The boy flushed.

"I"d like to think so, Mr. Carlton."

"I want you to know so, Van. I happened to see Mr. Hennessey," he went on in a lower tone, "and he related to me that incident at the factory. Of course he did not understand it, but I did--instantly.

I appreciated your sense of honor, my boy."

"I wanted to be square."

"You were a gentleman in the very best sense of the word."

A great gladness glowed in Van"s eyes, for terse as was the phrase it bore to him the very recognition he had coveted from Bob"s father. Mr. Carlton, however, did not enlarge upon the subject, but casting it swiftly into the background asked:

"Are you sure you both would rather spend your last morning in New York going through a candy factory than doing anything else?

Factories are tiresome places, you must remember."

"But a candy factory could never be tiresome!" a.s.serted Bob.

His father laughed.

"There are just as many miles in a candy factory as any other," he replied. "Any of the men who work there would tell you that, I fancy."

"But they are such nice miles!" argued Bob. "Don"t you say we go, Van?"

"I sure do. I want to see how they dip chocolates," Van answered.

"It"s all aboard to-morrow morning, then," Mr. Carlton said as he lit his after-dinner cigar.

"There"s one thing, Dad, that it"s only fair to warn you about,"

called Bob, turning on the lowest step of the stairway to address his father. "Our expedition may cost you something. You see they probably won"t let us eat any candy at the factory; we"ll just have to walk round with our eyes open and our hands crammed into our pockets to keep from swiping it. All the time we"ll be getting up a tremendous candy appet.i.te, and the minute we get outside we"ll just have to make a bee-line for the first candy shop in sight and get filled up. So you must be prepared to cash in for refreshments."

The corners of Mr. Carlton"s mouth twisted into an enigmatic smile.

"I"ll agree to pay for as much candy as you care to eat," he said, accepting the challenge without objection.

Bob stared at him.

"Do you mean it?"

"Certainly. Why do you question it?"

"But"--faltered Bob in amazement, "you never promised anything like that before."

"I may never promise it again, so make the most of it," was the dry retort.

Although Bob did not reply he by no means forgot the unprecedented offer, and that the memory of it might be equally fresh in his father"s mind he spoke of it once again when the three parted the next morning.

"Well, Dad, we"re off for the Bonbon World," he called as he pa.s.sed the library door where his father sat looking over the morning"s mail. "Remember you are going to O.K. any candy bills we run up."

"I"m backing you for all you can eat," nodded Mr. Carlton.

"Dad sure is game!" Bob declared as he and Van stepped into the waiting motor-car and began their ride to the factory. "He"ll play it out, too. He never goes back on his word."

"I"m afraid he"ll be in for something then," grinned Van.

Both boys were more than ever convinced of the truth of this remark when they entered the factory and were greeted by the mingled aroma of chocolate, wintergreen and mola.s.ses.

"I could eat ten pounds of chocolates this minute!" exclaimed Van.

"Go easy. Remember, we"ve got to wait until we have made the entire tour of this factory before we can have so much as a single caramel.

You mustn"t go getting up your appet.i.te so soon."

"But smell it, Bobbie! Why, the whole place is one mellifluous smudge. What do you say we chuck Colversham and get a job here?

Think of having pounds of candy--tons of it--around all the time!

Wouldn"t it be a snap!"

Van was cut short in his rhapsody by the approach of a pleasant faced lad of about his own age who was dressed from head to foot in white and wore a little white cap, across the front of which was printed in gold letters the word _Eureka_.

"Are you Mr. Carlton?" he inquired of Van.

"I"m not, but my chum is."

"We were expecting you," the boy answered, turning to Bob. "I am to show you and your friend through the works. Will you kindly step this way?"

Tagging at the heels of their white-robed guide Bob and Van made their way through a large storeroom stacked to the ceiling with fancy boxes of various sizes, shapes, and colors.

"Give up Colversham, Bob, and maybe you could come here and wear a white suit every day and personally conduct visitors through the works; perhaps they"d even pay you in bonbons," whispered Van.

"He must be about our age," returned Bob. "I wonder what they pay him."

"I"d lots rather have had a man take us round," said Van softly. "Do you suppose this fellow knows anything?"

All the way up in the elevator the two visitors watched the white-suited boy curiously and when they alighted in the large, sun-flooded room at the top of the factory they were still speculating as to his age and how much he earned, and marveling that so young a representative should have been selected to explain to them the candy industry.

The room they entered was high and airy and at the further end of it, moving amid steam that rose from a score of copper kettles, a great many men in spotless white were hurrying about.

"It is here that we start our candy making," said the boy who was showing Bob about. "Into those copper kettles we put our mixture of confectioners" sugar--confectioners" A, we call it--and corn syrup; this combination forms the basis of almost every variety of candy made. The kettles, as you will see, are heated by gas, which gives a steady flame, and at the side of each one we have a thermometer by which we can tell the exact temperature of the mixture. There is also a gla.s.s disc set in the side of every kettle to enable us to watch the boiling. The sugar and corn syrup are melted together and cooked at the temperature which after repeated experiments has proved the most successful for our purpose--one that will neither burn nor stick, or make the cooled fondant too thin to keep its shape."

The boy spoke in the slow, measured tones of one who had told the tale many times before and was quite accustomed to his task.

Bob glanced at Van.

Their respect for the lad was rising.

"How much does one of these kettles hold?" Bob asked.

"About six hundred pounds."

"And you fill all of them every day?" demanded Van in astonishment.