Howard R. Garis

“ Father! Are you injured?” cried a voice, and a woman, much excited, hurried into the laboratory.
“Not a bit, my dear, not a bit,” replied the professor, as he brushed the dust from his clothes. “Another tube blew up, that's all,” and he seemed as cheerful as though the experiment had succeeded.
“Oh, those horrible, dangerous steam tubes!” exclaimed the lady. Then she saw Larry, and, observing he was a stranger, was about to withdraw.
“This is a reporter from the New York Leader,” explained the scientist. “He has come for a copy of my speech, and it's a good thing he did. ”

“ As near as I can get at, it's a plan to make an automobile out of a tea kettle.”
“Don't you suppose I could see the professor?” asked the young reporter.
“Well, you can try,” said the girl. “The laboratory is that small white building down at the far end of the yard. Go down there, and walk right in. If you knock he'll never answer. Mrs. Allen has just fed him his breakfast, and perhaps he'll talk to you a little.”
Larry decided this was the only way of securing what he wanted, so he made his way to the laboratory, and, remembering the injunction, entered the door and walked in. ”

“ He found himself in a large room, fairly filled with machinery and appliances of all kinds. Overhead there were shafts and pulleys, while all about the sides were benches, lathes, wheels, levers, handles, and springs of various sorts. ”