I rose with a cry of welcome and clasped his hand.
"My dear fellow, why didn't you let me know you were coming?" I cried.
He smiled upon me with a mysterious brightness.
"Harden," he said in a low voice, as if afraid of being heard, "I came on a sudden impulse. I wanted to show you something. Wait a moment."
He went out into the hall and returned bearing a square box in his hands. He laid it on the table and then carefully closed the door.
"It is the first big result of my experiments," he whispered. He opened the box and drew out a glass case covered over with white muslin.
He stepped back from the table and looked at me triumphantly.
"Lift up the muslin."
I did so. On the wooden floor of the glass case were a great number of dark objects. At first I thought they were some kind of grub, and then on closer inspection I saw what they were.