The Moon Metal | Page 3

entire world awaited its decision with bated breath, and yet the decision
was not formed.
At this paralyzing crisis a most unexpected event suddenly opened the
way.

II
THE MAGICIAN OF SCIENCE
An attendant entered the room where the perplexed financiers were in
session and presented a peculiar-looking card to the president, Mr.
Boon. The president took the card in his hand and instantly fell into a
brown study. So complete was his absorption that Herr Finster, the
celebrated Berlin banker, who had been addressing the chair for the last
two hours from the opposite end of the long table, got confused,
entirely lost track of his verb, and suddenly dropped into his seat, very
red in the face and wearing a most injured expression.
But President Boon paid no attention except to the singular card, which
he continued to turn over and over, balancing it on his fingers and
holding it now at arm's-length and then near his nose, with one eye
squinted as if he were trying to look through a hole in the card.
At length this odd conduct of the presiding officer drew all eyes upon
the card, and then everybody shared the interest of Mr. Boon. In shape
and size the card was not extraordinary, but it was composed of metal.
What metal? That question had immediately arisen in Mr. Boon's mind
when the card came into his hand, and now it exercised the wits of all
the others. Plainly it was not tin, brass, copper, bronze, silver,

aluminum--although its lightness might have suggested that metal--nor
even base gold.
The president, although a skilled metallurgist, confessed his inability to
say what it was. So intent had he become in examining the curious bit
of metal that he forgot it was a visitor's card of introduction, and did
not even look for the name which it presumably bore.
As he held the card up to get a better light upon it a stray sunbeam from
the window fell across the metal and instantly it bloomed with
exquisite colors! The president's chair being in the darker end of the
room, the radiant card suffused the atmosphere about him with a faint
rose tint, playing with surprising liveliness into alternate canary color
and violet.
The effect upon the company of clear-headed financiers was extremely
remarkable. The unknown metal appeared to exercise a kind of
mesmeric influence, its soft hues blending together in a chromatic
harmony which captivated the sense of vision as the ears are charmed
by a perfectly rendered song. Gradually all gathered in an eager group
around the president's chair.
"What can it be?" was repeated from lip to lip.
"Did you ever see anything like it?" asked Mr. Boon for the twentieth
time.
None of them had ever seen the like of it. A spell fell upon the
assemblage. For five minutes no one spoke, while Mr. Boon continued
to chase the flickering sunbeam with the wonderful card. Suddenly the
silence was broken by a voice which had a touch of awe in it:
"It must be the metal!"
The speaker was an English financier, First Lord of the Treasury, Hon.
James Hampton-Jones, K.C.B. Immediately everybody echoed his
remark, and the strain being thus relieved, the spell dropped from them
and several laughed loudly over their momentary aberration.

President Boon recollected himself, and, coloring slightly, placed the
card flat on the table, in order more clearly to see the name. In plain red
letters it stood forth with such surprising distinctness that Mr. Boon
wondered why he had so long overlooked it.
"DR. MAX SYX."
"Tell the gentleman to come in," said the president, and thereupon the
attendant threw open the door.
The owner of the mysterious card fixed every eye as he entered. He
was several inches more than six feet in height. His complexion was
very dark, his eyes were intensely black, bright, and deep-set, his
eyebrows were bushy and up-curled at the ends, his sable hair was
close-trimmed, and his ears were narrow, pointed at the top, and
prominent. He wore black mustaches, covering only half the width of
his lip and drawn into projecting needles on each side, while a spiked
black beard adorned the middle of his chin.
He smiled as he stepped confidently forward, with a courtly bow, but it
was a very disconcerting smile, because it more than half resembled a
sneer. This uncommon person did not wait to be addressed.
"I have come to solve your problem," he said, facing President Boon,
who had swung round on his pivoted chair.
"The metal!" exclaimed everybody in a breath, and with a unanimity
and excitement which would have astonished them if they had been
spectators instead of actors of the scene. The tall stranger bowed and
smiled again:
"Just so,"