“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?”