will take a little of this red
phosphorus--ordinary phosphorus will not answer--and pour a little
liquid air on it, stirring it gently, as you see. Now, if I should let
that dry it would explode at the slightest touch; but we do not want
that, and we wish to increase its power, so we add a little chloride of
potassium; now watch it dry--see the color change to a light red-brown.
There, if you should strike that or put fire to it, it would wreck this
building as completely as if you had exploded fifty pounds of dynamite
in it."

I drew away from the table instinctively.

"Have no fear, I will not explode it. Now watch me closely. I will
ignite a minute quantity, about as much as would make the head of a
small black pin or a No. 4 bird-shot. See, the rest we will put in this
pail of water. There--now all is ready--here goes!"

He lit a match and touched the little brown dot--a tremendous explosion
followed and the wooden table was split into pieces. The sound was so
terrific and the shock so unexpected that I was dizzy and frightened.

"Great heavens!" I exclaimed, "you have broken everything in the
laboratory!"

"No," replied the ghost rather shamefacedly, "not so bad as that, but
I'm afraid that I have ruined the table and cracked a few things;
however, I will be more careful next time: it is even more powerful than
I thought. What do you suppose would be the effect on a warship if
struck with a shell containing one hundred pounds of that stuff?"

I answered that she would be destroyed.

"Destroyed? I should say she would; the largest battleship would be
blown to atoms."

The spook glanced at an old-fashioned Dutch clock in the corner of the
laboratory.

"Fine clock that; glad I didn't break it with our little racket just
now. I see I have nearly an hour to spare. Is there any experiment you
would like to try?"

I said anything would interest me, but that I didn't care for any more
explosives.

"I suppose you know how to make diamonds, don't you?"

I answered that for years men had tried to manufacture diamonds, but
practically without success; that as far as I was aware they had only
succeeded in making them so small as to be practically of no use
commercially, and the expense of the manufacture was far in excess of
their value.

"That's all right," answered the spook; "but really it is a very simple
matter. Here; I will make a diamond for you." He walked across the room
to the fireplace, and taking f