IT was ten o'clock at night when Walter finally went out of the shop and
up to his room. He did not turn on the light at once, but went over by
his table and sat down.
The temptation he still faced had assumed alluring shapes. In the first
place, he was saying to himself, "Bauer's drawings differ only a trifle
from my own and I had practically gone as far as he, only one or two
points were suggested to me by his diagram of the electrodes resting at
an angle on the porcelain plate. The cutting of the teeth in the soft
metal was also suggested by him. But I had thought out other points that
were essential."
Then, again, Walter kept going over the great advantage it would be to
him if this discovery were made by him first. He knew that the
commercial value of any real improvement in city lighting was very
large. There was money for him in this discovery. And Walter was growing
more and more restless over his stewardship and the burdens it involved.
He hated the drudgery and the time it took, and of late he began to feel
quite certain that the same attitude displayed in other schools was
creeping into Burrton, an attitude of contempt for the working student,
nothing very pronounced, but enough to make him feel disagreeable and
annoyed, for he was a finicky youth, sensitive to a great degree and
with the taste of an aristocrat at heart.
"I don't see that I do Bauer any harm if I go ahead and make a model.
I'll do that anyhow," he said out loud at last, as he got up and turned
on his light. And then he saw under the edge of his door a note which
had been slipped in there.
He went over, picked it up, opened it, and found it was a note from
Bauer.
"My Dear Douglas:--Within an hour after leaving the shop to-night I had
a telegram calling me home. I do not know how soon I shall be able to
return to Burrton, if at all. Will you kindly see if I left any of my
apparatus or papers on my table and return them to my locker? I enclose
the key with this note. Thank you.
"FELIX BAUER."
So Bauer was going to be away indefinitely. He might not come back at
all. He had not given any reason for the call to come home, but Walter
remembered one remark the German student had made one day which led him
to believe that Bauer's home life was unhappy and the relations between
his father and mother were unpleasant. Suppose he never came back.
Suppose he never finished his investigation of the lamp? Suppose--there
was a number of possibilities to suppose. Why, then the field would be
open to him and he could go ahead with a clear conscience. But could he?
In spite of all sophistry and special pleading with himself Walter knew
he had caught the idea of the electrodes from Bauer's drawing, which
suggested the secret. How did he know but that Bauer had discovered it
as indicated in his own diagram and was making that preliminary to the
finished lamp?
There was one honest and plain way out for Walter. He could write to
Bauer and frankly tell him that he had seen his drawings and had
received from them a hint for the discovery and ask him if he were
willing to share with him, Walter, in the result if the lamp proved
worth while financially. But here was Walter's weak point. He was proud
of his technical knowledge. Already it was conceded by all the students
in the electrical engineering department that Douglas of Milton was the
star. The instructors had given him special notice. He had already made
one or two very valuable and original contributions to the problems that
faced the shop every day. But nothing he had so far done would begin to
compare with this new arc light. The thought of sharing his discovery
with any one else touched his pride in its most sensitive and personal
spot.
He threshed it all over back and forth and when he finally went to bed
he was still undecided as to his course. The fact is, he could not
escape all the time the standard he had been trained in at home. If Paul
and Esther had done nothing else for their children they had certainly
done this; they had implanted in their minds a deep and strong feeling
that one of the things to be most desired in life is honesty; clean,
frank, wholesome honesty, free from cant and hypocrisy and double
dealing. And Walter knew in his heart that what he was going to do was
not honest to Bauer, even after he had juggled with his conscience and
proved to himself that Bauer had no real rights in the matter. He knew
perfectly well that the German student did have rights of prior
discovery. No amount of argument or defense of his own discoveries could
remove that fact.
Nevertheless, next day in the shop after he had put Bauer's belongings,
including the paper with the drawings, into Bauer's locker, Walter found
himself working with nervous haste over his model. It went together with
wonderful exactness and in spite of his feeling that he was acting the
part of a miserable cheat, he was, at least, during a part of the time,
in a glow of enthusiasm. For the most part he worked at night, when he
was least liable to watching from the other fellows. There were several
reasons why he could do this, among them an unusual interest in the
school at that time in evening functions which drew most of the shop
workers out.
Walter took parts of his model up to his room each night and studied
them. At the end of two weeks he had completed the lamp and it remained
only to give it an actual test. No word had been received from Bauer,
and inquiry from different professors had failed to discover any news
from him. It seemed to Walter almost certain that Bauer would not
return, and each day of his absence gave Walter less uneasiness, if not
an actual dulling of the keen edge of his conscience.
The day before he planned to test his lamp at the shop, Walter received
another letter from his mother, one part of which annoyed him greatly.
His mother wrote chiding him good-naturedly for not sending his usual
weekly letter. In fact, since his discovery of Bauer's plan, Walter had
failed to write home, for the first time since coming to Burrton. He
could not account for this failure except on the ground that he was too
busy.
But his mother wrote without any knowledge of all this, telling him bits
of news that she thought he would most want to know.
"Your father has been asked by the Citizens' Committee, to let his name
go on the primaries for senator from the Fifth district. I have my
doubts about the wisdom of a newspaper editor going into politics, but
your father, while he had some hesitation, has finally agreed to let his
name go down. So now we can expect lively times in the Douglas family
until after election next fall.
"Helen has two more beaus, one of them ten years older than herself. I
am not making fun of this, as you know, for I have tried to teach you
all that the love part of life is in some ways the most serious as well
as the most happy of all your experiences. Helen has good sense when it
comes to a final decision on anything. I am not afraid for her.
"Louis is better than he has been for a long time. His eyes are stronger
and his headaches have almost ceased. He seems to enjoy his studies this
term and is making progress. We all feel pleased of course. Louis has
had an offer from his uncle to go into the store, but your father and I
would much prefer to keep him in school if his health will allow. We are
ambitious for all of you and want you to have an education and do in the
world what you are best fitted to do.
"We want you to come home for Christmas. And from the different bits you
have written about your German friend Bauer we have been wondering if he
could not come with you. I understand from one of your letters that he
is rather a lonesome fellow, without many friends. If he is not going to
his own home at Christmas time, give him a good, strong invitation from
father and me to come with you. You know we have never been separated at
the holiday season, and it will be my treat to pay your expenses home
this time unless you make a new arc light and get it patented and make a
lot of money out of it. We are all interested in the light and speak of
it almost every day. Your father was saying this morning that our street
lights are a disgrace to Milton. There is a citizens' war going on at
present over the situation and every number of the _News_ contains
letters from angry taxpayers calling the city government to account for
the wretched nature of the street lighting. If you should happen to
discover an economical and satisfactory city lamp, the people of Milton
would be ready now to compel the council to purchase and install it. Of
course this all sounds rather like a story, but stranger things have
happened in the history of inventions. And if you should happen to be
the fortunate discoverer, we would be very proud and happy.
"Don't forget to make the invitation to Mr. Bauer as hearty as you can.
I am anxious to see you, as all of us are.
"YOUR LOVING MOTHER."
The things which annoyed Walter in this letter were, first of all, his
mother's invitation to Bauer. Of course if he did not return to school,
that would be the end of it. But if he should return, why, then, under
the peculiar conditions that existed it would be more than embarrassing
for Walter to bring Bauer home with him. And to add to his annoyance
Walter began to feel hard toward the German student, as if Bauer had
done him a wrong. It is, of course, true that one of the surest ways to
acquire a hatred of anyone is first of all to do him an injustice.
Having already wronged Bauer in stealing his ideas, Walter was fast
entering on the second stage of his relations to him and beginning to
feel hateful toward him.
The other annoyance caused by his mother's letter was due to the fact
that in her ignorance of the situation she was all unconsciously
strengthening his temptation to complete the light and get it before the
public as his own as soon as possible. The street-lighting conditions in
Milton were duplicated in hundreds of municipalities all over the
country. There was no doubt in Walter's mind that the first really
successful economical lamp offered the public would find a quick and
remunerative sale. With a growing excitement he began to see the great
probabilities before his invention. And all that his mother had written
simply tended to push him on to complete his work before Bauer could
return and make the necessary discovery for himself.
He was vexed and annoyed to a degree he had never before experienced.
And he knew deep down in his heart that it was because he was acting a
dishonourable part toward the absent classmate. He began to lose sleep
over it, and grew nervous and exceedingly unhappy. On the one hand, his
home training had made him sensitive to moral standards. He would not
have dared to write to his mother about the affair to ask her advice as
to what he ought to do, because he knew without writing what she would
say. On the other hand, his ambition goaded him to ignore what it called
a technicality, tried to befog the issue by whispering that Bauer could
not succeed without putting into the lamp the things which Walter had
discovered already himself, and constantly insinuated that even if he
had not happened to see Bauer's diagram, Walter would probably have
worked it out in a day or two anyhow.
He replied to his mother's letter briefly, saying he was unusually busy
and adding that he did not think Bauer could come with him because he
had been called home and would not in all likelihood return to Burrton.
He said nothing in this letter about the lamp; he could not bring
himself to mention it. And he knew when he posted the letter that the
tone of it would make his mother ask questions because it was so
different from the enthusiastic, jolly letters he had written before.
It was during this week that he fixed on a certain evening to make a
practical test of his lamp. He had guarded his secret successfully. Not
a soul, including both instructors and students, knew the special work
he had been doing. Among the great number of special and changing
experiments going on in the shop it had not been difficult to keep his
discovery to himself.
He chose a night when a great social event was occurring in hopes that
he might have the shop to himself. There were a few enthusiastic
specialists who did considerable night work, but on this particular
evening they went out early and by nine o'clock he found himself alone.
The power which lighted the town of Burrton was the same as that in use
at the school and was in operation day and night. The conditions seemed
absolutely favorable to a test of his invention, and by ten o'clock
Walter had made all connections and brought his electrodes into
position.
The only question with him was whether the heat of the arc would melt
the soft metal teeth at the right time and with even regularity. He was
pale and nervous with the tension of the work, his loss of sleep and his
goading of conscience, and when the carbons started to glow with the
familiar hiss, he started back as if someone had come in, and looked
around the shop fearfully.
Then he laughed hysterically and turned again to his machine. His whole
attention was now fastened upon it, and with the true inventor's ecstasy
he forgot Bauer, forgot his mother, forgot that he was at the center of
a great moral tragedy for his own soul, forgot there was a God, and a
judgment day and any such things as conscience or remorse, or injustice.
His whole soul flung itself on that point of dazzling light and the soft
metal teeth which he had coupled in a strip to the electrodes. He
watched it, fascinated and fearful. He saw the tooth begin to glow to a
red, then to a white, heat and then it melted softly away, letting the
electrodes fall gently, keeping the points of their position in perfect
place while the second tooth slipped down in turn to be transformed into
a soft and yielding point.
The lamp worked! It was a practical success! It had stood the test! He
did not know how long he had been in the shop or how long he had been
watching the mechanism. He switched off the power, and adjusted a part
of the scissors-coupling. Then he turned on the current again and with
the same feeling of fascination watched the softening and dissolving of
the metal tooth.
A noise of a door opening aroused him and he looked up. Someone had come
in, and was walking directly toward his bench.
The glare of the lamp blinded him, and his eyes had to become adjusted
to the dimness as he turned his back on the lamp. But when the person
was ten feet away he recognised in a moment the face of Bauer, as he
came walking slowly toward him.