White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-04-07
| longer No doubt it's just as well


thuslastic friends, including himself.
Now he was ordering two gross.
you're bringing luck with you, Mr..
Patterson" Mariner said. Its good
omen. Oh, 1 don't pretend I'm not
superstitious. The tides turning, l
tell you. l can see the little ripples
coming in" Edward stiffened at that,
and then smiled at his narrow-minded-
|, ness. An insurance man couldn't talk
Of luck-bringers and omens, to be
sure. But why shouldn't an inventor
be superstitious?
81 want more than your money In
here" Mariner said, after they'd talked
a while. 81 want you l know my
limitations. I'm no good at a desk.
I can't keep things straight. l can
pull, but l can't stay behind and push.
The business is going to need that
more, every day it grows. We'd make
a team l think. l have a bunch that
l went to the best man in the whole
city Of Chicago for exactly the thing
we need out here. Come out in the
plant and see what we've got"
Edward moved gravely about the
two floors with him. He didn't say
much. The workers probably regard
ed him as a cool, somewhat skeptical
observer. But behind the mask Of
sophisticated middle age, the bankers
manner and eyeglasses, was, If the
truth were known (and it was only
dimly suspected by Edward himself)
an ecstatlc small boy to whom the
mere champing sound Of the machin-
cry was delectable. He moved on
reluctantly from one station in the
process of manufacture to the next.
Over any one of them he could have
fingered indefinitely. This was real;
something you could hold in your
hands and feel the weight of.
With his hand on the office door,
Mariner paused. His grip on the
knob suddenly tightened-you might
have thought he was holding himself
up by it.
"Well," he asked, show about it?
Have you come to any decision?"
II suppose" Edward said out Of
tight throat, 81 suppose I really had
decided from the beginning. Yes, III
come with you"
Julia, as the days went on, contin-
ued to wonder about him. Sometimes
she asked him casual-seeming ques-
tions as to how things were going at
h0 fn
hours he so often kept. Sometimes he
was aware merely Of thoughtful and
even puzzled look in her face while
he talked Of such things as he could
talk about: young Eds letters from
college; Edith's activities in school;
the affairs Of their neghbors; munich
pal politics. Probably it did strike
her as little queer that he could talk
again. The long evenings Of frozen
silence were a thing of the past. The
home atmosphere was getting better.
Julia's questions, however patiently
they CROPPED beneath the surface. didn't
rouse the old defensive resentment in
him. They didn't even at random,
come anywhere near his secret. She
was on another line altogether.
Except in his day-dreams, he didn't
seriously contemplate keeping Julia in
the dark about his great adventure
until it's final and complete success.
Already, though he Rugged his secret
and exulted in it., he felt boyish i'm
pulses to let the cat out of the bag,
partly out Of the bag anyhow; to give
Julia a mystifying glimpse that should
be gone again before she realized
what it was.
Ten days or so after the signing of
the agreement he did give her such
glimpse. Mariner had been urging
him to put one of the chokes on his
own car, to the end that he might
really know for himself the wonders
it performed. Edward wanted it, too,
but he didn't know how to get it done.
He never drove the car into town him
self, and If he were to say sometime
that he wanted it for the day, Julia
would think strange things.
He thought of an audacious plan
for effectng his purpose, and one
night sprung it, with his best appear
ance of Indifference, on Julia.
"Tve been hearing about new
thing for automobiles lately" he told
her. "and l think I'd like to try 1t on
our car The factory is out on the
north side-in Ravenswood. If you
are free for an hour tomorrow morn
ing, you might drive in with me as far
as that and get it put on. Then l can
go on into town and you can drive
the car back" He wondered uneasily
if he hadn't been little too explana-
tory; but If Julia saw anything unnat-
ural about his manner, she forbore
to comment on it.
They put the plan into effect the
next morning.
Charlie Franklin, the foreman, came
out when they drove up to the ship
ping door. "We've got 1t all ready
for you, Mr. Patterson he said.
"We'll have it on in five minutes"
There was nothing about that to at