CHAPTER XXIII
FAME COMES TO THE DREAMER OF DREAMS
Richard Galbraith returned thoughtfully over the Harbor Road not sorryat the turn affairs had taken. The honorable and magnanimous thing hadbeen done with the Lee fortune, and it had been firmly and proudlyrefused. Now it could go unreservedly to Robert Morton for whom thefinancier had a particular regard and in whose wisdom to make asensible use of it he felt every confidence. The money would not onlyplace the young man in a position to marry without delay, butindirectly its benefits would reach the two individuals that Madam Leewould most earnestly have desired to help. Nor did the capitalist'sregard for Delight, which had steadily been growing, decrease whenviewed from this new angle. The Lees were a proud race and the girlcame justly by the attribute. He was not sure, now that he reflectedon the matter, but that he himself would have scorned the legacy in thesame high-handed fashion. Nevertheless he had not expected thistermination of the interview, had not expected it at all. His recentlyacquired relatives were proving themselves interesting persons. Whowould have dreamed that a penniless fisherman's daughter would havetossed the Lee ducats back into his face?
He laughed to himself when he thought of the paradox. He had alwaysadmired spirit in a woman.
The car rolled on, flashing past swamps of swaying iris bedded deep inthe salt marsh-grass, past tangles of fragrant honeysuckle and garlandsof clinging clematis, and presently shot out into the sunny stretch ofroad that like a white ribbon bound the blue waters of the bay. Whenit reached the bluff where the sand mounted into green-capped dunes,patched in their hollows with shadows of violet, it slowed down andcame to a stop before Willie Spence's weathered cottage.
The old inventor and Bob were seated idly on the workshop steps. Nolonger did the vibrant hammer and purring plane blend their metallicnotes with the music of the surf. Their work was done, and until hewas "kitched with a new idee" Willie had nothing to do but smokebeneath the shade of the grapevine and rambler rose and watch the vastreach of water to the line where it melted into the blue of the sky.
Since his interview with Mr. Galbraith, Robert Morton had had all hecould do to keep from Willie the assurance that Janoah's accusationswere false and that instead of misfortune good luck was winging its waytoward the low gray house on the bay. Bob was a generous fellow and itadded tenfold to his present happiness to know that joy was also comingto one toward whom he cherished an abiding affection. The secret,however, was Mr. Galbraith's, and until the New Yorker saw fit toimpart it he must maintain silence. Therefore, with smiles wreathinghis face and the wonderful story locked tightly in his possession, hetried to be patient until the final revelation should be made.
And now with the approach of the capitalist he knew that at last thegreat moment had arrived. The dream of years was to come true and thedarling of Willie's brain, his greatest and most ambitious idea, was tobe made a potent factor in the broad universe. So perfectly did heunderstand the quaint, half-shrinking inventor that he knew well nomoney, no fame, no praise could mean to him what this recognitionwould. Persons were to use the thing he had thought out,--to use itneither because of friendship nor interest, but because it was apractical, indispensable article which no mind had previously given tothe world. In the days and weeks Bob had spent in the Spence cottageit was impossible not to read all this and more in the sensitive,hungering nature of the man who had worked beside him. Love andparenthood in its smaller and more specific sense had passed WillieSpence by, but in their place there had sprung into life a broaderaltruism and a larger creative impulse. The children his mind begotwere as much of his blood and marrow as if they had actually been bornof his own flesh; and to have one of them go victoriously forth intothat moving current that reached so far beyond his own humble doorwould be like sending a child into battle. It transformed the fatherto one of the elect.
Surely, thought Robert Morton, great and unexpected issues had centeredabout his visit to Wilton. When confronted by the present unfoldings,who would have the temerity to boast that one's destinies were mattersof chance?
"Well," called Mr. Galbraith as he came up the walk, "you two peoplelook comfortable. Is there room on that doorstep for one more?"
"Certainly, sir! Certainly!" Willie replied. "But wouldn't you ratherwe heaved a box or something out of the shop for you to set on? You'llfind these steps a good way down, I'm afraid."
"Not a bit of it," the New Yorker answered, dropping into the welcomeshade of the trellis. "You have deserted the shop, I see. Does thatmean your work is done?"
"Done an' delivered," smiled Willie. "We've discharged our cargo an'ain't took nothin' else aboard yet. We're just kinder ridin' atanchor."
"How did your friend, Mr. Brewster, like your handiwork?"
In spite of his native modesty Willie's bronzed face lighted with pride.
"Say, you'd oughter seen him!" exclaimed he, forgetting everything elsein his pleasure. "He was struck clean abeam! He never suspectednothin' about it an' the surprise took him broadside. An' it works!"continued the little man with enthusiasm. "Yes, siree! It works!That cockleshell of a _Sea Gull_ goes rippin' along through the eelgrass, her propeller clear and free as if she had twenty fathoms ofwater under her. It's as pretty a sight as you'd care to look on."
Mr. Galbraith watched the shining eyes of the inventor.
"Mr. Spence," he said, "that idea of yours is going to be a very usefuland valuable one. Have you thought of that?"
Willie flushed.
"Well," replied he with hesitation, "yesterday when I was shuckin'clams it did come to me that mebbe there'd be other folks besides ZenasHenry would like it."
"A great many folks!" rejoined the capitalist. "I am in a position toknow, because shipbuilding chances to be my business."
"So I was told," his listener remarked quietly. An expression of quicksurprise passed over the other's countenance.
"Yes," he went on, "both Mr. Snelling and I are interested in boats inour way."
"It's a fine job," Willie observed evasively.
"Yes, it is. Not only is shipbuilding a fascinating occupation but itis a patriotic one as well, for I believe the resurrection of ourmerchant marine to be one of the most important duties of our nation.Everything that works toward that end is a service to the country, inmy estimation."
"You're right, sir," was the rejoinder. "I'm terrible fond of shipsmyself. They're human as people an' as different. You can turn 'emout from the same model, but no two of 'em will ever be alike. I'vegot a little yawl down on the shore I wouldn't take a thousand dollarsfor. She's knowin' as if she was alive. I can tell to an inch howmuch sail she'll stand an' how much water she'll draw. She answers tothe tiller quick as a child to your voice, too--quicker'n mostchildren. I've had her for years, an' smooth weather or foul she ain'tnever gone back on me. Folks disappoint you sometimes; but a boatnever does." As if sensing that he was venturing on dangerous ground,he stopped abruptly. "So you build boats, do you?" he commented tochange the subject.
Richard Galbraith nodded.
"That's my calling," he assented. "And since it is, I am in a positionto handle things that have to do with boats of all kinds. That is whyyour motor-boat idea has interested me so deeply. I saw itspossibilities from the moment I first laid eyes on it, and I wish tocongratulate you on having given the public such a useful invention."
"It ain't got far toward the public," objected Willie, with adeprecating shrug of his shoulders.
"But it is going to," Mr. Galbraith declared with promptness. "Bob,Mr. Snelling and I have taken matters into our own hands and haveventured to have an application for a patent prepared--description,claims and all; and after you have sworn to the affidavit and affixedyour signature, we will send it off to Washington, where I haven't adoubt it will be granted. I thought this would save you the bother ofattending to it yourself."
Poor Willie was too amazed to speak.
"Now Galbraith and Company will
want the monopoly of that patent, Mr.Spence," hurried on the financier. "We are going to make you aproposition either for the purchase of it outright, or for its use on aroyalty basis."
With a supreme disregard for business, Willie wheeled on him before hecould go further and said simply:
"Law, Mr. Galbraith, you can use the thing an' welcome. Turn out asmany of 'em as you like. It won't make no odds to me. But thepatent--think of havin' a real patent on somethin' I've thought out!Just you picture it!"
He repeated the words in a soft, musing voice that hushed his hearersinto stillness.
"I never thought to live to see the day anything of mine would bepatented. That means that nobody else anywhere in the world ever waskitched by that same idee before, don't it? It's sorter--sorterwonderful an' gratifyin'. But if it hadn't been for the rest of youthat's helped me, the claptraption would never have been in any kind ofshape. 'Twould 'a' been just a hit-or-miss contrivance like the restof the idees I've got indoors. You see, I never had the schoolin' tomanage my notions, even when once I'd got 'em. I know that wellenough. So if I should get a patent on this thing, 'twould be mostlydue to you that's helped me, an' I thank you most humble." His voicetrembled with feeling. "After all you've done--the three of you--youwouldn't expect me to take money from you for usin' the scheme, wouldyou? Take it an' welcome, an' may it bring luck to your business! Butthere's one thing I would like," he added timidly. "If we should getthem patent papers from the government an' they ain't no particular useto you, I'd like to keep 'em by me to read over now an' again. 'Twouldsorter make it all seem more real some way, an' less as if I'd dreamedit. I've imagined this happenin' so many times an' woke up to find'twas only imaginin's."
The blue eyes softened into mistiness.
"To think of gettin' a patent! To think of it! Celestina will beglad. I'm afraid, by an' large, I've bothered her quite considerablewith my strings, an' spools, an' tacks, an' such. She'll like to knowsome of 'em went for somethin', after all. The Brewsters an' Delightwill be pleased, too. An' there's Janoah! Oh, Janoah must be toldright away, Bob, quick's ever we can fetch it. 'Twill clear the air'twixt him an' me, an' make us both happier. I ain't never been ableto convince him that if you put your trust in folks they seldom betrayit. Who knows but when he finds out what's happened he'll kitch _that_idee? If he should, 'twould be worth all the inventions and patents inthe world put together. Look for the best, I say, an' you get it everytime," continued the little old man, with a smile of exquisiteserenity. "The universe is full of kindly souls with hearts a-beatin'inside 'em same's yours. Meet 'em with your hands out, an' their handswill come the other halfway."
"It is a pity you can't take out a patent on that notion, Mr. Spence,and sow it broadcast," returned the New Yorker soberly.
Willie's gaze traveled with wistful and reverent faith across theother's face to the sky above him.
"Somehow," he murmured, "I like to believe that idee was patentedcenturies ago by One who put it right to work by believin' the best ofall us poor sinners. Folks ain't used the notion yet, much as theymight, but they're gettin' round to, an' the day'll come when not tobelieve in the other feller's soul will be like--well, like havin' amotor-boat without our attachment," concluded he whimsically.
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