“How long?”
“Eight months.”
“Oh, Jim, dear, you must give it up now for my sake. I'll work with you and work for you. I'll teach, I'll sew, I'll scrub, I'll slave for you day and night—if you're only clean and honest.”
He turned on her fiercely.
“Cut it, Kid—cut it! I'm out for the stuff now. I'm going to get rich and I'm going to get rich QUICK—that's all that's the matter with me!”
“But, Jim,” she broke in tenderly—“you did earn an honest living. Your workshop proves that.”
“I've used that to improve my tools and melt the swag the past year. The shop's all right.”
“But you did make a successful invention?”
“You bet I did,” he answered savagely, “and that's why I quit the business. Three years ago I took down a big automobile and worked out an improvement in the transmission that settled the question of heavy draft machines. I took it to a lawyer in Wall Street and he took it to a man that had money. Between the two of 'em, they didn't do a thing to me! They were going to put my patent on the market and make me a millionaire. God, I was crazy——”
He paused and squared his shoulders with a deep breath.