roses in his hand. "You--you see," he went on,
endeavoring to speak in off-hand fashion, "I've been thinking things
over and--and--I've about come to the conclusion--"

"Yes," interrupted Willie eagerly.

"That it is perhaps better for me to stay here until we get the
invention completed."

"You don't mean until the thing's done!"

"If it doesn't take too long, yes."

"Hurray!" shouted his host. "That's prime!" he rubbed his hands
together. "Under those conditions we'll pitch right in an' scurry the
work along fast as ever we can."

Robert Morton looked chagrined.

"I don't know that we need break our necks to rush the thing through at
a pace like that," he said, fumbling awkwardly with the flowers. "A
few weeks more or less wouldn't make any great difference."

"But I thought you said it was absolutely necessary for you to go
home--that you had important business in New York--that--" the old man
broke off dumbfounded.

Bob shook his head. "Oh, no, I think my affairs can be arranged," was
the sanguine response. "A piece of work like this would give me lots
of valuable experience, and I'm not sure but it is my duty to--"

The little old inventor scanned the speaker's flushed cheeks, his
averted eye and the drooping blossoms in his hand; then his brow
cleared and he smiled broadly:

"Duty ain't to be shunned," announced he with solemnity. "An' as for
experience, take it by an' large, I ain't sure but what you'll get a
heap of it by lingerin' on here--more, mebbe, than you realize."

CHAPTER VI

MARRYING AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE

That afternoon, after making this elaborate but by no means misleading
explanation to Willie, Bob sent off to a Boston jeweler a registered
package and while impatiently awaiting its return set to work with
redoubled zest at the new invention.

What an amazingly different aspect the motor-boat enterprise had
assumed since yesterday! Then his one idea had been to humor Willie's
whim and in return for the old man's hospitality lend such aid to the
undertaking as he was able. But now Zenas Henry's launch had suddenly
become a glorified object, sacred to the relatives of the divinity of
the workshop, and how and where the flotsam of the tides ensnared it
was of colossal importance. Into solving the nautical enigma Robert
Morton now threw every ounce of his energy and while at work artfully
drew from his companion every detail he could obtain of Delight
Hathaway's stra