considering the number and the eagerness of the seekers, but that it
was genuine artemisium not even Dr. Syx could have denied. He,
however, made no attempt to deny it.

"Yes," he said, when questioned, "I find that I have been deceived. At
first I thought the metal existed only in the form of the green ore,
but of late I have come upon veins of pure artemisium in my mine. I am
glad for your sakes, but sorry for my own. Still, it may turn out that
there is no great amount of free artemisium after all."

While the doctor talked in this manner close observers detected a
lurking sneer which his acquaintances had not noticed since artemisium
was first adopted as the money basis of the world.

The crowd that swarmed upon the mountain quickly exhausted all of the
visible supply of the metal. Sometimes they found it in a thin stratum
at the bottom of crevices, where it could be detached in opalescent
plates and leaves of the thickness of paper. These superficial
deposits evidently might have been formed from water holding the metal
in solution. Occasionally, deep cracks contained nuggets and wiry
masses which looked as if they had run together when molten.

The most promising spots were soon staked out in miners' claims,
machinery was procured, stock companies were formed, and borings were
begun. The enthusiasm arising from the earlier finds and the
flattering surface indications caused everybody to work with feverish
haste and energy, and within two months one hundred tunnels were
piercing the mountain.

For a long time nobody was willing to admit the truth which gradually