; and before there could be any
comment: "I went out to get this, Gardiner"--indicating the hatful of
earth. "It's a sample of some stuff I'd like to have you take back to
Boston with you for a scientific analysis. I've got just enough of the
prospector's blood in me to make me curious about it."

The geologist examined the brown earth critically; passed a handful of
it through his fingers; smelled it; tasted it.

"How much have you got of this?" he asked, with interest palpably
aroused.

"Enough," rejoined the Kentuckian, evasively.

"Then your fortune is made, my son. This 'stuff,' as you call it, is the
basis of Colonel Craigmile's millions. I hope your vein isn't a part of
his."

Again Ballard evaded the implied question. "What do you know about it,
Gardiner? Have you ever seen any of it before?"

"I have, indeed. More than that, I have 'proved up' on it, as your
Western miners say of their claims. A few evenings ago we were talking
of expert analyses--the colonel and young Wingfield and I--up at the
house of luxuries, and the colonel ventured to wager that he could stump
me; said he could give me a sample of basic material carrying fabulous
values, the very name of which I wouldn't be able to tell him after the
most exhaustive laboratory tests. Of course, I had to take him up--if
only for the honour of the Institute--and the three of us went down to
his laboratory. The sample he gave me was some of this brown earth."

"And you analysed it?" inquired Ballard with eagerness unconcealed.

"I did; and won a box of the colonel's high-priced cigars, for which,
unhappily, I have no possible use. The sample submitted, like this in
your hat, was zirconia; the earth-ore which carries the rare metal
zirconium. Don't shame me and your alma mater by saying that this means
nothing to you."

"You've got us down," laughed Bromley. "It's only a name to me; the name
of one of the theoretical metals cooked up in laboratory experiments.
And I venture to say it is even less than that to Breckenridge."

"It is a very rare metal, and up to within a few years has never been
found in a natural state or produced in commercial quantities,"
explained the analyst, mounting and riding his hobby with apparent zest.
"A refined product of zirconia, the earth itself, has been used to make
incandescent gas-mantles; and it was M. Leoffroy, of Paris, who
discovered a method of electric-furnace reduction for isolating the
metal. It was a gr