and -the marksmen fell in bunches like shaken
grapes. Nine-tenths of the besiegers were destroyed
within ten minutes after the first movement had
been noticed on the roof. Those who survived owed
their escape to the rocks which concealed them, and
they lost no time in crawling oif into neighboring
chasms, and, as soon as they were beyond eye?shot
from the mill, they fled with panic speed.
Then the towering form of Dr. Syx appeared at
the door. Emerging without sign of fear or excite-
ment, he picked his way among his fallen enemies,
and, approaching the military guard-house, undid
the fastening and set the imprisoned soldiers free.
"I think I am paying rather dear for my whistle,"
he said, with a characteristic sneer, to Captain
Carter, the commander of the troop. "It seems that
I must not only defend my own people and property
when attacked by mob force, but must also come to
the rescue of the soldiers whose pay-rolls are met
from my pocket-"
The captain made no reply, and Dr. Syx strode
back to the works. When the released soldiers saw
what had occurred their amazement had no bounds.
It was necessary at once to dispose of the dead, and
this was no easy undertaking for their small force.
However, they accomplished it, and at the begin-
ning of their work made a most surprising discov-
ery.
"How's thie, Jim?" said one of the men te his
comrade, as they stooped to lift the nearest victim
of Dr. Syx's withering fire, "What's this fellow got
all over him?"
"Artemisium! 'pon ray soul!" responded Jim,
staring at the body. "He's all coated over with it."
—v, End of the Riot
IMMEDIATELY from all sides came similar
exclamations. Every man who had fallen was
covered with a film of the precious metal, as if
he had been dipped into an electrolytic bath. Clothe
ing seemed to have been charred, and the metallic
atoms had penetrated the flesh of the victims. The
rpcks all around the battle-field were similarly ve-
neered.
"It looks to me," said Captain Carter, "as if old
Syx had turned one of his spouts of artemisium into
a hose-pipa and soaked 'em with it."
"That's it," chimed in a lieutenant, "that's ex-
actly what he's done."
"Well," returned the captain, "if he can do that,
I don't see what use he's got for us here."
"Probably he don't want to waste the stuff," said
the lieutenant. "What do you suppose- it cost kjm
to plate this crowd?"
"I guess a month's pay for the whole troop
wouldn't cover the expense. It's costly^ but then— z
gracious ! Wouldn't I have given something- for the
doctor's hose when I was a youngster campaigning
in the Philippines in '09?"
The stpry of the marvellous way in which Dr.
Syx defended his mill became the sensation of the
world for many days. The hose-pipe theory, struqk
off on the spot by Captain Carter, seized the popu-
lar fancy, and. was generally accepted without fur-
ther question. There was an element of the ludicrous
which robbed the tragedy of some of its horror.
jjoreover, no one could deny that Dr. Syx was well
within his rights in defending himself by ang
means when so savagely attacked, and his triumph-- .
ant success, no less than the ingenuity which was
supposed to underlie it, placed him in an heroic
light which he had not hitherto enjoyed.
As to the demagogues who were responsible for
the outbreak and its terrible consequences, they
slunk out of the public eye, and the result of the
battle at the mine seemed to have been a clearing up
of the atmosphere, such as a thunderstorm effects
at the close of a season of foul weather.
But now, little as men guessed it, the beginning
of the end was close at hand.
CHAPTER VIII
The Ppteetiye of Science
THE morning of my arrival at Grand Teton
station, on my return from the East, An-
drew Hall met me with a warm greeting.
"I have been anxiously expecting you," he said,
for I have made some progress towards solving
the great mystery. I have not yet reached a con-
clusion, but I hope soon to let you into the entire
secret. In the meantime you can aid me with your
eompanionship, if in no other'way, for, since the
defeat of the mob, this place has been mighty lone-
some. The Grand Teton is a spot that people who
have no particular business out here carefully
avoid. I am on speaking terms with Dr. Syx, and
occasionally, when there is a party to be shown
around, I visit his works, and make the best pos-
sible use of my eyes. Captain Carter of the military
is a capital fellow, and I like to hear his stories of
the war in Luzon forty years ago, but I want some-
body to whom I can occasionally confide things, and'
sq you are as welcome as moonlight in harvest-
time."
"Tell me something about that wonderful fight
with the meb. Did you see it?"
"I did. I had got wind of what Bings intended to
do while I was down at Pocotello, and I hurried up
here to warn the soldiers, but unfortunately I came
too late. Finding the military cooped up in the
guard-house and the mab masters of the situation,
I kept out of sight on the side of the Teton, and
watched the siege with my binocular. I think there
was very little of the spectacle that I missed."
"What of the mysterious force that the doctor
employed to sweep off the assailants?"
"Of course, Captain Carter's suggestion that Syx
turned molten artemisium from his furnace into a
hose-pipe and sprayed the enemy with it is ridicu-
lous. But it is much easier to dismiss Carter's
theory than to substitute a better one. I saw the
doctor on the roof with a gang of black workmen,
and I noticed thfi flash of polished metal turned
rapidly this way and that, but there was some in-
tervening obstacle which prevented me from getting
a good view of the mechanism employed. It cer-
tainly bore ne resemblance to a hose^pipe, or any-.
thing of that kind. Mo emanation was visible from
the maehine, but it was stupefying to see the mob
melt down."
"How about the coating of the bodies with arte*
misium?"
"There you are back on the hose-pipe again,"
laughed Hall. "But, to tell you the truth, I'd rather
be excused from expressing an opinion.on that op-
Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/47
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THE MOON METAL
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