Part 24 (1/2)
Muller adjusted his _pince-nez_ and watched his companion while he read.
Rufus summoned to his aid all the resolution he possessed and preserved a perfectly impa.s.sive face.
”Well?” Muller questioned, when Rufus had got to the bottom of the slip.
”It's a little disconcerting,” was the answer. ”But I shall not fling up the sponge yet.”
”But he has got hold of your idea!”
”Not exactly.”
”At any rate he has got uncomfortably near to it.”
”He has got nearer than I like, I admit. But the greater part of what he claims is mere bluff.”
”But his objective and yours are precisely the same?”
”No, not precisely. I go much farther than he does, as Stephenson went farther than Watt.”
”That is in your application of the principle. But is not the principle the same?”
”It is similar, though not identical. I have gone all over the ground he is travelling now.”
”And in another month he may be all over your ground.”
”There is danger, of course, but I think still I shall get in first.”
”I hope you may. But I confess when I tumbled across that article this morning it made me feel mightily uncomfortable.”
”It is a little upsetting, no doubt.”
”You see, he must have secured himself pretty well, or he would not have permitted so much of the scheme to get into print. Don't you see it largely discounts anyone else who comes after, though he may have something better.”
”Yes, I admit the force of all you say,” Rufus answered slowly. ”But my game is not up yet.”
”I hope not, indeed. I should regard it as nothing short of a calamity were you to fail.”
”If the worst comes to the worst it will have to be faced, that is all.
In any case, you will not suffer loss.”
”There you are mistaken. You are my friend. And friends are not so plentiful that one can contemplate the disappearance of even one of them with equanimity.”
”That may be true. But mercifully, the dead are soon forgotten. You will soon get used to my absence.”
”I sincerely hope the occasion will not arise,” Muller said, speaking slowly and gravely. ”Indeed, as I said before, I should regard your failure as a calamity. Still, there is no getting over the fact that what you regarded as impossible less than six months ago has come very definitely within the realm of possibility.”
”Yes,” Rufus said, with some hesitation. ”I am bound to admit that the chance of failure seems less remote than it did.”
”I am sorry to have to discuss this matter with you again,” Muller went on, after a pause. ”I can a.s.sure you it is almost as painful to me as it must be to you. Still business is business, and I have to think of my own position. If I were a rich man, I would not mention the matter--upon my soul, I wouldn't.”
”I thought you had no soul,” Rufus said, with a pathetic smile.