for he did not like the other's tone, "Only, as I say, I cannot
accept. I have other plans."

"Oh, you--" began the brusk treasurer, but Mr. Gale, the
president of the Universal Flying Machine Company, stopped his
associate with a warning look.

"Just a moment, Mr. Swift," begged the president. "Don't be
hasty. We are prepared to make you a last and final offer, and I
do not believe you can refuse it."

"Well, I certainly will not refuse it without hearing it," said
Tom, with a smile he meant to make good-natured. Yet, truth to
tell, he did not at all like the two visitors. There was
something about them that aroused his antagonism, and he said
later that even if they had offered him a sum which he felt he
ought not, in justice to himself and his father, refuse, he would
have felt a distaste in working for a company represented by the
twain.

"This is our offer," said Mr. Gale, and he spoke in a pompous
manner which seemed to say: "If you don't take it, why, it will
be the worse for you." He looked at his treasurer for a
confirmatory nod and, receiving it, went on. "We are prepared to
offer and pay you, and will enter into such a contract, with the
stipulation about the inventions that I mentioned before--we are
prepared to pay you--twenty thousand dollars a year! Now what do
you say to that, Tom Swift?

"Twenty-thousand-dollars-a-year!" repeated Mr. Gale unctuously,