Produced by Suzanne L. Shell, Joris Van Dael, and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE MOON METAL
By Garrett P. Serviss
CONTENTS
I. SOUTH POLAR GOLD
II. THE MAGICIAN OF SCIENCE
III. THE GRAND TETON MINE
IV. THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD
V. WONDERS OF THE NEW METAL
VI. A STRANGE DISCOVERY
VII. A MYSTERY INDEED!
VIII. MORE OF DR. SYX'S MAGIC
IX. THE DETECTIVE OF SCIENCE
X. THE TOP OF THE GRAND TETON
XI. STRANGE FATE OF A KITE
XII. BETTER THAN ALCHEMY
XIII. THE LOOTING OF THE MOON
XIV. THE LAST OF DR. SYX
THE MOON METAL
I
SOUTH POLAR GOLD
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:
"A seam of gold which can be cut with a knife has been found within
ten miles of the south pole."
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.
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.
In a little while several additional reports came, some via New
Zealand, others via 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.
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.
Let me briefly depict the situation.
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.
Upon this peaceful scene the south polar gold discoveries burst like
an unheralded tempest.
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.
"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!"
"You think it so bad, then?" I asked. "But most people will not agree
with you. They will regard it as very good news."
"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?"
"It does indeed look serious," I assented.
"Serious! I tell you, it is the deluge!"
Thereat he clapped on his hat and hurried across the street to the
office of another celebrated banker.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
At this paralyzing crisis a most unexpected event suddenly opened the
way.
II
THE MAGICIAN OF SCIENCE
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"What can it be?" was repeated from lip to lip.
"Did you ever see anything like it?" asked Mr. Boon for the twentieth
time.
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:
"It must be the metal!"
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.
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.
"DR. MAX SYX."
"Tell the gentleman to come in," said the president, and thereupon the
attendant threw open the door.
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.
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.
"I have come to solve your problem," he said, facing President Boon,
who had swung round on his pivoted chair.
"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:
"Just so," he said. "What do you think of it?"
"It is beautiful!"
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.
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.
"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."
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:
"What guarantee can you give that the supply would be adequate and
continuous?"
"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."
"But how do we know that this metal of yours will answer the purpose?"
"Try it," was the laconic reply.
"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."
"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."
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.
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.
"Do you think it will answer?" asked Dr. Syx.
"We do," was the unanimous reply.
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.
"What terms do you demand?" at length asked Mr. Boon, cheerfully
rubbing his hands.
"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."
"But," exclaimed President Boon, "that will make you the richest man
who ever lived!"
"Undoubtedly," was the reply.
"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!"
"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."
A shadow of doubt suddenly crossed the president's face.
"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?"
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.
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.
"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?"
President Boon found voice to reply, stammeringly:
"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?"
"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?"
"Can we not have time for deliberation?" asked President Boon.
"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."
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.
III
THE GRAND TETON MINE
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.
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.
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.
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 detour 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.
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.
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.
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.
"There is my mill, and the mine is underneath it."
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.
"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."
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.
"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."
"And with their aid you have mined enough metal to supply the mints of
the world?" asked President Boon.
"Exactly so," was the reply. "But I no longer employ the large force
which I needed at first."
"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."
"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."
"And you have dared to collect such inconceivable wealth in one
place?"
"You forget that it is not wealth until the people have learned to
value it, and the governments have put their stamp upon it."
"True, but how did you arrive at the proper moment?"
"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."
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.
IV
THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD
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.
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.
"This tunnel," said Dr. Syx, "leads to the mine head, where the
ore-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, 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."
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.
"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."
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.
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.
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.
"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."
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.
"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!"
Again Dr. Syx uttered his freezing laugh, passing into the familiar
smile, which had now become an undisguised mock.
"Upon my word," said Mr. Boon, taking his eye from the lens, "I see no
sign of any metal here!"
"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!"
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.
"Come into my office," he said, with a return to the graciousness
which had characterized him ever since the party started from New
York.
When they were all seated, and the doctor had handed round a box of
cigars, 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 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."
"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."
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
V
WONDERS OF THE NEW METAL
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"It outcrops in many places," ran the despatch, "and many small
nuggets have been picked out of crevices in the rocks."
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.
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.
"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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
VI
A STRANGE DISCOVERY
"It is my belief that Dr. Max Syx is a deceiver."
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.
"What do you mean by that?" asked President Boon, who was the
principal backer of the enterprise.
"I mean," replied Hall, "that there is no free metal in this mountain,
and Dr. Syx knows there is none."
"But he is getting it himself from his mine," retorted President Boon.
"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."
"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?"
"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."
"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."
"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."
"Certainly," replied Mr. Boon; "bore in whatever direction you think
proper, only don't despair."
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.
"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."
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.