The Argosy, Vol. XXIV, No. 3 — page 78: what you’re looking at

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

462 THE GOLD DELUGE, Evening came. ‘T‘he young wife lit the lamp and resumed her needle- work. - Dead silence reigned in the room, and while her thoughts were busy with other matters she attempted to work. It was impossible ; her fingers Were uncertain and she rested quietly, staring fixedly before her. Her husband’s mental condition was not quite comprehensible, and the most disagreeable impressions haunted her. How would he awaken ? Stronger and fully restored, or—the thought made her shudder. What would happen when he discovered his error, when he realized it had all been a nightmare—a chimera? But how was it possible at all he had made such a mistake? Could it be possible, that he, the thoroughly competent chemist, had been so led by his imagination ? Suddenly the thought of the powder he had thrown on the sewing table recurred to her. She rose and crept on tiptoe to the table. How very heavy that small quantity of powder was ! Brown—all brown. Gold, it could not be, it was very soft when passed through the fingers and clung to them like dust. T’hen she remembered Erik telling her, that gold in a reduced state—sgo called amorphous gold—was brown and could be tested with boiling nitric acid. Ifthis did not affect it, then it was the precious metal. She had not been married to a chemist without learning a few things from him during the hour of instruction he formerly devoted to her in his laboratory. Quickly she procured a test tube and a small quantity of nitric acid, added a little of the powder to it, and held it over the lamp. Very soon the acid began to boil violently, and when she withdrew the tube from the flame the bubbles vanished and there appeared no reddish brown evaporation of the nitric acid ; the brown powder remained at the bottom of the glass tube, entirely unchanged or affected in any way. For a moment she reeled at the thought that seized her brain, but she steeled herself against it. She could not rely upon her faulty test ; coal, for instance, would not be affected by nitric acid either, but yet—if it should be true any way? ‘Well, well, just see my little wife making an analysis !’’ a voice said behind her. | She turned around with a frightened countenance—there stood her hus- band, a smile on his lips, eying her with proud, intelligent glances, Every trace of weariness had been removed by the restful sleep he had enjoyed, and he was as healthy and strong as ever. ‘Oh, Erik,’’ exclaimed his wife, deeply moved and throwing herself im- petuously in his arms, ‘‘is it really true ?’’ ‘“ Did you not believe what I told you? Yes, my love, it is all true.” She laid her head on his breast with a half suppressed cry and gave way to a violent fit of weeping—a real good cry, that was as the dew falling upon the budding blossoms on a beautiful night in springtime. 7 ‘ Yes, dear wife,’’ he repeated, taking her by the hand and leading her to the sofa, ‘‘it is true. You examined the powder yourself and tested it with the nitric acid. Besides that, I applied all possible tests and employed every reagent known, and also converted it into gold salts, determined the specific 3 Eomichook