master-workman had entered and the door had been locked behind
him, he exclaimed, "How pale you are! Does it work?"

"I think so," said Clewe; "but perhaps I am crazy and only
imagine it. You see that circular patch of light upon the ground
there? I want you to go close to it and look down upon it, and
tell me what you see."

Bryce stepped quickly to the illuminated space. He looked down
at it; then he approached nearer; then he carefully placed his
feet by its edge and leaned over further, gazing intently
downward, and he exclaimed, "Good heavens! How did you make
the hole?"

At that moment he heard a groan, and, looking across the
illuminated space, he saw Clewe tottering. In the next moment he
was stretched upon the ground in a dead faint.

When Bryce had hurried to the side of his employer and had thrown
a pitcher of water over him, it was not long before Clewe
revived. In answer to Bryce's inquiries he simply replied that
he supposed he had been too much excited by the success of his
work.

"You see," said he, "that was not a hole at all that you were
looking into; it was the solid earth made transparent by the
Artesian ray. The thing works perfectly. Please step to that
lever and turn it off. I can stand no more at present."

Bryce moved the lever, and the light upon the ground disappeared.