Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 1 — page 48: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

38 anxious to drill on his mother’s place and put a factory there if we were lucky enough to bring in a well. anyway—he talked so wild I couldn’t fol- low him exactly.” The president smiled. ‘“ Why didn’t you tell him about the McKeesport gas wells— that’s a little nearer home. They’re bring- ing one in every day down there.” ‘“T promised him I’d tell you what he said, so I’m doing it, but you know—”’ Mr. Hope waved his hand vaguely. “ Karnest-looking boy,” said Mr. Went- worth. ‘ Tell him I’m sorry—not inter- ested.” Isaac Merkle was a consulting chemist who did a considerable amount of. work for the Wentworth Glass Company. He lived and worked in a six-room flat on the top floor of a tenement house in that some- what unsalubrious section of New York known as Hell’s Kitchen. His laboratory consisted of one large room that had been formed by knocking down the partitions of three smaller rooms; it was in the other three rooms that Mr. “Merkle, who was a bachelor, lived alone. The laboratory was a long, bare room, with a skylight. It was furnished with two long wooden tables, littered with chemical apparatus, several small chairs, and a wooden table. There was a large soapstone sink over at one side, and a long, low shelf down one wall, with a row of villainous- looking bottles upon it. To this laboratory, by appointment, came Mr. Leffingwell Hope that very same eve- ning. Mr. Merkle, as agreed, was quite alone when the secretary arrived. The chemist was a fat, middle-aged little man, with a round, very red, smooth-shaven face, an over-large nose, and mouse-colored hair _ with a bald spot on top. Mr. Leffingwell Hope, seating himself uncomfortably on one of the little wooden chairs, was at some trouble just how to begin the business that had-brought him. ““Tke,” he said finally, “‘ I’ve got an idea that might, if it is any good, make us a lot of money.” He hesitated; and then, feel- ing that frankness would be his best policy, went on: Something like that, THE ARGOSY. “Tm going to tell you all about it— everything I know. I want your advice in the first place, and then, if the idea’s any good—which maybe it’s not—we’ll go in it together—share and share alike,no matter what we have to do to pull it through. That O. K.?” _ “The way you talk it’s crook stuff,” said Mr. Merkle. ‘‘ You couldn’t scare me if it’s to be made real money. Shoot.” “Tt isn’t crooked,” the secretary hast- ened to assure him. ‘ But it’s a matter re- quiring, for the present, absolute secrecy.” “Shoot,” said Mr. Merkle again. The secretary hesitated. He didn’t ex- actly trust Mr. Merkle. He realized that he had nothing but an idea to tell. If the idea was worth anything at all it was a big thing. He thought it best to set this forth frankly to his friend at the outset. “To hell with that argument,” said Mr. Merkle, interrupting him, though without sign of resentment. “I ain’t never double- crossed a friend yet. If you couldn’t be- lieve it shut up before you start.” Feeling that he had to be satisfied with that, the secretary went ahead and recount- ed briefly the whole story of Jimmy’s idea. Only he did not mention Jimmy—but set it forth as his own. The chemist listened attentively, with his eyes fixed on his companion’s feet. | ‘Well, go on, Ike, what.about it?” said the secretary impatiently, after a moment. ‘“Tve been thinking about it quite a while. ~ Is it any good?’ ’ “You could do it,” said Mr. Merkle with deliberation. “How?” The secretary’s eyes sparkled, but without waiting for his question to be answered he went on to name all the objec- tions he had pointed out to Jimmy. ‘You ask me could it be done and right away you tell me why you couldn’t do it,” said Mr. Merkle. “Well, all right, then. How?” “ All what you say about piping up heat is bunk,” the chemist declared. ‘“ You couldn’t make a fire four hundred feet in the ground and melt glass with it so far away.. Bunk. But listen, Leff, here is it what you could do—in the ground you start a fire—” comicloook C@