I was provoked and showed it.
"Wait, old man, until you know what you're talking about," was his only rejoinder.
"I suppose you've sold some interest in your air ship," I suggested doggedly.
"How absurd! I haven't even thought of such a thing."
He seemed to enjoy my perplexity, and walked about the room whistling.
"You have sold the invention out and out, then?" I persisted.
"Guess again, dear boy, for I shall never part with the air ship to any human being!"
"And will it ever be built?"
"Rather! I am working on it now. What did you suppose I'd been doing at Gravesend all this time? Courting old man Wetherbee's daughter, eh? Well, you're mistaken, for I've been doing nothing of the kind; but the air ship is begun."
I might as well have pumped the clerk in the office for information, and so decided to ask no more questions. But my resolution was short-lived, for in the next breath I inquired how long it would probably take to complete it; to which Torrence answered that he thought six weeks would probably suffice, and had therefore only taken our rooms for two months, but that the time required for such delicate workmanship as would be necessary on the air ship, was difficult to estimate, and he had therefore stipulated for the refusal of our apartments, should we need them longer, at the expiration of the term, as he did not wish to go in search of lodgings again. He rattled on about contracts he had signed for work upon the air ship, involving such large sums of money that I could only stand with my mouth open and gasp.