other try at this?" said the doctor.

"I cannot," said Deering. "I have tried, and had disastrous explosions.
In one moment the work of months has been shattered, and now, if I want
men to work for me again, they shake their heads, and refuse. It is of
no use to fence, Lee. I have staked my all, and almost my life, on that
contrivance, and I have failed."

"It can't be a failure," said Vane, suddenly. "It must go."

Deering looked at him pityingly.

"You see," he said to Aunt Hannah, "your nephew is attracted by it, and
believes in it."

"Yes," said Aunt Hannah, with a shudder. "Roll up the plans now, my
dear," she added, huskily; "it's getting late."

"All right, aunt. Soon," said Vane, quietly; and then, with some show
of excitement, "I tell you it must go. Why, it's as simple as simple.
Look here, uncle, the water's heated here and runs up there and there,
and out and all about, and comes back along those pipes, and gradually
gets down to the coil here, and is heated again. Why, if that was
properly made by good workmen, it couldn't help answering."

Deering smiled sadly.

"You didn't have one made like that, did you?"

"Yes. Six times over, and of the best material."

"Well?"

"No, my boy, ill. There was a disastrous explosion each time."

Vane looked searchingly in the inventor's face.

"Why, it couldn't explode," cried Vane.

"My dear Vane, pray do not be so stubborn," said Aunt Hannah.

"I don't want to be, aunt, but I've done lots of things of this kind,
and I know well enough that if you fill a kettle with water, solder down
the lid, and stop up the spout, and then set it on the fire, it will
burst, just as our boiler did; but this can't. Look, uncle, here is a
place where the steam and air can escape, so that it can't go off."

"But it did, my boy, it did."

"What, made from that plan?"

"No, not from that, but from the one I had down here," said Mr Deering;
and he took out his keys, opened the square tin box, and drew out a
carefully folded plan, drawn on tracing linen, and finished in the most
perfect way.

"There," said the inventor, as Vane lifted the lamp, and this was laid
over the plan from which it had been traced; "that was the work-people's
reference--it is getting dirty now. You see it was traced from the
paper."

"Yes, I see, and the men have followed every tracing mark. Well, I say
that the engine or machine, or whatever you call it, could not burst."

The i