Part 12 (1/2)
”Very much.”
Asa Grable opened a door.
”Come down the cellar and I'll reveal a wonderful experiment.''
He pressed a switch. A light flashed on, illuminating the stairs and the bas.e.m.e.nt below.
The scientist turned out the light in the upper room before they descended the steps.
The cellar was a dank, low-ceilinged room with rows of closets lining all four walls. There was a wooden table, cluttered with test tubes and gla.s.s containers with various-colored liquids. In the middle of the room was a large vat containing a dark solution that boiled slowly.
”Surely this hasn't anything to do with silkworms!” exclaimed Joe.
”It's an experiment I've been working on. A very important experiment,” said the scientist. ”I haven't shown it to anyone yet, so you're not to talk about it.”
Fussily, he advanced to the table and removed a large test tube from a rack. The tube was 126 filled with a muddy liquid, and this Grahle poured carefully into the vat. Joe watched, fascinated.
”Now,” he said, chuckling, ”you'll see something that will open your eyes. I can hardly believe it myself.”
He turned from the table and opened one of the closet doors. When Joe saw the contents of the closet, he almost cried out in astonishment. It contained a dozen wooden clubs like the one the boys had found in the greenhouse yard! The one they had thought was a torch handle!
Grable returned from the closet with one of the strange objects. Joe was puzzled. The man had denied that the other club was a part of the equipment he used in the greenhouses.
Had he lied? What were all these torchlike handles doing here?
The scientist seemed quite unaware of Joe's astonished bewilderment. From a shelf he picked up a metal rod and inserted one end of it deftly into the hole at the end of the wooden handle.
”Now watch closely!” he whispered.
Asa Grable plunged the rod into the hot solution in the bucket.
”And now,” said the scientist, looking up at Joe, ”now for the miracle!”
He drew the rod from the bucket. Around the metal was a gray, gluey ma.s.s. In contact 127 with the air it cooled, and quickly began to harden.
'' There!'' cried Asa Grable. '' The greatest discovery of my life! Greater than my silkworms. It will make me famous! I've worked years for this. I've endured a thousand disappointments. And now-success!''
Joe gazed at the hardening ma.s.s.
”What is it! What is it, boy?” cried the scientist, his eyes s.h.i.+ning with excitement. ”Don't tell me you can't recognize it!”
”Not-rubber!” gasped Joe with astonishment.
”Yes! Rubber. And yet no part of it came from a rubber tree!” Asa Grable brandished the stick in his excitement. '' Genuine commercial-quality rubber made by artificial means.”
He became quieter, his voice lowered. ”Of course, this is still in the experimental stage. The process will have to be improved. But it is real rubber.”
Joe congratulated the happy scientist, knowing what a tremendously important achievement this was.
”The Grable Process!” mused the man rapturously. ”It will go down in history as one of the greatest discoveries of all time.”
”Mr. Grable,” ventured Joe after a few moments, ”I was looking at that stick you took out of the cupboard. Is that the same one my brother and I found here a few days ago?”
128 ”Not the same one,” said Grable promptly. ”I think that one is upstairs. But they're almost identical. I have a closet full of them.”
”But didn't you say you hadn't used that stick in your work?”
”Not with my silkworms,” smiled the scientist. ”But they came in very handy for this other experiment.”
”Where did you find them?” asked Joe.
”Eight here. I imagine a former owner of the place must have left them. All the property in this neighborhood-the Experimental Farm lands, the Trumper property, all this acreage way out to Barmet Bay once was one big place.''
Joe had no time for further questions, for suddenly there was an alarming interruption. A rifle shot! The explosion rang out in the silent night.
Asa Grable jumped in alarm. ”What's that ?” he gasped.
Joe wheeled, and ran up the cellar stairs. He remembered the rifle he had left by the fence. Had Archibald Jenkins found it and fired at d.i.c.k Ames ?
Asa Grable hurried up the steps close at Joe's heels. The two raced outside. There, in the yard, they found Archibald Jenkins, rifle in hand and in a high state of agitation.
'' It went off!” the young man was muttering. ”I hardly touched the thing.”
”That bullet whizzed just about a foot over my head,” d.i.c.k Ames was saying heatedly.
129 ”I didn't think the gun was loaded.” Then Jenkins saw Joe and Asa Grable. He frowned, recognizing the boy. ”What are you doing here?”
”I'm a-callin' on Mr. Grable,” returned Joe in the vernacular of a hired hand. ”Havin' a little trouble with yer gun?”
”Never mind about that,” grunted Jenkins. ”I think you and this man here had better clear out. This is a very dangerous place for prowlers.”
'' Seems to me it's a dangerous place for anyone,” grinned d.i.c.k with a meaning glance at the rifle. '' I guess I 'd better go.''
”It's late for you to be up, Mr. Grable,” remarked Jenkins. ”Don't you think it's time you were in bed?”
”Why, yes, Archibald, I suppose it is,” agreed the scientist with surprising meekness.
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He said goodnight to Joe, and the two boys left. When they looked back, Jenkins and Asa Grable were strolling toward the cottage. The younger man was holding the rifle on his shoulder in a very military manner.
'' I thought I 'd lost you,'' said d.i.c.k, as they crossed the field to the place where they had parked the car.
”And I thought you'd been shot. What happened?”
”Oh, Jenkins found the gun by the fence.