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Page 13
"You can't accept!" cried Mr. Gale.
"Are you sure you don't mean 'won't'?" asked Mr. Ware, in a
half growl.
"You may call it that if you like," replied Tom, a bit coolly,
for he did not like the other's tone, "Only, as I say, I cannot
accept. I have other plans."
"Oh, you--" began the brusk treasurer, but Mr. Gale, the
president of the Universal Flying Machine Company, stopped his
associate with a warning look.
"Just a moment, Mr. Swift," begged the president. "Don't be
hasty. We are prepared to make you a last and final offer, and I
do not believe you can refuse it."
"Well, I certainly will not refuse it without hearing it," said
Tom, with a smile he meant to make good-natured. Yet, truth to
tell, he did not at all like the two visitors. There was
something about them that aroused his antagonism, and he said
later that even if they had offered him a sum which he felt he
ought not, in justice to himself and his father, refuse, he would
have felt a distaste in working for a company represented by the
twain.
"This is our offer," said Mr. Gale, and he spoke in a pompous
manner which seemed to say: "If you don't take it, why, it will
be the worse for you." He looked at his treasurer for a
confirmatory nod and, receiving it, went on. "We are prepared to
offer and pay you, and will enter into such a contract, with the
stipulation about the inventions that I mentioned before--we are
prepared to pay you--twenty thousand dollars a year! Now what do
you say to that, Tom Swift?
"Twenty-thousand-dollars-a-year!" repeated Mr. Gale unctuously,
rolling the words off his tongue. "Twen-ty-thou-sand-dol-lars-a-
year! Think of it!"
"I am thinking of it," said Tom Swift gently, "and I thank you
for your offer. It is, indeed, very generous. But I must give you
the same answer. I cannot accept."
"Tom!" exclaimed his aged father.
"Mr. Swift!" exclaimed the two visitors.
Tom smiled and shook his head.
"Oh, I know very well what I am saying, and what I am turning
down," he said. "But I simply cannot accept. I have other plans.
I am sorry you have had your trip for nothing," he added to the
visitors, "but, really, I must refuse."
"Is that your final answer?" asked Mr. Gale.
"Yes."
"Don't you want to take a day or two to think it over?" asked
the treasurer. "Don't be hasty. Remember that very few young men
can command that salary, and I may say you will find us liberal
in other ways. You would have some time to yourself."
"That is what I most need," returned Tom. "Time to myself. No,
thank you, gentlemen, I cannot accept."
"Be careful!" warned Mr. Gale, and it sounded as though there
might be a threat in his voice. "This is our last offer, and your
last chance. We will not renew this. If you do not accept our
twenty thousand dollars now, you will never get it again."
"I realize that," said Tom, "and I am prepared to take the
consequences.
"Very well, then," said Mr. Gale. "There seems nothing for us
to do, Mr. Ware, but to go back to New York. I bid you good-day,"
and he bowed stiffly to Tom. "I hope you will not regret your
refusal of our offer."
"I hope so myself," said Tom, lightly.
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