“You’ll be glad to see Dick Hand again, won’t you?” she asked, as they sat on the beach together.
“Why, sure,” Tom answered, with some surprise. “Is he coming out?” Dick was still in New York, a chemical engineer of tremendous reputation. His latest feat had been to develop some old and neglected patents that were his father’s. The rights had nearly expired when Dick got to work at them and made improvements that enabled him to re-patent them. He thought he was going to make a fortune—or another fortune. He had several already.
“What are those patents of his, anyway?” asked Tom Lupton, rather perfunctorily.
“Why, they are processes with oyster shells by which he makes a sort of concrete that can be used for flooring, and some other substance that is good for roofs.”
Tom Lupton grew interested.
“Are those the patents he got from your aunt?” he inquired. “I mean the ones his father got from her?”
“I don’t know. What were those?”
Mary Vanton had never heard the story, but Tom Lupton had, and he related how Keturah Smiley, later Keturah Hand, had bested Richard Hand, Sr.
Mary Vanton heard it through and then exclaimed: “Wasn’t that like Aunt Keturah? I’m glad, though, that Dick is going to make something out of the patents.”
“It seems almost as if you really had a stake in them,” commented Keeper Tom. “Your aunt gave them away, practically, if they are worth anywhere near what Dick seems to think they are.”