Page:The Steel Flea.djvu/38

 trifle is this? and why did my brother preserve it so carefully?"

The courtiers wanted to fling it away, but the Emperor said: "No, this has some meaning."

They summoned a chemist from the apothecary's shop at the Anitchkoff Bridge, who was accustomed to weigh out poisons on the tiniest of scales, and showed it to him; and he immediately took the flea, and placed it on his tongue, and said: "I feel a chill, as from some strong metal." And then he bit it gently with his teeth, and announced: "You may say what you please, this is not a real flea, but a nymfozoria, and 'tis made of metal, and the work is not ours, not Russian."

The Emperor ordered that they should instantly find out whence came this thing, and what was the meaning of it.

They flew to look in the archives and