or. He made him
a profitable offer if he would go to Baltimore and take
charge of the job himself. It would pay better than selling
patent ploughs. Cornell agreed to go.

Reaching Baltimore, he met Professor Morse. They had never
met before. Their future lives were to be closely
associated. In the conversation that ensued Morse explained
what he proposed to do. An electric wire might either be
laid underground or carried through the air. He had decided
on the underground system, the wire being coated by an
insulating compound and drawn through a pipe.

Cornell questioned him closely, got a clear idea of the
scheme, saw the pipe that was to be used, and expressed
doubts of its working.

"It will work, for it has worked," said Morse. "While I have
been fighting Congress, inventors in Europe have been
experimenting with the telegraphic idea. Short lines have
been laid in England and elsewhere, in which the wire is
carried in buried pipes. They had been successful. What can
be done in Europe can be done in America."

What Morse said was a fact. While he had been pushing his
telegraph conception in America it had been tried
successfully in Europe. But the system adopted there, of
vibrating needle signals, was so greatly inferior to the
Morse system, that it was destined in the future to be
almost or quite set aside by the latter. To-day the Morse
system and alphabet are used in much the greater number of
the telegraph offices of the world.

But to return to our story. Cornell went to work, and the
pipe, with its interior wire, was laid with much rapidity.
Not many days had elapsed before ten miles were underground,
the pipe being neatly covered as laid. It reached from
Baltimore nearly to the Relay House. Here it stopped, for
something had gone wrong. Morse tested his wire. It would
not work. No trace of an electric current could be got
through it. The insulation was evidently imperfect. What was
to be done? He would be charged with wasting the public
money on an impracticable experiment. Yet if he stopped he
might expect a roar of newspaper disapprobation of his whole
scheme. He was in a serious dilemma. How should he escape?

He sought Cornell, and told him of the failure of his
experiments. The work must be stopped. He must try other
kinds of pipe and new methods of insulation. But if the
public should suspect failure there would be vials of wrath
poured on their devoted heads.

"The public shall not suspec