Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 04.djvu/41

sunny land, filled with brilliant-hued vegetation, and dotted with villages and cities which were bright with light-colored buildings. People appear- ed moving - through the scenes, as in a cinemeto- graph exhibition, but with infinitely more semblance of reality. In fact, the pictures, blending one into another, seemed to he life itself. Yet it was not an earth-like scene. The colors of the passing land- scape were such as no man in the room had ever beheld; and the people, tall, round-limbed, with florid complexion, golden hair, and brilliant eyes and lips, were indescribably beautiful and graceful in all their movements. Dr. Syx's Movies FROM the land the view passed out to sea, and bright blue waves, edged with creaming foam, ran swiftly under the spectator's eyes, and occasionally, driven before light winds, ap- peared fleets of daintily shaped vessels, which re- minded the beholder, by their flashing wings, of the feigned "ship of pearl." After the fairy ships and breezy sea views came a long, curving line of coast, brilliant with coral sands, and indented by frequent bays, along whose enchanting shores lay pleasant towns, the landscapes behind them splendid with groves, meadows, and streams. Presently the shifting photographic tape, or what- ever the mechanism may have been, appeared to have settled upon a chosen scene, and there it rest- ed. A broad champaign reached away to distant sapphire mountains, while the foreground was oc- cupied by a magnificent house, resembling a large country villa, fronted with a garden, shaded by bowers and festoons of huge, brilliant flowers. Birds of radiant plumage flitted among the trees and blossoms, and then appeared a company of gayly attired people, including many young girls, who joined hands and danced in a ring, apparently with shouts of laughter, while a group of musicians standing near thrummed and blew upon curiously siiaped instruments. End of the Movie Show UDDENLY the shadow of a dense cloud flitted across the scene; whereupon the brilliant birds flew away with screams of terror which almost seemed to reach the ears of the onlookers through the wall. An expression of horror came over the faces of the people. The children broke from their merry circle and ran for protection to their elders. The utmost confusing and whelming terror were evidenced for a moment — then the ground split asunder, and the house and the garden, with all their living occupants were swallowed by an awful chasm which opened just where they had stood. The great rent ran in a widening line across the sunlit landscape until it reached the horizon, when the distant mountains crumbled, clouds poured in from all sides at once, and billows of flame burst through them as they veiled the scene. But in another instant the commotion wa3 over, and the world whose curious spectacles had been enacted as if on the other side of a window, seemed to retreat swiftly into space, until at last, emerging from a fleecy cloud, it reappeared in the form of the full moon hanging in the sky, but larger than is its s wont, with its dry ocean-beds, its keen-spired peaks, its ragged mountain ranges, its gaping chasms, its immense crater rings, and Tycho,. the chief of them all, shooting raylike streaks across the scarred face of the abandoned lunar globe. The show was ended, and Dr. Syx, turning on only a partial illumination in the room, rose slowly to his feet, his tall form appearing strangely mag- nified in the gloom, and invited his bewildered guests to accompany him to his house, outside the mill, where he said dinner awaited them. As they emerged into daylight they acted like persons just aroused from an opiate dream, CHAPTER IV Wonders of the New Metal. WITHIN a twelvemonth after the visit of President Boon and his fellow-financiers to the mine in the Grand Teton a railway had been constructed from Jackson's Hole, connecting with one of the Pacific lines, and the distribution of the new metal wa3 begun. All of Dr. Syx's terms had been accepted. United States troops occupied a permanent encampment on the upper waters of the Snake River, to afford protection, and as the con- signments of precious ingots were hurried east and west on guarded trains, the mints all over the world resumed their activity. Once more a common mon- etary standard prevailed, and commerce revived as if touched by a magic wand. Arteraisium quickly won its way in popular favor. Its matchless beauty alone was enough. Not only was it gladly accepted in the form of money, but its success was instantaneous in the arts. Dr. Syx and the inspectors representing the various nations found it difficult to limit the output to the agreed- upon amount. The demand was incessant. Goldsmiths and jewellers continually discovered new excellencies in the wonderful metal. Its prop- erties of translueence and refraction enabled skilful artists to perform marvels. By suitable manage- ment a chain of artemisium could be made to re- semble a string of vari-colored gems, each separate link having a tint of its own, while, as the wearer moved, delicate complementary colors chased one another, in rapid undulation, from end to end. A fresh charm was added by the new metal to the personal adornment of women, and an enhanced splendor to the pageants of society. Gold in its palmiest days had never enjoyed such a vogue. A crowded reception-room or a dinner-party where artemisium abounded possessed an indescribable at- mosphere of luxury and richness, refined in quality, yet captivating to every sense. Imaginative persons went so far as to aver that the sight and presence of the metal exercised a strangely soothing and dreamy power over the mind, like the influence of moonlight streaming through the tree-tops on a still, balmly night. The public curiosity in regard to the origin of artemisium was boundless. The various nations published official bulletins in which the general facts — omitting, of course, such incidents as the singular exhibition seen by the visiting financiers on the wall of Dr. Syx's office — were detailed to gratify the universal desire for information. President Boon not only submitted the specimens