ing to tell you? Mr. Senator Gwent, you take me for a
greater fool than I am! My 'stuff' needs neither fire nor
crucible,--the formula was fairly complete before I left Washington,
but I wanted quiet and solitude to finish what I had begun. It is
finished now. That's why I sent for you to make the proposition which
you say you cannot carry through."

"Finished, is it?" queried Gwent, abstractedly--"And you have it
here?--in a finished state?"

Seaton nodded affirmatively.

"Then I suppose"--said Gwent with a nervous laugh--"you could 'finish'
ME, if it suited your humour?"

"I could, certainly!" and Seaton gave him quite an encouraging
smile--"I could reduce Mr. Senator Gwent into a small pinch of grey
dust in about forty seconds, without pain! You wouldn't feel it I
assure you! It would be too swift for feeling."

"Thanks! Much obliged!" said Gwent--"I won't trouble you this morning!
I rather enjoy being alive."

"So do I!" declared Seaton, still smiling--"I only state what I COULD
do."

Gwent stood at the door of the hut and surveyed the scenery.

"You've a fine, wild view here"--he said--"I think I shall stay at the
Plaza a day or two before returning to Washington. There's a very
attractive girl there."

"Oh, you mean Manella"--said Seaton, carelessly; "Yes, she's quite a
beauty. She's the maid, waitress or 'help' of some sort at the hotel."

"She's a good 'draw' for male visitors"--said Gwent--"Many a man I know
would pay a hundred dollars a day to have her wait upon him!"

"Would YOU?" asked Seaton, amused.

"Well!--perhaps not a hundred dollars a day, but pretty near it! Her
eyes are the finest I've ever seen."

Seaton made no comment.

"You'll come and dine with me to-night, won't you?" went on Gwent--"You
can spare me an hour or two of your company?"

"No, thanks"--Seaton replied--"Don't think me a churlish brute--but I
don't like hotels or the people who frequent them. Besides--we've done
our business."

"Unfortunately there was no business doing!" said Gwent--"Sorry I
couldn't take it on."

"Don't be sorry! I'll take it on myself when the moment comes. I would
have preferred the fiat of a great government to that of one
unauthorised man--but if there's no help for it then the one man must
act."

Gwent looked at him with a grave intentness which he meant to be
impressive.

"Seaton, these new scientific discoveries are dangerous tools!" he
said--"If they are not handled carefully they