Although Dick Armstrong had lived in the country all his life, and Albany was the biggest town he had heretofore seen, still the great city of New York did not overwhelm him by its immensity.
He was a level-headed boy and believed in taking things as they came.
Of course he found lots to interest and astonish him, but that was only what he had expected.
He and Joe spent three days taking in the sights of the city, which of course were quite familiar to the latter, and then Dick decided to call on Mr. Nesbitt.
That gentleman was a well-known lawyer, and his office was in a big skyscraper on lower Broadway.
It rather took Dick's breath away when he was whisked up to the sixteenth story in an express elevator, yet nobody would have judged from his manner but that he was accustomed to the trip.
"Second corridor to your left," said the elevator man to Dick, and the boy, following this direction, had no trouble in finding the offices of "George Nesbitt, Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law," who occupied a suite of handsomely furnished rooms, from the windows of which a splendid view of the bay and the two rivers was to be had.
The lawyer extended a warm greeting to his young visitor.
"My daughter is doing very nicely, everything considered," he said. "You must not delay calling on us; she will be very glad to see you again."
"I shall be happy to do so," answered Dick.
"Then why not come to-morrow evening? You have our address."
This suited the boy, and the matter was so arranged.
Then Mr. Nesbitt asked Dick about his prospects.
The lad gave him a brief outline of his past life at Cobham's Corner and what he had done since he broke away from Silas Maslin.
The lawyer was impressed with the boy's earnestness and business sagacity and determined to help him on the road to success.
"How would you like employment in my office?" he said. "I do not mean as a clerk. I think I can use you in a way that will develop your natural business talents. I have control of several extensive estates. A young man of your ability can be made useful to me in many ways, and the experience will be of great value to yourself. You are young. The world is before you. The obligations under which you have placed me by your attention to my only child under the most trying of circumstances make me desirous of interesting myself in your future career. Will you give me the opportunity of doing so?"
Dick was both surprised and pleased at the proposition, and he accepted it at once.
Mr. Nesbitt seemed gratified by the lad's acquiescence, and he explained to Dick what his immediate duties would be.
"I should be glad if you will start in to-morrow," he said, finally, and the boy was told to be at the office at half-past nine on the following morning.
That evening he and Joe went down on Water Street and had supper with Captain Beasley and his family on board the Minnehaha.
"So far as obtaining employment is concerned," remarked the skipper as he took down, filled and lit his briar-root pipe, "you two lads seem to have started on even terms, both of you having got a job to-day; it now remains to be seen which will pull out ahead."
"Oh, there isn't any doubt about that," replied Joe, heartily. "I take my hat off to my friend Dick first, last, and always."
"Come, Joe, you're laying it on thick, aren't you?" laughed his chum.
"Not on your life. I'll leave it to Captain Beasley. Five weeks ago you left the Corner with a measly sixteen dollars in your pocket; to-night you could count out eight hundred and fifty made by your business smartness, and I have one hundred and fifty acquired through my connection with you. We are not in the same class, old chappie. I haven't got your head. If I had, I'd back myself to win a million in a year or two."
Dick spent his first day in Mr. Nesbitt's office learning many of the details connected with real estate management, and that evening he visited the lawyer's family, on West Seventy-second Street, where he received a warm welcome from Jennie and Mrs. Nesbitt, who was an invalid.
After that he became a regular visitor, and Miss Jennie introduced him into her own particular set in which his winning manners and good looks soon established him a first favorite.
One of the estates Mr. Nesbitt had charge of was situated about thirty miles out on Long Island, and Dick went there once a week to attend to business matters in connection with its management.
He was returning one afternoon on a Long Island Railroad train when a young man boarded the car at a way station and took the only vacant seat, which was alongside Dick.
He looked to be a bright fellow, with a frank, ingenuous countenance that naturally inspired confidence; but he looked pale and weak as though recovering from a long illness.
Dick got into conversation with him, and soon found out he was an Englishman, who had come to America more than a year before after having been thrown on his own resources by the death of his only relative.
He had not been successful in securing steady employment, and subsequent illness had brought him down to bed-rock.
How he was going to get on, he hadn't a very clear idea.
"If I only had a few dollars," he said sadly as he gazed through the car window at the bleak, wintry prospect, "I feel sure I could get on my feet."
"Then you're broke, are you?" asked Dick, sympathetically.
"Flat," admitted the young Englishman, in a dejected voice.
"That's tough."
"Yes, it is. It is strange how hard luck follows a fellow. I'll show you something I invented just before I was taken down with the gastric fever. It's a good idea, and since I got out of the hospital I've been trying to sell a half-interest for a hundred dollars so I can get it patented. But nobody seems to see any money in it."
The young stranger put his hand in his pocket and drew out a well-worn pocket-book.
From this he produced a descriptive drawing of a new idea in water-coolers.
"This is entirely different from anything on the market," he said, "and if manufactured and properly pushed, I don't see why it shouldn't sell well. You see, the water is kept entirely separate from the ice, which is chopped up, mixed with rock salt on the same principle as that used and packed around an ice-cream can. The ice preparation is put in here, the space indicated by I, the water in here, which is simply a galvanized receptacle which can be removed when the cooler is to be cleaned out and recharged. The advantages of this scheme are that you can use filtered water or any special kind of spring water—in fact any kind of fluid—and keep it cold without direct contact with or contamination from the ice itself."
"The idea isn't bad," said Dick thoughtfully, as he studied the diagram carefully. "You want one hundred dollars for a half-interest?"
"I would dispose of a half-interest for that amount in order to get the money necessary to patent it."
"Suppose you let me have this drawing for a few days. Here is my employer's business address. That is my name printed in the corner. If I find there is likely to be any money in this thing, I'll give you fifty dollars for a half-interest and stand the expense of patenting it myself. What do you say?"
"I agree to that," said the Englishman, eagerly. "When shall I call on you?"
"Next Saturday about noon."
"All right."
Dick put the drawing into his pocket.
"I'll let you have five dollars on account now, as you probably need the money," he said, offering his new acquaintance a bill of that denomination. "If I don't take up the scheme I won't require you to return me the fiver."
"That's generous of you," said the other, earnestly. "Meeting you is the first stroke of luck I've had for months."
"Don't be too sure of that," replied Dick, cautiously. "There may be nothing in it, after all."
Then they talked of other matters till the train arrived at the Flatbush Avenue Station, where they parted, Dick taking an electric car over the bridge for New York.
That night he showed the drawing to Joe, who roomed with him, and together they discussed the feasibility of the scheme proving a paying one.
Dick had a shrewd idea that a manufacturer of water-coolers was the best persons to consult on the project, and next day called on one who happened to be a personal friend of Mr. Nesbitt.
The idea struck the manufacturer favorably.
He called his manager in, and they figured out the cost of the article on the lines presented by Dick.
"What will you sell the patent for?" asked the manufacturer.
"You can have my half-interest, for twenty-five hundred dollars," was Dick's reply, "and I dare say I can arrange to get you the other half at the same figure."
"I'll tell you what I'll do," said the manufacturer, after considering the matter. "I'll build these coolers and place them on the market, allowing you a royalty of from twenty-five to fifty cents, according to size, on every one actually sold."
"Will you give me a memorandum, in writing, to that effect and allow me a few days to consider your offer?"
"Certainly." And the gentleman did so and handed the paper to Dick. "You will accept that as a thirty-day option on the patent."
"Very well," said the boy, rising and bidding him good day.
Dick went at once to Munn & Co. and made application for a patent covering the specifications set forth by the young Englishman, entering the same in both their names.
When the inventor called on Saturday he handed him $45, taking in return a bill of sale for half the patent rights on the cooler.
Then he told the Englishman of the offer he had had from the manufacturer, and advised that they take up with it.
"It is better than I expected to do with it," replied the inventor, "but I don't feel as though I could wait for the realization of such good luck. I want to get back to England. I am homesick here. Do you think the whole thing is worth five hundred dollars to you? Will you take that much risk on its success after it has been put on the market? If you will, give me four hundred and fifty more, and I will make out a new bill of sale giving you the sole right to the invention."
"Wait a moment," said Dick, and he went inside and had a consultation with Mr. Nesbitt.
The result was that Dick bought the invention outright.
On the following Monday he went to the manufacturer and made a contract with him on the terms proposed.
Although the boy did not then dream of the ultimate results of this deal, we may say now that the coolers were ready and put on the market in time for the summer trade.
They were a novelty, took splendidly, and in the end Dick disposed of the patent rights to the manufacturer for $5,000 cash.