, I shall have money
enough to purchase all the needles and all the thread in this city
without realizing that I have spent anything at all."

"Then you expect to come into an inheritance, senor?" questioned the boy
loudly.

"Not just that," was the answer. "I shall obtain my rights. I shall be
given a just reward for the invention that was stolen from me and has
made other men rich."

Between the old man and the boy there seemed to be a bond of sympathy
which the latter felt.

"So you, too, have been robbed?" he cried.

"Basely robbed!" declared the visitor nodding his trembling head. "My
name is Roscoe Spooner. I invented what is known as the Guilford Air
Brake. The product of my brain was stolen from me by Henry Guilford, who
has made so much money from it that he is now a very rich man. But
everything he possesses, his splendid home, his carriages, horses, and
his yacht, are rightfully mine. He has enjoyed his stolen wealth a long
time, but it will not be his much longer. My suit against him must be
decided in my favor, and then I shall come into my own."

Felipe was interested.

"How long ago did you perfect this invention?"

"How long? It seems almost a hundred years; but it really was not
fifteen."

"How was it stolen by this Guilford, senor?"

"I trusted him. He told me he would furnish the capital and would place
my invention on the market. I believed him an honest man. I permitted
him to have my model. He patented it, calling it the Guilford Air Brake.
When I demanded my just share of the profits, he laughed in my face and
called me a crazy old fool. He even had me arrested for annoying him.
And my invention has filled his pockets with hundreds of thousands of
dollars."

"That was in truth a most dishonest thing, old gentleman. What then did
you do?"

"I found a lawyer to take the case and brought suit against him."

"I would have killed him!"

"I have thought of that. Once I did borrow a pistol and go in search of
him; but when we met I could not bear to think of the terrible thing I
had contemplated, and he never knew how near to death he was."

"It is not my way. At least, had you tried, you might have frightened
him into giving you something."

"Had I tried that, it would have cost me my liberty. I am sure he would
have lodged me in prison."

"Perhaps so," muttered Felipe. "You're a simple old fool, and you
wouldn't know how to work it."

"What did you say?" asked the old man, who