“He is a scientist,” returned Mrs. Bultoza. “He is poor because he has spent all his money on making an invention. And now he has succeeded, he tells me. Oh, he is a very smart man,” she added proudly.
Joe had pricked up his ears at the word “scientist.”
“What is his invention?” he asked.
“I do not know exactly,” she replied. “It is electric—something like what you call an X-ray, I think. But I have no head for such things.”
This reply interested Baseball Joe more than ever and he asked the woman to describe her husband’s appearance and this she did so well it instantly brought a gleam of satisfaction to Joe’s face.
“Where does your husband live?” he asked.
She gave him a crumpled slip of paper on which an address in an uptown district was written.
“I’ll go up with you,” volunteered Joe. “Come along, Reggie. We’ll take a taxi and get up there in a few minutes.”
Mrs. Bultoza protested that he must not take so much trouble, but Joe overrode her protests, helped her into the taxicab, and in a little while they were at the address given.
They inquired of the janitor, and were directed to a room on the top floor.