“I'm afraid I'm going to keep you.” And Mr. Thompson turned his back on Tommy. CHAPTER XIV TOMMY'S first thought after leaving Mr. Thompson's office was that he ought to go to New York and see his father. But almost instantly he dismissed it. The two weeks on full pay at the new salary were not given to him as a vacation to be idle in, but as a heaven-sent opportunity to help Bill ten hours a day. It was only later that he thought he would also be helping himself in so doing. He told Bill the news, and before Bill's congratulations had more than begun he suggested that Bill try to get two weeks off, so that they could work together. “Nothing doing.” “How do you know?” “I've tried,” said Bill. Bill then told Tommy that he had made some changes in the apparatus, but they had not helped a bit. “Are you thinking of a trip round the world just because you thought you had a patent?” asked Tommy. “I was only thinking of you,” said Bill, quietly. He did not wish to fight. He was not discouraged. In fact, the problem was so much bigger than his original carburetor notion that he was quite reconciled to working on it a thousand years if necessary. He knew he would solve it. The tough part, of course, was that somebody else might reach the Patent Office ahead of him. “You needn't think of me. Think of the work, old top,” said Tommy, amiably. “If instead of being an Irish terrier you were an English bulldog, you'd never let go your grip.” “I haven't,” said Bill; “but I'm going to bed.” “Thank Heaven to-morrow is Saturday,” said Tommy. “We'll have the whole afternoon. We'll try--” “Don't talk about it or I won't sleep,” said Bill, so unpugnadously that Tommy felt as if Bill were in a hospital. “Everything is all right, Bill,” he said, and shook hands with his partner. Bill brightened up a bit. But it was Tommy who found it impossible to sleep. Valuable patents evidently were like good gold-mines--few and far between. He clearly saw the folly of his hopes; and then he convinced himself that wisdom lay not in hopelessness, but in patience. After all, he was now getting thirty dollars a week. He could send fifty dollars a month to his father and still be much better off than he was at the beginning. But seventeen thousand dollars was an appalling sum! And yet as he thought with his head and hoped with his heart, he felt that he was on the point of becoming valuable to the Tecumseh organization. He knew--how, he did not stop to demonstrate--that he had left the “prep” school and was about to enter college, the wonderful step by which a boy becomes a man in one day. There was nothing that Tommy could not become--under Thompson! He was free under a very wise chief. Upon the heels of this thought came contentment, and with contentment came sleep.