the crucible of the furnace and start the furnace."

He turned a switch, and long yellowish-blue sheets of flame spurted out
from the electrodes on either side. It was weird, gruesome. One could
feel the heat of the tremendous electric discharge.

As I looked at the bluish-yellow flames they gradually changed to a
beautiful purple, and a sickish sweet odour filled the room. The
furnace roared at first, but as the vapors increased it became a better
conductor of the electricity, and the roaring ceased.

In almost no time the mass of iron scraps became molten. Suddenly
Poissan plunged the cast-iron cup into the seething mass. The cup
floated and quickly began to melt. As it did so he waited attentively
until the proper moment. Then with a deft motion he seized the whole
thing with a long pair of tongs and plunged it into a vat of running
water. A huge cloud of steam filled the room.

I felt a drowsy sensation stealing over me as the sickish sweet smell
from the furnace increased. Gripping the chair, I roused myself and
watched Poissan attentively. He was working rapidly. As the molten mass
cooled and solidified he took it out of the water and laid it on an
anvil.

Then his assistant began to hammer it with careful, sharp blows,
chipping off the outside.

"You see, we have to get down to the core of carbon gently," he said, as
he picked up the little pieces of iron and threw them into a scrap-box.
"First rather brittle cast iron, then hard iron, then iron and carbon,
then some black diamonds, and in the very centre the diamonds.

"Ah! we are getting to them. Here is a small diamond. See, Mr.
Spencer--gently Francois--we shall come to the large ones presently."

"One moment, Professor Poissan," interrupted Craig; "let your assistant
break them out while I stand over him."

"Impossible. You would not know when you saw them. They are just rough
stones."

"Oh, yes, I would."

"No, stay where you are. Unless I attend to it the diamonds might be
ruined."

There was something peculiar about his insistence, but after he picked
out the next diamond I was hardly prepared for Kennedy's next remark.

"Let me see the palms of your hands."

Poissan shot an angry glance at Kennedy, but he did not open his hands.

"I merely wish to convince you, 'Mr. Spencer,'" said Kennedy to me,
"that it is no sleight-of-hand trick and that the professor has not
several uncut stones palmed in his hand like a prestidigitator."

The Fr