Argosy, Vol. 123, No. 1 — page 51: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE BIG. IDEA. The office manager was - enthusiastic. He knew no more than Jimmy about the feasibility of the plan itseli—and Jimmy up to this time had learned very littl— but he realized more than Jimmy possibly could how beneficial to the company it would be if it worked. Also, Mr. Cooper had a better idea of how to go about find- ing out the things Jimmy wanted to know than he had. So they planned to “ dope it out” to- gether, and immediately started spending two evenings a week at the public library looking it up. After which, by Christmas at least, the office manager proposed taking Jimmy to one of the company S beanies ‘men. “T been thinking, George,” said Jimmy one evening, when they had been working on his idea about a month. “I told Mr. Hope all about this plan of ours that first day. He’s never said a word about it since, except to tell me Mr. Wentworth said it was rotten. It worries me sometimes to think he’s in the secret. I used to think I liked him. But I don’t. I’m afraid of him, somehow. Do you like him?” “No, I don’t,” said Mr. Cooper decid- edly. ‘“‘ I’ve been wondering,” Jimmy went on, ‘“suppose he wanted to use the idea for his own. It’s good—we know that now. And anybody who knows about it could use it. That’s what worries me—to ss Hope knows all about it, too.” The office manager deliberated on this. ‘‘ What could he do if he wanted to?” he asked finally. ) “T don’t know; what could hee”’ “Nothing that I know of. He told the boss about it—the boss knows it’s your idea. You can trust G. s Jimmy, he’s as square as they come.’ ‘“T believe you,” said Jimmy. the same—” ‘“ But just ‘‘ Just the same, Hope will bear watch- ing. Youre right on that. I'll watch him. But I don’t see what he could do. Probably he’s forgotten all about it by now.” 7 ‘““T hope so,” said Jimmy fervently. With the office manager to help him, Jimmy progressed rapidly with his big idea. Al It hadn’t taken them more than a few days to discover that the scheme of piping up heat from a fire in the ground was imprac- tical. Then, when they came to study the company’s furnaces, about which Mr. Cooper, being entirely an office man, was almost as ignorant as Jimmy, they found that it was the unconsumed coal gases that could be piped up, not the actual heat—a conclusion that to Isaac Merkle had been immediately obvious. At this point in their investigations they were jubilant, for they realized that the idea was feasible. Mr. Cooper was for an im- mediate consultation with one of the tech- nical men of the company, but Jimmy abso- lutely refused. There were too many who knew about it already. Something might happen. And so the office manager had to give up that plan, and they went ahead, studying the thing out alone. ‘Td rather it took longer,” said Jimmy. ‘When we get it ready ourselves we'll put it up to Mr. Wentworth. After that, we can talk to everybody all we want.” It was just after this—early in November —that Jimmy met Estelle Wentworth soci- ally. And the way it came about was this: Estelle Wentworth was typically a daugh- ter of the rich, aptly described by that familiar alliteration: pretty, proud and petulant. In all her twenty-one years she had been cared for with that care that only a misguided, adoring mother, a father weak enough to desire peace above all else, and the character-enervating luxuries that un- limited money can give. Estelle was neither weak, nor vicious. She was only normal—and with her envi- ronment and upbringing was just what one would have expected her to be. Her one creed, at the age of twenty-one, was to have a good time. This, somehow, she found increasingly difficult. All the usual forms of pleasure desired by young girls, were freely hers. Dances, parties, the theater and opera, were all lavished upon her. For a time they sufficed; and yet, be- cause she was a normal girl, no finer or less fine than thousands of others of her race, inevitably the time came when she found herself desiring something more. Affairs of the heart, which usually play cConmmicloooks C@