"I
will show you the laboratory, so that you can understand better the
effects of radium on growth."

The professor led them to the long, low, many-windowed building
nearby, and flooded it with light. It contained cage after cage in
which were monkeys, pumas, and various jungle folk. These creatures
set up a chattering and howling at the light and intruders.

Maget glanced curiously about him. He saw shining vials and glassware
of queer shapes on long black tables, and tubes of chemicals. There
were immense screens of dull lead. "Those are for protection," said
Professor Gurlone, "as are the lead-cloth suits we wear. Otherwise we
would be burned by radium rays."

Maget looked about, to see if his partner was listening, but he had
gone away.

However, Maget was intensely interested. He went from cage to cage as
Professor Gurlone, rather in the manner of a man giving a lecture to
students, pointed out animal after animal that had been treated by the
radium.

"This," said the professor, "is a monkey which usually attains a
height of two feet. You can see for yourself that it is now larger
than a gorilla."

* * * * *

The horrible, malformed creature bared its teeth and shook its bars in
rage, but it was weak, evidently, from the treatment accorded it. Its
hair was burned off in spots, and its eyes were almost white.

There was a jaguar, and this beast seemed to have burst its skin in
its effort to grow as large as three of its kind.

"You see, we have not so much time as nature," said Professor Gurlone.
"These beasts cannot be enlarged too rapidly, or they would die. They
must be protected from the direct rays of the radium, which is
refined. In the ore, the action is more gradual and gentle, since it
is less concentrated. But the metal itself would burn the vital organs
out of these creatures, cause them to be struck blind, shrivel them up
inside and kill them in a few minutes in the quantity we have. We
expose them bit by bit, allowing more and more time as they begin to
grow immune to the rays. Here, you see, are smaller creatures which
have grown some eight or ten times beyond normal size."

All the animals seemed the worse for wear. Maget, his brain reeling,
yet was beginning to grasp what radium did to one. It was not gold
that you could pick up and carry away.

"If a man touched that radium," he asked, "what would happen to him?"

"Just what I said would happen to the