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 conclusion, but I hope soon to let you into the entire secret. In the meantime you can aid me with your companionship, 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-
