sunlight in a full blaze as she looked up and he looked down upon her.
His eyes twinkled back to her smile, but his face grew suddenly grave as he answered.
“I’ll do that!” he said earnestly. “I’ll take pleasure in doing it. I think I know just whom you mean.”
Then he flashed her a smile to cover his own gravity, and they went their ways.
When Kerry reached her stateroom she looked at once at the bed for the paper she had thrown there before going to lunch, but it was nowhere to be seen. She looked on the floor under the bed, and down behind the mattress, but she could not find it. She even sent for the stewardess, but the stewardess said she had not been there since early that morning. Then Kerry got out her papers and went through them carefully, but the page numbered seventy-five, one of the pages she had recopied that morning, was nowhere to be found!
Chapter 6
A fter Kerry had gone over everything in the room three times, the last time slowly and unhurriedly, with a calm conviction growing in her mind that it was positively gone, she sat herself down to discover what had been on that missing sheet.
Indelibly she found stamped on her brain the vision of Dawson as he held it in his hand and scanned it avidly. She was sure from his brief absorption, his absentminded gaze as he handed it back to her, that he had seen something there that more than interested him.
She took out her papers and went over the previous page, and the following one with the notes in little bunches fastened that mentioned the Einstein theory in connection with the new ideas that Shannon Kavanaugh had worked out! It was the page of all the others perhaps that she would least have wished to have seen by a stranger before the book was safely under copyright. It contained the crux of all the argument in brief form. What ill wind had worked against her that it should have been just that page that had strayed out into the corridor when the enemy was passing?
For now she had unconsciously come to call this Dawson person an enemy. Kerry felt as if an evil force were specializing on her incompetent self just then.
With a heavy heart she sat thinking. How often her father had warned her that she must not open her mouth about his book, must never even speak of it, nor answer any question about it no matter how insignificant. He had told her of enemies in the profession, thieves also, who would steal not only thunder, but glory that did not belong to them. She felt that Dawson, PhD, was both a scientific enemy and thief.
It was plain to be seen that he had planned in some way to use her or the book for his own purposes. His proposition on deck just now angered her beyond words. What did he think she was? A child to be led around by bland words? Did he think her father so much of a fool as not to have left his affairs complete, and in hands that were competent to look after them?
And yet, had he? How careless she had been that she had allowed a single sheet of the precious paper to slip out that door!
She tried to think of the possibilities for the thief.
He might use the subject matter in an article, or as a basis in a book of his own, if indeed there was enough to base his argument upon in that single page. Of course if he was a bright man—and he must be, in the sense of having cleverness, cunning—he would quickly understand and supply all that the stolen paragraphs implied. Even if he wrote only an article in a magazine using the material he had—and of course he must have got it somehow! There were such things as skeleton keys—would that be enough to hurt the contract with the publisher of the book?
Kerry was well versed in book contracts. Her father had talked this one over with her. Had in fact showed her some of his other contracts, discussed each separate item and helped her to understand what she should agree to if it fell to her to sign the contract for his book. Dear Father! He must have known months ago that he would
His eyes twinkled back to her smile, but his face grew suddenly grave as he answered.
“I’ll do that!” he said earnestly. “I’ll take pleasure in doing it. I think I know just whom you mean.”
Then he flashed her a smile to cover his own gravity, and they went their ways.
When Kerry reached her stateroom she looked at once at the bed for the paper she had thrown there before going to lunch, but it was nowhere to be seen. She looked on the floor under the bed, and down behind the mattress, but she could not find it. She even sent for the stewardess, but the stewardess said she had not been there since early that morning. Then Kerry got out her papers and went through them carefully, but the page numbered seventy-five, one of the pages she had recopied that morning, was nowhere to be found!
Chapter 6
A fter Kerry had gone over everything in the room three times, the last time slowly and unhurriedly, with a calm conviction growing in her mind that it was positively gone, she sat herself down to discover what had been on that missing sheet.
Indelibly she found stamped on her brain the vision of Dawson as he held it in his hand and scanned it avidly. She was sure from his brief absorption, his absentminded gaze as he handed it back to her, that he had seen something there that more than interested him.
She took out her papers and went over the previous page, and the following one with the notes in little bunches fastened that mentioned the Einstein theory in connection with the new ideas that Shannon Kavanaugh had worked out! It was the page of all the others perhaps that she would least have wished to have seen by a stranger before the book was safely under copyright. It contained the crux of all the argument in brief form. What ill wind had worked against her that it should have been just that page that had strayed out into the corridor when the enemy was passing?
For now she had unconsciously come to call this Dawson person an enemy. Kerry felt as if an evil force were specializing on her incompetent self just then.
With a heavy heart she sat thinking. How often her father had warned her that she must not open her mouth about his book, must never even speak of it, nor answer any question about it no matter how insignificant. He had told her of enemies in the profession, thieves also, who would steal not only thunder, but glory that did not belong to them. She felt that Dawson, PhD, was both a scientific enemy and thief.
It was plain to be seen that he had planned in some way to use her or the book for his own purposes. His proposition on deck just now angered her beyond words. What did he think she was? A child to be led around by bland words? Did he think her father so much of a fool as not to have left his affairs complete, and in hands that were competent to look after them?
And yet, had he? How careless she had been that she had allowed a single sheet of the precious paper to slip out that door!
She tried to think of the possibilities for the thief.
He might use the subject matter in an article, or as a basis in a book of his own, if indeed there was enough to base his argument upon in that single page. Of course if he was a bright man—and he must be, in the sense of having cleverness, cunning—he would quickly understand and supply all that the stolen paragraphs implied. Even if he wrote only an article in a magazine using the material he had—and of course he must have got it somehow! There were such things as skeleton keys—would that be enough to hurt the contract with the publisher of the book?
Kerry was well versed in book contracts. Her father had talked this one over with her. Had in fact showed her some of his other contracts, discussed each separate item and helped her to understand what she should agree to if it fell to her to sign the contract for his book. Dear Father! He must have known months ago that he would
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