ed latent energy and activity.

"If we have to wait for the Artesian ray," she said, "we must try
to carry out something else. People are watching us, talking of us,
expecting something of us; we must give them something. Now the question
is, what shall that be?"

"The way I look at it is this," said her companion. "For a long time you
have been watching and waiting and expecting something, and it is time
that I should give you something; now the question is--"

"Not at all," said she, interrupting. "You arrogate too much to
yourself. I don't expect you to give anything to me. We are working
together, and it is both of us who must give this poor old world
something to satisfy it for a while, until we can disclose to it that
grand discovery, grander than anything that it has ever even imagined. I
want to go on talking about it, but I shall not do it; we must keep our
minds tied down to some present purpose. Now, Mr. Clewe, what is there
that we can take up and carry on immediately? Can it be the great
shell?"

Clewe shook his head.

"No," said he; "that is progressing admirably, but many things are
necessary before we can experiment with it."

"Since you were away," said she, "I have often been down to the works
to look at it, but everything about it seems to go so slowly. However, I
suppose it will go fast enough when it is finished."

"Yes," said he. "I hope it will go fast enough to overturn the artillery
of the world; but, as you say, don't let us talk about the things for
which we must wait. I will carefully consider everything that is in
operation, and to-morrow I will suggest something with which we can go
on."

"After all," said she, as they stood together before parting, "I cannot
take my mind from the Artesian ray."

"Nor can I," he answered; "but for the present we must put our hands to
work at something else."

The Artesian ray, of which these two spoke, was an invention upon which
Roland Clewe had been experimenting for a long time, and which was and
had been the object of his labors and studies while in Europe. In the
first decade of the century it had been generally supposed that the X
ray, or cathode ray, had been developed and applied to the utmost extent
of its capability. It was used in surgery and in mechanical arts, and in
many varieties of scientific operations, but no considerable advance in
its line of application had been recognized for a quarter of a century.
But Roland Clewe had co