“No,” answered Mrs. Matson, “why, what is the matter, Joe? Has anything happened?” for she noticed by his face that something out of the usual had occurred.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he answered slowly. He was revolving in his mind whether or not he ought to tell his mother. Then, as he recollected that his father always consulted her on business matters, he decided that he would relate his experience.
“Mother,” he said, “isn’t father interested in some sort of a patent about corn?”
“About corn? Oh, I know what you mean. Yes, he is working on an improvement to a corn reaper and binder. It is a machine partly owned by the harvester people, but he expects to make considerable money by perfecting the machine. It is very crude now, and doesn’t do good work.”
“And if he does perfect it, and some one gets the patents away from him, he won’t make the money!” exclaimed Joe.
“Joe, what do you mean?” cried his mother in alarm. “I am sure something has happened. What is it?”
“It hasn’t happened yet, but it may any time,” answered the lad, and then he told of what he had overheard, and his ideas of what was pending.
“That’s why I wanted to see father in a hurry, to warn him,” he concluded.
“Joe, I believe you’re right!” exclaimed Mrs. Matson. “Your father ought to be told at once. I don’t know what he can do—if anything—to prevent these men getting ahead of him. Oh, it’s too bad! I know he always suspected Mr. Benjamin of not being strictly honest, but Mr. Holdney used to be his friend and on several occasions has loaned your father money. Oh, this is too bad, but perhaps it isn’t too late. If I were you I’d go down toward the harvester works and you may meet father coming home. Then you can tell him all about it, and he may want to go back and get some of his papers, or parts of the machine, from his office so those men can’t take them.”
“That’s the very thing, mother!” cried Joe. “You ought to have been a man—or a boy and a baseball player! You can think so quickly. That reminds me; I had quite an experience to-day. Just say ‘apple sauce’ to me when I get back, and I’ll tell you all about it.”