"Seems like you might have had a few more lamps," said Mr. Jones a little testily. "It'll be hard to see anything with just two sixteen-candle bulbs."
"I shall have that attended to at once," said Mr. Journegan. "You see we have been so busy with the results that we seldom miss the lights to any extent. The same current that lights up the place is used for forming the precipitate upon the wire—the gold precipitate, you understand."
"Well, let her commence," said Mr. Jackson, a little unfavourably impressed at the stillness and peculiar surroundings of the outfit. "I'll sit here on this box and wait—I hope it won't be long, but I must say that if you men can do this thing, you certainly can do something no one else has ever attempted in history—mind you, I don't say you won't do it, but I say commence, I want to see with my own eyes."
Mr. Smithe, with great deliberation and some complex manœuvring, took up a wire and wrapped it in a cloth. He then fastened it with a small piece of copper wire and dipped the whole into a strong solution of something that had a most offensive odour.
"You see, gentlemen," said he, "the contents of this basin,"—here he pointed to the mixture which had such a terrific odour. "This is the secret part of the whole process, it produces the electrolysis which causes the gold to form upon the positive pole of the current. I shall now toss it overboard and we will await results."
He threw the wire over the edge of the enclosure and it disappeared at once in the black depths below. The white cloth tied to the end still showed faintly at a depth of six feet below the surface.
"I now shall start the current," he said, and taking up a hammer he struck savagely upon the flooring of the dock several time. There was a faint sound from shoreward, the sound of a gentle splashing, but this soon subsided. Suddenly a commotion in the water below attracted the attention of Mr. Jones. A large fish appeared to break water at the entrance of the enclosure. Then it disappeared, and Mr. Journegan remarked that the small sharks of the reef were most numerous at this season.
Mr. Smithe watched the surface of the water carefully. A huge dark shadow glided beneath him towards the end of the wire which held the white cloth.
"I must have more current," he called petulantly to Mr. Journegan, "give me more current for a few minutes, this wire is cold."