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