"Dear me," said Septimus. "Now that"s just what I enjoy doing."
Wiggleswick grunted. "I"ll turn on the tap and leave it."
The door having closed behind his body servant, Septimus laid his ivory rule on the portion of the complicated diagram of machinery which he had been measuring off, and soon became absorbed in his task. It was four o"clock in the afternoon. He had but lately risen, and sat in pyjamas and dressing-gown over his drawing. A bundle of proofs and a jam-pot containing a dissipated looking rosebud lay on that s.p.a.ce of the table not occupied by the double-elephant sheet of paper. By his side was a ma.n.u.script covered with calculations to which he referred or added from time to time. A bleak November light came in through the window, and Septimus"s chair was on the right-hand side of the table. It was characteristic of him to sit unnecessarily in his own light.
Presently a more than normal darkening of the room caused him to look at the window. Clem Sypher stood outside, gazing at him with amused curiosity.
Hospitably, Septimus rose and flung the cas.e.m.e.nt window open.
"Do come in."
As the aperture was two feet square, all of Clem Sypher that could respond to the invitation was his head and shoulders.
"Is it good morning, good afternoon, or good night?" he asked, surveying Septimus"s attire.
"Morning," said Septimus. "I"ve just got up. Have some breakfast."
He moved to a bell-pull by the fireplace, and the tug was immediately followed by a loud report.
"What the devil"s that?" asked Sypher, startled.
"That," said Septimus mildly, "is an invention. I pull the rope and a pistol is fired off in the kitchen. Wiggleswick says he can"t hear bells.
What"s for breakfast?" he asked, as Wiggleswick entered.
"Haddock. And the bath"s running over."
Septimus waved him away. "Let it run." He turned to Sypher. "Have a haddock?"
"At four o"clock in the afternoon? Do you want me to be sick?"
"Good heavens, no!" cried Septimus. "Do come in and I"ll give you anything you like."
He put his hand again on the bell-pull. A hasty exclamation from Sypher checked his impulse.
"I say, don"t do that again. If you"ll open the front door for me," he added, "I may be able to get inside."
A moment or two later Sypher was admitted, by the orthodox avenues, into the room. He looked around him, his hands on his hips.
"I wonder what on earth this would have been like if our dear lady hadn"t had a hand in it."
As Septimus"s imagination was entirely scientific he could furnish no solution to the problem. He drew a chair to the fire and bade his guest sit down, and handed him a box of cigars which also housed a pair of compa.s.ses, some stamps, and a collar stud. Sypher selected and lit a cigar, but declined the chair for the moment.
"You don"t mind my looking you up? I told you yesterday I would do it, but you"re such a curious creature there"s no knowing at what hour you can receive visitors. Mrs. Middlemist told me you were generally in to lunch at half-past four in the morning. h.e.l.lo, an invention?"
"Yes," said Septimus.
Sypher pored over the diagram. "What on earth is it all about?"
"It"s to prevent people getting killed in railway collisions," replied Septimus. "You see, the idea is that every compartment should consist of an outer sh.e.l.l and an inner case in which pa.s.sengers sit. The roof is like a lid. When there"s a collision this series of levers is set in motion, and at once the inner case is lifted through the roof and the people are out of the direct concussion. I haven"t quite worked it out yet," he added, pa.s.sing his hand through his hair. "You see, the same thing might happen when they"re just coupling some more carriages on to a train at rest, which would be irritating to the pa.s.sengers."
"Very," said Sypher, drily. "It would also come rather expensive, wouldn"t it?"
"How could expense be an object when there are human lives to be saved?"
"I think, my friend Dix," said Sypher, "you took the wrong turning in the Milky Way before you were born. You were destined for a more enlightened planet. If they won"t pay thirteen pence halfpenny for Sypher"s Cure, how can you expect them to pay millions for your inventions? That Cure--but I"m not going to talk about it. Mrs. Middlemist"s orders. I"m here for a rest.
What are these? Proofs? Writing a novel?"
He held up the bundle with one of his kindly smiles and one of his swift glances at Septimus.
"It"s my book on guns."
"Can I look?"
"Certainly."
Sypher straightened out the bundle--it was in page-proof--and read the t.i.tle:
"A Theoretical Treatise on the Construction of Guns of Large Caliber. By Septimus Dix, M.A." He looked through the pages. "This seems like sense, but there are text-books, aren"t there, giving all this information?"
"No," said Septimus modestly. "It begins where the text-books leave off.
The guns I describe have never been cast."
"Where on earth do you get your knowledge of artillery?"
Septimus dreamed through the mists of memory.
"A nurse I once had married a bombardier," said he.
Wiggleswick entered with the haddock and other breakfast appurtenances, and while Septimus ate his morning meal Sypher smoked and talked and looked through the pages of the Treatise. The lamps lit and the curtains drawn, the room had a cosier appearance than by day. Sypher stretched himself comfortably before the fire.
"I"m not in the way, am I?"
"Good heavens, no!" said Septimus. "I was just thinking how pleasant it was. I"ve not had a man inside my rooms since I was up at Cambridge--and then they didn"t come often, except to rag."
"What did they do?"
Septimus narrated the burnt umbrella episode and other social experiences.
"So that when a man comes to see me who does not throw my things about, he is doubly welcome," he explained. "Besides," he added, after a drink of coffee, "we said something in Monte Carlo about being friends."
"We did," said Sypher, "and I"m glad you"ve not forgotten it. I"m so much the Friend of Humanity in the bulk that I"ve somehow been careless as to the individual."
"Have a drink," said Septimus, filling his after-breakfast pipe.
The pistol shot brought Wiggleswick, who, in his turn, brought whiskey and soda, and the two friends finished the afternoon in great amity. Before taking his departure Sypher asked whether he might read through the proofs of the gun book at home.
"I think I know enough of machinery and mathematics to understand what you"re driving at, and I should like to examine these guns of yours. You think they are going to whip creation?"
"They"ll make warfare too dangerous to be carried on. At present, however, I"m more interested in my railway carriages."