ermen launching their dories called to
one another, their voices floating upward on the still air with musical
clearness.

"Would you be puttin' in your vacation a-workin' all summer, Willie, if
you was the age of that young man?" repeated Janoah.

"He ain't here for all summer," protested the unhappy inventor,
catching at a straw. "He's only goin' to stay a little while."

"He was here fur over night at first, warn't he?" inquired the
tormentor. "Then it lengthened into a week; an' the Lord only knows
now how much longer he's plannin' to hang round the place. Besides, if
he's only makin' a short visit, it's less likely than ever he'd want to
put in the whole of it tinkerin' with you. He'd be goin' about seein'
Wilton, sailin', fishin', swimmin' or clammin', like other folks do
that come here fur the summer, if he was a normal human bein'. But has
he been anywheres yet? No, sir! I've had my weather eye out, an' I
can answer for it that the feller ain't once poked his head out of this
shop. What's made him so keen fur stayin' in Wilton an' workin'?"

Willie did not answer, but he took a great bandanna with a flaming
border of scarlet from his pocket and mopped his forehead nervously.

"That young chap," resumed Janoah, holding up a grimy finger which he
shook impressively at the wretched figure opposite, "is here for one of
two reasons. You can like 'em or not, but they're true. He's either
here to steal your ideas from you, or he's got his eye on Delight
Hathaway."

He saw his victim start violently.

"Mebbe it's the one, mebbe it's the other; I ain't sayin'," announced
Janoah with malicious pleasure. "It may even be both reasons put
together. He's aimin' fur some landin' place, you can be certain of
that, an' I'm warnin yer as a friend to look out fur him, that's all."

"I--I--don't believe it," burst out the little inventor, his benumbed
faculties beginning slowly to assemble themselves. "Why, there ain't a
finer, better-spoken young man to be found than Bob Morton."

Janoah caught up the final phrase with derision.

"The better spoken he is the more watchin' he'll bear," remarked he.
"There's many a villain with an oily gift of gab."

"I'll not believe it!" Willie reiterated.

Mr. Eldridge shrugged his shoulders.

"Take it or leave it," he said. "You're welcome to your own way. Only
don't say I didn't warn yer."

Flinging this parting shot backward into the room, Janoah Eldridge
passed