It isn’t for the reason that I lack for things to do that I propose to try to write a successful novel, nor is my reason mercenary. There is no secret about the matter either. Some years ago I determined _not_ to go through life with a _single track mind_. To obviate this calamity it dawned upon me that I must take an interest in every little and big thing that came my way. Once the resolution took the form of habit, it became a great pleasure to persist in the pursuit of information, but the main benefit derived has been the development of a determination to _do things myself_. Determination stands in constant need of repair else it deteriorates into mere obsession and falls of its own weight. _The habit of investigation_ builds up self-confidence, without which, determination has no prop with which to sustain itself. Investigation is a two-sided activity of the mental processes--it comes in loaded and can go out loaded if there’s anything inside to facilitate the movement. To prove this theory is my reason for taking a fling at novel writing, and by succeeding my case is made. At least it will have been proved that one’s mind is a reconverter--that what it imbibes in one form it may exude in another. Also it proves that if one does not exalt his own ego no one else can do it for him. [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration: A quick getaway] CHAPTER IX GENIUS PLUS INITIATIVE Genius is twenty per cent idea, thirty per cent talent, and fifty per cent _initiative_. Ideas are small in themselves when reduced to _brass tacks_, but when we put the steam behind they often turn into something tremendous. Even a fool may have an idea, but it takes _brains and pep_ to put one over. Most every one has had a notion worth while, but in most cases they hold it cheap on the theory that if it really amounted to anything some _genius_ would have thought of it long ago and put it into practical use. There is where _initiative_ was lacking--perhaps talent as well--but initiative would have brought in talent _from the outside_. The word genius has been largely misapplied. Many men who were merely astute in one way or another have been placarded with the label of genius. But the _real genius_ is one whose idea has saved something for his fellow man in _time_, _labor_, and _money_. Who would have thought forty years ago that the whispering cups which children talked into, and by means of which they could hear each other’s voices a distance of fifty or a hundred feet, would turn into the greatest labor-saving device in all the world! Such has been the fact ever since the telephone became an everyday utility.