THE GREAT CUBE
A cube of solid, polished steel, some twenty feet square, set on a
spreading base of concrete, and divided perpendicularly down the
middle into Titanic halves, these being snugly fitted one to the
other by a series of triangular corrugations, a variation of the
familiar tongue and groove. Interlacing the ponderous mass, from
corner to corner, were huge steel bolts, and the hulking heads of
more bolts, some forty on each of the four sides, showed that the
whole might be split into halves at will, and readily made whole
again, one enormous side sliding back and forth on a short track.
In the two undivided faces of the cube, relatively squaring the
center, were four borings somewhat smaller in diameter than an
ordinary pencil, and extending through; and directly in the center
was focused a network of insulated wires which dropped down out of
the gloom overhead. In the other two sides of the great cube, just
where the dividing lines of the halves came, were the funnel-like
mouths of a two-inch boring. This, too, extended straight through.
Directly opposite each of the two mouths, a dozen feet away, was
mounted a peculiarly-constructed heavy gun of the naval type. In a
general sort of way these were not unlike twelve-inch ordnance, but
the breech was much larger in proportion, the barrel longer, and the
bore only two instead of twelve inches. The mountings were high, and
the adjustment so delicate that, looking into the open breech of one
gun, the bore through the twenty-foot cube and through the barrel of
the gun on the other side seemed to be continuous.
"This is the diamond-making machine, gentlemen," said Mr. Wynne, and
he indicated to Mr. Latham, Mr. Schultze and Mr. Czenki the cube and
the two guns. "It is perfectly simple in construction, has enormous
powers of resistance, as you may guess, and is as delicately fitted
as a watch, being regulated by electric power. This cube is the
solution of the high-pressure, high-temperature problem, which was
only one of the many seemingly insuperable obstacles to be overcome.
When the bolts are withdrawn one half slides back; when the bolts are
in position it is as solid as if it were in one piece, and perfectly
able to withstand a force greater than the ingenuity of man has ever
before been able to contrive. This force is a combination of a heat
one-half that of the sun on its surface, and a head-on impact of two
one-hundred-pound projectiles fired less than forty feet apart with
an enormous charge of cordite, and possessing an initial velocity
greater than was ever recorded in gunnery.
"This vast force centers in a sort of furnace in the middle of the
cube. The furnace is round, about three feet long and three feet in
diameter, built of half a dozen fire-resisting substances in layers,
perforated for electric wires, with an opening through it lengthwise
of the exact size of the borings in the guns and in the cube. It fits
snugly into a receptacle cut out for it in the center of the cube, and
is intended to protect the steel of the cube proper from the intense
heat. This heat reaches the furnace by electric wires which enter the
cube from the sides, as you see, being brought here by a conduit along
the river-bed from a large power-plant five miles away. Twenty-eight
large wires are necessary to bring it; I own the power-plant,
ostensibly for the operation of a small sugar refinery. I may add
that the furnace is a variation of the principle employed by Professor
Moissan, in Paris." He turned to Mr. Czenki. "You may remember
having heard me mention him?"
"I remember," the expert acquiesced grimly.
"Now, pure carbon is vaporized, as you perhaps know, at a fraction
less than five thousand degrees Fahrenheit," Mr. Wynne continued. "A
carbon not merely chemically pure but _absolutely_ pure, in highly
compressed disks, is packed in the furnace, the furnace placed within
the cube, the ends of the two-inch opening in the furnace being
blocked to prevent expansion, the cube closed, the bolts fastened, and
heat applied, for several minutes--a heat, gentlemen, of five thousand
two hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit. The heat of the sun is
only about ten thousand degrees. And then the pressure of about
seven thousand tons to the square inch is added by means of the two
guns. In other words, gentlemen, pure carbon, vaporized, is caught
between two projectiles which enter the cube simultaneously from
opposite sides, being fired by electricity. The impact is so terrific
that what had been two feet of compressed carbon is instantly
condensed into an irregular disk, one inch or an inch and a half
thick. _And that disk, gentlemen, is a diamond!_
"The violence of the operation, coupled with the intense heat, fuses
everything--furnace, projectiles, electric wires, fire-brick, even
asbestos, into a single mass. The cube is opened, and this mass,
white-hot, is dropped into cold water. This increases the pressure
until the mass is cool. Then it is broken away, and in the center is
a diamond--as big as a biscuit, gentlemen! Four small bores lead
from the two-inch bore through the cube, and permit the escape of air
as the projectiles enter. There is no rebound because the elastic
quality of the carbon is crushed out of existence--driven, I may say,
into the diamond itself. Of course the furnace, the two projectiles
and the connecting electric wires are all destroyed at each charge,
which brings the total cost of the operation to a little more than
eight hundred dollars, including nearly three tons of brown sugar.
The diamond resulting is worth at least a million when broken up for
cutting, sometimes even two millions. That is all, I think."
There was a long, awed silence. Mr. Latham, leaning against the
giant cube, stared thoughtfully at his toes; Mr. Schultze was peering
curiously about him, thence off into the gloom; Mr. Czenki still had
a question.
"I understand that all the diamonds were made in that disk-like
shape," he remarked at last. "Then the uncut stones that were stolen
were--"
"They were natural stones," interrupted Mr. Wynne, "imported for
purposes of study and experiment. I told Chief Arkwright the truth,
but not all of it. In the last twenty years Mr. Kellner had
destroyed some twenty thousand dollars' worth of diamonds in this
way. I may add that while Mr. Kellner had succeeded in making
diamonds of large size he had never made a perfect one until eight
years ago. But meanwhile the expenses of the work, as you will
understand, were enormous, so during the past eight years about a
million dollars' worth of diamonds have been sold, one or two at a
time, to meet this expense."
He paused a moment, then resumed musingly:
"All this, you understand, is not the work of a day Mr. Kellner was
nearly eighty-one years old, and it was fifty-eight years ago that
he began work here. The cubes there were made and placed in position
thirty years ago; the guns have been there for twenty-eight years--
so long, in fact, that recollection of them has passed from the minds
of the men who made them. And, until four years ago, he was assisted
by his son, Miss Kellner's father, and her brother. There was some
explosion in this chamber where we stand which killed them both, and
since then he has worked alone. His son--Miss Kellner's father--was
the inventor of the machine which has enabled us to cut all the
stones I showed you. I mailed the application for patent on this
machine to Washington three days ago. It is as intricate as a linotype
and delicate as a chronometer, but it does the work of fifty expert
hand-cutters. Until patent papers are granted I must ask that I be
allowed to protect that."
Mr. Latham turned upon him quickly.
"But you've explained all this to us fully," he exclaimed sharply,
indicating the cube and the guns. "We _could_ duplicate that if we
liked."
"Yes, you could, Mr. Latham," replied Mr. Wynne slowly, "but you
can't duplicate the brain that isolated absolutely pure carbon from
the charred residue of brown sugar. That brain was Mr. Kellner's;
the secret died with him!"
Again there was a long silence, broken at last by Mr. Schultze:
"Dat means no more diamonds can be made undil some one else can make
der pure carbon, ain'd id? Yah! Und dat brings us down to der
question, How many diamonds are made alretty?"
"The diamonds I showed you gentlemen were all that have been cut thus
far," replied Mr. Wynne. "Less than twenty of the disks were used in
making them. There are now some five hundred more of these disks in
existence--roughly a billion dollars' worth--so you see I am prepared
to hold you to my proposition that you buy one hundred million
dollars' worth of them at one-half the carat price you now pay in the
open market."
Mr. Latham passed one hand across a brow bedewed with perspiration,
and stared helplessly at the German.
"The work of cutting could go on steadily here, under the direction of
Mr. Czenki," Mr. Wynne resumed after a moment. "The secrecy of this
place has not been violated for forty years. We are now one hundred
and seventy feet below ground level, in a gallery of the abandoned
coal mine which gave Coaldale its name, reached underground from the
cellar in the cottage. Roofs and walls of the entire place are shored
up to insure safety, and heavy felts make this chamber sound-proof,
smothering even the detonation of the guns. Mr. Czenki is the man
to do the work. Mr. Kellner, for ten years, held him to be the first
expert in the world, and it would be carrying out his wishes if Mr.
Czenki would agree. If _he_ does not _I_ shall undertake it, _and
flood the market!_" His voice hardened a little. "And, gentlemen,
call off your detectives. The secret is now more yours than mine.
It destroys _you_ if it becomes known, not _me!_ The New York police
have turned this end of the investigation over to the local police,
and they are fools; all the forms have been complied with, so this
place is safe. Now call off your men! On the day the last diamond
is delivered to you, and the payment of one hundred million dollars
is completed, everything here will be destroyed. That's all!"
"One hundred million dollars!" repeated Mr. Latham. "Even if we
accept the proposition, Schultze, how can we raise that enormous sum
within a year, and preserve the secret?"
"Id ain'd a question of _can_, Laadham--id's a question of _musd_,"
was the reply. He thoughtfully regarded Mr. Wynne. "Id's only
Sunday nighd, yed; we haf undil Thursday to answer, you remember."
He turned to Mr. Latham, with a recurrence of whimsical philosophy.
"Think of id, Laadham, der alchemisds tried for dhree thousand years
to make a piece of gold so big as a needle-point und didn'd; und he
made diamonds so big as your fist mit a liddle cordide und some
elecdricity! _Mein Gott_, man! Think of id!"
The jewelers accepted Mr. Wynne's proposition. Mr. Wynne bowed his
thanks, and handed to Mr. Czenki a scientific periodical opened at a
page which bore a head-line:
Newly Discovered Property of Radium.
Diamonds, Rubies, Emeralds and Sapphires
Changed in Color by Exposure of One
Month to Radium.
For the fourth time Red Haney underwent the "third degree." It
culminated in a full confession of the murder of Mr. Kellner. There
had been no accomplice.
"Yer see, Chief," he explained apologetically, "you an' that other
guy" (meaning Mr. Birnes) "was so dead set on sayin' there was
somebody else in it, an' was so ready wit' yer descriptions, that it
looked good to me, an' I said 'Sure,' but _I_ done it."