om An Amber Block

_By Tom Curry_

"These should prove especially valuable and interesting without a doubt,
Marable," said the tall, slightly stooped man. He waved a long hand
toward the masses of yellow brown which filled the floor of the spacious
workrooms, towering almost to the skylights, high above their heads.

[Sidenote: A giant amber block at last gives up its living, ravenous
prey.]

"Is that coal in the biggest one with the dark center?" asked an
attractive young woman who stood beside the elder of the men.

"I am inclined to believe it will prove to be some sort of black
liquid," said Marable, a big man of thirty-five.

There were other people about the immense rooms, the laboratories of the
famous Museum of Natural History. Light streamed in from the skylights
and windows; fossils of all kinds, some immense in size, were
distributed about. Skilled specialists were chipping away at matrices
other artists were reconstructing, doing a thousand things necessary to
the work.

A hum of low talking, accompanied by the irregular tapping of chisels
on stone, came to their ears, though they took no heed of this, since
they worked here day after day, and it was but the usual sound of the
paleontologists' laboratory.

Marable threw back his blond head. He glanced again toward the dark
haired, blue eyed young woman, but when he caught her eye, he looked
away and spoke to her father, Professor Young.

"I think that big one will turn out to be the largest single piece of
amber ever mined," he said. "There were many difficulties in getting it
out, for the workmen seemed afraid of it, did not want to handle it for
some silly reason or other."

* * * * *

Professor Young, curator, was an expert in his line, but young Marable
had charge of these particular fossil blocks, the amber being pure
because it was mixed with lignite. The particular block which held the
interest of the three was a huge yellow brown mass of irregular shape.
Vaguely, through the outer shell of impure amber, could be seen the
heart of ink. The chunk weighed many tons, and its crate had just been
removed by some workmen and was being taken away, piece by piece.

The three gazed at the immense mass, which filled the greater part of
one end of the laboratory and towered almost to the skylights. It was a
small mountain, compared to the size of the room, and in this case the
mountain had come to man.

"Miss Bet