ne? The waste in coal really used
to worry him. He was always afraid of a coal famine, and he spent a lot
of time doping out ways to stop the waste in mining. He was just daffy
about it, then."

"I can remember that, too," the boy said reminiscently. "He had pictures
showing how quickly the coal was being used up, and how much coal every
person in the United States was consuming, and all that sort of stuff.
It was always mighty interesting to me. Your dad and I got along finely
together."

"You did," his friend agreed. "Well, after a while, Dad decided to drop
his business in 'Frisco and go mining. He'd always kept close tabs on
the coal question, so that, when he got ready to start, nothing would
satisfy him but small holdings in half a dozen parts of the country."

"What for?"

"You see, Dad wasn't trying to make a pile of money out of mining; he
wanted to experiment with all sorts of coal and find some way to use it
so that there wouldn't be so much waste. The locomotive, for instance,
only converts about thirty per cent. of the coal into power. The other
seventy per cent. goes up the smokestack. Same thing with an ocean
liner."

"I know," said the boy.

"All right. So Dad bought a mine in Illinois, and one in Manitoba, and
took a half-share in some Minnesota mines and another in a Michigan
mine. Then he joined a company in Pennsylvania, and I don't know what
all. Anyhow, he's got stuff all over the place. It was out of the
question for the rest of us to be traveling from mine to mine all the
time, the way Dad jumps around, and so we settled here. It's sort of
central for him.

"Being mixed up in such a lot of mines, Dad had a chance to work out
some of his pet schemes. He'd always been enthusiastic over the
government's relations with the miners, and when it started rescue work,
he was one of the first to equip a rescue car and ask some of the
experts to come out and instruct his miners how to handle it. You know
Dad--everything he does, every one else has got to do?"

"He always was like that," Eric agreed.

"He's that way still. So, of course, I was elected to that first-aid
business right away. I had to know it all! There's nothing half-way
about Dad. Caesar's Ghost! How I slaved over that stuff! Luckily for me,
they sent out a cracker-jack from Washington, and it was such good sport
working with him that I soon picked it up. The next move was that I
should go from one to another of Dad's mines and or