The other man was an
American, Roy Sinclair, a tall, lithe, wiry chap with a seamed
and furrowed face and a loose-jointed but very deft manner which
marked him a born bird-man. Norton's third aviator, Humphreys,
who was not to fly that day, much to his relief, was reading a
paper in the back of the shed.
We were introduced to him, and be seemed to be a very
companionable sort of fellow, though not given to talking.
"Mr. Norton," he said, after the introduction, "there's quite an
account of your injunction against Delanne in this paper. It
doesn't seem to be very friendly," he added, indicating the
article.
Norton read it and frowned. "Humph! I'll show them yet that my
application of the gyroscope is patentable. Delanne will put me
into 'interference' in the patent office, as the lawyers call it,
will he? Well, I filed a 'caveat' over a year and a half ago. If
I'm wrong, he's wrong, and all gyroscope patents are wrong, and
if I'm right, by George, I'm first in the field. That's so, isn't
it?" he appealed to Kennedy.
Kennedy shrugged his shoulders non-committally, as if he had
never heard of the patent office or the gyroscope in his life.
The men were listening, whether or not from loyalty I could not
tell.
"Let us see your gyroplane, I mean aeroscope--whatever it is you
call it," asked Kennedy.
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