Amused, Burnham stepped into the breach. "How are you?" he said with the proper nuance of cordiality, offering his hand.
Lockwood shook it unemotionally. "How de do?" he said, perfunctory.
"I brought Mr. Burnham in to see Sam----"
"Yes," Burnham interrupted Roland quickly; "Barnette"s been kind enough to show me round town a bit."
"Here on business?" inquired Lockwood pointedly.
"No, not exactly," returned Burnham with practised ease, "just looking round."
"Only lookin", eh?" Blinky"s countenance underwent one of its erratic quakes as he examined Burnham with his habitual intentness.
The New Yorker caught the wink and lost breath. "Ah--yes--that"s all,"
he a.s.sented uneasily. And as he spoke another wink dumbfounded him.
"Why?" he asked, with a distinct loss of a.s.surance. "Don"t you believe it."
"Don"t see no reason why I shouldn"t," grunted Blinky. "Hope you"ll like what you see. Good day."
"So long ... Mr. Lockwood," returned Burnham uncertainly.
Lockwood paused outside the door. "Come "long, Roland."
"Yes, sir; right away; just a minute." Roland was lingering unwillingly, detained by Burnham"s imperative hand. "What d"you want? I got to hurry."
"What was he winking at me for?" demanded Burnham heatedly. "Have you----?"
"Oh!" Roland laughed. "He wasn"t winking. He can"t help doing that.
It"s a twitchin" he"s got in his eye. That"s why they call him Blinky."
"Oh, that was it!" Burnham accepted the explanation with distinct relief, while Duncan, who had been an unregarded spectator, suddenly found cause to retire behind one of the show-cases on important business.
So that was the explanation!...
After his paroxysm had subsided and he felt able to control his facial muscles, Duncan emerged, suave and solemn. Roland had disappeared with Blinky, and Burnham was alone.
"Anything you wish, sir?" asked Nat.
"Only to see Mr. Graham."
"He"s out just at present, but I think he"ll be back in a moment or so.
Will you wait? You"ll find that chair comfortable, I think."
"Believe I will," said Burnham with an air. He seated himself. "I can"t wait long, though," he amended.
"Yes, sir. And if you"ll excuse me----?"
Burnham"s hand dismissed him with a tolerant wave. "Go right on about your business," he said with supreme condescension.
And Duncan returned to his work in the backyard. It wasn"t long before he found occasion to go back to the store, and by that time old Sam was there in conversation with Burnham. Neither noticed Nat as he entered, and to begin with he paid them little heed, being occupied with his task of depositing an armful of bottles without mishap and then placing them on the shelves. The hum of their voices from the other side of the counter struck an indifferent ear while he busied himself, but presently a word or phrase caught his interest, and he found himself listening, at first casually, then with waxing attention.
"That"s part of my business," he heard Burnham say in his sleek, oleaginous accents. "Sometimes I pick up an odd no-"count contraption that makes me a bit of money, and more times I"m stung and lose on it.
It"s all a gamble, of course, and I"m that way--like to take a gambling chance on anything that strikes my fancy--like that burner of yours."
"Yes," Graham returned: "the gas arrangement."
"It"s a curious idea--quite different from the one I told you about; but I kinda took to it. There might be something to it, and again there mightn"t. I"ve been thinking I might be willing to risk a few dollars on it, if we could come to terms."
"Do you mean it, really?" said old Sam eagerly.
"Not to invest in it, so to speak; I don"t think it"s chances are strong enough for that. But if you"d care to sell the patent outright and aren"t too ambitious, we might make a d.i.c.ker. What d"you say?"
"Why, yes," said Graham, quivering with antic.i.p.ation. "Yes, indeed, if--"
"Well?"
"If you really think it"s worth anything, sir."
"Well, as I say, there"s no telling; but I was thinking about it at dinner, and I sort of concluded I"d like to own that burner, so I made out a little bill of sale, and I says to myself, says I: "If Graham will take five hundred dollars for that patent, I"ll give him spot cash, right in his hand," says I."
With this Burnham tipped back in his chair, and brought forth a wallet from which he drew a sheet of paper and several bills.
"Five hundred dollars!" repeated Graham, thunderstruck by this munificence.
"Yes, sir: five hundred, cash! To tell you the truth--guess you don"t know it--I heard at the bank that they didn"t intend to extend the time on that note of yours, and I thought this five hundred would come in handy, and kind of wanted to help you out. Now what do you say?"
He flourished the bills under Graham"s nose and waited, entirely at ease as to his answer.
"Well," said the old man, "it is kind of you, sir--very kind. Everybody"s been good to me recently--or else I"m dreamin"."
"Then it"s a bargain?"
"Why, I hope it won"t lose any money for you, Mr. Burnham," Sam hesitated, with his ineradicable sense of fairness and square-dealing.
"Making gas from crude oil ought to--"
Duncan never heard the end of that speech. For some moments he had been listening intently, trying to recollect something. The name of Burnham plucked a string on the instrument of his memory; he knew he had heard it, some place, some time in the past; but how, or when, or in respect to what he could not make up his mind. It had required Sam"s reference to gas and crude oil to close the circuit. Then he remembered: Kellogg had mentioned a man by the name of Burnham who was "on the track of" an important invention for making gas from crude oil. This must be the man, Burnham, the tracker; and poor old Graham must be the tracked....
Without warning Duncan ran round and made himself an uninvited third to the conference.
"Mr. Graham, one moment!" he begged, excited. "Is this patent of yours on a process of making gas from crude oil?"
Burnham looked up impatiently, frowning at the interruption, but Graham was all good humour.
"Why, yes," he started to explain; "it"s that burner over there that--"
"But I wouldn"t sell it just yet if I were you," said Nat. "It may be worth a good deal--"
"Now look here!" Burnham got to his feet in anger. "What business "ve you got b.u.t.ting into this?" he demanded, putting himself between Duncan and the inventor.