The Great War Syndicate

he train, and almost instantly his hand was grasped by an elderly man, plainly and even roughly

we, as they walked off. "Have you anything to sa

's nothin' happened, except, night before las

, suddenly turning upon his companion

fence would keep him off. No; he sailed over the place in one of thos

ove my glass roof and l

he had a good deal of trouble doin' it

lewe. "Or at least let fly one of the

in' that he managed his basket pretty well. He carried it a good way to the windward of the lens-house, and then sent it up, expectin' the wind to take it directly over the glass roof, but it shifted a little, and so he m

lewe. "Did you stay there and let

with him, and he was turnin' down his different kinds of lights, thinkin', of course, that he could see through any kind of coverin' that we put over our m

said he. "I suppose you

t squirts, and when these were turned on I knew there was no gettin' any kind of rays through them. A feller may look through a

few people in this world who would know anything about my new lens machinery even if they saw it. This fellow

m just as he was givin' up the business, and I have got a little photogr

e of him?"

into the woods. I thought, as you were comin' home so soon, I

said Clewe. "

there was a great round tower-like structure, with smooth iron walls thirty feet high and without windows, and which was lighted and ventilated from the top. This was Clewe's special workshop; and besides old Samuel Block and such workmen as were absolutely necessary and could be trusted, few people ever entered it but himself. The industries in the various buildings were diver

e place in comparison with the great problem he expected to solve, he had his moments of doubt. But these moments did not come fre

and his wife, and told him to take care of the place. From planning the grounds and superintending fences, old Sammy had begun to keep an eye upon builders and mechanics; and, being a very shrewd man, he had gradually widened the sphere of his caretaking, until, at this time, he exercised a nominal supervision over all the buildings. He knew what was going on in each; he had a good idea, sometimes, of the scientific basis of this or that bit of machinery,

although the old man understood, sometimes very well, and always in a fair degree, what the inventor was trying to acc

od pair of horses to any vehicle which one steered with a handle and regulated the speed thereof with a knob. Roland Clew e might devise all the wonderful contrivances he pleased, and he might do all s

every possible way-by fidelity, by suggestion, by constant devotion and industry; but, in spite of all that, it was one of the most firmly fo

gers, and those in charge were of the opinion that everything had progressed as favorably and as rapidly as should have been expected; but Roland Clewe was not satisfied, even though many of his inventi

ld devote himself to those labors in his lens-house the thought of