The Moon Metal

th Hall described in the foregoing chapter, and before I ag

misium for coinage. Of course, this amount varied from time to time, but a fair average could easily be maintained. The gradual increase of wealth, in houses, machinery, manufactured and artistic products called for a corresponding increase in the circulating medium; but this, too, was easily pro

till believing Syx's story that he also had found pure artemisium in his mine, accounted for the failure of the tunnelling operations on the supposition that the metal, in a free state, was excessively rare, and that Dr. Syx had had the luck to strike the only vein of it that the Grand Teton contained. As if t

verything that the world had known in the past. School-children learned that human civilization had taken five great strides, known respecti

about "contraction of the currency." In every country there arose a party which demanded "free money." Demagogues pointed to the brief reign of paper money after the dem

e rich, cursing Dr. Syx, and calling upon "the oppressed" to rise and "take their own." The final outcome was, of course, violence. Mobs had to be suppressed by military force. But the most dramatic scene in the tragedy occurred at the Grand Teton. Excited by inflammatory speeches and printed documents, several thousand armed men

, and attempted to break in through the foundation of the buildings. But the masonry was stronger than they had anticipated, and the attack failed. Sharp-

fire of the rifles, to which was now added the belching of several machine-guns. Ragged holes began to appear in the walls, and at the sight of these the assailants yelled with delight. It was evident that, the mill could n

sterious objects, but apparently with little effect. Bings, mounted on a rock, so as to command a clear view of the field, was on the point, of ordering a party to rush forward with axes and beat down the formidable doors, when there came a blinding flash from the roof, something swished through the a

f the besiegers were destroyed within ten minutes after the first movement had been noticed on the roof. Those who survived owed their escape to the rocks which

fear or excitement, he picked his way among his fallen enemies, and, approaching

, the commander of the troop. "It seems that I must not only defend my own people and property when attac

eir amazement had no bounds. It was necessary at once to dispose of the dead, and this was no easy undertaking for t

as they stooped to lift the nearest victim of Dr. Syx's

onded "Jim," staring at the body

lectrolytic bath. Clothing seemed to have been charred, and the metallic atoms had penetrated the flesh of the victims. The rocks all round the battle-field wer

a lieutenant, "that's e

if he can do that, I don't see

ff," said the lieutenant. "What do you s

's costly, but then-gracious! Wouldn't I have given something for the doc

was generally accepted without further question. There was an element of the ludicrous which robbed the tragedy of some of its horror. Moreover, no one could deny that Dr. Syx was well within his rights in de

lunk out of the public eye, and the result of the battle at the mine seemed to have been a clear

ssed it, the beginning of