thirty-five years old. He had bright black eyes, which he kept
fixed constantly on Mr. Bowditch and Mr. Snider.

Finally, Mr. Snider got his chance to speak. He said he would call
them all "Friends" as that suited them better than "Ladies and
Gentlemen." He told how sorry he was because the Professor had
been called away by the illness of a relative. Then he told what a
great inventor the Professor was, and how he was even more
remarkable for doing good. For this invention was one which would
do good to so many people.

This led Mr. Snider up to his favorite subject, and he began to
speak on doing good and being good. The black-eyed man beside me
began to utter little groans.

"I knew I was in for J. Harvey Bowditch," he said under his
breath, "and I thought that was enough punishment for one day."

At last Mr. Snider got back to the gold company. "From the
earliest times, my friends, scientists have known of the existence
of gold in sea-water. Together with other metals,--silver,
platinum, and so on, there is a great amount of gold in sea-water.
It is in tiny particles, not so big as the point of a needle.
There it is,--but how shall it be got together? How shall it be
extracted from the water? Aristotle tried to discover a method. He
failed. Diogenes Laertius tried. He failed. Sir Isaac Newton,
Benjamin Franklin,--they tried. And THEY failed. Professor Von
Bieberstein has succeeded. And YOU are to see this method
demonstrated today, and YOU, my friends, are to benefit by this
discovery."