"Which very cheerful prophecy means----"

"It means, my dear boy, that before you stands the first full-sized
working model of the Hawkins A. P. motor, patent applied for!"

The inventor flicked off a waterproof cover and exposed to view in the
stern of the launch what looked like an inverted wash-boiler. At first
glance it appeared to be merely a dome of heavy steel, bolted to a
massive bed-plate, but I didn't spend much time examining the thing.

"There, Griggs," began Hawkins, triumphantly, "in that small----"

"Hawkins," I cried, desperately, "you get out of that boat! Get out of
it, I say! Come home with me at once. I'm not going to be mixed up in
any more of your wretched trial-trips. Come on, or I'll drag you out!"

Hawkins eyed me coldly for a minute, admonished me not to be an ass, and
went on untying the launch.

He is stronger and heavier than I. Frankly, had I meditated such a course
seriously, I couldn't have hoisted him out of his boat.

If I had ever studied medicine, I suppose I should have known how to stun
Hawkins from above without killing him, but I have never even seen the
inside of a hospital.

Again, could I have conjured up any plausible charge, I might have called
a policeman and requested him to incarcerate Hawkins; at the moment,
however, I was a bit too flustered for such refined strategy.