ust in time. They're going to run off
the metal in a few minutes."

I recalled our experiment at home with the little built-up furnace, when
the ore was first tried, as I walked to the stone-built house, where
from out of the centre came a low dull roar; from cracks and chinks and
crannies blindingly bright rays of light shot out and seemed to cut the
darkness, which, after the sunshine of out of doors, seemed to be black
and terrible. Now and then there came a peculiar crackling, as if
something were snapping and flying to pieces under the great heat, and
it was some time before I could see anything but the brilliant pencils
of light that cut the gloom.

By degrees, though, I made out that a couple of men were moving here and
there, and that each of them carried a long black rod of iron.

The flames seemed to flutter and burn and to be rushing upward with
tremendous force, while I could fancy that I heard the metal bubbling in
its bed, where it was seething and throwing off wonderful flames, as I
could judge by the gleams I saw.

"Stand back, young master," said one of the men roughly--"there, right
up in the corner here. You won't hurt now. Just going to run her off."

I backed into the corner he pressed me to, where there was a broad
shutter or screen, and I was getting so accustomed to the darkness now
that I could see just below, and in front of a place where golden tears
seemed to be dropping from a chink at the bottom of the furnace, several
long square trenches in the black charcoal floor, and the next minute I
made out that these trenches were all connected together by a little
channel.

"The moulds," I thought to myself, and I looked eagerly now at one of
the men, who shouted something by way of warning to his fellow-worker;
and then, as the man stepped behind a similar screen of wood-work to
that which sheltered me, the one who uttered his words of warning thrust
and hammered with his long iron rod at the foot of the furnace.

I did not quite see what he did afterwards, but he seemed to dart out of
the way, and then a stream of what looked like liquid gold came gushing
out, sputtering, snapping, and sending into the air myriads of glorious
firework-like sparks of blue and orange and scarlet and gold, and so
brilliant that they lit up the whole building and made my eyes ache and
my cheeks tingle. Where a minute before there were so many black
trenches were now so many dazzling ingots, over which pl