he credit
and the cash that are going to Gambrich."

Walter's fingers closed around one of the tools on his bench and he felt
mad enough at that moment to throw it either at Van Shaw or the lamp. He
did not do either, but when the crowd had finally gone away, he sat down
at his bench and said to Bauer: "What chumps we were not to apply for a
patent weeks ago. We might have contested it. We have let a fortune slip
out of our hands through our stupidity."

"It's because we did not take anyone into confidence. I never thought of
a patent. I was too much absorbed in the lamp itself to think anything
about anything else."

"Whom could we have taken into confidence? Van Shaw or Anderson? But I
don't feel like giving up. Why can't we contest our rights? There are
cases in the courts every day over patents and inventions."

"But it takes a lot of money to hire a lawyer and go to law," said Bauer
with real Teutonic caution. "And I haven't a dollar to spare. According
to Anderson, it's as good as settled that Gambrich has the legal right
to the lamps."

Walter stared at the arc gloomily. He felt the disappointment with deep
bitterness. Not only was his pride smitten at the thought of others who
were working out his ideas, but the thought of the money he might have
made, and the relief that money might have brought him, rankled deepest
in his mind.

Bauer took the affair more philosophically. He went over to Walter and
put a hand on his shoulder.

"When we are beaten we might as well accept it and make something else.
I don't like to see you take the thing so hard."

"What else can we make?" Walter said after a moment. "I've lost my
ambition."

"Oh, no you haven't; not for good and all. Why, we might invent a
typewriter telegraph."

"It's too late, that's already been done."

"I'll tell you what would bring us fame and money," said Bauer with his
usual slow manner and his friendly smile. "What the world needs is a
letter writer that will take letters at dictation, first hand."

Walter stared at Bauer gloomily. "What's that?"

"A direct letter writer," said Bauer. "A machine that the business man
and the minister and the college professor and the politician and the
railroad man and the lover could talk into. As fast as he talked, it
would make a visible mark on the paper and when the person was through
dictating his letter he could pull it out all typewritten ready to send.
Just think what a blessing this would be