t ought to help"
Mariner read the figures without
reaching to pick up the slip they
were written on. He didn't move
at all. He looked as if he couldn't
move. All the vital force seemed
to have gone out of him. He spoke
in a daZe. 1T won't do me any
good. I'm done for If l can't get
more than that.
Il didn't tell you that story for
nothing" he went on after another
silence. Il told it so that could
get something besides the cut-and-
dried treatment. / know that a big
insurance company like this has it's
rules and regulations. But / know
that man in your position, II he
wants to do 1t, can find some rule
that will justify him in dealing with
a special case. This is a special
case; you can't help seeing that. If
you don't see it, come down to my
factory. Take ride in my car out
here. Drive it yourself. My Cd,
man, you don't think I'm going to
drop this now! After three years.
When all ii wants is one more push
to put it over the top of the hill.
You won't turn me down without
taking at least a look-will you?"
A queer thing happened to Ed
ward. He began explaining, as he'd
explained a hundred times before.
that the essence of the insurance
business was that it didn't recognize
exceptions to rules. Neither the
merits of Mariners device nor the
urgency of his needs entered into
the case at all. He could have four
teen hundred and odd dollars If he
wanted it, and that was all.
1t was not surprising that a
stricken look came into Mariners
wistful brown eyes. Edward was
used to seeing people look like that
The astonishing thing was that he
heard himself adding, as the man
leaned forward to rise from his
chair, However, I'll turn the
thing over in my mind. and if
there's anything more that can be
done. ="
A sudden blaze of hope in the in
ventor's face stopped him short.
After moments pause he added
irritably, You're not to build on
that. Probably l shouldn't have
said it. Bot I'll call you tonight or
tomorrow morning"
Edwards job had never seemed so
barren or so nearly uncomfortable as
it seemed today. He felt he was an
autOmaton. He wondered fantas-
tically whether it would be possible
TO build an actual automaton out of
cOgs and levers, some sort of super
adding machine, that could take his
job away from him, do everything
that he did. He gave the notion a
further twist of irony. There was
no danger; it would cost a lot of
money. He. Edward Patterson, the
human machine, came cheaper.
Why did he stick? Why did he
keep up the pretense? What was
there in it for him anyway? A live
lihood, of course; probably his only
one. But what was there in the
prospect of his life to make it worth
going on with for another twenty
five years? 1t frightened him to
think thoughts like that. There was
no good to be got from it.
Recurrently, during the day, he
wondered why he had flung that
last scrap of hope to Mariner. 1t
was a cruel thing to have done,
really. Had he done it from mere
cowardice or from vanity? 1t must
have been, he thought, from one or
the other. He was sorry for Mar
liner. 1t wasn't often that any call