“Just receipt for him, then,” advised the operator, handing Ben the yellow sheet. “Charges prepaid.”
“Hurrah!” shouted Ben irrepressibly, as he glanced at the sheet and summarily bolted from the place, a keen delight overcoming his embarrassment.
His eyes sparkled and he ran like the wind all the way home. He was the messenger of good news, indeed. As he came to the house he found the sitting room illuminated brightly. It cheered his heart to observe his father laughing cheerily, while there was a growing happy expression on the face of his mother.
They had company. Two men were in the same room. They were Caleb Dunn, and Mr. Earle from the Diebold machine shops at Martinville.
Ben paused unobserved at the open window of the sitting room to learn that Earle had made a splendid offer to his father to start in at work at Martinville.
Then our hero entered the house through the kitchen. On the table he noticed the airship parts that had been returned.
“Father,” he said, bursting rather unceremoniously upon the group in the sitting room, the open telegram in his hand, “here is some good news for you.”
Mr. Hardy took the paper. He was trembling all over as he perused it. A look of intense joy illumined his usually serious face.
The telegram read:
“Claim filed on two airship inventions of Martin Hardy. All rights protected.”