lighted space.
Looking at him, Clewe was startled, amazed, and horrified to find all
that portion of his person which projected itself into the limits of the
light had entirely disappeared, and that he was gazing upon a section of
a man's trunk, brightly illuminated, and displayed in all its internal
colors and outlines. Such a sight was enough to take away the senses of
any man, and he did not wonder that he had fainted.

"Now," said he to himself, "all the time that I was looking into that
apparent hole, never thinking that in order to see down into it I was
obliged to project a portion of myself into the line of the Artesian
ray, that portion of me was transparent, invisible. If Bryce had come
in! and then"--as the thought came into his mind his heart stopped
beating--"if Margaret had been there!"

For an hour he sat in his chair, racking his brain.

"She must see the working of the ray," he said. "I must tell her of my
success. She must see it as soon as possible. It is cruel to keep her
waiting. But how shall I manage it? How shall I shield her from the
slightest possibility of what happened to me? Heavens!" he exclaimed,
"if she had been there!"

After a time he determined that before any further experiments should
take place he would build a circular screen, a little room, which should
entirely surround the space on which the Artesian ray was operated. Only
one person at a time should be allowed to enter this screened apartment,
which should then be closed. It would make no difference if one should
become invisible, provided there was no one else to know it.

It was on the evening of the next day that Margaret beheld the action of
the Artesian ray. She greatly objected at first to going inside of the
screened space by herself, and urged Roland to accompany her; but this
he stoutly refused to do, assuring her that it was essential for but
one person at a time to view the action of the ray. She demurred a good
deal, but at last consented to allow herself to be shut up within the
screen.

What Margaret saw was different from the gradual excavation which had
revealed itself before the eyes of Roland. She looked immediately into a
hole nearly ten feet deep. The action of the apparatus was such that the
power of penetration gained by the ray during its operation at any time
was retained, so that when the current was shut off the photic boring
ceased, and recommenced when the batteries were again put into action