do something that will make the whole Golden Band throw up their caps.
That is what we have to do!"

"Quite a problem," lazily answered Kovroff, chewing the end of his
cigar. "But you are asking too much."

"But that is not all," the count interrupted him; "listen! This is
what my problem demands. We must think of some project that unites two
precious qualities: first, a rapid and huge profit; second, entire
absence of risk."

"Conditions not altogether easy to fulfill," remarked Kovroff
doubtfully.

"So it seems. And daring plans are not to be picked up in the street,
but are the result of inspiration. It is what is called a 'heavenly
gift,' my dear friend."

"And you have had an inspiration?" smiled Sergei Antonovitch, with a
slightly ironical shade of friendly skepticism.

"I have had an inspiration," replied the supposititious Hungarian
nobleman, falling into the other's tone.

"And your muse is----?"

"The tenth of the muses," the count interrupted him: "another name is
Industry."

"She is the muse of all of us."

"And mine in particular. But we are not concerned with her, but with
her prophetic revelations."

"Oh, dear count! Circumlocutions apart! This Rhine wine evidently
carries you to misty Germany. Tell me simply what the matter is."

"The matter is simply this: we must institute a society of 'gold
miners,' and we must find gold in places where the geological
indications are dead against it. That is the problem. The Russian
laws, under threat of arrest and punishment, sternly forbid the
citizens of the Russian Empire, and likewise the citizens of other
lands within the empire, to buy or sell the noble metals in their
crude form, that is, in nuggets, ore, or dust. For example, if you
bought gold in the rough from me--gold dust, for example--we should
both, according to law, have to take a pleasant little trip beyond the
Ural Mountains to Siberia, and there we should have to engage in
mining the precious metal ourselves. A worthy occupation, no doubt,
but not a very profitable one for us."

"Our luxuries would be strictly limited," jested Kovroff, with a wry
smile.

"There it is! You won't find many volunteers for that occupation, and
that is the fulcrum of my whole plan. You must understand that gold
dust in the mass is practically indistinguishable in appearance from
brass filings. Let us suppose that we secretly sell some perfectly
pure brass filings for gold dust, and that they are readi