But as they approached the house, his interest began to revive. When he saw that his uncle’s home was a substantial little building, backed by a grove1 of golden-studded orange trees, he began to forget his new trouble.
The house, two stories high, with a porch or gallery on two sides, stood on open ground.
“From the second story,” explained Captain Anderson, “it looks out over the river. You can even see the spray of the ocean breakers on the other side of the peninsula, sometimes.”
“The sea?” exclaimed Andy.
“And miles up and down the river,” replied the captain, nodding his head.
[53]
The place contained about twenty acres, of which five in the rear were in oranges and one in pineapples. On the slope in front was a garden patch, while the low ground near the creek2 was a swamp.
“It is so much more than I expected,” exclaimed Mrs. Leighton at once, “that I almost wish we could keep it and live here.”
“Do you think we could afford it, mother?” Andy began. “I don’t think father will come down here.”
“What is it worth, Captain?” asked Mrs. Leighton.
“About two thousand dollars—maybe a little less.”
“Mother,” said Andy, “of course, we ought to clean up around here a little, but I don’t think we should spend any money on paint or repairs until father knows all about it. Let’s write to him.”
That meant perhaps a week’s reprieve3. In that time considerable might be done on the projected flying machine.
“We’ll see,” answered his mother.
Mrs. Leighton and Andy entered the place with great curiosity. The front of the house was one living room of undecorated pine.[54] There was a stove standing4 in a box of sand, and a long table, a couch, and bookshelves built in the end of the room. A chair at the table and a handmade lounging chair with a canvas back were the only seating accommodations.
The table bore a big green-shaded student lamp, and was laden5 with books, pamphlets, magazines—all in order in little racks—and, in the center, a heap of blank books, scratch paper pads, dry ink bottles, pens, tobacco jars, pipes, matches, and newspaper clippings. On the walls, here and there, were attractive colored prints.
On the table Andy noticed several foreign magazines and reviews. A large portion of the contents of the bookcases were European scientific magazines. One of these, turned over on the table, was a German periodical devoted6 to chemistry.
On the far side of the room a steep stairway led to the second floor. While his elders ascended7 to the rooms above the boy opened a door in the rear. The scientific publications had instantly revived his curiosity concerning the shop or workroom. The door led into a small, bare room with a door opening on the side gallery—evidently a dining room. Beyond[55] this, was a kitchen and a door leading out on the orange grove.
A few yards within the grove, the boy found, in a clearing, the building that his uncle had used as a shop. It was of weather-worn boards, and had a tar-paper roof. The windows, on two sides of the shed, were almost continuous, and protected by shutters8. The door, on a windowless side, was fastened with a padlock. But this did not long deter9 the curious Andy. Many kinds of pipe, bars of iron, empty carboys, boards, boxes, and barrels of hard and soft coal were about the shed. Catching10 up a piece of bar iron, Andy demolished11 the lock staple12 with a blow.
The spaces between the board siding had been filled in with laths and, as the shutters were closed, it was a moment or two before the prying13 visitor could make out his surroundings. As he began to do so he knew that Captain Anderson’s suggestions were more than justified14. He was plainly in the workroom of an experimenter of wide scope.
The intruder’s first work was to throw open the wooden shutters. Then, despite the dust-covered windows, he began a quick inventory15 of the place. The side where there were no windows[56] looked like the disordered shelves of a country drug store. Glass bottles and smaller vials, wicker demijohns, and labeled boxes were jammed together in confusion. There was an acid, mouldy smell about the place, as if sunshine and air had not entered for a long time.
Beneath the windows on the long side of the room was a little workbench such as watchmakers use. It was littered with tools looking much like a watchmaker’s outfit16. In a cleared place on it was tacked17 a sheet of paper, now brown with dust. In lead pencil, on this, were chemical formulae and algebraical equations. By its side was a box of drawing instruments, steel rules, drawing curves and dividers, with pens and drawing inks.
“Nothing much doing!” chuckled18 Andy to himself, smacking19 his lips. He reveled in places of this character. It meant many possible hours of prolonged examination and the joy of almost any kind of discovery.
On the right of this bench was a heavier one for metal working, with two vises and a lathe20 operated by shaft21 and pulley. The shaft extended through the side of the room and connected with a small gasoline engine outside.
[57]
“Nothing Much Doing!”
[58-
59]
Continuing his hasty survey of the curious laboratory, Andy faced the other windowed side of the room. Crowded into a corner, he made out a portable forge. Next to it, was an anvil22 with hammers, tongs23, and bending blocks. Next to this was another and still heavier bench.
It was the first close view of this that made Andy spring forward as if he had caught sight of a bed of gold nuggets. Hereon, plainly enough, were the physical expressions of the eccentric experimenter’s peculiar24 ideas. Metal wheels, shafts25, springs, cylinders26, and pistons27 were heaped together. In front of them was a wooden, soot-smeared and oil-begrimed miniature model of something. The little model had somewhat the appearance of a mechanical fan. As Andy picked it up, a voice from behind him exclaimed:
“Couldn’t wait, eh?”
It was Captain Anderson, and he was followed by Mrs. Leighton and Mrs. Anderson.
“Where’s that power generator28 or transformer, or whatever it is?” was Andy’s only answer as he replaced the model.
“Andrew!” exclaimed his mother, as she caught sight of the boy, whose face was streaked29 with dust and perspiration30, and[60] whose coat was already covered with cobwebs. “You’re ruining your best suit. Come out of that dirty place.”
The boy did so, but it was partly because Captain Anderson had motioned him around the shed. There, beneath a lean-to protection, was a fourth bench. On this, even the untrained Andy instantly made out six small cylinders connected by steel tubes, in the center of each of which was an arrangement of valves and stop cocks. Attached to the first of the cylinders was a compact device resembling a blower, operated by a hand crank. From this, a steel tube led below the bench.
“Don’t ask me what it is,” exclaimed Captain Anderson. “All I know about it is your uncle said that when he got those cylinders workin’ right, he’d have no more use for gasoline.”
“Looks like a new kind o’ compressor,” began Andy, his face beaming. “I think I—”
“Andy, come right along up to the house and help us get things in order,” commanded his mother. “Did you ever see so much rubbish?” she added, turning to Mrs. Anderson and gathering31 up her skirts anew. “All this stuff must have cost a lot of money. Is it worth anything[61] now?” she asked, peering timidly into the disorderly shop once more.
“The tools are worth something,” answered Captain Anderson. “As for the other things, I guess they ain’t good for anything except junk.”
They were on their way back to the house, Andy tagging behind and thinking. Finally he touched the captain on the arm.
“Don’t you be too sure about that ‘junk’ business.”
“Did you find anything?” asked the captain, with a smile.
“I didn’t,” answered the boy, “but my uncle didn’t keep that place goin’ just to kill time. You can bet there are ideas buried somewhere in that stuff.”
“And you are goin’ to dig ’em up?” laughed Captain Anderson.
“There ain’t any law against tryin’,” retorted Andy, red in the face, “and if my mother tries to sell that shanty32 or the ‘junk’ in it before I’m through with it, she’s agoin’ to strike a snag.”
The negro, Ba, had carried the trunks to the gallery, where a council was now held. The only food in the house was a few tins of fruit[62] and vegetables and some ant-infested sugar. The entire place was much in need of soap, water, and broom. The bedding did not meet Mrs. Leighton’s approval. Besides, there was but one bed in the house.
The boy’s suggestion to his mother was to “camp out” in the house until the next morning. There were preserved peaches and tinned baked beans in the pantry, to say nothing of oranges and pineapples on the place, and these Andy thought quite sufficient in the way of food. Then, on the following day, they would borrow Captain Anderson’s sailboat and go to Melbourne to lay in supplies.
This suggestion receiving no immediate33 objection, the boy began to exercise his growing energy in his attack on the disorderly floor of the big room. In the midst of this Captain Anderson stopped him.
“You can’t stay here,” explained the elder. “Your mother has agreed with us, and you’re going back to our house.”
A look of disappointment spread over the boy’s face. Then this changed as he turned to his mother.
“Then you ain’t goin’ to paint the house right away?”
“Not at once,” was the answer. “Captain[63] Anderson has kindly34 offered to let us board with him for a few days until we hear from your father. Then, if he wants to sell the house, and we can’t do it at once, we may make arrangements to come here and live.”
Although it had been decided35 to return to Captain Anderson’s home, and the trunks were carried back to the boat at once, it was nearly noon before the party prepared to leave. Two hours were spent in looking over the grove and the pineapple field, and in a more careful survey of the house and its contents. Then Captain Anderson prepared to lock the house again.
“Don’t that road lead to your house?” asked Andy, who had been in new thought for some time, addressing the captain.
“Sure,” laughed Captain Anderson, “want to walk? It’s two miles.”
“Mother,” asked Andy, “do you mind if I stay here awhile? I’ll walk back.”
His mother eyed him suspiciously.
“What are you planning to do?” she asked.
“Just want to nose around—books and things,” he explained.
“Can he do any harm?” Mrs. Leighton asked, with a smile. “I guess it’s ‘things’ more than books.”
[64]
“Let him stay,” urged the captain. “The place needs all the airing it can get.”
As soon as Andy saw that his request had been granted, he hurried to the boats and opened his trunk. He soon extracted a little red volume. As the returning party approached, he slipped the book to Captain Anderson.
“Captain,” he said quietly, “here’s the book you wanted to see. I thought you might look at it this afternoon. Things are workin’ all right,” he added winking36 slyly. “I’m on the job to begin earning that boat to-morrow—”
“What book is that?” interrupted Mrs. Leighton, who had her eyes on her son.
Andy hesitated, but Captain Anderson volunteered:
“It’s a book about aeroplanes. He’s lending it to me.”
“Aeroplanes?” exclaimed Mrs. Leighton instantly, turning to her son. Then, looking at the captain, she added: “I hope you’ll keep it, Captain Anderson. Andy wasted one whole summer on an engine that won’t work. We don’t need any aeroplanes of the same kind.” Turning to Andy again, she said: “Be sure and be at Captain Anderson’s by five o’clock—and take in all that bedding before you leave.”
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1
grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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reprieve
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| n.暂缓执行（死刑）；v.缓期执行；给…带来缓解 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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deter
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| vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住 | |
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10
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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11
demolished
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| v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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12
staple
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| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
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13
prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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inventory
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| n.详细目录，存货清单 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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17
tacked
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| 用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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smacking
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| 活泼的，发出响声的，精力充沛的 | |
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lathe
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| n.车床，陶器，镟床 | |
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shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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anvil
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| n.铁钻 | |
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tongs
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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cylinders
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| n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物 | |
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pistons
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| 活塞( piston的名词复数 ) | |
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28
generator
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| n.发电机，发生器 | |
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streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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32
shanty
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| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
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33
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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winking
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| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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