ed out an outrageous old pipe. Roger closed the door, then
lighted a cigarette. The two smoked in the silence of old friendship
for a while, then Roger said,

"Dean, what do you know about solar heat?"

The Dean looked at him suspiciously. "The usual things. Why?"

"I'm not trying to trip you," exclaimed Roger. "I've read all I can find
on it, and that's darned little. You know those arrangements of mirrors
in an umbrella-like frame, focussing the sun's rays on a point at the
center, where the steam boiler is located?"

"Yes," said the Dean.

"Well, I don't believe the fellows that are working along that idea are
right. The mechanism is hopelessly complicated, unwieldy and expensive."

Erskine nodded, his gaze on Roger's dreaming eyes.

"Ever since I was a kid," said the boy, slowly, "in fact ever since the
factory went to pieces, I've had a pipe dream. It's sort of nutty, you
know, and I suppose you'll think it's childish, but--"

"Let's have it. I accept your apologies," said the Dean, smiling.

And so Roger was launched for the first time on the telling of his
dream. He was a little halting and incoherent at times, but his old
friend listened attentively. When Roger had finished, he said,

"It's a good dream, Roger, and sound in its general premises. Have you
ever got down to brass tacks with it and tried to design a solar
engine?"

"No, I've only a lot of notes and sketches. It always seemed to cost so
much that I never had courage to go any farther."

Erskine refilled his pipe. "I have a dream too. Only mine is in pretty
good working shape. My dream has been to turn out of this school men
who were practical engineers but who also had ideas. Men who were never
satisfied with a bridge, a motor, a gas engine after they had finished
it, but would be forever trying to improve it. Such men, of course, are
rare, but in the fifteen years I've been here, I've sent out five or six
lads who have given American engineering a real lift. I haven't come
across a fellow before though who had any concrete vision of the world's
labor problems in relation to the inventing game."

He fell to brooding and Roger waited patiently. Erskine finally looked
up. "It's a big dream, boy. Too big for you or any other man to put over
in a single generation. But we'll do what we can toward giving it a
start. You cut out junior laboratory and get to work on your designs.
When you finally get one that seems workable, we'll have the sho