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Page 31
"Oh, I don't suppose it amounts to anything," went on Mr. Emberg.
"But it may make a good story to let the old gentleman talk, and
describe the machine. The public likes stories about flying machines
and queer inventors, even if the machines don't work. Get a good
yarn, for we need one for the first page of the supplement. I'll
sent Sneed, the photographer, up later to get some pictures of it."
The city editor handed Larry a postal card, poorly written and
spelled, on which there was a request that a reporter be sent to a
certain address on the East Side, to get a story of a wonderful
invention, destined to revolutionize methods of travel.
It was not the first time Larry had been sent on this sort of an
assignment. Once he had gone to get a story of a new kind of gas
lamp a man had invented, and the thing had exploded while he was
watching the owner demonstrate it. Luckily neither of them were
hurt.
Larry found the address given on the postal was in a dilapidated
tenement, seemingly deserted, and standing some distance away from
other buildings.
When he got there he ran into a reporter named Fritsch, who worked
on a German newspaper.
"Dot inventor vos mofed avay," said the German reporter. "Some
beoples told me he vos krazy."
"Is the house vacant?" asked Larry.
"I dink so. Maype ve walk through him, yah?"
Larry was willing, and together the pair went into the tenement and
upstairs.
As they passed through one of the halls Larry looked up and saw a
man peering down at him over a balustrade. He gave a gasp.
"Vot it is?" questioned the German reporter.
"That man!" cried Larry. He ran up the stairs and tried to catch
the individual, who was running away.
The man was the person he had helped to rescue from the ocean--the
one who had given his name as Mah Retto.
The strange man entered a side room and locked the door. Larry
knocked, but nobody answered his summons.
"Dot vos not der inventor," said Fritsch.
"I know it--but I'd like to see him, nevertheless," answered the
young newspaper man.
A little later the two reporters came down into the street and
separated. Larry went home, but after supper that evening he walked
again in the direction of the lonely tenement. He wanted to see the
policeman, whose post took in that section of the city, and make
some inquiries of him. The officer might be able to throw some light
on the sudden appearance of the strange man.
Larry found the policeman after some search. The officer, as soon as
he learned Larry was from the _Leader_, was very willing to tell all
he knew, for the _Leader_ was a paper that always spoke well of the
police, and the force appreciated this.
"It sure is a queer house," said Patrolman Higgins. "I remember the
time it was filled with families, but they all moved away because
the owner didn't make any repairs. The only person there was a crazy
German who's daffy on airships. He got out to-day."
"I've heard of him," replied Larry. "But is he the only one in
there? I heard there was another man stopping there."
"Now that you speak of it, I shouldn't wonder but what there was,"
answered Higgins. "I saw two lights in there to-night, for the first
time. I've got sort of used to seeing one in the window where the
crazy German is puttering away at his airship, but awhile ago I
noticed a gleam in another part of the house. I took it for a second
lamp the German had lighted, but now that I think of it, seems to me
it was on the other side of the house. I shouldn't wonder but what
you're right."
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