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Fortunately Helen saw him and let him in, but when I reproved Robert

for the act he said he was just trying the sign to see if it would work."

Exactly! The boy is an inventor already. I shall have one of those cards

attached to the door of my private office at once. I tell you, Belinda, our

son will be a great man one of these days," said Mr. Joslyn, walking up

and down with pompous strides and almost bursting with the pride he

took in his young hopeful.

Mrs. Joslyn sighed. She knew remonstrance was useless so long as her

husband encouraged the boy, and that she would be wise to bear her

cross with fortitude.

Rob also knew his mother's protests would be of no avail; so he

continued to revel in electrical processes of all sorts, using the house as

an experimental station to test the powers of his productions.

It was in his own room, however,--his "workshop"--that he especially

delighted. For not only was it the center of all his numerous "lines"

throughout the house, but he had rigged up therein a wonderful array of

devices for his own amusement. A trolley-car moved around a circular

track and stopped regularly at all stations; an engine and train of cars

moved jerkily up and down a steep grade and through a tunnel; a

windmill was busily pumping water from the dishpan into the copper

skillet; a sawmill was in full operation and a host of mechanical

blacksmiths, scissors-grinders, carpenters, wood-choppers and millers

were connected with a motor which kept them working away at their

trades in awkward but persevering fashion.

The room was crossed and recrossed with wires. They crept up the

walls, lined the floor, made a grille of the ceiling and would catch an

unwary visitor under the chin or above the ankle just when he least

expected it. Yet visitors were forbidden in so crowded a room, and even

his father declined to go farther than the doorway. As for Rob, he

thought he knew all about the wires, and what each one was for; but

they puzzled even him, at times, and he was often perplexed to know how

to utilize them all.

One day when he had locked himself in to avoid interruption while he

planned the electrical illumination of a gorgeous pasteboard palace, he

really became confused over the network of wires. He had a

switchboard," to be sure, where he could make and break connections

The Master Key