and that I had consented to take him into my service. "It is now plain
to me," he said, "that they have no power to do this thing and cannot
obtain it from others. This discardment of me proves that they have
abandoned their hopes."

It was evident that Corbridge had said nothing of the expected coming
of the German scientist, and I would not be cruel enough to speak of it
myself. Besides, I intended to have said scientist arrested and put
under bonds as soon as he set foot on our shores.

"I do not feel," continued Kilbright, "that I am beginning a new life,
but that I am taking up my old one at the point where I left it off."

"You cannot do that," I said. "Things have changed very much, and you
will have to adapt yourself to those changes. In many ways you must
begin again."

"I know that," he said, "and with respect to much that I see about me, I
am but a child. But as I am truly a man, I shall begin to do a man's
work, and what I know not of the things that are about me, that will I
learn as quickly as may be. It is my purpose, sir, to labor with you in
any manner which you may deem fit, and in which I may be found
serviceable until I have gained sufficient money to travel to Bixbury,
and there endeavor to establish myself in some worthy employment. I had
at that place a small estate, but of that I shall take no heed. Without
doubt it has gone, rightly, to my heirs, and even if I could deprive
them of it I would not."

"Have you living heirs besides your grandson here?" I asked.