Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/37

The Visitor Himself Enters PRESIDENT Boon recollected himself, and, coloring slightly, placed the card fiat on the table, in order more clearly to see the name. In plain red letters it stood forth with such sur- prising distinctness that Mr. Boon wondered why he had so long overlooked it. "DR. MAX SYX" "Tell the gentleman to come in," said the presi- dent, and thereupon the attendant threw open the door. The owner of the mysterious card fixed every eye as he entered. He was several inches more than six feet in height. H13 complexion was very dark, his eye3 were intensely black, bright, and deep- set, his eyebrows were bushy and up- curled at the ends, his sable hair was close-trimmed, and his ears were narrow, pointed at the top, and promi- nent. He wore black mustaches, covering only half the width of his lip and drawn into projecting needles on each side, while a spiked black beard adorned the middle of his chin. He smiled as he stepped confidently forward, with a courtly bow, hut it was a very disconcerting smile, beeause it more than half resembled a sneer. Tm'3 uncommon person did not wait to be addressed. "I have come to solve your problem," he said, fac- ing President Boon, who had swung round on his pivoted chair. "The metal!" exclaimed everybody in a breath, and with a unanimity and excitement which would have astonished them if they had been spectators in- stead of actors of the scene. The tall stranger -bowed and smiled again: "Just so," he said. "What do you think of it?" "It is beautiful!" Again the reply came from every mouth simultan- eously, and again if the speakers could have been listeners they would have wondered not only at their earnestness, but at their words, for why should they instantly and unanimously pronounce that beautiful which they had not even seen? But every man knew he had seen it, for instinctively their minds reverted to the card and recognized in it the metal referred to. The mesmeric spell seemed onee more to fall upon the assemblage, for the fin- anciers noticed nothing remarkable in the next act of the stranger, which was to take a chair, unin- vited, at the table, and the moment he sat down he became the presiding officer as naturally as if he had just been elected to that post. They all waited for him to speak, and when he opened his mouth they listened with breathless attention. The Visitor's Story HIS words were of the best English, but there was some peculiarity, which they had already noticed, either in his voice or his manner of enunciation, which struck all of the listeners as denoting a foreigner. But none of them could satisfactorily place him. Neither the Americans, . the Englishmen, the Germans, the Frenchmen, the Russians, the Austrians, the Ital- ians, the Spaniards, the Turks, the Japanese, nor the Chinese at the board could decide to what race or nationality the stranger belonged. "This metal," he began, taking the card f-rom Mr. Boon's hand, "I have discovered and named. I call it 'artemisium.' I can produce it, in the pure form, abundantly enough to replace gold/ giving it the same relative value that gold possessed when it was the universal standard." As Dr. Syx spoke he snapped the cord with his thumb-nail and it fluttered with quivering hues like a humming-bird hovering over a flower. He seemed to await a reply, and President Boon asked: "What guarantee can you give that the supply would be adequate and continuous?" "I will conduct a committee of this congress to my mine in the Rocky Mountains, where, in antici- pation of the event, I have accumulated enough re- fined artemisium to provide every civilized land with an amount of coin equivalent to that which it form- erly held in gold. I can there satisfy you of my ability to maintain the production." "But how do we know that this metal of yours will answer the purpose?" "Try it," was the laconic reply. "There is another difficulty," pursued the presi- dent. "People will not accept a new metal in place of gold unless they are convinced that it possesses equal intrinsic value. They must first become famil- iar with it, and it must be abundant enough and de- sirable enough to be used sparingly in the arts, just as gold was." "I have provided for ah" that," said the stranger, with one of his disconcerting smiles. "I assure you that there will be no trouble with the people. They will be only too eager to get and to use the metal. Let me show you." He stepped to the door and immediately returned with two black attendants bearing a large tray filled with articles shaped from the same metal as that of . which the card was composed. The financiers all jumped to their feet with exclamations of surprise and admiration, and gathered around the tray, whose dazzling contents lighted up the corner of the room where it had been placed as if the moon were shining there. The New Metal Artemisium THERE were elegantly formed vases, adorned with artistic figures, embossed and incised, and glowing with delicate colors which shim- mered in tiny waves with the slightest motion of the tray. Cups, pins, finger-rings, earrings, watch- chains, combs, studs, lockets, medals, tableware, models of coins — in brief, almost every article in the fabrication of which precious metals have been em- ployed was to be seen there in profusion, and all . of the strange new metal which everybody the spot declared was far more splendid than "Do you think it will answer?" asked Dr. Syx. "We do," was the unanimous reply. All then resumed their seats at the table, the tray with its magnificent array having been placed in the centre of the board. This display had a remarkable influence. Confidence awoke in the breasts of the financiers. The dark clouds that had oppressed them rolled off, and the prospect grew decidedly brighter. "What terms do you demand?" at length asked Mr. Boon, cheerfully rubbing his hands. /'