The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 74: what you’re looking at

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

THE GOLD DELUGE, Astounding consequences arising from the discovery of a chemist—Terror of the governments to whom unlimited gold meant destruction—T he extraordinary lengths 7 to which Erik Poulsen was driven to maintain his independence, CHAPTER I.—N#EAR THE GOAL, N a warm, still August night Erik Poulsen sat in his laboratory, bent over a glass receptacle containing a milky mixture in which the positive and negative wires leading from a galvanic battery were immersed, ‘The window was open. Now and then a miller flew into the room, butted against - the chimney of the petroleum lamp, and finally fell into the flame. _ Outside an owl screeched now and then in the old lime tree, and a mouse squeaked be- hind the worm eaten wall of the room. Erik was oblivious of all that passed around him and was not aware that it was past two o’clock ; nor did he care. With a frowning countenance and deeply wrinkled eyebrows he stared in nervous impatience at the glass re- ceptacle before him. Finally he reached over and drew the one pole wire from the mixture. A small plate of platinum, apparently covered with a thin sheet of wax, was attached thereto. This covering Erik examined critically, scratched it slightly with his finger nail, and then held the plate over an alcohol flame, after having poured a few drops of a fluid over it. But when the entire surface became covered with small air bubbles he became angry and threw the thing aside, then filtered the milky concoction and began to evapo- rate the substance thus obtained. In the stove, on the other side of the room, he had a bright fire burning, over which several crucibles were suspended. He examined their contents anxiously, added a little brown powder to one of them, thereby causing a White, steamy vapor to arise; then reéxamined the solution and shook his head. He now fastened a small, delicate graphite crucible inside of a ring of platinum, filled half of it with pieces of a light yellow metal, imbedded in which were a number of pale red crystals. He then hung this over the fire. He seized the bellows handle, and vigorously fanned the flames until they crackled loudly. i A fierce white heat surrounded the crucible so that the platina ring itself turned red. ‘The metal in the crucible melted and lay, a shining, glistening surface, in the fire. He now introduced. the two pole wires into the crucible most carefully, taking the greatest care that he did fot touch bottom. One quarter of an hour he stood so ; the metal rods became hotter and hotter and finally he could hold them no longer, even with the wooden handles. Then he withdrew the wires and lifted the crucible from the fire. iyOo d S CS) =|