teamer and come home, unless I elect to buy one of their little
States and run it."
Of course it sounded absurd as he put it; but I could soon see that he
had worked out his details, and that there was a very practical side to
his visions.
"I work Bahia," said he. "My agent prepares Pernambuco. When Bahia
is squeezed dry I move on to Pernambuco, and the agent ships to Monte
Video. So we work our way round with a trail of spectacles behind us.
It'll go like clock-work."
"You will need to speak Spanish," said I.
"Tut, it does not take any Spanish to stick a knife into a man's eye.
All I shall want to know is, 'Money down--no credit.' That's Spanish
enough for me."
We had a long and interesting talk about all that had happened to both
of us, without, however, any allusion to our past quarrel. He would
not admit that he had left Bradfield on account of a falling-off in his
practice, or for any reason except that he found the place too small.
His spring-screen invention had, he said, been favourably reported upon
by one of the first private shipbuilding firms on the Clyde, and there
was every probability of their adopting it.
"As to the magnet," said he, "I'm very sorry for my country, but there
is no more command of the seas for her. I'll have to let the thing go
to the Germans. It's not my fault. They must not blame me when the smash
comes. I put the thing before the Admiralty, and I could have made a
board school understand it in half the time. Such letters, Munro! Colney
Hatch on blue paper. When the war comes, and I show those letters,
somebody will be hanged. Questions about this--questions about that. At
last they asked me what I proposed to fasten my magnet to. I answered
to any solid impenetrable object, such as the head of an Admiralty
official. Well, that broke the whole thing up. They wrote with their
compliments, and they were returning my apparatus. I wrote with my
compliments, and they might go to the devil. And so ends a great
historical incident, Munro--eh, what?"
We parted very good friends, but with reservations, I fancy, on both
sides. His last advice to me was to clear out of Birchespool.
"You can do better--you can do better, laddie!" said he. "Look round
the whole world, and when you see a little round hole, jump in feet
foremost. There's a lot of 'em about if a man keeps himself ready."
So those were the last words of Cullingworth, and the last that I may
ever see of him also, for
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