“Yes,” admitted Joe cautiously, “but I’m not going to tell you anything about it.”
“Perhaps you will after you hear all I have to say,” went on Mr. Benjamin. “Now, it’s like this: Your father is unduly alarmed about the safety of his rights in the patents, and I will admit that he has some rights. For some reason he saw fit to take his models and papers away from the shop at the harvester works where he was engaged on them.”
Joe smiled—well he knew why his father had removed the valuable models and papers.
“What we want,” said Mr. Benjamin, “is to get access to those models. We want to see them for a short time, and also look over the papers. Now you can fix that for us if you will.”
“Why don’t you ask my father?” inquired Joe.
“We have, but——” began Mr. Holdney.
“He won’t listen to reason,” put in Mr. Benjamin. “He thinks we would deprive him of his rights.” Joe thought so too, but he said nothing. “Now if you can quietly get those models and papers and let us have a look at them they will be returned to you without fail,” said the manager. “Your father’s rights will be fully protected. It may seem strange to you for us to make this proposition in this way, and bring you here as we have done, but it was necessary.”
“Suppose I refuse?” asked Joe.
“Then we’ll——” began Mr. Holdney, in blustering tones.