Taking these, the “Prince” poured a little from each upon a bit of tissue paper. He pinched each, examined it under a pocket microscope, poked it about with a needle. Then straightening up, he said rather sharply, “Where’d you get it?”
“Jus—just now I’d rather not tell,” Goggles stammered.
“All right.” The chemist’s tone was brusque. “Want me to show you something?”
Without waiting for a reply, he left the room, returning in a moment with a rather curious triangle of metal set on a wooden handle. He scattered grains of two mysterious powders along the bottom of this triangular trough. Next he ran insulated wires with bared ends, one each from two directions along this trough. The ends almost, but did not quite, touch. He connected the other ends of these wires to a dry battery.
“Now,” he breathed. Methodically he fastened a pair of very dark glasses before his eyes.
“Now,” he repeated, “watch for a surprise! No harm. Just a bit of a shock.”
Too much thrilled to watch his next move, the children jumped almost to the ceiling when there came a dazzling white flash.
“All that from those few powders!” Johnny exclaimed. “And no smoke at all.”
“Yes,” the “Prince” said quietly. “A truly marvelous discovery. By adding more powder one may light up a square mile in the darkest night—a great boon to aviators. With such a powder at hand, no secret army movement at night in war time could be sure to succeed. A truly marvelous discovery!” he repeated. He did not say, “Where did you get it?”
“Perhaps he knows,” Johnny told himself.