“ ‘I have just been watching a most interesting experiment with some blue cheese-mould,’ he told me, ‘and I quite forgot the time. Now, what is it you gentlemen want to see?’ ”
For the first time a very faint smile flickered on Mr. Blackton’s lips, but he said nothing.
“I told him,” continued Sir Raymond, “and we at once adjourned to the laboratory. We had most of us attended similar demonstrations before, and we expected to find the usual apparatus of a mould and a furnace. Nothing of the sort, however, could we see. There was an electric furnace: a sort of bowl made of some opaque material, and a variety of chemical salts in bottles.
“ ‘You will forgive me, gentlemen,’ he remarked, ‘if I don’t give you my process in detail. I don’t want to run any risk of my discovery leaking out before I address the Royal Society.’
“He beamed at us through his spectacles; and—serious though it was—I really could not help smiling. That he should make such a remark to us of all people!
“ ‘You are, of course, at liberty to examine everything that I put into this retort,’ he went on, ‘and the retort itself.’
“He was fumbling in his pocket as he spoke, and he finally produced two or three dirty sheets of paper, at which he peered.
“ ‘Dear me!’ he exclaimed, ‘I’ve got the wrong notes. These are the ones about my new albumen food for infants and adults. Where can I have left them?’
“ ‘I hope,’ I remarked as calmly as I could, ‘that you haven’t left them lying about where anyone could get at them, Professor.’
“He shook his head vaguely, though his reply was reassuring.
“ ‘No one could understand them even if I had,’ he answered. ‘Ah! here they are.’ With a little cry of triumph he produced some even dirtier scraps which he laid on the desk in front of him.
“ ‘I have to refer to my notes,’ he said, ‘as the process—though the essence of simplicity, once the correct mixture of the ingredients is obtained—is a difficult one to remember. There are no fewer than thirty-nine salts used in the operation. Now would you gentlemen come closer, so that you can see everything I do?’
“He produced a balance which he proceeded to adjust with mathematical precision, while we crowded round as close as we could.
“ ‘While I think of it,’ he said, looking up suddenly, ‘is there any particular colour you would like me to make?’
“ ‘Rose pink,’ grunted someone, and he nodded.
“ ‘Certainly,’ he answered. ‘That will necessitate the addition of a somewhat rare strontium salt—making forty in all.’
“He beamed at us and then he commenced. To say that we watched him closely would hardly convey our attitude: we watched him without movement, without speech, almost without breathing. He weighed his salts, and he mixed them—and that part of the process took an hour at least.
“Then he took up the bowl and we examined that. It was obviously some form of metal, but that was as far as we could get. And it was empty.
“ ‘Without that retort, gentlemen,’ he remarked, ‘the process would be impossible. There is no secret as to its composition. It is made of a blend of tungsten and osmium, and is the only thing known to science today which could resist the immense heat to which this mixture will be subjected in the electric furnace. Now possibly one of you would like to pour this mixture into the retort, place the retort in the furnace, and shut the furnace doors. Then I will switch on the current.’
“I personally did what he suggested, Mr. Blackton. I poured the mixture of fine powders into the empty bowl; I placed the bowl into the furnace, having first examined the furnace; and then I closed the doors. And I knew, and every man there knew, that there had been no suspicion of fraud. Then he switched on the current, and we sat down to wait.
“Gradually the heat grew intense—but no one thought of moving. At first the Professor rambled on, but I doubt if anyone paid any attention to him. Amongst other things he told us that from the very start of his experiments he had worked on different lines from the usual ones, which consisted of dissolving carbon in molten iron and then cooling the mass suddenly with cold water.
“ ‘That sets up gigantic pressure,’ he remarked, ‘but it is too quick. Only small stones are the result. My process was arrived at by totally different methods, as you see.’
“The sweat poured off us, and still we sat there silent—each of us busy with his own thoughts. I think even then we realised that there was no hope; we knew that his claims were justified. But we had to see it through, and make sure. The Professor was absorbed in some profound calculations on his new albumen food; the furnace glowed white in the corner; and, Mr. Blackton, men worth tens of millions sat and dripped with perspiration in order to make definitely certain that they were not worth as many farthings.
“I suppose it was about two hours later that the Professor, having looked at his watch, rose and switched off the current.
“ ‘In about an hour, gentlemen,’ he remarked, ‘the retort will be cool enough to take out. I suggest that you should take it with you, and having cut out the clinker you should carry out your own tests on it. Inside that clinker will be your rose-pink diamond—uncut, of course. I make you a present of it: all I ask is that you should return me my retort.’
“He blinked at us through his spectacles.
“ ‘You will forgive me if I leave you now, but I have to deliver my address to some students on the catalytic influence of chromous chloride. I fear I am already an hour and a half late, but that is nothing
