It was late the following afternoon before I saw Kennedy again. He was in his laboratory winding two strands of platinum wire carefully about a piece of porcelain and smearing on it some peculiar black glassy granular substance that came in a sort of pencil, like a stick of sealing-wax. I noticed that he was very particular to keep the two wires exactly the same distance from each other throughout the entire length of the piece of porcelain, but I said nothing to distract his attention, though a thousand questions about the progress of the case were at my tongue's end.
Instead I watched him intently. The black substance formed a sort of bridge connecting and covering the wires. When he had finished he said: “Now you can ask me your questions, while I heat and anneal this little contrivance. I see you are bursting with curiosity.”
“Well, did you see Poissan?” I asked.
Kennedy continued to heat the wire-covered porcelain. “I did, and he is going to give me a demonstration of his discovery to-night.”
“His discovery!”
“You remember Morowitch's 'hallucination,' as the doctor called it? That was no hallucination; that was a reality. This man Poissan says he has discovered a way to make diamonds artificially out of pure carbon in an electric furnace. Morowitch, I believe, was to buy his secret. His dream of millions was a reality—at least to him.”
“And did Kahan and Mrs. Morowitch know it?” I asked quickly.
“I don't know yet,” replied Craig, finishing the annealing.
The black glassy substance was now a dull grey.
“What's that stuff you were putting on the wire?” I asked.