The last train was due to leave in
twenty minutes, and I lived a good mile from the station, I thrust a few
things into a bag, locked my laboratory, and ran as hard as I could
to catch it.
"It was not until I was in London that it suddenly occurred to me that I
had neglected to shut off the current, and that it would continue to
pass through the bar of bismuth until the batteries were exhausted.
The fact, however, seemed to be of small importance, and I dismissed it
from my mind. I was detained in London until the Tuesday night, and it
was Wednesday morning before I got back to my work. As I unlocked the
laboratory door my mind reverted to the uncompleted experiment, and it
struck me that in all probability my piece of bismuth would have been
entirely disintegrated and reduced to its primitive molecules. I was
utterly unprepared for the truth.
"When I approached the table I found, sure enough, that the bar of metal
had vanished, and that the clamp was empty. Having noted the fact, I
was about to turn away to something else, when my attention was
attracted to the fact that the table upon which the clamp stood was
starred over with little patches of some liquid silvery matter, which
lay in single drops or coalesced into little pools.
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