e girl was still
clinging to her uncle.

"What are they going to do to you, these people?" she sobbed. "They shan't
hurt you! They shan't!"

Lenora passed her arm around the girl.

"Of course not, dear," she said soothingly. "Your uncle has come of his
own free will to answer a few questions, only I think it would be better
if you would let me--"

Lenora never finished her sentence. They had reached the entrance now to
the library. The Professor was standing in the doorway with extended hand,
motioning them to take their places at the table. Then, with no form of
warning, the room seemed suddenly filled with a blaze of blue light. It
came at first in a thin flash from the window to the table, became
immediately multiplied a thousand times, and played round the table in
sparks which suddenly expanded to sheets of leaping, curling flame. The
roar of thunder shook the very foundations of the house--and then silence.
For several seconds not one of them seemed to have the power of speech. An
amazing thing had happened. The oak table in the middle of the room was a
charred fragment, the chairs were every one blackened remnants.

"A thunderbolt!" French gasped at last.

Quest was the first to cross the room. From the table to the outside
window was one charred, black line which had burnt its way through the
carpet. He threw open the window. The wire whose course he had followed
ended there with a little lump of queer substance. He broke it off from
the end of the wire, which was absolutely brittle, and brought it into the
room.

"What is it?" Lenora faltered.

"What have you got there?" French echoed.

Quest examined the strange-looking lump of metal steadily. The most
curious thing about it seemed to be that it was absolutely sound and
showed no signs of damage. He turned to the Professor.

"I think you are the only one who will be able to appreciate this,
Professor," he remarked. "Look! It is a fragment of opotan--a distinct and
wonderful specimen of opotan."

Every one looked puzzled.

"But what," Lenora enquired, "is opotan?"

"It is a new metal," Quest explained gravely, "towards which scientists
have been directing a great deal of attention lately. It has the power of
collecting all the electricity from the air around us. There are a dozen
people, at the present moment, conducting experiments with it for the
purpose of cheapening electric lights. If we had been in the room ten
seconds sooner--"

He pau