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diff --git a/8199-h/8199-h.htm b/8199-h/8199-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58b9095 --- /dev/null +++ b/8199-h/8199-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3296 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> +<TITLE>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Moon Metal, by Garrett P. Serviss</TITLE> +<META HTTP-EQUIV="content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> +</HEAD> +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Moon Metal, by Garrett P. Serviss + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Moon Metal + +Author: Garrett P. Serviss + +Posting Date: August 25, 2012 [EBook #8199] +Release Date: May, 2005 +First Posted: July 1, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOON METAL *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne L. Shell, Joris Van Dael, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1 align=center>THE MOON METAL</h1> + +<h2 align=center>By Garrett P. Serviss</h2> + +<br> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p><a href="#chap1">I. SOUTH POLAR GOLD</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap2">II. THE MAGICIAN OF SCIENCE</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap3">III. THE GRAND TETON MINE</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap4">IV. THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap5">V. WONDERS OF THE NEW METAL</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap6">VI. A STRANGE DISCOVERY</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap7">VII. A MYSTERY INDEED!</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap8">VIII. MORE OF DR. SYX’S MAGIC</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap9">IX. THE DETECTIVE OF SCIENCE</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap10">X. THE TOP OF THE GRAND TETON</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap11">XI. STRANGE FATE OF A KITE</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap12">XII. BETTER THAN ALCHEMY</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap13">XIII. THE LOOTING OF THE MOON</a></p> + +<p><a href="#chap14">XIV. THE LAST OF DR. SYX</a></p> + +<br> + +<h2><a name="chap1"></a>I. SOUTH POLAR GOLD</h2> + +<p>When the news came of the discovery of gold at the south pole, nobody +suspected that the beginning had been reached of a new era in the +world’s history. The newsboys cried “Extra!” as they had done a +thousand times for murders, battles, fires, and Wall Street panics, +but nobody was excited. In fact, the reports at first seemed so +exaggerated and improbable that hardly anybody believed a word of +them. Who could have been expected to credit a despatch, forwarded by +cable from New Zealand, and signed by an unknown name, which contained +such a statement as this:</p> + +<p>“A seam of gold which can be cut with a knife has been found within +ten miles of the south pole.”</p> + +<p>The discovery of the pole itself had been announced three years +before, and several scientific parties were known to be exploring the +remarkable continent that surrounds it. But while they had sent home +many highly interesting reports, there had been nothing to suggest the +possibility of such an amazing discovery as that which was now +announced. Accordingly, most sensible people looked upon the New +Zealand despatch as a hoax.</p> + +<p>But within a week, and from a different source, flashed another +despatch which more than confirmed the first. It declared that gold +existed near the south pole in practically unlimited quantity. Some +geologists said this accounted for the greater depth of the Antarctic +Ocean. It had always been noticed that the southern hemisphere +appeared to be a little overweighted. People now began to prick up +their ears, and many letters of inquiry appeared in the newspapers +concerning the wonderful tidings from the south. Some asked for +information about the shortest route to the new goldfields.</p> + +<p>In a little while several additional reports came, some <i>via</i> New +Zealand, others <i>via</i> South America, and all confirming in every respect +what had been sent before. Then a New York newspaper sent a swift +steamer to the Antarctic, and when this enterprising journal published +a four-page cable describing the discoveries in detail, all doubt +vanished and the rush began.</p> + +<p>Some time I may undertake a description of the wild scenes that +occurred when, at last, the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere +were convinced that boundless stores of gold existed in the unclaimed +and uninhabited wastes surrounding the south pole. But at present I +have something more wonderful to relate.</p> + +<p>Let me briefly depict the situation.</p> + +<p>For many years silver had been absent from the coinage of the +world. Its increasing abundance rendered it unsuitable for money, +especially when contrasted with gold. The “silver craze,” which had +raged in the closing decade of the nineteenth century, was already a +forgotten incident of financial history. The gold standard had become +universal, and business all over the earth had adjusted itself to that +condition. The wheels of industry ran smoothly, and there seemed to be +no possibility of any disturbance or interruption. The common monetary +system prevailing in every land fostered trade and facilitated the +exchange of products. Travellers never had to bother their heads about +the currency of money; any coin that passed in New York would pass for +its face value in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, St. Petersburg, +Constantinople, Cairo, Khartoum, Jerusalem, Peking, or Yeddo. It was +indeed the “Golden Age,” and the world had never been so free from +financial storms.</p> + +<p>Upon this peaceful scene the south polar gold discoveries burst like +an unheralded tempest.</p> + +<p>I happened to be in the company of a famous bank president when the +confirmation of those discoveries suddenly filled the streets with +yelling newsboys. “Get me one of those ‘extras’!” he said, and an +office-boy ran out to obey him. As he perused the sheet his face +darkened.</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid it’s too true,” he said, at length. “Yes, there seems to +be no getting around it. Gold is going to be as plentiful as iron. If +there were not such a flood of it, we might manage, but when they +begin to make trousers buttons out of the same metal that is now +locked and guarded in steel vaults, where will be our standard of +worth? My dear fellow,” he continued, impulsively laying his hand on +my arm, “I would as willingly face the end of the world as this that’s +coming!”</p> + +<p>“You think it so bad, then?” I asked. “But most people will not agree +with you. They will regard it as very good news.”</p> + +<p>“How can it be good?” he burst out. “What have we got to take the +place of gold? Can we go back to the age of barter? Can we substitute +cattle-pens and wheat-bins for the strong boxes of the Treasury? Can +commerce exist with no common measure of exchange?”</p> + +<p>“It does indeed look serious,” I assented.</p> + +<p>“Serious! I tell you, it is the deluge!”</p> + +<p>Thereat he clapped on his hat and hurried across the street to the +office of another celebrated banker.</p> + +<p>His premonitions of disaster turned out to be but too well grounded. +The deposits of gold at the south pole were richer than the wildest +reports had represented them. The shipments of the precious metal to +America and Europe soon became enormous—so enormous that the metal +was no longer precious. The price of gold dropped like a falling +stone, with accelerated velocity, and within a year every money centre +in the world had been swept by a panic. Gold was more common than +iron. Every government was compelled to demonetize it, for when once +gold had fallen into contempt it was less valuable in the eyes of the +public than stamped paper. For once the world had thoroughly learned +the lesson that too much of a good thing is worse than none of it.</p> + +<p>Then somebody found a new use for gold by inventing a process by which +it could be hardened and tempered, assuming a wonderful toughness and +elasticity without losing its non-corrosive property, and in this form +it rapidly took the place of steel.</p> + +<p>In the mean time every effort was made to bolster up credit. Endless +were the attempts to find a substitute for gold. The chemists sought +it in their laboratories and the mineralogists in the mountains and +deserts. Platinum might have served, but it, too, had become a drug in +the market through the discovery of immense deposits. Out of the +twenty odd elements which had been rarer and more valuable than gold, +such as uranium, gallium, etc., not one was found to answer the +purpose. In short, it was evident that since both gold and silver had +become too abundant to serve any longer for a money standard, the +planet held no metal suitable to take their place.</p> + +<p>The entire monetary system of the world must be readjusted, but in the +readjustment it was certain to fall to pieces. In fact, it had already +fallen to pieces; the only recourse was to paper money, but whether +this was based upon agriculture or mining or manufacture, it gave +varying standards, not only among the different nations, but in +successive years in the same country. Exports and imports practically +ceased. Credit was discredited, commerce perished, and the world, at a +bound, seemed to have gone back, financially and industrially, to the +dark ages.</p> + +<p>One final effort was made. A great financial congress was assembled at +New York. Representatives of all the nations took part in it. The +ablest financiers of Europe and America united the efforts of their +genius and the results of their experience to solve the great +problem. The various governments all solemnly stipulated to abide by +the decision of the congress.</p> + +<p>But, after spending months in hard but fruitless labor, that body was +no nearer the end of its undertaking than when it first assembled. The +entire world awaited its decision with bated breath, and yet the +decision was not formed.</p> + +<p>At this paralyzing crisis a most unexpected event suddenly opened the +way.</p> + + +<h2><a name="chap2"></a>II. THE MAGICIAN OF SCIENCE</h2> + +<p>An attendant entered the room where the perplexed financiers were in +session and presented a peculiar-looking card to the president, +Mr. Boon. The president took the card in his hand and instantly fell +into a brown study. So complete was his absorption that Herr Finster, +the celebrated Berlin banker, who had been addressing the chair for +the last two hours from the opposite end of the long table, got +confused, entirely lost track of his verb, and suddenly dropped into +his seat, very red in the face and wearing a most injured expression.</p> + +<p>But President Boon paid no attention except to the singular card, +which he continued to turn over and over, balancing it on his fingers +and holding it now at arm’s-length and then near his nose, with one +eye squinted as if he were trying to look through a hole in the card.</p> + +<p>At length this odd conduct of the presiding officer drew all eyes upon +the card, and then everybody shared the interest of Mr. Boon. In shape +and size the card was not extraordinary, but it was composed of +metal. What metal? That question had immediately arisen in Mr. Boon’s +mind when the card came into his hand, and now it exercised the wits +of all the others. Plainly it was not tin, brass, copper, bronze, +silver, aluminum—although its lightness might have suggested that +metal—nor even base gold.</p> + +<p>The president, although a skilled metallurgist, confessed his +inability to say what it was. So intent had he become in examining the +curious bit of metal that he forgot it was a visitor’s card of +introduction, and did not even look for the name which it presumably +bore.</p> + +<p>As he held the card up to get a better light upon it a stray sunbeam +from the window fell across the metal and instantly it bloomed with +exquisite colors! The president’s chair being in the darker end of +the room, the radiant card suffused the atmosphere about him with a +faint rose tint, playing with surprising liveliness into alternate +canary color and violet.</p> + +<p>The effect upon the company of clear-headed financiers was extremely +remarkable. The unknown metal appeared to exercise a kind of mesmeric +influence, its soft hues blending together in a chromatic harmony +which captivated the sense of vision as the ears are charmed by a +perfectly rendered song. Gradually all gathered in an eager group +around the president’s chair.</p> + +<p>“What can it be?” was repeated from lip to lip.</p> + +<p>“Did you ever see anything like it?” asked Mr. Boon for the twentieth +time.</p> + +<p>None of them had ever seen the like of it. A spell fell upon the +assemblage. For five minutes no one spoke, while Mr. Boon continued to +chase the flickering sunbeam with the wonderful card. Suddenly the +silence was broken by a voice which had a touch of awe in it:</p> + +<p>“It must be the metal!”</p> + +<p>The speaker was an English financier, First Lord of the Treasury, +Hon. James Hampton-Jones, K.C.B. Immediately everybody echoed his +remark, and the strain being thus relieved, the spell dropped from +them and several laughed loudly over their momentary aberration.</p> + +<p>President Boon recollected himself, and, coloring slightly, placed the +card flat on the table, in order more clearly to see the name. In +plain red letters it stood forth with such surprising distinctness +that Mr. Boon wondered why he had so long overlooked it.</p> + +<blockquote>“DR. MAX SYX.”</blockquote> + +<p>“Tell the gentleman to come in,” said the president, and thereupon the +attendant threw open the door.</p> + +<p>The owner of the mysterious card fixed every eye as he entered. He was +several inches more than six feet in height. His complexion was very +dark, his eyes were intensely black, bright, and deep-set, his +eyebrows were bushy and up-curled at the ends, his sable hair was +close-trimmed, and his ears were narrow, pointed at the top, and +prominent. He wore black mustaches, covering only half the width of +his lip and drawn into projecting needles on each side, while a spiked +black beard adorned the middle of his chin.</p> + +<p>He smiled as he stepped confidently forward, with a courtly bow, but +it was a very disconcerting smile, because it more than half resembled +a sneer. This uncommon person did not wait to be addressed.</p> + +<p>“I have come to solve your problem,” he said, facing President Boon, +who had swung round on his pivoted chair.</p> + +<p>“The metal!” exclaimed everybody in a breath, and with a unanimity and +excitement which would have astonished them if they had been +spectators instead of actors of the scene. The tall stranger bowed and +smiled again:</p> + +<p>“Just so,” he said. “What do you think of it?”</p> + +<p>“It is beautiful!”</p> + +<p>Again the reply came from every mouth simultaneously, and again if the +speakers could have been listeners they would have wondered not only +at their earnestness, but at their words, for why should they +instantly and unanimously pronounce that beautiful which they had not +even seen? But every man knew he had seen it, for instinctively their +minds reverted to the card and recognized in it the metal referred +to. The mesmeric spell seemed once more to fall upon the assemblage, +for the financiers noticed nothing remarkable in the next act of the +stranger, which was to take a chair, uninvited, at the table, and the +moment he sat down he became the presiding officer as naturally as if +he had just been elected to that post. They all waited for him to +speak, and when he opened his mouth they listened with breathless +attention.</p> + +<p>His words were of the best English, but there was some peculiarity, +which they had already noticed, either in his voice or his manner of +enunciation, which struck all of the listeners as denoting a +foreigner. But none of them could satisfactorily place him. Neither +the Americans, the Englishmen, the Germans, the Frenchmen, the +Russians, the Austrians, the Italians, the Spaniards, the Turks, the +Japanese, or the Chinese at the board could decide to what race or +nationality the stranger belonged.</p> + +<p>“This metal,” he began, taking the card from Mr. Boon’s hand, “I have +discovered and named. I call it ‘artemisium.’ I can produce it, in the +pure form, abundantly enough to replace gold, giving it the same +relative value that gold possessed when it was the universal +standard.”</p> + +<p>As Dr. Syx spoke he snapped the card with his thumb-nail and it +fluttered with quivering hues like a humming-bird hovering over a +flower. He seemed to await a reply, and President Boon asked:</p> + +<p>“What guarantee can you give that the supply would be adequate and +continuous?”</p> + +<p>“I will conduct a committee of this congress to my mine in the Rocky +Mountains, where, in anticipation of the event, I have accumulated +enough refined artemisium to provide every civilized land with an +amount of coin equivalent to that which it formerly held in gold. I +can there satisfy you of my ability to maintain the production.”</p> + +<p>“But how do we know that this metal of yours will answer the purpose?”</p> + +<p>“Try it,” was the laconic reply.</p> + +<p>“There is another difficulty,” pursued the president. “People will not +accept a new metal in place of gold unless they are convinced that it +possesses equal intrinsic value. They must first become familiar with +it, and it must be abundant enough and desirable enough to be used +sparingly in the arts, just as gold was.”</p> + +<p>“I have provided for all that,” said the stranger, with one of his +disconcerting smiles. “I assure you that there will be no trouble with +the people. They will be only too eager to get and to use the +metal. Let me show you.”</p> + +<p>He stepped to the door and immediately returned with two black +attendants bearing a large tray filled with articles shaped from the +same metal as that of which the card was composed. The financiers all +jumped to their feet with exclamations of surprise and admiration, and +gathered around the tray, whose dazzling contents lighted up the +corner of the room where it had been placed as if the moon were +shining there.</p> + +<p>There were elegantly formed vases, adorned with artistic figures, +embossed and incised, and glowing with delicate colors which shimmered +in tiny waves with the slightest motion of the tray. Cups, pins, +finger-rings, earrings, watch-chains, combs, studs, lockets, medals, +tableware, models of coins—in brief, almost every article in the +fabrication of which precious metals have been employed was to be seen +there in profusion, and all composed of the strange new metal which +everybody on the spot declared was far more splendid than gold.</p> + +<p>“Do you think it will answer?” asked Dr. Syx.</p> + +<p>“We do,” was the unanimous reply.</p> + +<p>All then resumed their seats at the table, the tray with its +magnificent array having been placed in the centre of the board. This +display had a remarkable influence. Confidence awoke in the breasts of +the financiers. The dark clouds that had oppressed them rolled off, +and the prospect grew decidedly brighter.</p> + +<p>“What terms do you demand?” at length asked Mr. Boon, cheerfully +rubbing his hands.</p> + +<p>“I must have military protection for my mine and reducing works,” +replied Dr. Syx. “Then I shall ask the return of one per cent, on the +circulating medium, together with the privilege of disposing of a +certain amount of the metal—to be limited by agreement—to the public +for use in the arts. Of the proceeds of this sale I will pay ten per +cent. to the government in consideration of its protection.”</p> + +<p>“But,” exclaimed President Boon, “that will make you the richest man +who ever lived!”</p> + +<p>“Undoubtedly,” was the reply.</p> + +<p>“Why,” added Mr. Boon, opening his eyes wider as the facts continued +to dawn upon him, “you will become the financial dictator of the whole +earth!”</p> + +<p>“Undoubtedly,” again responded Dr. Syx, unmoved. “That is what I +purpose to become. My discovery entitles me to no less. But, remember, +I place myself under government inspection and restriction. I should +not be allowed to flood the market, even if I were disposed to do +so. But my own interest would restrain me. It is to my advantage that +artemisium, once adopted, shall remain stable in value.”</p> + +<p>A shadow of doubt suddenly crossed the president’s face.</p> + +<p>“Suppose your secret is discovered,” he said. “Surely your mine will +not remain the only one. If you, in so short a time, have been able to +accumulate an immense quantity of the new metal, it must be extremely +abundant. Others will discover it, and then where shall we be?”</p> + +<p>While Mr. Boon uttered these words, those who were watching Dr. Syx +(as the president was not) resembled persons whose startled eyes are +fixed upon a wild beast preparing to spring. As Mr. Boon ceased +speaking he turned towards the visitor, and instantly his lips fell +apart and his face paled.</p> + +<p>Dr. Syx had drawn himself up to his full stature, and his features +were distorted with that peculiar mocking smile which had now returned +with a concentrated expression of mingled self-confidence and disdain.</p> + +<p>“Will you have relief, or not?” he asked in a dry, hard voice. “What +can you do? I alone possess the secret which can restore industry and +commerce. If you reject my offer, do you think a second one will +come?”</p> + +<p>President Boon found voice to reply, stammeringly:</p> + +<p>“I did not mean to suggest a rejection of the offer. I only wished to +inquire if you thought it probable that there would be no repetition +of what occurred after gold was found at the south pole?”</p> + +<p>“The earth may be full of my metal,” returned Dr. Syx, almost +fiercely, “but so long as I alone possess the knowledge how to extract +it, is it of any more worth than common dirt? But come,” he added, +after a pause and softening his manner, “I have other schemes. Will +you, as representatives of the leading nations, undertake the +introduction of artemisium as a substitute for gold, or will you not?”</p> + +<p>“Can we not have time for deliberation?” asked President Boon.</p> + +<p>“Yes, one hour. Within that time I shall return to learn your +decision,” replied Dr. Syx, rising and preparing to depart. “I leave +these things,” pointing to the tray, “in your keeping, and,” +significantly, “I trust your decision will be a wise one.”</p> + +<p>His curious smile again curved his lips and shot the ends of his +mustache upward, and the influence of that smile remained in the room +when he had closed the door behind him. The financiers gazed at one +another for several minutes in silence, then they turned towards the +coruscating metal that filled the tray.</p> + + +<h2><a name="chap3"></a>III. THE GRAND TETON MINE</h2> + +<p>Away on the western border of Wyoming, in the all but inaccessible +heart of the Rocky Mountains, three mighty brothers, “The Big Tetons,” +look perpendicularly into the blue eye of Jenny’s Lake, lying at the +bottom of the profound depression among the mountains called Jackson’s +Hole. Bracing against one another for support, these remarkable peaks +lift their granite spires from 12,000 to nearly 14,000 feet into the +blue dome that arches the crest of the continent. Their sides, and +especially those of their chief, the Grand Teton, are streaked with +glaciers, which shine like silver trappings when the morning sun comes +up above the wilderness of mountains stretching away eastward from the +hole.</p> + +<p>When the first white men penetrated this wonderful region, and one of +them bestowed his wife’s name upon Jenny’s Lake, they were intimidated +by the Grand Teton. It made their flesh creep, accustomed though they +were to rough scrambling among mountain gorges and on the brows of +immense precipices, when they glanced up the face of the peak, where +the cliffs fall, one below another, in a series of breathless +descents, and imagined themselves clinging for dear life to those +skyey battlements.</p> + +<p>But when, in 1872, Messrs. Stevenson and Langford finally reached the +top of the Grand Teton—the only successful members of a party of nine +practised climbers who had started together from the bottom—they +found there a little rectangular enclosure, made by piling up rocks, +six or seven feet across and three feet in height, bearing evidences +of great age, and indicating that the red Indians had, for some +unknown purpose, resorted to the summit of this tremendous peak long +before the white men invaded their mountains. Yet neither the Indians +nor the whites ever really conquered the Teton, for above the highest +point that they attained rises a granite buttress, whose smooth +vertical sides seemed to them to defy everything but wings.</p> + +<p>Winding across the sage-covered floor of Jackson’s Hole runs the +Shoshone, or Snake River, which takes its rise from Jackson’s Lake at +the northern end of the basin, and then, as if shrinking from the +threatening brows of the Tetons, whose fall would block its progress, +makes a détour of one hundred miles around the buttressed heights of +the range before it finds a clear way across Idaho, and so on to the +Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean.</p> + +<p>On a July morning, about a month after the visit of Dr. Max Syx to the +assembled financiers in New York, a party of twenty horsemen, +following a mountain-trail, arrived on the eastern margin of Jackson’s +Hole, and pausing upon a commanding eminence, with exclamations of +wonder, glanced across the great depression, where lay the shining +coils of the Snake River, at the towering forms of the Tetons, whose +ice-striped cliffs flashed lightnings in the sunshine. Even the +impassive broncos that the party rode lifted their heads inquiringly, +and snorted as if in equine astonishment at the magnificent spectacle.</p> + +<p>One familiar with the place would have noticed something, which, to +his mind, would have seemed more surprising than the pageantry of the +mountains in their morning sun-bath. Curling above one of the wild +gorges that cut the lower slopes of the Tetons was a thick black +smoke, which, when lifted by a passing breeze, obscured the precipices +half-way to the summit of the peak.</p> + +<p>Had the Grand Teton become a volcano? Certainly no hunting or +exploring party could make a smoke like that. But a word from the +leader of the party of horsemen explained the mystery.</p> + +<p>“There is my mill, and the mine is underneath it.”</p> + +<p>The speaker was Dr. Syx, and his companions were members of the +financial congress. When he quitted their presence in New York, with +the promise to return within an hour for their reply, he had no doubt +in his own mind what that reply would be. He knew they would accept +his proposition, and they did. No time was then lost in communicating +with the various governments, and arrangements were quickly perfected +whereby, in case the inspection of Dr. Syx’s mine and its resources +proved satisfactory, America and Europe should unite in adopting the +new metal as the basis of their coinage. As soon as this stage in the +negotiations was reached, it only remained to send a committee of +financiers and metallurgists, in company with Dr. Syx, to the Rocky +Mountains. They started under the doctor’s guidance, completing the +last stage of their journey on horseback.</p> + +<p>“An inspection of the records at Washington,” Dr. Syx continued, +addressing the horsemen, “will show that I have filed a claim covering +ten acres of ground around the mouth of my mine. This was done as soon +as I had discovered the metal. The filing of the claim and the +subsequent proceedings which perfected my ownership attracted no +attention, because everybody was thinking of the south pole and its +gold-fields.”</p> + +<p>The party gathered closer around Dr. Syx and listened to his words +with silent attention, while their horses rubbed noses and jingled +their gold-mounted trappings.</p> + +<p>“As soon as I had legally protected myself,” he continued, “I employed +a force of men, transported my machinery and material across the +mountains, erected my furnaces, and opened the mine. I was safe from +intrusion, and even from idle curiosity, for the reason I have just +mentioned. In fact, so exclusive was the attraction of the new +gold-fields that I had difficulty in obtaining workmen, and finally I +sent to Africa and engaged negroes, whom I placed in charge of +trustworthy foremen. Accordingly, with half a dozen exceptions, you +will see only black men at the mine.”</p> + +<p>“And with their aid you have mined enough metal to supply the mints of +the world?” asked President Boon.</p> + +<p>“Exactly so,” was the reply. “But I no longer employ the large force +which I needed at first.”</p> + +<p>“How much metal have you on hand? I am aware that you have already +answered this question during our preliminary negotiations, but I ask +it again for the benefit of some members of our party who were not +present then.”</p> + +<p>“I shall show you to-day,” said Dr. Syx, with his curious smile, “2500 +tons of refined artemisium, stacked in rock-cut vaults under the Grand +Teton.”</p> + +<p>“And you have dared to collect such inconceivable wealth in one +place?”</p> + +<p>“You forget that it is not wealth until the people have learned to +value it, and the governments have put their stamp upon it.”</p> + +<p>“True, but how did you arrive at the proper moment?”</p> + +<p>“Easily. I first ascertained that before the Antarctic discoveries the +world contained altogether about 16,000 tons of gold, valued at +$450,000 per ton, or $7,200,000,000 worth all told. Now my metal +weighs, bulk for bulk, one-quarter as much as gold. It might be +reckoned at the same intrinsic value per ton, but I have considered it +preferable to take advantage of the smaller weight of the new metal, +which permits us to make coins of the same size as the old ones, but +only one-quarter as heavy, by giving to artemisium four times the +value per ton that gold had. Thus only 4000 tons of the new metal are +required to supply the place of the 16,000 tons of gold. The 2500 tons +which I already have on hand are more than enough for coinage. The +rest I can supply as fast as needed.”</p> + +<p>The party did not wait for further explanations. They were eager to +see the wonderful mine and the store of treasure. Spurs were applied, +and they galloped down the steep trail, forded the Snake River, and, +skirting the shore of Jenny’s Lake, soon found themselves gazing up +the headlong slopes and dizzy parapets of the Grand Teton. Dr. Syx led +them by a steep ascent to the mouth of the canyon, above one of whose +walls stood his mill, and where the “Champ! Champ!” of a powerful +engine saluted their ears.</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap4"></a>IV. THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD</h2> + +<p>An electric light shot its penetrating rays into a gallery cut through +virgin rock and running straight towards the heart of the Teton. The +centre of the gallery was occupied by a narrow railway, on which a few +flat cars, propelled by electric power, passed to and fro. +Black-skinned and silent workmen rode on the cars, both when they came +laden with broken masses of rock from the farther end of the tunnel +and when they returned empty.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, to an eye situated a little way within the gallery, appeared +at the entrance the dark face of Dr. Syx, wearing its most +discomposing smile, and a moment later the broader countenance of +President Boon loomed in the electric glare beside the doctor’s black +framework of eyebrows and mustache. Behind them were grouped the other +visiting financiers.</p> + +<p>“This tunnel,” said Dr. Syx, “leads to the mine head, where the +ore-bearing rock is blasted.”</p> + +<p>As he spoke a hollow roar issued from the depths of the mountain, +followed in a short time by a gust of foul air.</p> + +<p>“You probably will not care to go in there,” said the doctor, “and, in +fact, it is very uncomfortable. But we shall follow the next car-load +to the smelter, and you can witness the reduction of the ore.”</p> + +<p>Accordingly when another car came rumbling out of the tunnel, with its +load of cracked rock, they all accompanied it into an adjoining +apartment, where it was cast into a metallic shute, through which, +they were informed, it reached the furnace.</p> + +<p>“While it is melting,” explained Dr. Syx, “certain elements, the +nature of which I must beg to keep secret, are mixed with the ore, +causing chemical action which results in the extraction of the +metal. Now let me show you pure artemisium issuing from the furnace.”</p> + +<p>He led the visitors through two apartments into a third, one side of +which was walled by the front of a furnace. From this projected two or +three small spouts, and iridescent streams of molten metal fell from +the spouts into earthen receptacles from which the blazing liquid was +led, like flowing iron, into a system of molds, where it was allowed +to cool and harden.</p> + +<p>The financiers looked on wondering, and their astonishment grew when +they were conducted into the rock-cut store-rooms beneath, where they +saw metallic ingots glowing like gigantic opals in the light which Dr. +Syx turned on. They were piled in rows along the walls as high as a +man could reach. A very brief inspection sufficed to convince the +visitors that Dr. Syx was able to perform all that he promised. +Although they had not penetrated the secret of his process of reducing +the ore, yet they had seen the metal flowing from the furnace, and the +piles of ingots proved conclusively that he had uttered no vain boast +when he said he could give the world a new coinage.</p> + +<p>But President Boon, being himself a metallurgist, desired to inspect +the mysterious ore a little more closely. Possibly he was thinking +that if another mine was destined to be discovered he might as well be +the discoverer as anybody. Dr. Syx attempted no concealment, but his +smile became more than usually scornful as he stopped a laden car and +invited the visitors to help themselves.</p> + +<p>“I think,” he said, “that I have struck the only lode of this ore in +the Teton, or possibly in this part of the world, but I don’t know for +certain. There may be plenty of it only waiting to be found. That, +however, doesn’t trouble me. The great point is that nobody except +myself knows how to extract the metal.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Boon closely examined the chunk of rock which he had taken from +the car. Then he pulled a lens from his pocket, with a deprecatory +glance at Dr. Syx.</p> + +<p>“Oh, that’s all right,” said the latter, with a laugh, the first that +these gentlemen had ever heard from his lips, and it almost made them +shudder; “put it to every test, examine it with the microscope, with +fire, with electricity, with the spectroscope—in every way you can +think of! I assure you it is worth your while!”</p> + +<p>Again Dr. Syx uttered his freezing laugh, passing into the familiar +smile, which had now become an undisguised mock.</p> + +<p>“Upon my word,” said Mr. Boon, taking his eye from the lens, “I see no +sign of any metal here!”</p> + +<p>“Look at the green specks!” cried the doctor, snatching the specimen +from the president’s hand. “That’s it! That’s artemisium! But it’s of +no use unless you can get it out and purify it, which is my secret!”</p> + +<p>For the third time Dr. Syx laughed, and his merriment affected the +visitors so disagreeably that they showed impatience to be +gone. Immediately he changed his manner.</p> + +<p>“Come into my office,” he said, with a return to the graciousness +which had characterized him ever since the party started from New +York.</p> + +<p>When they were all seated, and the doctor had handed round a box of +cigars, he resumed the conversation in his most amiable manner.</p> + +<p>“You see, gentlemen,” he said, turning a piece of ore in his fingers, +“artemisium is like aluminum. It can only be obtained in the metallic +form by a special process. While these greenish particles, which you +may perhaps mistake for chrysolite, or some similar unisilicate, +really contain the precious metal, they are not entirely composed of +it. The process by which I separate out the metallic element while the +ore is passing through the furnace is, in truth, quite simple, and its +very simplicity guards my secret. Make your minds easy as to +over-production. A man is as likely to jump over the moon as to find +me out.”</p> + +<p>“But,” he continued, again changing his manner, “we have had +business enough for one day; now for a little recreation.” While +speaking the doctor pressed a button on his desk, and the room, which +was illuminated by electric lamps—for there were no windows in the +building—suddenly became dark, except part of one wall, where a broad +area of light appeared. Dr. Syx’s voice had become very soothing when +next he spoke: “I am fond of amusing myself with a peculiar form of +the magic-lantern, which I invented some years ago, and which I have +never exhibited except for the entertainment of my friends. The +pictures will appear upon the wall, the apparatus being concealed.”</p> + +<p>He had hardly ceased speaking when the illuminated space seemed to +melt away, leaving a great opening, through which the spectators +looked as if into another world on the opposite side of the wall. For +a minute or two they could not clearly discern what was presented; +then, gradually, the flitting scenes and figures became more distinct +until the lifelikeness of the spectacle absorbed their whole +attention.</p> + +<p>Before them passed, in panoramic review, a sunny land, filled with +brilliant-hued vegetation, and dotted with villages and cities which +were bright with light-colored buildings. People appeared moving +through the scenes, as in a cinematograph exhibition, but with +infinitely more semblance of reality. In fact, the pictures, blending +one into another, seemed to be life itself. Yet it was not an +earth-like scene. The colors of the passing landscape were such as no +man in the room had ever beheld; and the people, tall, round-limbed, +with florid complexion, golden hair, and brilliant eyes and lips, were +indescribably beautiful and graceful in all their movements.</p> + +<p>From the land the view passed out to sea, and bright blue waves, edged +with creaming foam, ran swiftly under the spectator’s eyes, and +occasionally, driven before light winds, appeared fleets of daintily +shaped vessels, which reminded the beholder, by their flashing wings, +of the feigned “ship of pearl.”</p> + +<p>After the fairy ships and breezy sea views came a long, curving line +of coast, brilliant with coral sands, and indented by frequent bays, +along whose enchanting shores lay pleasant towns, the landscapes +behind them splendid with groves, meadows, and streams.</p> + +<p>Presently the shifting photographic tape, or whatever the mechanism +may have been, appeared to have settled upon a chosen scene, and there +it rested. A broad champaign reached away to distant sapphire +mountains, while the foreground was occupied by a magnificent house, +resembling a large country villa, fronted with a garden, shaded by +bowers and festoons of huge, brilliant flowers. Birds of radiant +plumage flitted among the trees and blossoms, and then appeared a +company of gayly attired people, including many young girls, who +joined hands and danced in a ring, apparently with shouts of laughter, +while a group of musicians standing near thrummed and blew upon +curiously shaped instruments.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the shadow of a dense cloud flitted across the scene; +whereupon the brilliant birds flew away with screams of terror which +almost seemed to reach the ears of the onlookers through the wall. An +expression of horror came over the faces of the people. The children +broke from their merry circle and ran for protection to their +elders. The utmost confusing and whelming terror were evidenced for a +moment—then the ground split asunder, and the house and the garden, +with all their living occupants were swallowed by an awful chasm which +opened just where they had stood. The great rent ran in a widening +line across the sunlit landscape until it reached the horizon, when +the distant mountains crumbled, clouds poured in from all sides at +once, and billows of flame burst through them as they veiled the +scene.</p> + +<p>But in another instant the commotion was over, and the world whose +curious spectacles had been enacted as if on the other side of a +window, seemed to retreat swiftly into space, until at last, emerging +from a fleecy cloud, it reappeared in the form of the full moon +hanging in the sky, but larger than is its wont, with its dry +ocean-beds, its keen-spired peaks, its ragged mountain ranges, its +gaping chasms, its immense crater rings, and Tycho, the chief of them +all, shooting raylike streaks across the scarred face of the abandoned +lunar globe. The show was ended, and Dr. Syx, turning on only a +partial illumination in the room, rose slowly to his feet, his tall +form appearing strangely magnified in the gloom, and invited his +bewildered guests to accompany him to his house, outside the mill, +where he said dinner awaited them. As they emerged into daylight they +acted like persons just aroused from an opiate dream.</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap5"></a>V. WONDERS OF THE NEW METAL</h2> + +<p>Within a twelvemonth after the visit of President Boon and his fellow +financiers to the mine in the Grand Teton a railway had been +constructed from Jackson’s Hole, connecting with one of the Pacific +lines, and the distribution of the new metal was begun. All of +Dr. Syx’s terms had been accepted. United States troops occupied a +permanent encampment on the upper waters of the Snake River, to afford +protection, and as the consignments of precious ingots were hurried +east and west on guarded trains, the mints all over the world resumed +their activity. Once more a common monetary standard prevailed, and +commerce revived as if touched by a magic wand.</p> + +<p>Artemisium quickly won its way in popular favor. Its matchless beauty +alone was enough. Not only was it gladly accepted in the form of +money, but its success was instantaneous in the arts. Dr. Syx and the +inspectors representing the various nations found it difficult to +limit the output to the agreed upon amount. The demand was incessant.</p> + +<p>Goldsmiths and jewellers continually discovered new excellences in the +wonderful metal. Its properties of translucence and refraction enabled +skilful artists to perform marvels. By suitable management a chain of +artemisium could be made to resemble a string of vari-colored gems, +each separate link having a tint of its own, while, as the wearer +moved, delicate complementary colors chased one another, in rapid +undulation, from end to end.</p> + +<p>A fresh charm was added by the new metal to the personal adornment of +women, and an enhanced splendor to the pageants of society. Gold in +its palmiest days had never enjoyed such a vogue. A crowded reception +room or a dinner party where artemisium abounded possessed an +indescribable atmosphere of luxury and richness, refined in quality, +yet captivating to every sense. Imaginative persons went so far as to +aver that the sight and presence of the metal exercised a strangely +soothing and dreamy power over the mind, like the influence of +moonlight streaming through the tree-tops on a still, balmy night.</p> + +<p>The public curiosity in regard to the origin of artemisium was +boundless. The various nations published official bulletins in which +the general facts—omitting, of course, such incidents as the singular +exhibition seen by the visiting financiers on the wall of Dr. Syx’s +office—were detailed to gratify the universal desire for information.</p> + +<p>President Boon not only submitted the specimens of ore-bearing rock +which he had brought from the mine to careful analysis, but also +appealed to several of the greatest living chemists and mineralogists +to aid him; but they were all equally mystified. The green substance +contained in the ore, although differing slightly from ordinary +chrysolite, answered all the known tests of that mineral. It was +remembered, however, that Dr. Syx had said that they would be likely +to mistake the substance for chrysolite, and the result of their +experiments justified his prediction. Evidently the doctor had gone a +stone’s-cast beyond the chemistry of the day, and, just as evidently, +he did not mean to reveal his discovery for the benefit of science, +nor for the benefit of any pockets except his own.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the failure of the chemists to extract anything from +Dr. Syx’s ore, the public at large never doubted that the secret would +be discovered in good time, and thousands of prospectors flocked to +the Teton Mountains in search of the ore. And without much difficulty +they found it. Evidently the doctor had been mistaken in thinking that +his mine might be the only one. The new miners hurried specimens of +the green-speckled rock to the chemical laboratories for +experimentation, and meanwhile began to lay up stores of the ore in +anticipation of the time when the proper way to extract the metal +should be discovered.</p> + +<p>But, alas! that time did not come. The fresh ore proved to be as +refractory as that which had been obtained from Dr. Syx. But in the +midst of the universal disappointment there came a new sensation.</p> + +<p>One morning the newspapers glared with a despatch from Grand Teton +station announcing that the metal itself had been discovered by +prospectors on the eastern slope of the main peak.</p> + +<p>“It outcrops in many places,” ran the despatch, “and many small +nuggets have been picked out of crevices in the rocks.”</p> + +<p>The excitement produced by this news was even greater than when gold +was discovered at the south pole. Again a mad rush was made for the +Tetons. The heights around Jackson’s Hole and the shores of Jackson’s +and Jenny’s lakes were quickly dotted with camps, and the military +force had to be doubled to keep off the curious, and occasionally +menacing, crowds which gathered in the vicinity and seemed bent on +unearthing the great secret locked behind the windowless walls of the +mill, where the column of black smoke and the roar of the engine +served as reminders of the incredible wealth which the sole possessor +of that secret was rolling up.</p> + +<p>This time no mistake had been made. It was a fact that the metal, in +virgin purity, had been discovered scattered in various places on the +ledges of the Grand Teton. In a little while thousands had obtained +specimens with their own hands. The quantity was distressingly small, +considering the number and the eagerness of the seekers, but that it +was genuine artemisium not even Dr. Syx could have denied. He, +however, made no attempt to deny it.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” he said, when questioned, “I find that I have been deceived. At +first I thought the metal existed only in the form of the green ore, +but of late I have come upon veins of pure artemisium in my mine. I am +glad for your sakes, but sorry for my own. Still, it may turn out that +there is no great amount of free artemisium after all.”</p> + +<p>While the doctor talked in this manner close observers detected a +lurking sneer which his acquaintances had not noticed since artemisium +was first adopted as the money basis of the world.</p> + +<p>The crowd that swarmed upon the mountain quickly exhausted all of the +visible supply of the metal. Sometimes they found it in a thin stratum +at the bottom of crevices, where it could be detached in opalescent +plates and leaves of the thickness of paper. These superficial +deposits evidently might have been formed from water holding the metal +in solution. Occasionally, deep cracks contained nuggets and wiry +masses which looked as if they had run together when molten.</p> + +<p>The most promising spots were soon staked out in miners’ claims, +machinery was procured, stock companies were formed, and borings were +begun. The enthusiasm arising from the earlier finds and the +flattering surface indications caused everybody to work with feverish +haste and energy, and within two months one hundred tunnels were +piercing the mountain.</p> + +<p>For a long time nobody was willing to admit the truth which gradually +forced itself upon the attention of the miners. The deeper they went +the scarcer became the indications of artemisium! In fact, such +deposits as were found were confined to fissures near the surface. But +Dr. Syx continued to report a surprising increase in the amount of +free metal in his mine, and this encouraged all who had not exhausted +their capital to push on their tunnels in the hope of finally striking +a vein. At length, however, the smaller operators gave up in despair, +until only one heavily capitalized company remained at work.</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap6"></a>VI. A STRANGE DISCOVERY</h2> + +<p>“It is my belief that Dr. Max Syx is a deceiver.”</p> + +<p>The person who uttered this opinion was a young engineer, Andrew Hall, +who had charge of the operations of one of the mining companies which +were driving tunnels into the Grand Teton.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean by that?” asked President Boon, who was the +principal backer of the enterprise.</p> + +<p>“I mean,” replied Hall, “that there is no free metal in this mountain, +and Dr. Syx knows there is none.”</p> + +<p>“But he is getting it himself from his mine,” retorted President Boon.</p> + +<p>“So he says, but who has seen it? No one is admitted into the Syx +mine, his foremen are forbidden to talk, and his workmen are specially +imported negroes who do not understand the English language.”</p> + +<p>“But,” persisted Mr. Boon, “how, then, do you account for the nuggets +scattered over the mountain? And, beside, what object could Dr. Syx +have in pretending that there is free metal to be had for the +digging?”</p> + +<p>“He may have salted the mountain, for all I know,” said Hall. “As for +his object, I confess I am entirely in the dark; but, for all that, I +am convinced that we shall find no more metal if we dig ten miles for +it.”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense,” said the president; “if we keep on we shall strike it. Did +not Dr. Syx himself admit that he found no free artemisium until his +tunnel had reached the core of the peak? We must go as deep as he has +gone before we give up.”</p> + +<p>“I fear the depths he attains are beyond most people’s reach,” was +Hall’s answer, while a thoughtful look crossed his clear-cut brow, +“but since you desire it, of course the work shall go on. I should +like, however, to change the direction of the tunnel.”</p> + +<p>“Certainly,” replied Mr. Boon; “bore in whatever direction you think +proper, only don’t despair.”</p> + +<p>About a month after this conversation Andrew Hall, with whom a +community of tastes in many things had made me intimately acquainted, +asked me one morning to accompany him into his tunnel.</p> + +<p>“I want to have a trusty friend at my elbow,” he said, “for, unless I +am a dreamer, something remarkable will happen within the next hour, +and two witnesses are better than one.”</p> + +<p>I knew Hall was not the person to make such a remark carelessly, and +my curiosity was intensely excited, but, knowing his peculiarities, I +did not press him for an explanation. When we arrived at the head of +the tunnel I was surprised at finding no workmen there.</p> + +<p>“I stopped blasting some time ago,” said Hall, in explanation, “for a +reason which, I hope, will become evident to you very soon. Lately I +have been boring very slowly, and yesterday I paid off the men and +dismissed them with the announcement, which, I am confident, President +Boon will sanction after he hears my report of this morning’s work, +that the tunnel is abandoned. You see, I am now using a drill which I +can manage without assistance. I believe the work is almost completed, +and I want you to witness the end of it.”</p> + +<p>He then carefully applied the drill, which noiselessly screwed its +nose into the rock. When it had sunk to a depth of a few inches he +withdrew it, and, taking a hand-drill capable of making a hole not +more than an eighth of an inch in diameter, cautiously began boring in +the centre of the larger cavity. He had made hardly a hundred turns of +the handle when the drill shot through the rock! A gratified smile +illuminated his features, and he said in a suppressed voice:</p> + +<p>“Don’t be alarmed; I’m going to put out the light.”</p> + +<p>Instantly we were in complete darkness, but being close at Hall’s side +I could detect his movements. He pulled out the drill, and for half a +minute remained motionless as if listening. There was no sound.</p> + +<p>“I must enlarge the opening,” he whispered, and immediately the faint +grating of a sharp tool cutting through the rock informed me of his +progress.</p> + +<p>“There,” at last he said, “I think that will do; now for a look.”</p> + +<p>I could tell that he had placed his eye at the hole and was gazing +with breathless attention. Presently he pulled my sleeve.</p> + +<p>“Put your eye here,” he whispered, pushing me into the proper position +for looking through the hole.</p> + +<p>At first I could discern nothing except a smoky blue glow. But soon my +vision cleared a little, and then I perceived that I was gazing into a +narrow tunnel which met ours directly end to end. Glancing along the +axis of this gallery I saw, some two hundred yards away, a faint light +which evidently indicated the mouth of the tunnel.</p> + +<p>At the end where we had met it the mysterious tunnel was considerably +widened at one side, as if the excavators had started to change +direction and then abandoned the work, and in this elbow I could just +see the outlines of two or three flat cars loaded with broken stone, +while a heap of the same material lay near them. Through the centre of +the tunnel ran a railway track.</p> + +<p>“Do you know what you are looking at?” asked Hall in my ear.</p> + +<p>“I begin to suspect,” I replied, “that you have accidentally run into +Dr. Syx’s mine.”</p> + +<p>“If Dr. Syx had been on his guard this accident wouldn’t have +happened,” replied Hall, with an almost inaudible chuckle.</p> + +<p>“I heard you remark a month ago,” I said, “that you were changing the +direction of your tunnel. Has this been the aim of your labors ever +since?”</p> + +<p>“You have hit it,” he replied. “Long ago I became convinced that my +company was throwing away its money in a vain attempt to strike a lode +of pure artemisium. But President Boon has great faith in Dr. Syx, and +would not give up the work. So I adopted what I regarded as the only +practicable method of proving the truth of my opinion and saving the +company’s funds. An electric indicator, of my invention, enabled me to +locate the Syx tunnel when I got near it, and I have met it end on, +and opened this peep-hole in order to observe the doctor’s +operations. I feel that such spying is entirely justified in the +circumstances. Although I cannot yet explain just how or why I feel +sure that Dr. Syx was the cause of the sudden discovery of the surface +nuggets, and that he has encouraged the miners for his own ends, until +he has brought ruin to thousands who have spent their last cent in +driving useless tunnels into this mountain. It is a righteous thing to +expose him.”</p> + +<p>“But,” I interposed, “I do not see that you have exposed anything yet +except the interior of a tunnel.”</p> + +<p>“You will see more clearly after a while,” was the reply.</p> + +<p>Hall now placed his eye again at the aperture, and was unable entirely +to repress the exclamation that rose to his lips. He remained staring +through the hole for several minutes without uttering a +word. Presently I noticed that the lenses of his eye were illuminated +by a ray of light coming through the hole, but he did not stir.</p> + +<p>After a long inspection he suddenly applied his ear to the hole and +listened intently for at least five minutes. Not a sound was audible +to me, but, by an occasional pressure of the hand, Hall signified that +some important disclosure was reaching his sense of hearing. At length +he removed his ear.</p> + +<p>“Pardon me,” he whispered, “for keeping you so long in waiting, but +what I have just seen and overheard was of a nature to admit of no +interruption. He is still talking, and by pressing your ear against +the hole you may be able to catch what he says.”</p> + +<p>“Who is ‘he’?”</p> + +<p>“Look for yourself.”</p> + +<p>I placed my eye at the aperture, and almost recoiled with the violence +of my surprise. The tunnel before me was brilliantly illuminated, and +within three feet of the wall of rock behind which we crouched stood +Dr. Syx, his dark profile looking almost satanic in the sharp contrast +of light and shadow. He was talking to one of his foremen, and the two +were the only visible occupants of the tunnel. Putting my ear to the +little opening, I heard his words distinctly:</p> + +<p>—“end of their rope. Well, they’ve spent a pretty lot of money for +their experience, and I rather think we shall not be troubled again by +artemisium-seekers for some time to come.”</p> + +<p>The doctor’s voice ceased, and instantly I clapped my eye to the +hole. He had changed his position so that his black eyes now looked +straight at the aperture. My heart was in my mouth, for at first I +believed from his expression that he had detected the gleam of my +eyeball. But if so, he probably mistook it for a bit of mica in the +rock, and paid no further attention. Then his lips moved, and I put my +ear again to the hole. He seemed to be replying to a question that the +foreman had asked.</p> + +<p>“If they do,” he said, “they will never guess the real secret.”</p> + +<p>Thereupon he turned on his heel, kicked a bit of rock off the track, +and strode away towards the entrance. The foreman paused long enough +to turn out the electric lamp, and then followed the doctor.</p> + +<p>“Well,” asked Hall, “what have you heard?”</p> + +<p>I told him everything.</p> + +<p>“It fully corroborates the evidence of my own eyes and ears,” he +remarked, “and we may count ourselves extremely lucky. It is not +likely that Dr. Syx will be heard a second time proclaiming his +deception with his own lips. It is plain that he was led to talk as he +did to the foreman on account of the latter’s having informed him of +the sudden discharge of my men this morning. Their presence within +ear-shot of our hiding-place during their conversation was, of course, +pure accident, and so you can see how kind fortune has been to us. I +expected to have to watch and listen and form deductions for a week, +at least, before getting the information which five lucky minutes have +placed in our hands.”</p> + +<p>While he was speaking my companion busied himself in carefully +plugging up the hole in the rock. When it was closed to his +satisfaction he turned on the light in our tunnel.</p> + +<p>“Did you observe,” he asked, “that there was a second tunnel?”</p> + +<p>“What do you say?”</p> + +<p>“When the light was on in there I saw the mouth of a smaller tunnel +entering the main one behind the cars on the right. Did you notice +it?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes,” I replied. “I did observe some kind of a dark hole there, +but I paid no attention to it because I was so absorbed in the +doctor.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” rejoined Hall, smiling, “it was worth considerably more than a +glance. As a subject of thought I find it even more absorbing than +Dr. Syx. Did you see the track in it?”</p> + +<p>“No,” I had to acknowledge, “I did not notice that. But,” I continued, +a little piqued by his manner, “being a branch of the main tunnel, I +don’t see anything remarkable in its having a track also.”</p> + +<p>“It was rather dim in that hole,” said Hall, still smiling in a +somewhat provoking way, “but the railroad track was there plain +enough. And, whether you think it remarkable or not, I should like to +lay you a wager that that track leads to a secret worth a dozen of the +one we have just overheard.”</p> + +<p>“My good friend,” I retorted, still smarting a little, “I shall not +presume to match my stupidity against your perspicacity. I haven’t +cat’s eyes in the dark.”</p> + +<p>Hall immediately broke out laughing, and, slapping me good-naturedly +on the shoulder, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>“Come, come now! If you go to kicking back at a fellow like that, I +shall be sorry I ever undertook this adventure.”</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap7"></a>VII. A MYSTERY INDEED!</h2> + +<p>When President Boon had heard our story he promptly approved Hall’s +dismissal of the men. He expressed great surprise that Dr. Syx should +have resorted to a deception which had been so disastrous to innocent +people, and at first he talked of legal proceedings. But, after +thinking the matter over, he concluded that Syx was too powerful to be +attacked with success, especially when the only evidence against him +was that he had claimed to find artemisium in his mine at a time when, +as everybody knew, artemisium actually was found outside the +mine. There was no apparent motive for the deception, and no proof of +malicious intent. In short, Mr. Boon decided that the best thing for +him and his stockholders to do was to keep silent about their losses +and await events. And, at Hall’s suggestion, he also determined to say +nothing to anybody about the discovery we had made.</p> + +<p>“It could do no good,” said Hall, in making the suggestion, “and it +might spoil a plan I have in mind.”</p> + +<p>“What plan?” asked the president.</p> + +<p>“I prefer not to tell just yet,” was the reply.</p> + +<p>I observed that, in our interview with Mr. Boon, Hall made no +reference to the side tunnel to which he had appeared to attach so +much importance, and I concluded that he now regarded it as lacking +significance. In this I was mistaken.</p> + +<p>A few days afterwards I received an invitation from Hall to accompany +him once more into the abandoned tunnel.</p> + +<p>“I have found out what that sidetrack means,” he said, “and it has +plunged me into another mystery so dark and profound that I cannot see +my way through it. I must beg you to say no word to any one concerning +the things I am about to show you.”</p> + +<p>I gave the required promise, and we entered the tunnel, which nobody +had visited since our former adventure. Having extinguished our lamp, +my companion opened the peep-hole, and a thin ray of light streamed +through from the tunnel on the opposite side of the wall. He applied +his eye to the hole.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” he said, quickly stepping back and pushing me into his place, +“they are still at it. Look, and tell me what you see.”</p> + +<p>“I see,” I replied, after placing my eye at the aperture, “a gang of +men unloading a car which has just come out of the side tunnel, and +putting its contents upon another car standing on the track of the +main tunnel.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and what are they handling?”</p> + +<p>“Why, ore, of course.”</p> + +<p>“And do you see nothing significant in that?”</p> + +<p>“To be sure!” I exclaimed. “Why, that ore—”</p> + +<p>“Hush! hush!” admonished Hall, putting his hand over my mouth; “don’t +talk so loud. Now go on, in a whisper.”</p> + +<p>“The ore,” I resumed, “may have come back from the furnace-room, +because the side tunnel turns off so as to run parallel with the +other.”</p> + +<p>“It not only may have come back, it actually has come back,” said +Hall.</p> + +<p>“How can you be sure?”</p> + +<p>“Because I have been over the track, and know that it leads to a +secret apartment directly under the furnace in which Dr. Syx pretends +to melt the ore!”</p> + +<p>For a minute after hearing this avowal I was speechless.</p> + +<p>“Are you serious?” I asked at length.</p> + +<p>“Perfectly serious. Run your finger along the rock here. Do you +perceive a seam? Two days ago, after seeing what you have just +witnessed in the Syx tunnel, I carefully cut out a section of the +wall, making an aperture large enough to crawl through, and, when I +knew the workmen were asleep, I crept in there and examined both +tunnels from end to end. But in solving one mystery I have run myself +into another infinitely more perplexing.”</p> + +<p>“How is that?”</p> + +<p>“Why does Dr. Syx take such elaborate pains to deceive his visitors, +and also the government officers? It is now plain that he conducts no +mining operations whatever. This mine of his is a gigantic +blind. Whenever inspectors or scientific curiosity seekers visit his +mill his mute workmen assume the air of being very busy, the cars +laden with his so-called ‘ore’ rumble out of the tunnel, and their +contents are ostentatiously poured into the furnace, or appear to be +poured into it, really dropping into a receptacle beneath, to be +carried back into the mine again. And then the doctor leads his gulled +visitors around to the other side of the furnace and shows them the +molten metal coming out in streams. Now what does it all mean? That’s +what I’d like to find out. What’s his game? For, mark you, if he +doesn’t get artemisium from this pretended ore, he gets it from some +other source, and right on this spot, too. There is no doubt about +that. The whole world is supplied by Syx’s furnace, and Syx feeds his +furnace with something that comes from his ten acres of Grand Teton +rock. What is that something? How does he get it, and where does he +hide it? These are the things I should like to find out.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” I replied, “I fear I can’t help you.”</p> + +<p>“But the difference between you and me,” he retorted, “is that you can +go to sleep over it, while I shall never get another good night’s rest +so long as this black mystery remains unsolved.”</p> + +<p>“What will you do?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know exactly what. But I’ve got a dim idea which may take +shape after a while.”</p> + +<p>Hall was silent for some time; then he suddenly asked:</p> + +<p>“Did you ever hear of that queer magic-lantern show with which Dr. Syx +entertained Mr. Boon and the members of the financial commission in +the early days of the artemisium business?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I’ve heard the story, but I don’t think it was ever made +public. The newspapers never got hold of it.”</p> + +<p>“No, I believe not. Odd thing, wasn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“Why, yes, very odd, but just like the doctor’s eccentric ways, +though. He’s always doing something to astonish somebody, without any +apparent earthly reason. But what put you in mind of that?”</p> + +<p>“Free artemisium put me in mind of it,” replied Hall, quizzically.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see the connection.”</p> + +<p>“I’m not sure that I do either, but when you are dealing with Dr. Syx +nothing is too improbable to be thought of.”</p> + +<p>Hall thereupon fell to musing again, while we returned to the entrance +of the tunnel. After he had made everything secure, and slipped the +key into his pocket, my companion remarked:</p> + +<p>“Don’t you think it would be best to keep this latest discovery to +ourselves?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly.”</p> + +<p>“Because,” he continued, “nobody would be benefited just now by +knowing what we know, and to expose the worthlessness of the ‘ore’ +might cause a panic. The public is a queer animal, and never gets +scared at just the thing you expect will alarm it, but always at +something else.”</p> + +<p>We had shaken hands and were separating when Hall stopped me.</p> + +<p>“Do you believe in alchemy?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“That’s an odd question from you,” I replied. “I thought alchemy was +exploded long ago.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” he said, slowly, “I suppose it has been exploded, but then, +you know, an explosion may sometimes be a kind of instantaneous +education, breaking up old things but revealing new ones.”</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap8"></a>VIII. MORE OF DR. SYX’S MAGIC</h2> + +<p>Important business called me East soon after the meeting with Hall +described in the foregoing chapter, and before I again saw the Grand +Teton very stirring events had taken place.</p> + +<p>As the reader is aware, Dr. Syx’s agreement with the various +governments limited the output of his mine. An international +commission, continually in session in New York, adjusted the +differences arising among the nations concerning financial affairs, +and allotted to each the proper amount of artemisium for coinage. Of +course, this amount varied from time to time, but a fair average could +easily be maintained. The gradual increase of wealth, in houses, +machinery, manufactured and artistic products called for a +corresponding increase in the circulating medium; but this, too, was +easily provided for. An equally painstaking supervision was exercised +over the amount of the precious metal which Dr. Syx was permitted to +supply to the markets for use in the arts. On this side, also, the +demand gradually increased; but the wonderful Teton mine seemed equal +to all calls upon its resources.</p> + +<p>After the failure of the mining operations there was a moderate +revival of the efforts to reduce the Teton ore, but no success cheered +the experimenters. Prospectors also wandered all over the earth +looking for pure artemisium, but in vain. The general public, knowing +nothing of what Hall had discovered, and still believing Syx’s story +that he also had found pure artemisium in his mine, accounted for the +failure of the tunnelling operations on the supposition that the +metal, in a free state, was excessively rare, and that Dr. Syx had had +the luck to strike the only vein of it that the Grand Teton +contained. As if to give countenance to this opinion, Dr. Syx now +announced, in the most public manner, that he had been deceived again, +and that the vein of free metal he had struck being exhausted, no +other had appeared. Accordingly, he said, he must henceforth rely +exclusively, as in the beginning, upon reduction of the ore.</p> + +<p>Artemisium had proved itself an immense boon to mankind, and the new +era of commercial prosperity which it had ushered in already exceeded +everything that the world had known in the past. School-children +learned that human civilization had taken five great strides, known +respectively, beginning at the bottom, as the “age of stone,” the “age +of bronze,” the “age of iron,” the “age of gold,” and the “age of +artemisium.”</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, sources of dissatisfaction finally began to appear, and, +after the nature of such things, they developed with marvellous +rapidity. People began to grumble about “contraction of the currency.” +In every country there arose a party which demanded “free money.” +Demagogues pointed to the brief reign of paper money after the +demonetization of gold as a happy period, when the people had enjoyed +their rights, and the “money barons”—borrowing a term from +nineteenth-century history—were kept at bay.</p> + +<p>Then came denunciations of the international commission for +restricting the coinage. Dr. Syx was described as “a devil-fish +sucking the veins of the planet and holding it helpless in the grasp +of his tentacular billions.” In the United States meetings of +agitators passed furious resolutions, denouncing the government, +assailing the rich, cursing Dr. Syx, and calling upon “the oppressed” +to rise and “take their own.” The final outcome was, of course, +violence. Mobs had to be suppressed by military force. But the most +dramatic scene in the tragedy occurred at the Grand Teton. Excited by +inflammatory speeches and printed documents, several thousand armed +men assembled in the neighborhood of Jenny’s Lake and prepared to +attack the Syx mine. For some reason the military guard had been +depleted, and the mob, under the leadership of a man named Bings, who +showed no little talent as a commander and strategist, surprised the +small force of soldiers and locked them up in their own guard-house.</p> + +<p>Telegraphic communication having been cut off by the astute Bings, a +fierce attack was made on the mine. The assailants swarmed up the +sides of the canyon, and attempted to break in through the foundation +of the buildings. But the masonry was stronger than they had +anticipated, and the attack failed. Sharp-shooters then climbed the +neighboring heights, and kept up an incessant peppering of the walls +with conical bullets driven at four thousand feet per second.</p> + +<p>No reply came from the gloomy structure. The huge column of black +smoke rose uninterruptedly into the sky, and the noise of the great +engine never ceased for an instant. The mob gathered closer on all +sides and redoubled the fire of the rifles, to which was now added the +belching of several machine-guns. Ragged holes began to appear in the +walls, and at the sight of these the assailants yelled with +delight. It was evident that, the mill could not long withstand so +destructive a bombardment. If the besiegers had possessed artillery +they would have knocked the buildings into splinters within twenty +minutes. As it was, they would need a whole day to win their victory.</p> + +<p>Suddenly it became evident that the besieged were about to take a hand +in the fight. Thus far they had not shown themselves or fired a shot, +but now a movement was perceived on the roof, and the projecting arms +of some kind of machinery became visible. Many marksmen concentrated +their fire upon the mysterious objects, but apparently with little +effect. Bings, mounted on a rock, so as to command a clear view of the +field, was on the point, of ordering a party to rush forward with axes +and beat down the formidable doors, when there came a blinding flash +from the roof, something swished through the air, and a gust of heat +met the assailants in the face. Bings dropped dead from his perch, and +then, as if the scythe of the Destroyer had swung downward, and to +right and left in quick succession, the close-packed mob was levelled, +rank after rank, until the few survivors crept behind rocks for +refuge.</p> + +<p>Instantly the atmospheric broom swept up and down the canyon and +across the mountain’s flanks, and the marksmen fell in bunches like +shaken grapes. Nine-tenths of the besiegers were destroyed within ten +minutes after the first movement had been noticed on the roof. Those +who survived owed their escape to the rocks which concealed them, and +they lost no time in crawling off into neighboring chasms, and, as +soon as they were beyond eye-shot from the mill, they fled with panic +speed.</p> + +<p>Then the towering form of Dr. Syx appeared at the door. Emerging +without sign of fear or excitement, he picked his way among his fallen +enemies, and, approaching the military guard-house, undid the +fastening and set the imprisoned soldiers free.</p> + +<p>“I think I am paying rather dear for my whistle,” he said, with a +characteristic sneer, to Captain Carter, the commander of the +troop. “It seems that I must not only defend my own people and +property when attacked by mob force, but must also come to the rescue +of the soldiers whose pay-rolls are met from my pocket.”</p> + +<p>The captain made no reply, and Dr. Syx strode back to the works. When +the released soldiers saw what had occurred their amazement had no +bounds. It was necessary at once to dispose of the dead, and this was +no easy undertaking for their small force. However, they accomplished +it, and at the beginning of their work made a most surprising +discovery.</p> + +<p>“How’s this, Jim?” said one of the men to his comrade, as they stooped +to lift the nearest victim of Dr. Syx’s withering fire. “What’s this +fellow got all over him?”</p> + +<p>“Artemisium! ’pon my soul!” responded “Jim,” staring at the +body. “He’s all coated over with it.”</p> + +<p>Immediately from all sides came similar exclamations. Every man who +had fallen was covered with a film of the precious metal, as if he had +been dipped into an electrolytic bath. Clothing seemed to have been +charred, and the metallic atoms had penetrated the flesh of the +victims. The rocks all round the battle-field were similarly +veneered. “It looks to me,” said Captain Carter, “as if old Syx had +turned one of his spouts of artemisium into a hose-pipe and soaked ’em +with it.”</p> + +<p>“That’s it,” chimed in a lieutenant, “that’s exactly what he’s done.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” returned the captain, “if he can do that, I don’t see what use +he’s got for us here.”</p> + +<p>“Probably he don’t want to waste the stuff,” said the +lieutenant. “What do you suppose it cost him to plate this crowd?”</p> + +<p>“I guess a month’s pay for the whole troop wouldn’t cover the +expense. It’s costly, but then—gracious! Wouldn’t I have given +something for the doctor’s hose when I was a youngster campaigning in +the Philippines in ’99?”</p> + +<p>The story of the marvellous way in which Dr. Syx defended his mill +became the sensation of the world for many days. The hose-pipe theory, +struck off on the spot by Captain Carter, seized the popular fancy, +and was generally accepted without further question. There was an +element of the ludicrous which robbed the tragedy of some of its +horror. Moreover, no one could deny that Dr. Syx was well within his +rights in defending himself by any means when so savagely attacked, +and his triumphant success, no less than the ingenuity which was +supposed to underlie it, placed him in an heroic light which he had +not hitherto enjoyed.</p> + +<p>As to the demagogues who were responsible for the outbreak and its +terrible consequences, they slunk out of the public eye, and the +result of the battle at the mine seemed to have been a clearing up of +the atmosphere, such as a thunderstorm effects at the close of a +season of foul weather.</p> + +<p>But now, little as men guessed it, the beginning of the end was close +at hand.</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap9"></a>IX. THE DETECTIVE OF SCIENCE</h2> + +<p>The morning of my arrival at Grand Teton station, on my return from +the East, Andrew Hall met me with a warm greeting.</p> + +<p>“I have been anxiously expecting you,” he said, “for I have made some +progress towards solving the great mystery. I have not yet reached a +conclusion, but I hope soon to let you into the entire secret. In the +meantime you can aid me with your companionship, if in no other way, +for, since the defeat of the mob, this place has been mighty +lonesome. The Grand Teton is a spot that people who have no particular +business out here carefully avoid. I am on speaking terms with +Dr. Syx, and occasionally, when there is a party to be shown around, I +visit his works, and make the best possible use of my eyes. Captain +Carter of the military is a capital fellow, and I like to hear his +stories of the war in Luzon forty years ago, but I want somebody to +whom I can occasionally confide things, and so you are as welcome as +moonlight in harvest-time.”</p> + +<p>“Tell me something about that wonderful fight with the mob. Did you +see it?”</p> + +<p>“I did. I had got wind of what Bings intended to do while I was down +at Pocotello, and I hurried up here to warn the soldiers, but +unfortunately I came too late. Finding the military cooped up in the +guard-house and the mob masters of the situation, I kept out of sight +on the side of the Teton, and watched the siege with my binocular. I +think there was very little of the spectacle that I missed.”</p> + +<p>“What of the mysterious force that the doctor employed to sweep off +the assailants?”</p> + +<p>“Of course, Captain Carter’s suggestion that Syx turned molten +artemisium from his furnace into a hose-pipe and sprayed the enemy +with it is ridiculous. But it is much easier to dismiss Carter’s +theory than to substitute a better one. I saw the doctor on the roof +with a gang of black workmen, and I noticed the flash of polished +metal turned rapidly this way and that, but there was some intervening +obstacle which prevented me from getting a good view of the mechanism +employed. It certainly bore no resemblance to a hose-pipe, or anything +of that kind. No emanation was visible from the machine, but it was +stupefying to see the mob melt down.”</p> + +<p>“How about the coating of the bodies with artemisium?”</p> + +<p>“There you are back on the hose-pipe again,” laughed Hall. “But, to +tell you the truth, I’d rather be excused from expressing an opinion +on that operation in wholesale electro-plating just at present. I’ve +the ghost of an idea what it means, but let me test my theory a little +before I formulate it. In the meanwhile, won’t you take a stroll with +me?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly; nothing could please me better,” I replied. “Which way +shall we go?”</p> + +<p>“To the top of the Grand Teton.”</p> + +<p>“What! are you seized with the mountain-climbing fever?”</p> + +<p>“Not exactly, but I have a particular reason for wishing to take a +look from that pinnacle.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose you know the real apex of the peak has never been trodden +by man?”</p> + +<p>“I do know it, but it is just that apex that I am determined to have +under my feet for ten minutes. The failure of others is no argument +for us.”</p> + +<p>“Just as you say,” I rejoined. “But I suppose there is no indiscretion +in asking whether this little climb has any relation to the mystery?”</p> + +<p>“If it didn’t have an important relation to the clearing up of that +dark thing I wouldn’t risk my neck in such an undertaking,” was the +reply.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the next morning we set out for the peak. All previous +climbers, as we were aware, had attacked it from the west. That seemed +the obvious thing to do, because the westward slopes of the mountain, +while very steep, are less abrupt than those which face the rising +sun. In fact, the eastern side of the Grand Teton appears to be +absolutely unclimbable. But both Hall and I had had experience with +rock climbing in the Alps and the Dolomites, and we knew that what +looked like the hardest places sometimes turn out to be next to the +easiest. Accordingly we decided—the more particularly because it +would save time, but also because we yielded to the common desire to +outdo our predecessors—to try to scale the giant right up his face.</p> + +<p>We carried a very light but exceedingly strong rope, about five +hundred feet long, wore nail-shod shoes, and had each a metal-pointed +staff and a small hatchet in lieu of the regular mountaineer’s +axe. Advancing at first along the broken ridge between two gorges we +gradually approached the steeper part of the Teton, where the cliffs +looked so sheer and smooth that it seemed no wonder that nobody had +ever tried to scale them. The air was deliciously clear and the sky +wonderfully blue above the mountains, and the moon, a few days past +its last quarter, was visible in the southwest, its pale crescent face +slightly blued by the atmosphere, as it always appears when seen in +daylight.</p> + +<blockquote> +“Slow westering, a phantom sail—<br> + The lonely soul of yesterday.” +</blockquote> + +<p>Behind us, somewhat north of east, lay the Syx works, with their black +smoke rising almost vertically in the still air. Suddenly, as we +stumbled along on the rough surface, something whizzed past my face +and fell on the rock at my feet. I looked at the strange missile, that +had come like a meteor out of open space, with astonishment.</p> + +<p>It was a bird, a beautiful specimen of the scarlet tanagers, which I +remembered the early explorers had found inhabiting the Teton canyons, +their brilliant plumage borrowing splendor from contrast with the +gloomy surroundings. It lay motionless, its outstretched wings having +a curious shrivelled aspect, while the flaming color of the breast was +half obliterated with smutty patches. Stooping to pick it up, I +noticed a slight bronzing, which instantly recalled to my mind the +peculiar appearance of the victims of the attack on the mine.</p> + +<p>“Look here!” I called to Hall, who was several yards in advance. He +turned, and I held up the bird by a wing.</p> + +<p>“Where did you get that?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“It fell at my feet a moment ago.”</p> + +<p>Hall glanced in a startled manner at the sky, and then down the slope +of the mountain.</p> + +<p>“Did you notice in what direction it was flying?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“No, it dropped so close that it almost grazed my nose. I saw nothing +of it until it made me blink.”</p> + +<p>“I have been heedless,” muttered Hall under his breath. At the time I +did not notice the singularity of his remark, my attention being +absorbed in contemplating the unfortunate tanager.</p> + +<p>“Look how its feathers are scorched,” I said.</p> + +<p>“I know it,” Hall replied, without glancing at the bird.</p> + +<p>“And it is covered with a film of artemisium,” I added, a little +piqued by his abstraction.</p> + +<p>“I know that, too.”</p> + +<p>“See here, Hall,” I exclaimed, “are you trying to make game of me?”</p> + +<p>“Not at all, my dear fellow,” he replied, dropping his +cogitation. “Pray forgive me. But this is no new phenomenon to me. I +have picked up birds in that condition on this mountain before. There +is a terrible mystery here, but I am slowly letting light into it, and +if we succeed in reaching the top of the peak I have good hope that +the illumination will increase.”</p> + +<p>“Here now,” he added a moment later, sitting down upon a rock and +thrusting the blade of his penknife into a crevice, “what do you think +of this?”</p> + +<p>He held up a little nugget of pure artemisium, and then went on:</p> + +<p>“You know that all this slope was swept as clean as a Dutch +housewife’s kitchen floor by the thousands of miners and prospectors +who swarmed over it a year or two ago, and do you suppose they would +have missed such a tidbit if it had been here then?”</p> + +<p>“Dr. Syx must have been salting the mountain again,” I suggested.</p> + +<p>“Well,” replied Hall, with a significant smile, “if the doctor hasn’t +salted it somebody else has, that’s plain enough. But perhaps you +would like to know precisely what I expect to find out when we get on +the topknot of the Teton.”</p> + +<p>“I should certainly be delighted to learn the object of our journey,” +I said. “Of course, I’m only going along for company and for the fun +of the thing; but you know you can count on me for substantial aid +whenever you need it.”</p> + +<p>“It is because you are so willing to let me keep my own counsel,” he +rejoined, “and to wait for things to ripen before compelling me to +disclose them, that I like to have you with me at critical times. Now, +as to the object of this break-neck expedition, whose risks you +understand as fully as I do, I need not assure you that it is of +supreme importance to the success of my plans. In a word, I hope to be +able to look down into a part of Dr. Syx’s mill which, if I am not +mistaken, no human eye except his and those of his most trustworthy +helpers has ever been permitted to see. And if I see there what I +fully expect to see, I shall have got a long step nearer to a great +fortune.”</p> + +<p>“Good!” I cried. “<i>En avant</i>, then! We are losing time.”</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>X. THE TOP OF THE GRAND TETON</h2> + +<p>The climbing soon became difficult, until at length we were going up +hand over hand, taking advantage of crevices and knobs which an +inexperienced eye would have regarded as incapable of affording a grip +for the fingers or a support for the toes. Presently we arrived at the +foot of a stupendous precipice, which was absolutely insurmountable by +any ordinary method of ascent. Parts of it overhung, and everywhere +the face of the rock was too free from irregularities to afford any +footing, except to a fly.</p> + +<p>“Now, to borrow the expression of old Bunyan, we are hard put to it,” +I remarked. “If you will go to the left I will take the right and see +if there is any chance of getting up.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe we could find any place easier than this,” Hall +replied, “and so up we go where we are.”</p> + +<p>“Have you a pair of wings concealed about you?” I asked, laughing at +his folly.</p> + +<p>“Well, something nearly as good,” he responded, unstrapping his +knapsack. He produced a silken bag, which he unfolded on the rock.</p> + +<p>“A balloon!” I exclaimed. “But how are you going to inflate it?”</p> + +<p>For reply Hall showed me a receptacle which, he said, contained liquid +hydrogen, and which was furnished with a device for retarding the +volatilization of the liquid so that it could be carried with little +loss.</p> + +<p>“You remember I have a small laboratory in the abandoned mine,” he +explained, “where we used to manufacture liquid air for blasting. This +balloon I made for our present purpose. It will just suffice to carry +up our rope, and a small but practically unbreakable grapple of +hardened gold. I calculate to send the grapple to the top of the +precipice with the balloon, and when it has obtained a firm hold in +the riven rock there we can ascend, sailor fashion. You see the rope +has knots, and I know your muscles are as trustworthy in such work as +my own.”</p> + +<p>There was a slight breeze from the eastward, and the current of air +slanting up the face of the peak assisted the balloon in mounting with +its burden, and favored us by promptly swinging the little airship, +with the grapple swaying beneath it, over the brow of the cliff into +the atmospheric eddy above. As soon as we saw that the grapple was +well over the edge we pulled upon the rope. The balloon instantly shot +into view with the anchor dancing, but, under the influence of the +wind, quickly returned to its former position behind the projecting +brink. The grapple had failed to take hold.</p> + +<p>“‘Try, try again’ must be our motto now,” muttered Hall.</p> + +<p>We tried several times with the same result, although each time we +slightly shifted our position. At last the grapple caught.</p> + +<p>“Now, all together!” cried my companion, and simultaneously we threw +our weight upon the slender rope. The anchor apparently did not give +an inch.</p> + +<p>“Let me go first,” said Hall, pushing me aside as I caught the first +knot above my head. “It’s my device, and it’s only fair that I should +have the first try.”</p> + +<p>In a minute he was many feet up the wall, climbing swiftly hand over +hand, but occasionally stopping and twisting his leg around the rope +while he took breath.</p> + +<p>“It’s easier than I expected,” he called down, when he had ascended +about one hundred feet. “Here and there the rock offers a little hold +for the knees.”</p> + +<p>I watched him, breathless with anxiety, and, as he got higher, my +imagination pictured the little gold grapple, invisible above the brow +of the precipice, with perhaps a single thin prong wedged into a +crevice, and slowly ploughing its way towards the edge with each +impulse of the climber, until but another pull was needed to set it +flying! So vivid was my fancy that I tried to banish it by noticing +that a certain knot in the rope remained just at the level of my eyes, +where it had been from the start. Hall was now fully two hundred feet +above the ledge on which I stood, and was rapidly nearing the top of +the precipice. In a minute more he would be safe.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he shouted, and, glancing up with a leap of the heart, I saw +that he was falling! He kept his face to the rock, and came down feet +foremost. It would be useless to attempt any description of my +feelings; I would not go through that experience again for the price +of a battleship. Yet it lasted less than a second. He had dropped not +more than ten feet when the fall was arrested.</p> + +<p>“All right!” he called, cheerily. “No harm done! It was only a slip.”</p> + +<p>But what a slip! If the balloon had not carried the anchor several +yards back from the edge it would have had no opportunity to catch +another hold as it shot forward. And how could we know that the second +hold would prove more secure than the first? Hall did not hesitate, +however, for one instant. Up he went again. But, in fact, his best +chance was in going up, for he was within four yards of the top when +the mishap occurred. With a sigh of relief I saw him at last throw his +arm over the verge and then wriggle his body upon the ledge. A few +seconds later he was lying on his stomach, with his face over the +edge, looking down at me.</p> + +<p>“Come on!” he shouted. “It’s all right.”</p> + +<p>When I had pulled myself over the brink at his side I grasped his hand +and pressed it without a word. We understood one another.</p> + +<p>“It was pretty close to a miracle,” he remarked at last. “Look at +this.”</p> + +<p>The rock over which the grapple had slipped was deeply scored by the +unyielding point of the metal, and exactly at the verge of the +precipice the prong had wedged itself into a narrow crack, so firmly +that we had to chip away the stone in order to release it. If it had +slipped a single inch farther before taking hold it would have been +all over with my friend.</p> + +<p>Such experiences shake the strongest nerves, and we sat on the shelf +we had attained for fully a quarter of an hour before we ventured to +attack the next precipice which hung beetling directly above us. It +was not as lofty as the one we had just ascended, but it impended to +such a degree that we saw we should have to climb our rope while it +swung free in the air!</p> + +<p>Luckily we had little difficulty in getting a grip for the prongs, and +we took every precaution to test the security of the anchorage, not +only putting our combined weight repeatedly upon the rope, but +flipping and jerking it with all our strength. The grapple resisted +every effort to dislodge it, and finally I started up, insisting on my +turn as leader.</p> + +<p>The height I had to ascend did not exceed one hundred feet, but that +is a very great distance to climb on a swinging rope, without a wall +within reach to assist by its friction and occasional friendly +projections. In a little while my movements, together with the effect +of the slight wind, had imparted a most distressing oscillation to the +rope. This sometimes carried me with a nerve-shaking bang against a +prominent point of the precipice, where I would dislodge loose +fragments that kept Hall dodging for his life, and then I would swing +out, apparently beyond the brow of the cliff below, so that, as I +involuntarily glanced downward, I seemed to be hanging in free space, +while the steep mountain-side, looking ten times steeper than it +really was, resembled the vertical wall of an absolutely bottomless +abyss, as if I were suspended over the edge of the world.</p> + +<p>I avoided thinking of what the grapple might be about, and in my haste +to get through with the awful experience I worked myself fairly out of +breath, so that, when at last I reached the rounded brow of the cliff, +I had to stop and cling there for fully a minute before I could summon +strength enough to lift myself over it.</p> + +<p>When I was assured that the grapple was still securely fastened I +signalled to Hall, and he soon stood at my side, exclaiming, as he +wiped the perspiration from his face:</p> + +<p>“I think I’ll try wings next time!”</p> + +<p>But our difficulties had only begun. As we had foreseen, it was a case +of Alp above Alp, to the very limit of human strength and +patience. However, it would have been impossible to go back. In order +to descend the two precipices we had surmounted it would have been +necessary to leave our life-lines clinging to the rocks, and we had +not rope enough to do that. If we could not reach the top we were +lost.</p> + +<p>Having refreshed ourselves with a bite to eat and a little stimulant, +we resumed the climb. After several hours of the most exhausting work +I have ever performed we pulled our weary limbs upon the narrow ridge, +but a few square yards in area, which constitutes the apex of the +Grand Teton. A little below, on the opposite side of a steep-walled +gap which divides the top of the mountain into two parts, we saw the +singular enclosure of stones which the early white explorers found +there, and which they ascribed to the Indians, although nobody has +ever known who built it or what purpose it served.</p> + +<p>The view was, of course, superb, but while I was admiring it in all +its wonderful extent and variety, Hall, who had immediately pulled out +his binocular, was busy inspecting the Syx works, the top of whose +great tufted smoke column was thousands of feet beneath our +level. Jackson’s Lake, Jenny’s Lake, Leigh’s Lake, and several +lakelets glittered in the sunlight amid the pale grays and greens of +Jackson’s Hole, while many a bending reach of the Snake River shone +amid the wastes of sage-brush and rock.</p> + +<p>“There!” suddenly exclaimed Hall, “I thought I should find it.”</p> + +<p>“What?”</p> + +<p>“Take a look through my glass at the roof of Syx’s mill. Look just in +the centre.”</p> + +<p>“Why, it’s open in the middle!” I cried as soon as I had put the glass +to my eyes. “There’s a big circular hole in the centre of the roof.”</p> + +<p>“Look inside! Look inside!” repeated Hall, impatiently.</p> + +<p>“I see nothing there except something bright.”</p> + +<p>“Do you call it nothing because it is bright?”</p> + +<p>“Well, no,” I replied, laughing. “What I mean is that I see nothing +that I can make anything of except a shining object, and all I can +make of that is that it is bright.”</p> + +<p>“You’ve been in the Syx works many times, haven’t you?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Did you ever see the opening in the roof?”</p> + +<p>“Never.”</p> + +<p>“Did you ever hear of it?”</p> + +<p>“Never.”</p> + +<p>“Then Dr. Syx doesn’t show his visitors everything that is to be +seen.”</p> + +<p>“Evidently not since, as we know, he concealed the double tunnel and +the room under the furnace.”</p> + +<p>“Dr. Syx has concealed a bigger secret than that,” Hall responded, +“and the Grand Teton has helped me to a glimpse of it.”</p> + +<p>For several minutes my friend was absorbed in thought. Then he broke +out:</p> + +<p>“I tell you he’s the most wonderful man in the world!”</p> + +<p>“Who, Dr. Syx? Well, I’ve long thought that.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, but I mean in a different way from what you are thinking of. Do +you remember my asking you once if you believed in alchemy?”</p> + +<p>“I remember being greatly surprised by your question to that effect.”</p> + +<p>“Well, now,” said Hall, rubbing his hands with a satisfied air, while +his eyes glanced keen and bright with the reflection of some passing +thought, “Max Syx is greater than any alchemist that ever lived. If +those old fellows in the dark ages had accomplished everything they +set out to do, they would have been of no more consequence in +comparison with our black-browed friend down yonder than—than my head +is of consequence in comparison with the moon.”</p> + +<p>“I fear you flatter the man in the moon,” was my laughing reply.</p> + +<p>“No, I don’t,” returned Hall, “and some day you’ll admit it.”</p> + +<p>“Well, what about that something that shines down there? You seem to +see more in it than I can.”</p> + +<p>But my companion had fallen into a reverie and didn’t hear my +question. He was gazing abstractedly at the faint image of the waning +moon, now nearing the distant mountain-top over in Idaho. Presently +his mind seemed to return to the old magnet, and he whirled about and +glanced down at the Syx mill. The column of smoke was diminishing in +volume, an indication that the engine was about to enjoy one of its +periodical rests. The irregularity of these stoppages had always been +a subject of remark among practical engineers. The hours of labor were +exceedingly erratic, but the engine had never been known to work at +night, except on one occasion, and then only for a few minutes, when +it was suddenly stopped on account of a fire.</p> + +<p>Just as Hall resumed his inspection two huge quarter spheres, which +had been resting wide apart on the roof, moved towards one another +until their arched sections met over the circular aperture which they +covered like the dome of an observatory.</p> + +<p>“I expected it,” Hall remarked. “But come, it is mid-afternoon, and we +shall need all of our time to get safely down before the light fades.”</p> + +<p>As I have already explained, it would not have been possible for us to +return the way we came. We determined to descend the comparatively +easy western slopes of the peak, and pass the night on that side of +the mountain. Letting ourselves down with the rope into the hollow way +that divides the summit of the Teton into two pinnacles, we had no +difficulty in descending by the route followed by all previous +climbers. The weather was fine, and, having found good shelter among +the rocks, we passed the night in comfort. The next day we succeeded +in swinging round upon the eastern flank of the Teton, below the more +formidable cliffs, and, just at nightfall, we arrived at the +station. As we passed the Syx mine the doctor himself confronted +us. There was a very displeasing look on his dark countenance, and his +sneer was strongly marked.</p> + +<p>“So you have been on top of the Teton?” he said.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied Hall, very blandly, “and if you have a taste for that +sort of thing I should advise you to go up. The view is immense, as +fine as the best in the Alps.”</p> + +<p>“Pretty ingenious plan, that balloon of yours,” continued the doctor, +still looking black.</p> + +<p>“Thank you,” Hall replied, more suavely than ever. “I’ve been planning +that a long time. You probably don’t know that mountaineering used to +be my chief amusement.”</p> + +<p>The doctor turned away without pursuing the conversation.</p> + +<p>“I could kick myself,” Hall muttered as soon as Dr. Syx was out of +earshot. “If my absurd wish to outdo others had not blinded me, I +should have known that he would see us going up this side of the peak, +particularly with the balloon to give us away. However, what’s done +can’t be undone. He may not really suspect the truth, and if he does +he can’t help himself, even though he is the richest man in the +world.”</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>XI. STRANGE FATE OF A KITE</h2> + +<p>“Are you ready for another tramp?” was Andrew Hall’s greeting when we +met early on the morning following our return from the peak.</p> + +<p>“Certainly I am. What is your programme for to-day?”</p> + +<p>“I wish to test the flying qualities of a kite which I have +constructed since our return last night.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t allow the calls of sleep to interfere very much with your +activity.”</p> + +<p>“I haven’t much time for sleep just now,” replied Hall, without +smiling. “The kite test will carry us up the flanks of the Teton, but +I am not going to try for the top this time. If you will come along +I’ll ask you to help me by carrying and operating a light transit I +shall carry another myself. I am desirous to get the elevation that +the kite attains and certain other data that will be of use to me. We +will make a détour towards the south, for I don’t want old Syx’s +suspicions to be prodded any more.”</p> + +<p>“What interest can he have in your kite-flying?”</p> + +<p>“The same interest that a burglar has in the rap of a policeman’s +night-stick.”</p> + +<p>“Then your experiment to-day has some connection with the solution of +the great mystery?”</p> + +<p>“My dear fellow,” said Hall, laying his hand on my shoulder, “until I +see the end of that mystery I shall think of nothing else.”</p> + +<p>In a few hours we were clambering over the broken rocks on the +south-eastern flank of the Teton at an elevation of about three +thousand feet above the level of Jackson’s Hole. Finally Hall paused +and began to put his kite together. It was a small box-shaped affair, +very light in construction, with paper sides.</p> + +<p>“In order to diminish the chances of Dr. Syx noticing what we are +about,” he said, as he worked away, “I have covered the kite with +sky-blue paper. This, together with distance, will probably insure us +against his notice.”</p> + +<p>In a few minutes the kite was ready. Having ascertained the direction +of the wind with much attention, he stationed me with my transit on a +commanding rock, and sought another post for himself at a distance of +two hundred yards, which he carefully measured with a gold tape. My +instructions were to keep the telescope on the kite as soon as it had +attained a considerable height, and to note the angle of elevation and +the horizontal angle with the base line joining our points of +observation.</p> + +<p>“Be particularly careful,” was Hall’s injunction, “and if anything +happens to the kite by all means note the angles at that instant.”</p> + +<p>As soon as we had fixed our stations Hall began to pay out the string, +and the kite rose very swiftly. As it sped away into the blue it was +soon practically invisible to the naked eye, although the telescope of +the transit enabled me to follow it with ease.</p> + +<p>Glancing across now and then at my companion, I noticed that he was +having considerable difficulty in, at the same time, managing the kite +and manipulating his transit. But as the kite continued to rise and +steadied in position his task became easier, until at length he ceased +to remove his eye from the telescope while holding the string with +outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>“Don’t lose sight of it now for an instant!” he shouted.</p> + +<p>For at least half an hour he continued to manipulate the string, +sending the kite now high towards the zenith with a sudden pull, and +then letting it drift off. It seemed at last to become almost a fixed +point. Very slowly the angles changed, when, suddenly, there was a +flash, and to my amazement I saw the paper of the kite shrivel and +disappear in a momentary flame, and then the bare sticks came tumbling +out of the sky.</p> + +<p>“Did you get the angles?” yelled Hall, excitedly.</p> + +<p>“Yes; the telescope is yet pointed on the spot where the kite +disappeared.”</p> + +<p>“Read them off,” he called, “and then get your angle with the Syx +works.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” I replied, doing as he had requested, and noticing at the +same time that he was in the act of putting his watch in his +pocket. “Is there anything else?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“No, that will do, thank you.”</p> + +<p>Hall came running over, his face beaming, and with the air of a man +who has just hooked a particularly cunning old trout.</p> + +<p>“Ah!” he exclaimed, “this has been a great success! I could almost +dispense with the calculation, but it is best to be sure.”</p> + +<p>“What are you about, anyhow?” I asked, “and what was it that happened +to the kite?”</p> + +<p>“Don’t interrupt me just now, please,” was the only reply I received.</p> + +<p>Thereupon my friend sat down on a rock, pulled out a pad of paper, +noted the angles which I had read on the transit, and fell to figuring +with feverish haste. In the course of his work he consulted a pocket +almanac, then glanced up at the sky, muttered approvingly, and finally +leaped to his feet with a half-suppressed “Hurrah!” If I had not known +him so well I should have thought that he had gone daft.</p> + +<p>“Will you kindly tell me,” I asked, “how you managed to set the kite +afire?”</p> + +<p>Hall laughed heartily. “You though it was a trick, did you?” said +he. “Well, it was no trick, but a very beautiful demonstration. You +surely haven’t forgotten the scarlet tanager that gave you such a +surprise the day before yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“Do you mean,” I exclaimed, startled at the suggestion, “that the fate +of the bird had any connection with the accident to your kite?”</p> + +<p>“Accident isn’t precisely the right word,” replied Hall. “The two +things are as intimately related as own brothers. If you should care +to hunt up the kite sticks, you would find that they, too, are now +artemisium plated.”</p> + +<p>“This is getting too deep for me,” was all that I could say.</p> + +<p>“I am not absolutely confident that I have touched bottom myself,” +said Hall, “but I’m going to make another dive, and if I don’t bring +up treasures greater than Vanderdecken found at the bottom of the sea, +then Dr. Syx is even a more wonderful human mystery than I have +thought him to be.”</p> + +<p>“What do you propose to do next?”</p> + +<p>“To shake the dust of the Grand Teton from my shoes and go to San +Francisco, where I have an extensive laboratory.”</p> + +<p>“So you are going to try a little alchemy yourself, are you?”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps; who knows? At any rate, my good friend, I am forever +indebted to you for your assistance, and even more for your +discretion, and if I succeed you shall be the first person in the +world to hear the news.”</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>XII. BETTER THAN ALCHEMY</h2> + +<p>I come now to a part of my narrative which would have been deemed +altogether incredible in those closing years of the nineteenth century +that witnessed the first steps towards the solution of the deepest +mysteries of the ether, although men even then held in their hands, +without knowing it, powers which, after they had been mastered and +before use had made them familiar, seemed no less than godlike.</p> + +<p>For six months after Hall’s departure for San Francisco I heard +nothing from him. Notwithstanding my intense desire to know what he +was doing, I did not seek to disturb him in his retirement. In the +meantime things ran on as usual in the world, only a ripple being +caused by renewed discoveries of small nuggets of artemisium on the +Tetons, a fact which recalled to my mind the remark of my friend when +he dislodged a flake of the metal from a crevice during our ascent of +the peak. At last one day I received this telegram at my office in New +York:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>“SAN FRANCISCO, May 16, 1940.</p> + +<p>“Come at once. The mystery is solved.</p> + +<p>“(Signed) HALL.”</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>As soon as I could pack a grip I was flying westward one hundred miles +an hour. On reaching San Francisco, which had made enormous strides +since the opening of the twentieth century, owing to the extension of +our Oriental possessions, and which already ranked with New York and +Chicago among the financial capitals of the world, I hastened to +Hall’s laboratory. He was there expecting me, and, after a hearty +greeting, during which his elation over his success was manifest, he +said:</p> + +<p>“I am compelled to ask you to make a little journey. I found it +impossible to secure the necessary privacy here, and, before opening +my experiments, I selected a site for a new laboratory in an +unfrequented spot among the mountains this side of Lake Tahoe. You +will be the first man, with the exception of my two devoted +assistants, to see my apparatus, and you shall share the sensation of +the critical experiment.”</p> + +<p>“Then you have not yet completed your solution of the secret?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I have; for I am as certain of the result as if I had seen it, +but I thought you were entitled to be in with me at the death.”</p> + +<p>From the nearest railway station we took horses to the laboratory, +which occupied a secluded but most beautiful site at an elevation of +about six thousand feet above sea-level. With considerable surprise I +noticed a building surmounted with a dome, recalling what we had seen +from the Grand Teton on the roof of Dr. Syx’s mill. Hall, observing my +look, smiled significantly, but said nothing. The laboratory proper +occupied a smaller building adjoining the domed structure. Hall led +the way into an apartment having but a single door and illuminated by +a skylight.</p> + +<p>“This is my sanctum sanctorum,” he said, “and you are the first +outsider to enter it. Seat yourself comfortably while I proceed to +unveil a little corner of the artemisium mystery.”</p> + +<p>Near one end of the room, which was about thirty feet in length, was a +table, on which lay a glass tube about two inches in diameter and +thirty inches long. In the farther end of the tube gleamed a lump of +yellow metal, which I took to be gold. Hall and I were seated near +another table about twenty-five feet distant from the tube, and on +this table was an apparatus furnished with a concave mirror, whose +optical axis was directed towards the tube. It occurred to me at once +that this apparatus would be suitable for experimenting with electric +waves. Wires ran from it to the floor, and in the cellar beneath was +audible the beating of an engine. My companion made an adjustment or +two, and then remarked:</p> + +<p>“Now, keep your eyes on the lump of gold in the farther end of the +tube yonder. The tube is exhausted of air, and I am about to +concentrate upon the gold an intense electric influence, which will +have the effect of making it a kind of kathode pole. I only use this +term for the sake of illustration. You will recall that as long ago as +the days of Crookes it was known that a kathode in an exhausted tube +would project particles, or atoms, of its substance away in straight +lines. Now watch!”</p> + +<p>I fixed my attention upon the gold, and presently saw it enveloped in +a most beautiful violet light. This grew more intense, until, at +times, it was blinding, while, at the same moment, the interior of the +tube seemed to have become charged with a luminous vapor of a delicate +pinkish hue.</p> + +<p>“Watch! Watch!” said Hall. “Look at the nearer end of the tube!”</p> + +<p>“Why, it is becoming coated with gold!” I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>He smiled, but made no reply. Still the strange process continued. The +pink vapor became so dense that the lump of gold was no longer +visible, although the eye of violet light glared piercingly through +the colored fog. Every second the deposit of metal, shining like a +mirror, increased, until suddenly there came a curious whistling +sound. Hall, who had been adjusting the mirror, jerked away his hand +and gave it a flip, as if hot water had spattered it, and then the +light in the tube quickly died away, the vapor escaped, filling the +room with a peculiar stimulating odor, and I perceived that the end of +the glass tube had been melted through, and the molten gold was slowly +dripping from it.</p> + +<p>“I carried it a little too far,” said Hall, ruefully rubbing the back +of his hand, “and when the glass gave way under the atomic bombardment +a few atoms of gold visited my bones. But there is no harm done. You +observed that the instant the air reached the kathode, as I for +convenience call the electrified mass of gold, the action ceased.”</p> + +<p>“But your anode, to continue your simile,” I said, “is constantly +exposed to the air.”</p> + +<p>“True,” he replied, “but in the first place, of course, this is not +really an anode, just as the other is not actually a kathode. As +science advances we are compelled, for a time, to use old terms in a +new sense until a fresh nomenclature can be invented. But we are now +dealing with a form of electric action more subtile in its effects +than any at present described in the text-books and the transactions +of learned societies. I have not yet even attempted to work out the +theory of it. I am only concerned with its facts.”</p> + +<p>“But wonderful as the exhibition you have given is, I do not see,” I +said, “how it concerns Dr. Syx and his artemisium.”</p> + +<p>“Listen,” replied Hall, settling back in his chair after disconnecting +his apparatus. “You no doubt have been told how one night the Syx +engine was heard working for a few minutes, the first and only night +work it was ever known to have done, and how, hardly had it started up +when a fire broke out in the mill, and the engine was instantly +stopped. Now there is a very remarkable story connected with that, and +it will show you how I got my first clew to the mystery, although it +was rather a mere suspicion than a clew, for at first I could make +nothing out of it. The alleged fire occurred about a fortnight after +our discovery of the double tunnel. My mind was then full of +suspicions concerning Syx, because I thought that a man who would fool +people with one hand was not likely to deal fairly with the other.</p> + +<p>“It was a glorious night, with a full moon, whose face was so clear in +the limpid air that, having found a snug place at the foot of a +yellow-pine-tree, where the ground was carpeted with odoriferous +needles, I lay on my back and renewed my early acquaintance with the +romantically named mountains and ‘seas’ of the Lunar globe. With my +binocular I could trace those long white streaks which radiate from +the crater ring, called ‘Tycho,’ and run hundreds of miles in all +directions over the moon. As I gazed at these singular objects I +recalled the various theories which astronomers, puzzled by their +enigmatical aspect, have offered to a more or less confiding public +concerning them.</p> + +<p>“In the midst of my meditation and moon gazing I was startled by +hearing the engine in the Syx works suddenly begin to run. Immediately +a queer light, shaped like the beam of a ship’s searchlight, but +reddish in color, rose high in the moonlit heavens above the mill. It +did not last more than a minute or two, for almost instantly the +engine was stopped, and with its stoppage the light faded and soon +disappeared. The next day Dr. Syx gave it out that on starting up his +engine in the night something had caught fire, which compelled him +immediately to shut down again. The few who had seen the light, with +the exception of your humble servant, accepted the doctor’s +explanation without a question. But I knew there had been no fire, and +Syx’s anxiety to spread the lie led me to believe that he had narrowly +escaped giving away a vital secret. I said nothing about my +suspicions, but upon inquiry I found out that an extra and pressing +order for metal had arrived from the Austrian government the very day +of the pretended fire, and I drew the inference that Syx, in his haste +to fill the order—his supply having been drawn low—had started to +work, contrary to his custom, at night, and had immediately found +reason to repent his rashness. Of course, I connected the strange +light with this sudden change of mind.</p> + +<p>“My suspicion having been thus stimulated, and having been directed in +a certain way, I began, from that moment to notice closely the hours +during which the engine labored. At night it was always quiet, except +on that one brief occasion. Sometimes it began early in the morning +and stopped about noon. At other times the work was done entirely in +the afternoon, beginning sometimes as late as three or four o’clock, +and ceasing invariably at sundown. Then again it would start at +sunrise and continue the whole day through.</p> + +<p>“For a long time I was unable to account for these eccentricities, and +the problem was not rendered much clearer, although a startling +suggestiveness was added to it, when, at length, I noticed that the +periods of activity of the engine had a definite relation to the age +of the moon. Then I discovered, with the aid of an almanac, that I +could predict the hours when the engine would be busy. At the time of +new moon it worked all day; at full moon, it was idle; between full +moon and last quarter, it labored in the forenoon, the length of its +working hours increasing as the quarter was approached; between last +quarter and new moon, the hours of work lengthened, until, as I have +said, at new moon they lasted all day; between new moon and first +quarter, work began later and later in the forenoon as the quarter was +approached, and between first quarter and full moon the laboring hours +rapidly shortened, being confined to the latter part of the afternoon, +until at full moon complete silence reigned in the mill.”</p> + +<p>“Well! well!” I broke in, greatly astonished by Hall’s singular +recital, “you must have thought Dr. Syx was a cross between an +alchemist and an astrologer.”</p> + +<p>“Note this,” said Hall, disregarding my interruption, “the hours when +the engine worked were invariably the hours during which the moon was +above the horizon!”</p> + +<p>“What did you infer from that?” “Of course, I inferred that the moon +was directly concerned in the mystery; but how? That bothered me for a +long time, but a little light broke into my mind when I picked up, on +the mountain-side, a dead bird, whose scorched feathers were bronzed +with artemisium, and sometime later another similar victim of a +mysterious form of death. Then came the attack on the mine and its +tragic finish. I have already told you what I observed on that +occasion. But, instead of helping to clear up the mystery, it rather +complicated it for a time. At length, however, I reasoned my way +partly out of the difficulty. Certain things which I had noticed in +the Syx mill convinced me that there was a part of the building whose +existence no visitor suspected, and, putting one thing with another, I +inferred that the roof must be open above that secret part of the +structure, and that if I could get upon a sufficiently elevated place +I could see something of what was hidden there.</p> + +<p>“At this point in the investigation I proposed to you the trip to the +top of the Teton, the result of which you remember. I had calculated +the angles with great care, and I felt certain that from the apex of +the mountain I should be able to get a view into the concealed +chamber, and into just that side of it which I wished particularly to +inspect. You remember that I called your attention to a shining object +underneath the circular opening in the roof. You could not make out +what it was, but I saw enough to convince me that it was a gigantic +parabolic mirror. I’ll show you a smaller one of the same kind +presently.</p> + +<p>“Now, at last, I began to perceive the real truth, but it was so +wildly incredible, so infinitely remote from all human experience, +that I hardly ventured to formulate it, even in my own secret +mind. But I was bound to see the thing through to the end. It occurred +to me that I could prove the accuracy of my theory with the aid of a +kite. You were kind enough to lend your assistance in that experiment, +and it gave me irrefragable evidence of the existence of a shaft of +flying atoms extending in a direct line between Dr. Syx’s pretended +mine and the moon!”</p> + +<p>“Hall!” I exclaimed, “you are mad!” My friend smiled good-naturedly, +and went on with his story.</p> + +<p>“The instant the kite shrivelled and disappeared I understood why the +works were idle when the moon was not above the horizon, why birds +flying across that fatal beam fell dead upon the rocks, and whence the +terrible master of that mysterious mill derived the power of +destruction that could wither an army as the Assyrian host in Byron’s +poem</p> + +<blockquote>“Melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.”</blockquote> + +<p>“But how did Dr. Syx turn the flying atoms against his enemies?” I +asked.</p> + +<p>“In a very simple manner. He had a mirror mounted so that it could be +turned in any direction, and would shunt the stream of metallic atoms, +heated by their friction with the air, towards any desired point. When +the attack came he raised this machine above the level of the roof and +swept the mob to a lustrous, if expensive, death.”</p> + +<p>“And the light at night—”</p> + +<p>“Was the shining of the heated atoms, not luminous enough to be +visible in broad day, for which reason the engine never worked at +night, and the stream of volatilized artemisium was never set flowing +at full moon, when the lunar globe is above the horizon only during +the hours of darkness.”</p> + +<p>“I see,” I said, “whence came the nuggets on the mountain. Some of the +atoms, owing to the resistance of the air, fell short and settled in +the form of impalpable dust until the winds and rains collected and +compacted them in the cracks and crevices of the rocks.”</p> + +<p>“That was it, of course.”</p> + +<p>“And now,” I added, my amazement at the success of Hall’s experiments +and the accuracy of his deductions increasing every moment, “do you +say that you have also discovered the means employed by Dr. Syx to +obtain artemisium from the moon?”</p> + +<p>“Not only that,” replied my friend, “but within the next few minutes I +shall have the pleasure of presenting to you a button of moon metal, +fresh from the veins of Artemis herself.”</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a>XIII. THE LOOTING OF THE MOON</h2> + +<p>I shall spare the reader a recital of the tireless efforts, continuing +through many almost sleepless weeks, whereby Andrew Hall obtained his +clew to Dr. Syx’s method. It was manifest from the beginning that the +agent concerned must be some form of etheric, or so-called electric, +energy; but how to set it in operation was the problem. Finally he hit +upon the apparatus for his initial experiments which I have already +described.</p> + +<p>“Recurring to what had been done more than half a century ago by +Hertz, when he concentrated electric waves upon a focal point by means +of a concave mirror,” said Hall, “I saw that the key I wanted lay in +an extension of these experiments. At last I found that I could +transform the energy of an engine into undulations of the ether, +which, when they had been concentrated upon a metallic object, like a +chunk of gold, imparted to it an intense charge of an apparently +electric nature. Upon thus charging a metallic body enclosed in a +vacuum, I observed that the energy imparted to it possessed the +remarkable power of disrupting its atoms and projecting them off in +straight lines, very much as occurs with a kathode in a Crookes’s +tube. But—and this was of supreme importance—I found that the line +of projection was directly towards the apparatus from which the +impulse producing the charge had come. In other words, I could produce +two poles between which a marvellous interaction occurred. My +transformer, with its concentrating mirror, acted as one pole, from +which energy was transferred to the other pole, and that other pole +immediately flung off atoms of its own substance in the direction of +the transformer. But these atoms were stopped by the glass wall of +the vacuum tube; and when I tried the experiment with the metal +removed from the vacuum, and surrounded with air, it failed utterly.</p> + +<p>“This at first completely discouraged me, until I suddenly remembered +that the moon is in a vacuum, the great vacuum of interplanetary +space, and that it possesses no perceptible atmosphere of its own. At +this a great light broke around me, and I shouted ‘Eureka!’ Without +hesitation I constructed a transformer of great power, furnished with +a large parabolic mirror to transmit the waves in parallel lines, +erected the machinery and buildings here, and when all was ready for +the final experiment I telegraphed for you.” Prepared by these +explanations I was all on fire to see the thing tried. Hall was no +less eager, and, calling in his two faithful assistants to make the +final adjustments, he led the way into what he facetiously named “the +lunar chamber.”</p> + +<p>“If we fail,” he remarked with a smile that had an element of +worriment in it, “it will become the ‘lunatic chamber’—but no danger +of that. You observe this polished silver knob, supported by a +metallic rod curved over at the top like a crane. That constitutes the +pole from which I propose to transmit the energy to the moon, and upon +which I expect the storm of atoms to be centred by reflection from the +mirror at whose focus it is placed.”</p> + +<p>“One moment,” I said. “Am I to understand that you think that the moon +is a solid mass of artemisium, and that no matter where your radiant +force strikes it a ‘kathodic pole’ will be formed there from which +atoms will be projected to the earth?”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Hall, “I must carefully choose the point on the lunar +surface where to operate. But that will present no difficulty. I made +up my mind as soon as I had penetrated Syx’s secret that he obtained +the metal from those mystic white streaks which radiate from Tycho, +and which have puzzled the astronomers ever since the invention of +telescopes. I now believe those streaks to be composed of immense +veins of the metal that Syx has most appropriately named artemisium, +which you, of course, recognize as being derived from the name of the +Greek goddess of the moon, Artemis, whom the Romans called Diana. But +now to work!”</p> + +<p>It was less than a day past the time of new moon, and the earth’s +satellite was too near the sun to be visible in broad daylight. +Accordingly, the mirror had to be directed by means of knowledge of +the moon’s place in the sky. Driven by accurate clockwork, it could be +depended upon to retain the proper direction when once set.</p> + +<p>With breathless interest I watched the proceedings of my friend and +his assistants. The strain upon the nerves of all of us was such as +could not have been borne for many hours at a stretch. When everything +had been adjusted to his satisfaction, Hall stepped back, not without +betraying his excitement in flushed cheeks and flashing eyes, and +pressed a lever. The powerful engine underneath the floor instantly +responded. The experiment was begun.</p> + +<p>“I have set it upon a point about a hundred miles north of Tycho, +where the Yerkes photographs show a great abundance of the white +substance,” said Hall.</p> + +<p>Then we waited. A minute elapsed. A bird, fluttering in the opening +above, for a second or two, wrenched our strained nerves. Hall’s face +turned pale.</p> + +<p>“They had better keep away from here,” he whispered, with a ghastly +smile.</p> + +<p>Two minutes! I could hear the beating of my heart. The engine shook +the floor.</p> + +<p>Three minutes! Hall’s face was wet with perspiration. The bird +blundered in and startled us again.</p> + +<p>Four minutes! We were like statues, with all eyes fixed on the +polished ball of silver, which shone in the brilliant light +concentrated upon it by the mirror.</p> + +<p>Five minutes! The shining ball had become a confused blue, and I +violently winked to clear my vision.</p> + +<p>“At last! Thank God! Look! There it is!”</p> + +<p>It was Hall who spoke, trembling like an aspen. The silver knob had +changed color. What seemed a miniature rainbow surrounded it, with +concentric circles of blinding brilliance.</p> + +<p>Then something dropped flashing into an earthen dish set beneath the +ball! Another glittering drop followed, and, at a shorter interval, +another!</p> + +<p>Almost before a word could be uttered the drops had coalesced and +become a tiny stream, which, as it fell, twisted itself into a bright +spiral, gleaming with a hundred shifting hues, and forming on the +bottom of the dish a glowing, interlacing maze of viscid rings and +circlets, which turned and twined about and over one another, until +they had blended and settled into a button-shaped mass of hot metallic +jelly. Hall snatched the dish away, and placed another in its stead.</p> + +<p>“This will be about right for a watch charm when it cools,” he said, +with a return of his customary self-command. “I promised you the first +specimen. I’ll catch another for myself.”</p> + +<p>“But can it be possible that we are not dreaming?” I exclaimed. “Do +you really believe that this comes from the moon?”</p> + +<p>“Just as surely as rain comes from the clouds,” cried Hall, with all +his old impatience. “Haven’t I just showed you the whole process?”</p> + +<p>“Then I congratulate you. You will be as rich as Dr. Syx.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps,” was the unperturbed reply, “but not until I have enlarged +my apparatus. At present I shall hardly do more than supply mementoes +to my friends. But since the principle is established, the rest is +mere detail.”</p> + +<p>Six weeks later the financial centres of the earth were shaken by the +news that a new supply of artemisium was being marketed from a mill +which had been secretly opened in the Sierras of California. For a +time there was almost a panic. If Hall had chosen to do so, he might +have precipitated serious trouble. But he immediately entered into +negotiations with government representatives, and the inevitable +result was that, to preserve the monetary system of the world from +upheaval, Dr. Syx had to consent that Hall’s mill should share equally +with his in the production of artemisium. During the negotiations the +doctor paid a visit to Hall’s establishment. The meeting between them +was most dramatic. Syx tried to blast his rival with a glance, but +knowledge is power, and my friend faced his mysterious antagonist, +whose deepest secrets he had penetrated, with an unflinching eye. It +was remarked that Dr. Syx became a changed man from that moment. His +masterful air seemed to have deserted him, and it was with something +resembling humility that he assented to the arrangement which required +him to share his enormous gains with his conqueror.</p> + +<p>Of course, Hall’s success led to an immediate recrudescence of the +efforts to extract artemisium from the Syx ore, and, equally of +course, every such attempt failed. Hall, while keeping his own secret, +did all he could to discourage the experiments, but they naturally +believed that he must have made the very discovery which was the +subject of their dreams, and he could not, without betraying himself, +and upsetting the finances of the planet, directly undeceive them. The +consequence was that fortunes were wasted in hopeless experimentation, +and, with Hall’s achievement dazzling their eyes, the deluded +fortune-seekers kept on in the face of endless disappointments and +disaster.</p> + +<p>And presently there came another tragedy. The Syx mill was blown up! +The accident—although many people refused to regard it as an +accident, and asserted that the doctor himself, in his chagrin, had +applied the match—the explosion, then, occurred about sundown, and +its effects were awful. The great works, with everything pertaining to +them, and every rail that they contained, were blown to atoms. They +disappeared as if they had never existed. Even the twin tunnels were +involved in the ruin, a vast cavity being left in the mountain-side +where Syx’s ten acres had been. The force of the explosion was so +great that the shattered rock was reduced to dust. To this fact was +owing the escape of the troops camped near. While the mountain was +shaken to its core, and enormous parapets of living rock were hurled +down the precipices of the Teton, no missiles of appreciable size +traversed the air, and not a man at the camp was injured. But +Jackson’s Hole, filled with red dust, looked for days afterwards like +the mouth of a tremendous volcano just after an eruption. Dr. Syx had +been seen entering the mill a few minutes before the catastrophe by a +sentinel who was stationed about a quarter of a mile away, and who, +although he was felled like an ox by the shock, and had his eyes, +ears, and nostrils filled with flying dust, miraculously escaped with +his life.</p> + +<p>After this a new arrangement was made whereby Andrew Hall became the +sole producer of artemisium, and his wealth began to mount by leaps of +millions towards the starry heights of the billions.</p> + +<p>About a year after the explosion of the Syx mill a strange rumor got +about. It came first from Budapest, in Hungary, where it was averred +several persons of credibility had seen Dr. Max Syx. Millions had been +familiar with his face and his personal peculiarities, through +actually meeting him, as well as through photographs and descriptions, +and, unless there was an intention to deceive, it did not seem +possible that a mistake could be made in identification. There surely +never was another man who looked just like Dr. Syx. And, besides, was +it not demonstrable that he must have perished in the awful +destruction of his mill?</p> + +<p>Soon after came a report that Dr. Syx had been seen again; this time +at Ekaterinburg, in the Urals. Next he was said to have paid a visit +to Batang, in the mountainous district of southwestern China, and +finally, according to rumor, he was seen in Sicily, at Nicolosi, among +the volcanic pimples on the southern slope of Mount Etna.</p> + +<p>Next followed something of more curious and even startling interest. A +chemist at Budapest, where the first rumors of Syx’s reappearance had +placed the mysterious doctor, announced that he could produce +artemisium, and proved it, although he kept his process secret. Hardly +had the sensation caused by this news partially subsided when a +similar report arrived from Ekaterinburg; then another from Batang; +after that a fourth from Nicolosi!</p> + +<p>Nobody could fail to notice the coincidence; wherever the doctor—or +was it his ghost?—appeared, there, shortly afterwards, somebody +discovered the much-sought secret.</p> + +<p>After this Syx’s apparitions rapidly increased in frequency, followed +in each instance by the announcement of another productive artemisium +mill. He appeared in Germany, Italy, France, England, and finally at +many places in the United States.</p> + +<p>“It is the old doctor’s revenge,” said Hall to me one day, trying to +smile, although the matter was too serious to be taken humorously. +“Yes, it is his revenge, and I must admit that it is complete. The +price of artemisium has fallen one-half within six months. All the +efforts we have made to hold back the flood have proved useless. The +secret itself is becoming public property. We shall inevitably be +overwhelmed with artemisium, just as we were with gold, and the last +condition of the financial world will be worse than the first.”</p> + +<p>My friend’s gloomy prognostications came near being fulfilled to the +letter. Ten thousand artemisium mills shot their etheric rays upon the +moon, and our unfortunate satellite’s metal ribs were stripped by +atomic force. Some of the great white rays that had been one of the +telescopic wonders of the lunar landscapes disappeared, and the face +of the moon, which had remained unchanged before the eyes of the +children of Adam from the beginning of their race, now looked as if +the blast of a furnace had swept it. At night, on the moonward side, +the earth was studded with brilliant spikes, all pointed at the heart +of its child in the sky.</p> + +<p>But the looting of the moon brought disaster to the robber planet. So +mad were the efforts to get the precious metal that the surface of our +globe was fairly showered with it, productive fields were, in some +cases, almost smothered under a metallic coating, the air was filled +with shining dust, until finally famine and pestilence joined hands +with financial disaster to punish the grasping world.</p> + +<p>Then, at last, the various governments took effective measures to +protect themselves and their people. Another combined effort resulted +in an international agreement whereby the production of the precious +moon metal was once more rigidly controlled. But the existence of a +monopoly, such as Dr. Syx had so long enjoyed, and in the enjoyment of +which Andrew Hall had for a brief period succeeded him, was henceforth +rendered impossible.</p> + + + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a>XIV. THE LAST OF DR. SYX</h2> + +<p>Many years after the events last recorded I sat, at the close of a +brilliant autumn day, side by side with my old friend Andrew Hall, on +a broad, vine-shaded piazza which faced the east, where the full moon +was just rising above the rim of the Sierra, and replacing the rosy +counter-glow of sunset with its silvery radiance. The sight was +calculated to carry the minds of both back to the events of former +years. But I noticed that Hall quickly changed the position of his +chair, and sat down again with his back to the rising moon. He had +managed to save some millions from the wreck of his vast fortune when +artemisium started to go to the dogs, and I was now paying him one of +my annual visits at his palatial home in California.</p> + +<p>“Did I ever tell you of my last trip to the Teton?” he asked, as I +continued to gaze contemplatively at the broad lunar disk which slowly +detached itself from the horizon and began to swim in the clear +evening sky.</p> + +<p>“No,” I replied, “but I should like to hear about it.”</p> + +<p>“Or of my last sight of Dr. Syx?”</p> + +<p>“Indeed! I did not suppose that you ever saw him after that conference +in your mill, when he had to surrender half of the world to you.”</p> + +<p>“Once only I saw him again,” said Hall, with a peculiar intonation.</p> + +<p>“Pray go ahead, and tell me the whole story.”</p> + +<p>My friend lighted a fresh cigar, tipped his chair into a more +comfortable position, and began:</p> + +<p>“It was about seven years ago. I had long felt an unconquerable desire +to have another look at the Teton and the scenes amid which so many +strange events in my life had occurred. I thought of sending for you +to go with me, but I knew you were abroad much of your time, and I +could not be certain of catching you. Finally I decided to go alone. I +travelled on horseback by way of the Snake River canyon, and arrived +early one morning in Jackson’s Hole. I can tell you it was a gloomy +place, as barren and deserted as some of those Arabian wadies that you +have been describing to me. The railroad had long ago been abandoned, +and the site of the military camp could scarcely be recognized. An +immense cavity with ragged walls showed where Dr. Syx’s mill used to +send up its plume of black smoke.</p> + +<p>“As I stared up the gaunt form of the Teton, whose beetling precipices +had been smashed and split by the great explosion, I was seized with a +resistless impulse to climb it. I thought I should like to peer off +again from that pinnacle which had once formed so fateful a +watch-tower for me. Turning my horse loose to graze in the grassy +river bottom, and carrying my rope tether along as a possible aid in +climbing, I set out for the ascent. I knew I could not get up the +precipices on the eastern side, which we were able to master with the +aid of our balloon, and so I bore round, when I reached the steepest +cliffs, until I was on the southwestern side of the peak, where the +climbing was easier.</p> + +<p>“But it took me a long time, and I did not reach the rift in the +summit until just before sundown. Knowing that it would be impossible +for me to descend at night, I bethought me of the enclosure of rocks, +supposed to have been made by Indians, on the western pinnacle, and +decided that I could pass the night there.</p> + +<p>“The perpendicular buttress forming the easternmost and highest point +of the Teton’s head would have baffled me but for the fact that I +found a long crack, probably an effect of the tremendous explosion, +extending from bottom to top of the rock. Driving my toes and fingers +into this rift, I managed, with a good deal of trouble, and no little +peril, to reach the top. As I lifted myself over the edge and rose to +my feet, imagine my amazement at seeing Dr. Syx standing within +arm’s-length of me!</p> + +<p>“My breath seemed pent in my lungs, and I could not even utter the +exclamation that rose to my lips. It was like meeting a +ghost. Notwithstanding the many reports of his having been seen in +various parts of the world, it had always been my conviction that he +had perished in the explosion.</p> + +<p>“Yet there he stood in the twilight, for the sun was hidden by the +time I reached the summit, his tall form erect, and his black eyes +gleaming under the heavy brows as he fixed them sternly upon my +face. You know I never was given to losing my nerve, but I am afraid I +lost it on that occasion. Again and again I strove to speak, but it +was impossible to move my tongue. So powerless seemed my lungs that I +wondered how I could continue breathing.</p> + +<p>“The doctor remained silent, but his curious smile, which, as you +know, was a thing of terror to most people, overspread his +black-rimmed face and was broad enough to reveal the gleam of his +teeth. I felt that he was looking me through and through. The +sensation was as if he had transfixed me with an ice-cold blade. There +was a gleam of devilish pleasure in his eyes, as though my evident +suffering was a delight to him and a gratification of his +vengeance. At length I succeeded in overcoming the feeling which +oppressed me, and, making a step forward, I shouted in a strained +voice,</p> + +<p>“‘You black Satan!’</p> + +<p>“I cannot clearly explain the psychological process which led me to +utter those words. I had never entertained any enmity towards Dr. Syx, +although I had always regarded him as a heartless person, who had +purposely led thousands to their ruin for his selfish gain, but I knew +that he could not help hating me, and I felt now that, in some +inexplicable manner, a struggle, not physical, but spiritual, was +taking place between us, and my exclamation, uttered with surprising +intensity, produced upon me, and apparently upon him, the effect of a +desperate sword thrust which attains its mark.</p> + +<p>“Immediately the doctor’s form seemed to recede, as if he had passed +the verge of the precipice behind him. At the same time it became dim, +and then dimmer, until only the dark outlines, and particularly the +jet-black eyes, glaring fiercely, remained visible. And still he +receded, as though floating in the air, which was now silvered with +the evening light, until he appeared to cross the immense atmospheric +gulf over Jackson’s Hole and paused on the rim of the horizon in the +east.</p> + +<p>“Then, suddenly, I became aware that the full moon had risen at the +very place on the distant mountain-brow where the spectre rested, and +as I continued to gaze, as if entranced, the face and figure of the +doctor seemed slowly to frame themselves within the lunar disk, until +at last he appeared to have quitted the air and the earth and to be +frowning at me from the circle of the moon.”</p> + +<p>While Hall was pronouncing his closing words I had begun to stare at +the moon with swiftly increasing interest, until, as his voice +stopped, I exclaimed,</p> + +<p>“Why, there he is now! Funny I never noticed it before. There’s +Dr. Syx’s face in the moon, as plain as day.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied Hall, without turning round, “and I never like to look +at it.”</p> + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + +<BR> +<BR> +<BR> +<BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Moon Metal, by Garrett P. Serviss + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOON METAL *** + +***** This file should be named 8199-h.htm or 8199-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/1/9/8199/ + +Produced by Suzanne L. Shell, Joris Van Dael, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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