The Face and the Mask | Page 8

be my pleasure to perform two
startling experiments with the unfrozen substance," and with that he
picked up a handful of the wet sawdust and flung it on a small iron
anvil that stood on the table. "You will enjoy these experiments," he
said, "because it will show you with what ease dynamite may be
handled. It is a popular error that concussion will cause dynamite to
explode. There is enough dynamite here to blow up this hall and to
send into oblivion every person in it, yet you will see whether or not
concussion will explode it." The Professor seized a hammer and struck
the substance on the anvil two or three sharp blows, while those in front
of him scrambled wildly back over their comrades, with hair standing
on end. The Professor ceased his pounding and gazed reproachfully at
them; then something on the anvil appeared to catch his eye. He bent
over it and looked critically on the surface of the iron. Drawing himself
up to his full height again, he said,
"I was about to reproach you for what might have appeared to any other
man as evidence of fear, but I see my mistake. I came very near making
a disastrous error. I have myself suffered from time to time from
similar errors. I notice upon the anvil a small spot of grease; if my
hammer had happened to strike that spot you would all now be writhing
in your death-agonies under the ruins of this building. Nevertheless, the
lesson is not without its value. That spot of grease is free nitro-
glycerine that has oozed out from the dynamite. Therein rests, perhaps,
the only danger in handling dynamite. As I have shown you, you can
smash up dynamite on an anvil without danger, but if a hammer
happened to strike a spot of free nitroglycerine it would explode in a

moment. I beg to apologize to you for my momentary neglect."
A man rose up in the middle of the hall, and it was some little time
before he could command voice enough to speak, for he was shaking as
if from palsy. At last he said, after he had moistened his lips several
times:--
"Professor, we are quite willing to take your word about the explosive.
I think I speak for all my comrades here. We have no doubt at all about
your learning, and would much prefer to hear from your own lips what
you have to say on the subject, and not have you waste any more
valuable time with experiments. I have not consulted with my
comrades before speaking, but I think I voice the sense of the meeting."
Cries of "You do, you do," came from all parts of the hall. The
Professor once more beamed upon them benevolently.
"Your confidence in me is indeed touching," he said, "but a chemical
lecture without experiments is like a body without a soul. Experiment is
the soul of research. In chemistry we must take nothing for granted. I
have shown you how many popular errors have arisen regarding the
substance with which we are dealing. It would have been impossible
for these errors to have arisen if every man had experimented for
himself; and although I thank you for the mark of confidence you have
bestowed upon me, I cannot bring myself to deprive you of the pleasure
which my experiments will afford you. There is another very common
error to the effect that fire will explode dynamite. Such, gentlemen, is
not the case."
The Professor struck a match on his trousers-leg and lighted the
substance on the anvil. It burnt with a pale bluish flame, and the
Professor gazed around triumphantly at his fellow Anarchists.
While the shuddering audience watched with intense fascination the
pale blue flame the Professor suddenly stooped over and blew it out.
Straightening himself once more he said, "Again I must apologize to
you, for again I have forgotten the small spot of grease. If the flame had
reached the spot of nitro-glycerine it would have exploded, as you all
know. When a man has his thoughts concentrated on one subject he is

apt to forget something else. I shall make no more experiments with
dynamite. Here, John," he said to the trembling attendant, "take this
box away, and move it carefully, for I see that the nitro-glycerine is
oozing out. Put it as tenderly down in the next room as if it were a box
of eggs."
As the box disappeared there was a simultaneous long-drawn sigh of
relief from the audience.
"Now, gentlemen," said the Professor, "we come to the subject that
ought to occupy the minds of all thoughtful men." He smoothed his hair
complacently with the palm of his practicable hand, and smiled
genially