"Not yet. You move too fast, sonny. Governments do not bestow fortunes at your pace. Not they! This time the commissioners paid over a third L5,000, joining with it the demand that the elder Harrison explain to a company of experts exactly how his invention worked. In our day a man would have protected himself with a patent before he surrendered the requested information but the universe of the eighteenth century was less sophisticated. Patiently Harrison told his inquisitors everything they wanted to know and in 1765 they declared themselves satisfied with the instrument in every detail." "Well, I should think it was high time!" scoffed the boy. The Scotchman smiled at his indignation. "Oh, don't imagine yourself through with the story yet," said he, "for even now more conditions were enjoined. Before the balance of the prize money was paid, one of the experts was appointed to construct a chronometer like Harrison's for the purpose not only of finding out whether every claim he made for it was true, but also to assure the board that other persons beside this one old man could make such an instrument. The fulfillment of this final condition consumed three years." "Oh, rats! I should have told them they could keep their money--the old grannies!" jeered his listener wrathfully. "They had to be sure, you know." "But poor Harrison! What was he doing in the meantime?" "Growing to be a very old man, alas!" McPhearson answered in a saddened voice. "It was not until 1773 that the last of the L20,000 for which he had so valiantly struggled was given him." "I'm thankful he got it and hadn't died." "He died three years later--an old man of eighty-three. Nevertheless he lived long enough to see his dream fulfilled. Sixty years of his life he had devoted to experimenting with and perfecting his chronometer. It was a great service to the world--a deed that influenced not only all subsequent clockmaking but ultimately all marine enterprises. It also, by making navigation easier, saved innumerable lives. Other scientists followed and built on his discoveries until now, thanks to them all, the sea is practically as safe and familiar a spot to dwell upon as is the land. No longer are vessels at a loss to know where they are. With the finely adjusted nautical instruments at their command, scientific books, wireless communication, and the correct time sent out each day by radio they have no excuse for failing to make and maintain accurate observations." "But poor old Harrison--I cannot help regretting he had to wait so long for his prize money," bewailed Christopher. "I rather think, laddie, had you asked the inventor of the chronometer which gave him the greater satisfaction--the award the English Government paid him or the joy derived from successfully working out the puzzle it propounded--he would have told you that in his estimation, when weighed the one against the other, the money counted for nothing--nothing!" CHAPTER XIV