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.
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