Haw led the way through the front door, and crossing over the gravelled drive pushed open the outer door of the laboratory—the same through which the McIntyres had seen the packages conveyed from the . On passing through it Robert found that they were not really within the building, but merely in a large bare ante-, around the walls of which were stacked the very objects which had aroused his curiosity and his father's . All mystery had gone from them now, however, for while some were still wrapped in their sackcloth coverings, others had been , and revealed themselves as great pigs of lead.
“There is my raw material,” said Raffles Haw carelessly, nodding at the heap. “Every Saturday I have a waggon-load sent up, which serves me for a week, but we shall need to work double tides when Laura and I are married, and we get our great schemes under way. I have to be very careful about the quality of the lead, for, of course, every is reproduced in the gold.”
A heavy iron door led into the inner chamber. Haw unlocked it, but only to disclose a second one about five feet further on.
“This flooring is all disconnected at night,” he remarked. “I have no doubt that there is a good deal of gossip in the servants'-hall about this sealed chamber, so I have to guard myself against some ostler or too butler.”
The inner door admitted them into the laboratory, a high, bare, room with a glass roof. At one end was the furnace and , the iron mouth of which was closed, though the fierce red light beat through the cracks, and a dull roar sounded through the building. On either side innumerable huge Leyden jars stood ranged in rows, tier topping tier, while above them were columns of Voltaic cells. Robert's eyes, as he glanced around, lit on vast wheels, complicated networks of wire, stands, test-tubes, coloured bottles, graduated glasses, Bunsen burners, , and all the of a chemical and electrical workshop.
“Come across here,” said Raffles Haw, picking his way among the heaps of metal, the coke, the packing-cases, and the carboys of acid. “Yours is the first foot except my own which has ever to this room since the workmen left it. My servants carry the lead into the ante-room, but come no further. The furnace can be cleaned and stoked from without. I employ a fellow to do nothing else. Now take a look in here.”
He threw open a door on the further side, and motioned to the young artist to enter. The latter stood silent with one foot over the threshold, staring in around him. The room, which may have been some thirty feet square, was paved and walled with gold. Great brick-shaped ingots, closely packed, covered the whole floor, while on every side they were reared up in compact barriers to the very ceiling. The single electric lamp which lighted the windowless chamber struck a dull, , yellow light from the vast piles of precious metal, and gleamed ruddily upon the golden floor.
“This is my treasure house,” remarked the owner. “You see that I have rather an accumulation just now. My imports have been exceeding my exports. You can understand that I have other and more important duties even than the making of gold, just now. This is where I store my output until I am ready to send it off. Every night almost I am in the habit of sending a case of it to London. I employ seventeen in its sale. Each thinks that he is the only one, and each is dying to know where I can get such large quantities of gold. They say that it is the purest which comes into the market. The popular theory is, I believe, that I am a middleman on behalf of some new South African mine, which wishes to keep its whereabouts a secret. What value would you put upon the gold in this chamber? It ought to be worth something, for it represents nearly a week's work.”
“Something , I have no doubt,” said Robert, glancing round at the yellow barriers. “Shall I say a hundred and fifty thousand pounds?”
“Oh dear me, it is surely worth very much more than that,” cried Raffles Haw, laughing. “Let me see. Suppose that we put it at three ten an ounce, which is nearly ten shillings under the mark. That makes, roughly, fifty-six pounds for a pound in weight. Now each of these ingots weighs thirty-six pounds, which brings their value to two thousand and a few odd pounds. There are five hundred ingots on each of these three sides of the room, but on the fourth there are only three hundred, on account of the door, but there cannot be less than two hundred on the floor, which gives us a rough total of two thousand ingots. So you see, my dear boy, that any who could get the contents of this chamber for four million pounds would be doing a nice little stroke of business.”
“And a week's work!” Robert. “It makes my head swim.”
“You will follow me now when I repeat that none of the great schemes which I intend to set in motion are at all likely to for want of funds. Now come into the laboratory with me and see how it is done.”
In the centre of the workroom was an instrument like a huge , with two large brass-coloured plates, and a great steel screw for bringing them together. Numerous wires ran into these metal plates, and were attached at the other end to the rows of dynamic machines. Beneath was a glass stand, which was hollowed out in the centre into a succession of troughs.
“You will soon understand all about it,” said Raffles Haw, throwing off his coat, and pulling on a smoke-stained and dirty jacket. “We must first stoke up a little.” He put his weight on a pair of great , and an answering roar came from the furnace. “That will do. The more heat ............