CHAPTER XII
A SERIOUS CHARGE
Ben had never been more astonished in his life than he was now at the amazing words of the proprietor of the Saxton Automobile Works. As to Mr. Hardy, he gave a start and stared blankly at his employer.
“What was that you said, sir?” he demanded, and Ben detected a latent fire in his father’s eye that was not usually there. Dense and thick-skinned as Jasper Saxton was, he could not fail to realize that his bulldozing methods had exceeded the limit in the present instance. He failed to meet Mr. Hardy’s fixed, challenging glance.
“Why—er—you see, Hardy, this thing has gone pretty far, you know.”
“What thing?” demanded Mr. Hardy.
“This airship work.”
“And you expect me to turn in the Dart here to your works?”
“That’s it, Hardy.”
“Well, Mr. Saxton, it can’t be done.”
“Why not?”
“Because it belongs to my son here, Ben.”
“Rot! rubbish!” flared up Jasper Saxton, his face getting red, his eyes exhibiting the ugly mood that always surged to the surface when any one dared to cross his plans. “No subterfuge, now, Hardy, no subterfuge.”
“I think you have generally found me a truthful, plain-spoken man,” said Mr. Hardy with dignity. “This airship is the property of my son exclusively.”
“Yes, and I’d have you know that your time and the material you are using here are my property!” shouted Mr. Saxton, lashing around with his cane. “See here, Hardy, I buy your work and ability for a price, and I’ll have no man robbing me of my just dues. I can get you in trouble—yes, I can,” continued the narrow-minded manufacturer recklessly. “I’ve let you have your swing and said nothing, but now it’s got to stop.”
“What has got to stop?”
“You used my shop one whole night, gas, machines, material, on a side job for some pet of your boy there up at the aero field. Oh, I know all about it. My watchman told me.”
“And I told him to do so, and further, mentioned it to your bookkeeper, and instructed him to charge me for it, if there was any charge to make. I think, though, it’s pretty small business, Mr. Saxton, when a trifling accommodation like that is refused to an old and faithful employee.”
“We’ll let that pass. There are other things,” muttered Jasper Saxton. “You install my airship department, and I’ll see that the patents are duly protected.”
“Yes, you certainly know how to protect patents,” remarked Mr. Hardy meaningly. “All the same, sir, this special machine, the Dart, belongs to my son, Ben, and can’t be included in any bargain you and I may make.”
“Humbug! It’s got to,” insisted the manufacturer in his usual domineering fashion. “I don’t want to make you trouble, Hardy—I don’t want to be hard on you.”
“About what?” demanded Mr. Hardy vaguely.
“Oh, about a number of things. You are using tools and materials here that belong to me.”
“For which I shall pay you.”
“You have taken the run of my shop, and some people say that there have been a lot of parts stolen from the plant. I know there is a lot of stuff missing.”
Mr. Hardy’s face took an expression that Ben had never seen there before. He advanced straight up to his malicious employer, his eyes blazing with indignation and scorn.
“Do you mean to intimate that I am a thief?” he demanded.
“I am not saying,” observed Jasper Saxton, wilting, but his mean soul showing in its true colors.
“Shame!” cried Ben, wrought up indescribably. “Don’t do it, father!”
Quick as a flash Ben sprang forward to arrest the descending arm of his father. Had he not done so, Jasper Saxton would have measured his length on the ground. As it was, he dodged out of the way, white and scared.
“You are right, Ben,” spoke Mr. Hardy in a husky tone, but controlling his emotion. “Mr. Saxton, my boy has said it: Shame on you—I will thank you to leave these premises.”
“Take care! take care!” growled the manufacturer threateningly.
“I’ll leave your employ.”
“You’ll have a bill to settle first, mind that.”
“And you, too—a big one,” retorted Mr. Hardy, rousing up again. “I serve you notice, sir—I shall sue you for my inventions on the Estrelle automobile just as soon as I can place the matter in the hands of a lawyer.”
“You will, eh?” fairly howled Jasper Saxton, becoming furious. “Try it, try it! Why, I can ruin you. I’ll show you.”
“You had better go away from here,” advised Ben, putting himself before the manufacturer to shield his father from further insult.
Jasper Saxton departed, threatening and gesticulating furiously. Ben restrained himself from saying some pretty bitter things. As the manufacturer disappeared, he turned to his father with an anxious, sorrowful face.
“Oh, father!” he exclaimed, “what have we done?”
Mr. Hardy sighed. Then his face broke into a smile of deep relief, as though a heavy load had been removed from his mind, and he said:
“The best thing in the world, my son, and it ought to have been done long ago.”
“But you have given up your position at the Saxton plant?”
“Was it much of a position, Ben, with the knowledge in my mind all the time that I was being robbed by that man? I haven’t said much, Ben, but I have been thinking a good deal since you told me about the threat that Dave Shallock made.”
“I am glad of it, father.”
“Then do not worry about my prompt action. I had intended to make a last demand on Saxton for my rights in those patents.”
“It would have been no use,” declared Ben rather gloomily.
“I realized that, too. His behavior just now has only hastened my decision. Do you think any self-respecting man could remain in Saxton’s employ after his accusations?”
“But you are no thief, father.”
“No one knows that better than Saxton. He was trying to bluff and frighten me. My record is open to the world, so his threats fall harmless. To think of his ingratitude after you saved his plant from destruction!”
“I believe that Tom Shallock has some hold on Saxton,” said Ben. “Maybe they are in a plot together to get you into trouble. Perhaps Saxton thinks if he can discredit you, it will help in denying that you had any claim on those automobile patents.”
“It is unfortunate that I lost that memorandum that he gave me. That would prove my right to half the patents.”
“You mean stolen from you,” declared Ben, and he recalled the conversation he had overheard between Tom Shallock and the stranger who had outdistanced him in the light gig. “Father, you remember that man I told you about who demanded money he had loaned to Tom Shallock?”
“Yes,” nodded Mr. Hardy.
“I should know him again. I am going to make it my business to find that man.”
“What good will that do, Ben?” asked his father.
“I am satisfied that he could tell a whole lot about Shallock. Maybe about that stolen contract, too.”
The visit of the conscienceless manufacturer had put rather a dismal end to a pleasant afternoon for father and son. Mr. Hardy took it quietly as was his wont, but his wife was much agitated when the circumstances were related to her.
“What are you going to do?” she inquired.
“Well, first of all, I am going to help Ben complete his airship—a good airship,” declared Mr. Hardy emphatically. “The next thing I am going to do is to place this patent litigation in the hands of a capable lawyer. I might later go into building air machines as a regular business for myself. It will take time to find out if that is best. In the meanwhile I shall apply for a position with the Diebold Company up at Martinsville!”
“Why, they wanted you last year, didn’t they, father?” asked Ben.
“Yes, and I feel sure they will want me now.”
“But that is so far from home,” suggested Mrs. Hardy anxiously.
“Only three miles. I can go to and come from my work on a bicycle, and the exercise will be the best thing in the world for me,” declared Mr. Hardy.
Ben did a good deal of hard thinking after he went to bed. He had an uneasy feeling that some plot was working against his father’s good name.
Monday morning a neighbor told Mrs. Hardy that she had got out of bed to close a window during the night, and had seen a man with a lantern looking over the flying machine in the work yard. As she let down the window the noise disturbed the night prowler, and he extinguished the lantern and skulked away.
Two nights later, about eleven o’clock, Ben roused up from his sleep to find his mother shaking him gently.
“Ben! Ben!” she whispered in a quick tone of alarm, “get up at once.”
“What is the matter, mother?” asked Ben excitedly.
“A man with a bag over his shoulder just went through the yard into the work shed,” was Mrs. Hardy’s startling announcement.