“Well, Hardy,” observed Dunn, “I’ve attended to the business you’re too easy and good natured to attend to yourself.”
“Thank you,” said Mr. Hardy mildly.
“All hands are satisfied, so we’ll make a public meeting of it,” went on the practical old fellow. “The whole secret is out. That man Knippel before leaving the country delivered that contract about the automobile patents to your lawyer, Mr. Pearsons. We have just got through showing it to old Saxton and his lawyer and calling them down to terms.”
“How was it settled?” asked Mr. Hardy.
“Saxton has agreed to restore to you seventy-five per cent. interest in all the patents. He claims the other twenty-five per cent. for financing and promoting the inventions.”
“Does that seem enough?” questioned the fair-minded Mr. Hardy.
“Oh, no!” cried Caleb Dunn with good-natured sarcasm. “Ought to have given Saxton the whole thing, as you tried to do once. We’re your guardians, and we nailed the old skinflint down to the last cent we could. So that’s all settled. The whole secret came out. It was Tom Shallock who stole the contract from you. He held it as a threat over Saxton, and that was the mystery of his influence with the old man. Saxton has fired Shallock now, though.”
“What for?” inquired Ben.
“Stealing. He and his son Dave, and that precious Dick Farrell have been stealing supplies from the Saxton works for years. They belonged to a ring of junk dealers. That man Knippel headed the crowd. They had secret signs, and that pin you found in your work shed was an emblem of their order. Dave Shallock dropped it there the night he dumped a bag of fittings in the shed. His father put up the contract with Knippel as security for money he borrowed. The whole plot has been exposed, the Shallocks are disgraced, and your father’s name, Ben, comes out clear as crystal.”
“Oh, I am so glad and happy!” murmured Mrs. Hardy.