Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1934-07-14

I Turning away, he saw Nancy sitting on
the cane suitcase, head bowed between
her hands.
The poor kids father hadn't show
ed upl That was a shame for sure,
especially on Saturday night IN a woods
town ike Blackjack, Alabama. Maybe
the old man had moved away or some
thing.
Gid found himself padding the
strange waters Of Solicitude. He con-
soled the child. then drove her 70 his
sisters home.
Beatrice Shugrue, something Of q
younger-set leader in the narrow con-
fines Of town society, looked askance
when she discovered Nancys last name.
MY dearl She's that mans daug-
teri" she exclaimed in shocked voice.
Gid nodded slowly, plying express
sion coming to his countenance. He
remembered Cass Odom with a shiver
A big, stern looking, gaunt man in ov-
eralls-half starved, probably. He had
big I-shaped tin tower, what people
called q perpetual motion machine.
Clever fellow with any kind Of mach
inery. though. Probably Just q nut Ike
almost all inventors.
20, the dickens; what Of it2" pro-
tested Gid, struggling. The kids
hungry. III bet she hasn't had q bite
since breakfast"
Beatrice questioned no more. She
was not hard hearted. She raided the
icebox for a bountiful chicken supper,
and then saw Gid's blue eyed protegee
safely to bed.
During the rest Of the evening Gid
got an earful Of Cass- Odom's story
the tale of an aviation mechanic in
the war, who had been wounded when
the Germans destroyed an airdrome.
They had given him a decoration,
declared Beatrice, "and when he came
back here from the hospital Black
Jack gave him big reception. he had
always been inventing things, and I
think he invented something 10 put ON
an airplane engine TO make that engine |
go faster"
"A supercharger2"
But Beatrice did not know. She knew
only that he had finally lost his wife
and child through his folly In sticking |
to that tin tower and the crazy idea Of
perpetual motion. he farmed q miser-
able tract of piney-woods land, instead
Of going into a garage or an airplane
factory, where he might have amounted
to something.
20, I do hope he treats this little
girl decentlyl" concluded Beatrice.
when did you say her mother was
apt to get out Of the hospital?"
The eastern sky was still the hue Of
watered ink when Cass Odom arose
next morning. The sun machine, encas-
ed in the rusted tin tower, had stop
ped. Its waning power had been In
sufficient to close the thermostat valve,
so instead Of condensing above In the
comparative GOODNESS of summer night,
all the water which furnished propul-
sion to the feathery turbine lay in a
flat evaporation chamber at the bottom
Of the I-conStruction.
That's the weakest part Of it" he
moodily aloud. Even he had
no idea of Harvesting the tin giant
TO useful work unless It could be mag
nified ten, one hundred, thousand
times in size. AS 1t was, the nghteSt
pressure Of a finger stopped its drive
wheel from revolving.
If he only could grease 1t enough, get
oil on every moving part, perhaps It
would keep going long enough so that
10 his obsessed mind, there appeared
no reason why the machine, with nine
" per cent Of its water brought back
10 q height Of eighteen feet, should not