William completed It in a frenzy of enthusiasm. He said that nothing
now stood between him and a vast fortune, and in a mood of reckless
generosity he promised us all shares, which certainly tended to deepen
our interest in the invention. Then he betook himself to the Patent
Office.

I saw him the following day, and it occurred to me at once that all was
not well with William. For one thing he did not burst in unannounced
with hair dishevelled, which seems to be the usual way for an inventor
to come into a room; he entered slowly and sat down heavily.

'Is anything wrong with the invention?' I asked.

He pulled out his handkerchief and mopped his brow. A metal disc fell
out and rolled unheeded across the floor.

'Nothing is wrong with it,' he answered dully.

'You don't mean that some one else has thought of It before you?'

'Most people seem to have thought of It.' He paused and absently
plucked off a stray piece of rubber from his coat sleeve. 'It seems to
have originated in America in 1880. Then a large colony of German
inventors applied for the patent; a body of Russians were imbued with
the idea; several Scandinavians had variations of it. It even seems to
have filtered into the brain of certain West African tribes; and in
1918 a Czecho-Slovak----' He paused, overcome with emotion.

'But if It is a thing man can't do without, why haven't we heard of