With fingers which trembled with excitement I adjusted
the wires again, and in little more than an hour--for the length
of the process was always in proportion to the difference in the
metals--I had before me a knob of ruddy crinkled metal, which answered
to every reaction for gold.
"Well, Robert, this is a long story, but I think that you will agree
with me that its importance justifies me in going into detail. When I
had satisfied myself that I had really manufactured gold I cut the
nugget in two. One half I sent to a jeweller and worker in precious
metals, with whom I had some slight acquaintance, asking him to report
upon the quality of the metal. With the other half I continued my
series of experiments, and reduced it in successive stages through all
the long series of metals, through silver and zinc and manganese, until
I brought it to lithium, which is the lightest of all."
"And what did it turn to then?" asked Robert.
"Then came what to chemists is likely to be the most interesting portion
of my discovery. It turned to a greyish fine powder, which powder gave
no further results, however much I might treat it with electricity.
And that powder is the base of all things; it is the mother of all the
elements; it is, in short, the substance whose existence has been
recently surmised by a leading chemist, and which has been christened
protyle by him.
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