I did my best to fulfil the last wishes of my parent--not because

of the inheritance, but because I loved and honored my father. For

six months I toiled in the mines and in the counting-rooms, for I

wished to know every minute detail of the business.

Then Perry interested me in his invention. He was an old fellow

who had devoted the better part of a long life to the perfection

of a mechanical subterranean prospector. As relaxation he studied

paleontology. I looked over his plans, listened to his arguments,

inspected his working model--and then, convinced, I advanced the

funds necessary to construct a full-sized, practical prospector.

I shall not go into the details of its construction--it lies out

there in the desert now--about two miles from here. Tomorrow you

may care to ride out and see it. Roughly, it is a steel cylinder

a hundred feet long, and jointed so that it may turn and twist

through solid rock if need be. At one end is a mighty revolving

drill operated by an engine which Perry said generated more power

to the cubic inch than any other engine did to the cubic foot. I

remember that he used to claim that that invention alone would

make us fabulously wealthy--we were going to make the whole thing

public after the successful issue of our first secret trial--but

Perry never returned from that trial trip, and I only after ten

years.

I recall as it were but yesterday the night of that momentous

occasion upon which we were to test the practicality of that

wondrous invention. It was near midnight when we repaired to the

lofty tower in which Perry had constructed his "iron mole" as he

<<BackPagesTo menuNext>>