“Yes, I’ve heard the story, but I don’t think it was ever made public. The newspapers never got hold of it.”
“No, I believe not. Odd thing, wasn’t it?”
“Why, yes, very odd, but just like the doctor’s eccentric ways, though. He’s always doing something to astonish somebody, without any apparent earthly reason. But what put you in mind of that?”
“Free artemisium put me in mind of it,” replied Hall, quizzically.
“I don’t see the connection.”
“I’m not sure that I do either, but when you are dealing with Dr. Syx nothing is too improbable to be thought of.”
Hall thereupon fell to musing again, while we returned to the entrance of the tunnel. After he had made everything secure, and slipped the key into his pocket, my companion remarked:
“Don’t you think it would be best to keep this latest discovery to ourselves?”
“Certainly.”
“Because,” he continued, “nobody would be benefited just now by knowing what we know, and to expose the worthlessness of the ‘ore’ might cause a panic. The public is a queer animal, and never gets scared at just the thing you expect will alarm it, but always at something else.”