The Wreck of the South Pole and Other Strange Tales — page 88: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Indestructible Story. 81 used in such a crazy scheme. He first looked for some substance that could not be destroyed by fire, and this he found in asbestos, but it would not do, as it could be pulled to pieces too easily. Still, Landstreet saw that it would make a good foundation to work upon, and began looking around for some ingredient to mix with it. The next I heard of him he had bee: consulting a chemist, and when we met he said he had found what he wanted. It was aluminum. At that time this substance was worth only about $10 a pound, and for a couple of dollars he . secured enough for experimenting. It is the most in- destructible thing in the world, as you all know. You can pull it and twist it, but it will not tear or break; and it requires great heat to melt it. Well, Landstreet melted it, mixed it with a lot of asbestos, and then rolled the mass out into a thin sheet. It was about as nearly in- destructible as anything you could find. It would roll and bend, but the asbestos kept it from stretching and from melting, except under the hottest of fires. “One would have thought that his work was done now, but Landstreet was not satisfied. The idea came to him, perhaps, that some villainous editor of the twentieth cen- tury, who might come across his indestructible story, could make short work of it with a pair of office shears; for, as yet, his paper could be cut. Oh, how he hated an editor and a pair of shears and a blue pencil! I don’t know what he did, what he used, but he _inti- mated that it was largely a composition of dia- mond dust. But, whatever he hit upon, it was a Connicloool SS (E©)