IV
THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD
An electric light shot its penetrating rays into a gallery cut throughvirgin rock and running straight towards the heart of the Teton. Thecentre of the gallery was occupied by a narrow railway, on which a fewflat cars, propelled by electric power, passed to and fro.Black-skinned and silent workmen rode on the cars, both when they cameladen with broken masses of rock from the farther end of the tunneland when they returned empty.
Suddenly, to an eye situated a little way within the gallery, appearedat the entrance the dark face of Dr. Syx, wearing its mostdiscomposing smile, and a moment later the broader countenance ofPresident Boon loomed in the electric glare beside the doctor's blackframework of eyebrows and mustache. Behind them were grouped the othervisiting financiers.
"This tunnel," said Dr. Syx, "leads to the mine head, where theore-bearing rock is blasted."
As he spoke a hollow roar issued from the depths of the mountain,followed in a short time by a gust of foul air.
"You probably will not care to go in there," said the doctor, "and, infact, it is very uncomfortable. But we shall follow the next car-loadto the smelter, and you can witness the reduction of the ore."
Accordingly when another car came rumbling out of the tunnel, with itsload of cracked rock, they all accompanied it into an adjoiningapartment, where it was cast into a metallic shute, through which,they were informed, it reached the furnace.
"While it is melting," explained Dr. Syx, "certain elements, thenature of which I must beg to keep secret, are mixed with the ore,causing chemical action which results in the extraction of themetal. Now let me show you pure artemisium issuing from the furnace."
He led the visitors through two apartments into a third, one side ofwhich was walled by the front of a furnace. From this projected two orthree small spouts, and iridescent streams of molten metal fell fromthe spouts into earthen receptacles from which the blazing liquid wasled, like flowing iron, into a system of molds, where it was allowedto cool and harden.
The financiers looked on wondering, and their astonishment grew whenthey were conducted into the rock-cut store-rooms beneath, where theysaw 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 aman could reach. A very brief inspection sufficed to convince thevisitors that Dr. Syx was able to perform all that he promised.Although they had not penetrated the secret of his process of reducingthe ore, yet they had seen the metal flowing from the furnace, and thepiles of ingots proved conclusively that he had uttered no vain boastwhen he said he could give the world a new coinage.
But President Boon, being himself a metallurgist, desired to inspectthe mysterious ore a little more closely. Possibly he was thinkingthat if another mine was destined to be discovered he might as well bethe discoverer as anybody. Dr. Syx attempted no concealment, but hissmile became more than usually scornful as he stopped a laden car andinvited the visitors to help themselves.
"I think," he said, "that I have struck the only lode of this ore inthe Teton, or possibly in this part of the world, but I don't know forcertain. There may be plenty of it only waiting to be found. That,however, doesn't trouble me. The great point is that nobody exceptmyself knows how to extract the metal."
Mr. Boon closely examined the chunk of rock which he had taken fromthe car. Then he pulled a lens from his pocket, with a deprecatoryglance at Dr. Syx.
"Oh, that's all right," said the latter, with a laugh, the first thatthese gentlemen had ever heard from his lips, and it almost made themshudder; "put it to every test, examine it with the microscope, withfire, with electricity, with the spectroscope--in every way you canthink of! I assure you it is worth your while!"
Again Dr. Syx uttered his freezing laugh, passing into the familiarsmile, which had now become an undisguised mock.
"Upon my word," said Mr. Boon, taking his eye from the lens, "I see nosign of any metal here!"
"Look at the green specks!" cried the doctor, snatching the specimenfrom the president's hand. "That's it! That's artemisium! But it's ofno use unless you can get it out and purify it, which is my secret!"
For the third time Dr. Syx laughed, and his merriment affected thevisitors so disagreeably that they showed impatience to begone. Immediately he changed his manner.
"Come into my office," he said, with a return to the graciousnesswhich had characterized him ever since the party started from NewYork.
When they were all seated, and the doctor had handed round a box ofcigars, he resumed the conversation in his most amiable manner.
"You see, gentlemen," he said, turning a piece of ore in his fingers,"artemisium is like aluminum. It can only be obtained in the metallicform by a special process. While these greenish particles, which youmay perhaps mistake for chrysolite, or some similar unisilicate,really contain the precious metal, they are not entirely composed ofit. The process by which I separate out the metallic element while theore is passing through the furnace is, in truth, quite simple, and itsvery simplicity guards my secret. Make your minds easy as toover-production. A man is as likely to jump over the moon as to findme out."
"But," he continued, again changing his manner, "we have hadbusiness enough for one day; now for a little recreation." Whilespeaking the doctor pressed a button on his desk, and the room, whichwas illuminated by electric lamps--for there were no windows in thebuilding--suddenly became dark, except part of one wall, where a broadarea of light appeared. Dr. Syx's voice had become very soothing whennext he spoke: "I am fond of amusing myself with a peculiar form ofthe magic-lantern, which I invented some years ago, and which I havenever exhibited except for the entertainment of my friends. Thepictures will appear upon the wall, the apparatus being concealed."
He had hardly ceased speaking when the illuminated space seemed tomelt away, leaving a great opening, through which the spectatorslooked as if into another world on the opposite side of the wall. Fora minute or two they could not clearly discern what was presented;then, gradually, the flitting scenes and figures became more distinctuntil the lifelikeness of the spectacle absorbed their wholeattention.
Before them passed, in panoramic review, a sunny land, filled withbrilliant-hued vegetation, and dotted with villages and cities whichwere bright with light-colored buildings. People appeared movingthrough the scenes, as in a cinematograph exhibition, but withinfinitely more semblance of reality. In fact, the pictures, blendingone into another, seemed to be life itself. Yet it was not anearth-like scene. The colors of the passing landscape were such as noman in the room had ever beheld; and the people, tall, round-limbed,with florid complexion, golden hair, and brilliant eyes and lips, wereindescribably beautiful and graceful in all their movements.
From the land the view passed out to sea, and bright blue waves, edgedwith creaming foam, ran swiftly under the spectator's eyes, andoccasionally, driven before light winds, appeared fleets of daintilyshaped vessels, which reminded the beholder, by their flashing wings,of the feigned "ship of pearl."
After the fairy ships and breezy sea views came a long, curving lineof coast, brilliant with coral sands, and indented by frequent bays,along whose enchanting shores lay pleasant towns, the landscapesbehind them splendid with groves, meadows, and streams.
Presently the shifting photographic tape, or whatever the mechanismmay have been, appeared to have settled upon a chosen scene, and thereit rested. A broad champaign reached away to distant sapphiremountains, while the foreground was occupied by a magnificent house,resembling a large country villa, fronted with a garden, shaded bybowers and festoons of huge, brilliant flowers. Birds of radiantplumage flitted among the trees and blossoms, and then appeared acompany of gayly attired people, including many young girls, whojoined hands and danced in a ring, apparently with shouts of laughter,while a group of musicians standing near thrummed and blew uponcuriously shaped instruments.
Suddenly the shadow of a dense cloud flitted across the scene;whereupon the brilliant birds f
lew away with screams of terror whichalmost seemed to reach the ears of the onlookers through the wall. Anexpression of horror came over the faces of the people. The childrenbroke from their merry circle and ran for protection to theirelders. The utmost confusing and whelming terror were evidenced for amoment--then the ground split asunder, and the house and the garden,with all their living occupants were swallowed by an awful chasm whichopened just where they had stood. The great rent ran in a wideningline across the sunlit landscape until it reached the horizon, whenthe distant mountains crumbled, clouds poured in from all sides atonce, and billows of flame burst through them as they veiled thescene.
But in another instant the commotion was over, and the world whosecurious spectacles had been enacted as if on the other side of awindow, seemed to retreat swiftly into space, until at last, emergingfrom a fleecy cloud, it reappeared in the form of the full moonhanging in the sky, but larger than is its wont, with its dryocean-beds, its keen-spired peaks, its ragged mountain ranges, itsgaping chasms, its immense crater rings, and Tycho, the chief of themall, shooting raylike streaks across the scarred face of the abandonedlunar globe. The show was ended, and Dr. Syx, turning on only apartial illumination in the room, rose slowly to his feet, his tallform appearing strangely magnified in the gloom, and invited hisbewildered guests to accompany him to his house, outside the mill,where he said dinner awaited them. As they emerged into daylight theyacted like persons just aroused from an opiate dream.