The Moon Metal

  VIII

  MORE OF DR. SYX'S MAGIC

  Important business called me East soon after the meeting with Halldescribed in the foregoing chapter, and before I again saw the GrandTeton very stirring events had taken place.

  As the reader is aware, Dr. Syx's agreement with the variousgovernments limited the output of his mine. An internationalcommission, continually in session in New York, adjusted thedifferences arising among the nations concerning financial affairs,and allotted to each the proper amount of artemisium for coinage. Ofcourse, this amount varied from time to time, but a fair average couldeasily be maintained. The gradual increase of wealth, in houses,machinery, manufactured and artistic products called for acorresponding increase in the circulating medium; but this, too, waseasily provided for. An equally painstaking supervision was exercisedover the amount of the precious metal which Dr. Syx was permitted tosupply to the markets for use in the arts. On this side, also, thedemand gradually increased; but the wonderful Teton mine seemed equalto all calls upon its resources.

  After the failure of the mining operations there was a moderaterevival of the efforts to reduce the Teton ore, but no success cheeredthe experimenters. Prospectors also wandered all over the earthlooking for pure artemisium, but in vain. The general public, knowingnothing of what Hall had discovered, and still believing Syx's storythat he also had found pure artemisium in his mine, accounted for thefailure of the tunnelling operations on the supposition that themetal, in a free state, was excessively rare, and that Dr. Syx had hadthe luck to strike the only vein of it that the Grand Tetoncontained. As if to give countenance to this opinion, Dr. Syx nowannounced, in the most public manner, that he had been deceived again,and that the vein of free metal he had struck being exhausted, noother had appeared. Accordingly, he said, he must henceforth relyexclusively, as in the beginning, upon reduction of the ore.

  Artemisium had proved itself an immense boon to mankind, and the newera of commercial prosperity which it had ushered in already exceededeverything that the world had known in the past. School-childrenlearned that human civilization had taken five great strides, knownrespectively, beginning at the bottom, as the "age of stone," the "ageof bronze," the "age of iron," the "age of gold," and the "age ofartemisium."

  Nevertheless, sources of dissatisfaction finally began to appear, and,after the nature of such things, they developed with marvellousrapidity. 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 thedemonetization of gold as a happy period, when the people had enjoyedtheir rights, and the "money barons"--borrowing a term fromnineteenth-century history--were kept at bay.

  Then came denunciations of the international commission forrestricting the coinage. Dr. Syx was described as "a devil-fishsucking the veins of the planet and holding it helpless in the graspof his tentacular billions." In the United States meetings ofagitators 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 mostdramatic scene in the tragedy occurred at the Grand Teton. Excited byinflammatory speeches and printed documents, several thousand armedmen assembled in the neighborhood of Jenny's Lake and prepared toattack the Syx mine. For some reason the military guard had beendepleted, and the mob, under the leadership of a man named Bings, whoshowed no little talent as a commander and strategist, surprised thesmall force of soldiers and locked them up in their own guard-house.

  Telegraphic communication having been cut off by the astute Bings, afierce attack was made on the mine. The assailants swarmed up thesides of the canyon, and attempted to break in through the foundationof the buildings. But the masonry was stronger than they hadanticipated, and the attack failed. Sharp-shooters then climbed theneighboring heights, and kept up an incessant peppering of the wallswith conical bullets driven at four thousand feet per second.

  No reply came from the gloomy structure. The huge column of blacksmoke rose uninterruptedly into the sky, and the noise of the greatengine never ceased for an instant. The mob gathered closer on allsides and redoubled the fire of the rifles, to which was now added thebelching of several machine-guns. Ragged holes began to appear in thewalls, and at the sight of these the assailants yelled withdelight. It was evident that, the mill could not long withstand sodestructive a bombardment. If the besiegers had possessed artillerythey would have knocked the buildings into splinters within twentyminutes. As it was, they would need a whole day to win their victory.

  Suddenly it became evident that the besieged were about to take a handin 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 armsof some kind of machinery became visible. Many marksmen concentratedtheir fire upon the mysterious objects, but apparently with littleeffect. Bings, mounted on a rock, so as to command a clear view of thefield, was on the point, of ordering a party to rush forward with axesand beat down the formidable doors, when there came a blinding flashfrom the roof, something swished through the air, and a gust of heatmet the assailants in the face. Bings dropped dead from his perch, andthen, as if the scythe of the Destroyer had swung downward, and toright and left in quick succession, the close-packed mob was levelled,rank after rank, until the few survivors crept behind rocks forrefuge.

  Instantly the atmospheric broom swept up and down the canyon andacross the mountain's flanks, and the marksmen fell in bunches likeshaken grapes. Nine-tenths of the besiegers were destroyed within tenminutes after the first movement had been noticed on the roof. Thosewho survived owed their escape to the rocks which concealed them, andthey lost no time in crawling off into neighboring chasms, and, assoon as they were beyond eye-shot from the mill, they fled with panicspeed.

  Then the towering form of Dr. Syx appeared at the door. Emergingwithout sign of fear or excitement, he picked his way among his fallenenemies, and, approaching the military guard-house, undid thefastening and set the imprisoned soldiers free.

  "I think I am paying rather dear for my whistle," he said, with acharacteristic sneer, to Captain Carter, the commander of thetroop. "It seems that I must not only defend my own people andproperty when attacked by mob force, but must also come to the rescueof the soldiers whose pay-rolls are met from my pocket."

  The captain made no reply, and Dr. Syx strode back to the works. Whenthe released soldiers saw what had occurred their amazement had nobounds. It was necessary at once to dispose of the dead, and this wasno easy undertaking for their small force. However, they accomplishedit, and at the beginning of their work made a most surprisingdiscovery.

  "How's this, Jim?" said one of the men to his comrade, as they stoopedto lift the nearest victim of Dr. Syx's withering fire. "What's thisfellow got all over him?"

  "Artemisium! 'pon my soul!" responded "Jim," staring at thebody. "He's all coated over with it."

  Immediately from all sides came similar exclamations. Every man whohad fallen was covered with a film of the precious metal, as if he hadbeen dipped into an electrolytic bath. Clothing seemed to have beencharred, and the metallic atoms had penetrated the flesh of thevictims. The rocks all round the battle-field were similarlyveneered. "It looks to me," said Captain Carter, "as if old Syx hadturned one of his spouts of artemisium into a hose-pipe and soaked 'emwith it."

  "That's it," chimed in a lieutenant, "that's exactly what he's done."

  "Well," returned the captain, "if he can do that, I don't see what usehe's got for us here."

  "Probably he don't want to waste the stuff," said thelieutenant. "What do you suppose it cost him to plate this crowd?"

  "I guess a month's pay for the whole troop wouldn't cover theexpense. It's costly, but then--gracious! Wouldn't I have givensomething for the doctor's hose when I was a youngster campaigning inthe Philippines in '99?"

  The story of
the marvellous way in which Dr. Syx defended his millbecame 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 anelement of the ludicrous which robbed the tragedy of some of itshorror. Moreover, no one could deny that Dr. Syx was well within hisrights in defending himself by any means when so savagely attacked,and his triumphant success, no less than the ingenuity which wassupposed to underlie it, placed him in an heroic light which he hadnot hitherto enjoyed.

  As to the demagogues who were responsible for the outbreak and itsterrible consequences, they slunk out of the public eye, and theresult of the battle at the mine seemed to have been a clearing up ofthe atmosphere, such as a thunderstorm effects at the close of aseason of foul weather.

  But now, little as men guessed it, the beginning of the end was closeat hand.