hough his knowledge surpassed that of
the much-exploited authorities, he was never satisfied with any of his
results.

"'Pitchblende; no!' he would exclaim. 'It has not the great power. The
mines are not deep enough, yet!'

"Then suddenly the great idea that was to bring him success, and cost him
his life, came to him. The bowels of the earth must hold the secret! He
took up volcanoes.... Does all this sound foolish? It was not if you knew
the man. He was a mighty enthusiast, a born martyr. Not cold-blooded, like
the rest of us. The fire was in his veins.... A light, please. Thank you.

"We chased volcanoes. There was a theory under it all. He believed that
volcanic emanations are caused by a mighty and uncomprehended energy,
something that achieves results ascribable neither to explosions nor heat,
some eternal, inner source.... Radium, if you choose, only he didn't call
it that. Radium itself, as known to our modern scientists, he regarded as
the harmless plaything of people with time hanging heavy on their hands.
He wasn't after force in pin-point quantities: he wanted bulk results. Yet
I believe that, after all, what he sought was a sort of higher power of
radium. The phenomena were related. And he had some of that concentrated
essence of pitchblende in the chest when we started. Oh, not much: say
about twenty thousand dollars' worth. Maybe thirty. For use? No; rather
for comparison, I judge.

"Yes, we chased volcanoes. I became used to camping between sample hells
of all known varieties. I got so that the fumes of a sulphur match seemed
like a draught of pure, fresh air. Wherever any of the earth's pimples
showed signs of coming to a head, there were we, taking part in the
trouble. By and by the doctor got so thoroughly poisoned that he had to
lay off. Back to Philadelphia we came. There an aged seafaring person,
temporarily stranded, mulcted the Professor of a dollar--an undertaking
that required no art--and in the course of his recital touched upon yonder
little cesspool of infernal iniquities. An uncharted volcanic island: one
that he could have all for his own; you may guess whether Dr. Schermerhorn
was interested.

"'That iss for which we haf so-long-in-vain sought, Percy,' he said to me
in his quaint, link-chain style of speech. 'A leedle prifate volcano-
laboratory to ourselves to have. Totally unknown: undescribed, not-on-the-
chart-to-be-found. To-morrow we start. I make a list of the things-to-
get.'