"Merica"s the place for a chap like you. "Merica"s the place for inventions." Liars!"
Little Ann went on rubbing the grizzled head lovingly.
"Well, now we"re going back to try England. You never did really try England. And you know how beautiful it"ll be in the country, with the primroses in bloom and the young lambs in the fields." The caressing hand grew even softer. "And you"re not going to forget how mother believed in the invention; you can"t do that."
Hutchinson lifted his head and looked at her.
"Eh, Ann," he said, "you are a comfortable little body. You"ve got a way with you just like your poor mother had. You always say the right thing to help a chap pull himself together. Your mother did believe in it, didn"t she?"
She had, indeed, believed in it, though her faith was founded more upon confidence in "Mr. Hutchinson" than in any profound knowledge of the mechanical appliance his inspiration would supply. She knew it had something important to do with locomotive engines, and she knew that if railroad magnates would condescend to consider it, her husband was sure that fortune would flow in. She had lived with the "invention,"
as it was respectfully called, for years.
"That she did," answered Little Ann. "And before she died she said to me: "Little Ann," she said, "there"s one thing you must never let your father do. You must never let him begin not to believe in his invention. Your father"s a clever man, and it"s a clever invention, and it"ll make his fortune yet. You must remind him how I believed in it and how sure I was.""
Hutchinson rubbed his hands thoughtfully. He had heard this before, but it did him good to hear it again.
"She said that, did she?" he found vague comfort in saying. "She said that?"
"Yes, she did, Father. It was the very day before she died."
"Well, she never said anything she hadn"t thought out," he said in slow retrospection. "And she had a good head of her own. Eh, she was a wonderful woman, she was, for sticking to things. That was th"
Lancashire in her. Lancashire folks knows their own minds."
"Mother knew hers," said Ann. "And she always said you knew yours.
Come and sit in your own chair, Father, and have your paper."
She had tided him past the worst currents without letting him slip into them.
"I like folks that knows their own minds," he said as he sat down and took his paper from her. "You know yours, Ann; and there"s that Tembarom chap. He knows his. I"ve been noticing that chap." There was a certain pleasure in using a tone of amiable patronage. "He"s got a way with him that"s worth money to him in business, if he only knew it."
"I don"t think he knows he"s got a way," Little Ann said. "His way is just him."
"He just gets over people with it, like he got over me. I was ready to knock his head off first time he spoke to me. I was ready to knock anybody"s head off that day. I"d just had that letter from Hadman. He made me sick wi" the way he pottered an" played the fool about the invention. He believed in it right enough, but he hadn"t the courage of a mouse. He wasn"t goin" to be the first one to risk his money.
Him, with all he has! He"s the very chap to be able to set it goin".
If I could have got some one else to put up bra.s.s, it"d have started him. It"s want o" backbone, that"s the matter wi" Hadman an" his lot."
"Some of these days some of them "re going to get their eyes open,"
said Little Ann, "and then the others will be sorry. Mr. Tembarom says they"ll fall over themselves to get in on the ground floor."
Hutchinson chuckled.
"That"s New York," he said. "He"s a rum chap. But he thinks a good bit of the invention. I"ve talked it over with him, because I"ve wanted to talk, and the one thing I"ve noticed about Tembarom is that he can keep his mouth shut."
"But he talks a good deal," said Ann.
"That"s the best of it. You"d think he was telling all he knows, and he"s not by a fat lot. He tells you what you"ll like to hear, and he"s not sly; but he can keep a shut mouth. That"s Lancashire. Some folks can"t do it even when they want to."
"His father came from England."
"That"s where the lad"s sense comes from. Perhaps he"s Lancashire. He had a lot of good ideas about the way to get at Hadman."
A knock at the door broke in upon them. Mrs. Bowse presented herself, wearing a novel expression on her face. It was at once puzzled and not altogether disagreeably excited.
"I wish you would come down into the dining-room, Little Ann." She hesitated. " Mr. Tembaron"s brought home such a queer man. He picked him up ill in the street. He wants me to let him stay with him for the night, anyhow. I don"t think he"s crazy, but I guess he"s lost his memory. Queerest thing I ever saw. He doesn"t know his name or anything."
"See here," broke out Hutchinson, dropping his hands and his paper on his knee, "I"m not going to have Ann goin" down stairs to quiet lunatics."
"He"s as quiet as a child," Mrs. Bowse protested. "There"s something pitiful about him, he seems so frightened. He"s drenched to the skin."
"Call an ambulance and send him to the hospital," advised Hutchinson.
"That"s what Mr. Tembarom says he can"t do. It frightens him to death to speak of it. He just clings to Mr. Tembarom sort of awful, as if he thinks he"ll save his life. But that isn"t all," she added in an amazed tone; "he"s given Mr. Tembarom more than two thousand dollars."
"What!" shouted Hutchinson, bounding to his feet quite unconsciously.
"What!" exclaimed Little Ann.
"Just you come and look at it," answered Mrs. Bowse, nodding her head.
"There"s over two thousand dollars in bills spread out on the table in the dining-room this minute. He had it in a belt pocket, and he dragged it out in the street and would make Mr. Tembarom take it. Do come and tell us what to do."
"I"d get him to take off his wet clothes and get into bed, and drink some hot spirits and water first," said Little Ann. "Wouldn"t you, Mrs. Bowse?"
Hutchinson got up, newspaper in hand.
"I say, I"d like to go down and have a look at that chap myself," he announced.
"If he"s so frightened, perhaps--" Little Ann hesitated.
"That"s it," put in Mrs. Bowse. "He"s so nervous it"d make him worse to see another man. You"d better wait, Mr. Hutchinson."
Hutchinson sat down rather grumpily, and Mrs. Bowse and Little Ann went down the stairs together.
"I feel real nervous myself," said Mrs. Bowse, "it"s so queer. But he"s not crazy. He"s quiet enough."
As they neared the bottom of the staircase Little Ann could see over the bal.u.s.trade into the dining-room. The strange man was sitting by the table, his disordered, black-haired head on his arm. He looked like an exhausted thing. Tembarom was sitting by him, and was talking in an encouraging voice. He had laid a hand on one of the stranger"s.
On the table beside them was spread a number of bills which had evidently just been counted.
"Here"s the ladies," said Tembarom.
The stranger lifted his head and, having looked, rose and stood upright, waiting. It was the involuntary, mechanical action of a man who had been trained among gentlemen.
"It"s Mrs. Bowse again, and she"s brought Miss Hutchinson down with her. Miss Hutchinson always knows what to do," explained Tembarom in his friendly voice.
The man bowed, and his bewildered eyes fixed themselves on Little Ann.
"Thank you," he said. "It"s very kind of you. I--I am-- in great trouble."
Little Ann went to him and smiled her motherly smile at him.