Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 13.djvu/230

 THE STAR OF THE SOUTH. It was a great day when the experiment was completed. For two weeks the fire had been allowed to die out, so that the apparatus might gradually cool. Cyprien, considering that the crystallization of the carbon ought by now to have been effected, resolved to open the mound which covered the furnace.

This was no easy matter. The pickaxes had all their work to do to cut their way through the baked earth. It had been hardened like a brick. At length it yielded to the attacks of Mataki, and the upper part of the furnace, the capital, so to speak, was visible. Then the whole furnace was revealed to view. * * * *

He was about to leave the spot in despair, when curiosity led him to hold a match at the gap in the tube, so as to examine the interior.—Pages 200, 201. Vol. 13.