If Tom did not go after her and actually insist upon the girl’s taking a frequent ride with him, Mary would scarcely have had “a sniff of the open air,” as her mother told her. They were both much engaged in caring for Mr. Nestor, whose disease at this time evaded the diagnoses of all the physicians who had attended him.
With Mary, as well as with his father and Ned Newton, Tom usually discussed the most secret plans regarding his inventions; so, besides telling Mary about Mr. Damon’s odd predicament, he likewise spoke of his hope of building a better flying boat than had as yet been perfected. Some of his ideas upon this subject were not new to the girl.
“I believe you will achieve a really wonderful thing, Tom,” she told him, with enthusiasm. “But it will be a monster—bigger than your great airship that you sold the Government.”
“I am not sure about those details as yet,” Tom said, shaking his head and looking sharply ahead, for the dusk was gathering fast. “The idea is just milling in my mind. Yet, I confess, I have had Ned Newton do a little figuring for me—especially regarding the getting of estimates for certain parts. Our shops cannot turn out every part of such a craft any more than we could build all of the electric locomotive we sold to the Hendrickton and Pas Alos Railroad.”
“Aren’t you afraid, Tom,” Mary asked doubtfully, “to trust outside people with your plans that way? Somebody in some other shop may steal your ideas.”
He shook his head, smiling. “No, no. I never trust my plans in full to any of the construction-works people. I may have my wings built in one shop, the cabin-boat in another, or the prow in a third. And, of course, we shall buy the motors outright. No, no. An invention is like a doctor’s prescription. When it is put together it takes a pretty good analyst to discover the ingredients. And the parts of an invention have to be assembled by the mind that dreamed out the whole contraption.”
“Dear me,” sighed Mary, “I wish some doctor had a prescription that would help father.”
“I wish so, too!” cried Tom heartily. “When does the specialist arrive?”
“Dr. Raddiker?”
“Is that his name?”