But Selwyn merely shook his head, repeating:  “You see how it is, don’t you?”

“I see that you possess a highly developed conscience,” said Edgerton Lawn, laughing; “and when I tell you that we are more than willing to take every chance of failure—­”

But Selwyn shook his head:  “Not yet,” he said; “don’t worry; I need the money, and I’ll waste no time when a square deal is possible.  But I ought to tell you this:  that first of all I must offer it to the Government.  That is only decent, you see—­”

“Who ever heard of the Government’s gratitude?” broke in Austin.  “Nonsense, Phil; you are wasting time!”

“I’ve got to do it,” said Selwyn; “you must see that, of course.”

“But I don’t see it,” began Lawn—­“because you are not in the Government service now—­”

“Besides,” added Austin, “you were not a West Pointer; you never were under obligations to the Government!”

“Are we not all under obligation?” asked Selwyn so simply that Austin flushed.

“Oh, of course—­patriotism and all that—­naturally—­Confound it, I don’t suppose you’d go and offer it to Germany or Japan before our own Government had the usual chance to turn it down and break your heart.  But why can’t the Government make arrangements with Lawn’s Company—­if it desires to?”

“A man can’t exploit his own Government; you all know that as well as I do,” returned Selwyn, smiling. “Pro aris et focis, you know—­ex necessitate rei.”

“When the inventor goes to the Government,” said Austin, with a shrug—­“vestigia nulla retrorsum.”

“Spero meliora,” retorted Selwyn, laughing; but there remained the obstinate squareness of jaw, and his amused eyes were clear and steady.  Young Lawn looked into them and the hope in him flickered; Austin looked, and shrugged; but as they all turned away to retrace their steps across the moors in the direction of Silverside, Lansing lightly hooked his arm into Selwyn’s; and Gerald, walking thoughtfully on the other side, turned over and over in his mind the proposition offered him—­the spectacle of a modern and needy man to whom money appeared to be the last consideration in a plain matter of business.  Also he turned over other matters in his mind; and moved closer to Selwyn, walking beside him with grave eyes bent on the ground.

* * * * *

The matter of business arrangements apparently ended then and there; Lawn’s company sent several men to Selwyn and wrote him a great many letters—­unlike the Government, which had not replied to his briefly tentative suggestion that Chaosite be conditionally examined, tested, and considered.

So the matter remained in abeyance, and Selwyn employed two extra men and continued storage tests and experimented with rifled and smooth-bore tubes, watchfully uncertain yet as to the necessity of inventing a solvent to neutralise possible corrosion after a propelling charge had been exploded.