“Much good it will do me, so far as that goes,” remarked Tom. “So far as we know, all there is of it in the world is in this tube. I don’t know how to produce any more, and I can’t publish anything about it, for it would interfere with our search for the man.”
“You have no right to say that it’s no use,” said Dorothy. “Again and again as we have gone on, the slightest unexpected things have come to mean the most. I believe this tube of unknown gas may be a most important link in the chain.”
“All right,” said Tom. “Just as you say. You can be sure I wasn’t going to throw it into the waste basket.”
While Swenton cleared away, the rest of us went into the wooden room. Hamerly passed across and opened one of the wooden shutters. “The fog is lifting,” he said.
We looked out and saw that the other side of the street was gradually becoming visible. Dorothy seated herself by the window, and we joined her.
“I don’t know that there could be a better time,” I began, “than right here and now, to find out just where we are. For my part, I want to understand the relation between the new gas and all that has gone before. If we bring all our information together, won’t there be a better chance to get a line on our next move?”
“We have two things in our hands,” said Tom thoughtfully. “This tube of gas here and the cigarette case. We know that the ships really disappeared, because Jim has been to the bottom of Portsmouth Harbor and seen the men that lie there. We know by the same token that this force kills, by a sort of paralysis, every man whom it attacks. Oh, that reminds me,” he exclaimed, checking himself. “Let me see that cigarette case again, if you will, Hamerly?” The case once in his hand, he looked it over with minute care. “Insulated within the paraffin by caema, don’t you think?” he asked Dorothy.
After a brief inspection she also nodded. “That’s caema, all right.”
“Never mind caema, now, whatever it is,” I said. “Let’s go on with the business. What else do we know?”
Hamerly took up the tale. “We know to a reasonable certainty that Dr. Heidenmuller was the first man who found the source of this power, and that he died when it accidentally was let loose. We know that some of this substance, probably in powder form like radium, was kept in the leather cigarette case, insulated by paraffin and caema.” He paused.