Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/57

Rh The Secret of Producing Artemisium. Becomes Public Property ■<jOON after came a report that Dr. Syx had in seen again ; this time at Ekaterinburg, in ' the Urals. Next he was said to have paid a visit to Batang, in the mountainous district of southwestern China, and finally, according to ru- mor, he was seen in Sicily, at Nicolosi, among the volcanic pimples on the southern slope of Mount Etna. Next followed something of more curious and even startling interest. A chemist at Budapest, where the first rumors of Syx's reappearance had placed the mysterious doctor, announced that he could pro- duce artemisium, and proved it, although he kept his process secret. ' Hardly had the sensation caused by this news partially subsided when p similar report arrived from Ekaterinburg ; then another from Ba- tang; after that a fourth from Nicolosi! Nobody could fail to notice the coincidence; wherever the doctor— or was it his ghost? — appear- ed, there, shortly afterwards, somebody discovered the much-sought secret. After Syx's apparitions rapidly increased in fre- quency, followed in each instance by the announce- ment of another productive artemisium mill. He appeared in Germany, Italy, France, England, and finally at many places in the United States. "It is the old doctor's revenge," said Hall to me . one day, trying to smile, although the matter was too serious to be taken humorously. "Yes, it is his revenge, and I must admit that it is complete. The price of artemisium has fallen one-half 1 within six months. All the efforts we have made to hold back the floor have proved useless. The secret itself is becoming public property. We shall inevitably be overwhelmed with artemisium, just as we were with gold, and the last condition of the financial world will be worse than the first." ... My friend's gloomy prognostications came near being fulfilled to the letter. Ten thousand artemisi- um mills shot their etherie rays upon the moon, and our unfortunate satellite's metal ribs were stripped by atomic force. Some of the great white rays that had been one of the telescopic wonders of the lunar landscapes disappeared, and the face of the moon, which had remained unchanged before the eyes of the children of Adam from the beginning of their race, now looked as if the blast of a furnace had swept it. At night, on the moonward side, the earth was studded with brilliant spikes, all pointed at the heart of its child in the sky. But the looting of the moon brought disaster to the robber planet. So mad were the efforts to get the precious metal that the surface of our globe was fairly showered with it, productive fields were, in some cases, almost smothered under a metallic coating, the air was filled with shining dust, until finally famine and pestilence joined hands with fin- ancial disaster to punish the grasping world. Then, at last, the various governments took effec- tive measures to protect themselves and their people. Another combined effort resulted in an interna- tional agreement whereby the production of the precious moon metal was once more rigidly con- trolled. But the existence of a monopoly, such as Dr. Syx had so long enjoyed, and in the enjoyment Ml of which Andrew Hall had for a brief period suc- ceeded him, wa3 henceforth rendered impossible. CHAPTER XII The Last of Dr. Syx ANY years after the events last recorded I sat, at the close of a brilliant autumn day, ride by side with my old friend Andrew Hall, on a broad, vine-shaded piazza which faced the east, where the full moon was just rising above the rim of the Sierra, and replacing the rosy coun- ter-glow of sunset with its silvery radiance. The sight was calculated to carry the minds of both back to the events of former years. But I noticed that Hall quickly changed the position of his chair, and sat down again with his back to the rising moon. He had managed to save some .millions from the wreck of his vast fortune when artemisium started to go to the dogs, and I was now paying him one of my annual visits at his palatial home in California. "Did I ever tell you of my last trip to the Teton?" he asked, as I continued to gaze contemplatively at the broad lunar disk which slowly detached itself from the horizon and began to swim in the clear evening sky. "No," I "replied, '-but I should like to hear about it." "Or of my last sight of Dr. Syx?" "Indeed! 1 did not suppose that you ever saw him after that conference in your mill, when he had to surrender half of the world to you." "Once only I saw him again," said Hall, with a peculiar intonation. "Pray go ahead, and tell me the whole story." My friend lighted a fresh cigar, tipped his chair into a more comfortable position, and began: "It was about seven years ago. I had long felt an unconquerable desire to have another look at the Teton and the scenes amid which so many strange events in my life had occurred. I thought of send- ing for you to go with me, but I knew you were abroad much ofiyour time, and I could not be cer- tain of eatehing you. Finally I decided to go alone. I travelled on horseback by way of the Snake River canyon, and arrived early one morning in Jackson's Hole. I can tell you it was a gloomy place, as barren andedeserted as some of those Arabian wadies that you have been describing to me. The railroad had long ago been abandoned, and the site of the mili- tary camp could scarcely be recognized. An immense cavity with ragged walls showed where Dr. Syx's mill used to send up its plume of black smoke. "As I started up the gaunt form of the Teton, whose beetling precipices had been smashed and split by the great explosion, I was seized with a resistless impulse to climb it. I thought I should like to peer off again from that pinnacle wnich had once formed so fateful a watch-tower for me. Turn- ing my horse lgose to graze in the grassy river bot- tom, and carrying my rope tether along as a pos- sible aid in climbing, I set out for the ascent. I knew I could got get up the precipices on the east- ern side, which we were able to master with the aid of our balloon, and so I bore round, when I reached the steepest cliffs, until I was on the south- western side of the peak, where the climbing was easier. (Continued on page 381)