Here they saw a furnace, with melting pots, bars of metal, moulds, files, batteries, and all the necessary accessories for the manufacture of medals.
Upon a flat stone slab was a pile of medals, all of the same pattern precisely.
"Just examine those, Mr. Harkaway," said Pierre Lenoir, "and tell me what you think them."
Jack put his finger through the glittering heap, and they fell to the table with a bright clear ring that considerably astonished him.
"Why, they are silver!"
Lenoir smiled.
"Very good, aren't they?"
"Very!"
Jack here made a discovery, upon examining them more closely.
"They are five-franc pieces!" he said, with a puzzled expression.