g as that to anybody. It
is simply impossible that the greater part of this earth should be an
enormous diamond."

"Margaret," he answered, "nothing is impossible. The central portion of
this earth is composed of something; it might just as well be diamond as
anything else. In fact, if you consider the matter, it is more likely to
be, because diamond is a very original substance. As I have said, it is
almost pure carbon. I do not intend to say one word of what I have told
you to any one--at least, until the matter has been well considered--but
I am not afraid of being thought crazy. Margaret, will you look at
these?"

He took from his pocket some shining substances resembling glass. Some
of them were flat, some round; the largest was as big as a lemon, others
were smaller fragments of various sizes.

"These are pieces of the great diamond which were broken when the shell
struck the bottom of the cave in which I found it. I picked them up as I
felt my way around this shell, when walking upon what seemed to me like
solid air. I thrust them into my pocket, and I would not come to you,
Margaret, with this story, until I had gone to my office to find out if
these fragments were really diamond. I tested them; their substance is
diamond!"

Half dazed, she took the largest piece in her hand.

"Roland," she whispered, "if this is really a diamond, there is nothing
like it known to man!"

"Nothing, indeed," said he.

She sat staring at the great piece of glowing mineral which lay in her
hand. Its surface was irregular; it had many faces; the subdued light
from the window gave it the appearance of animated water. He felt it
necessary to speak.

"Even these little pieces," he said, "are most valuable jewels."

She still sat silent, looking at the glowing object she held.

"You see, these are not like the stones which are found in our
diamond-fields," he said. "Those, most likely, were little, unconsumed
bits of the original mass, afterwards gradually forced up from the
interior in the same way that many metals and minerals are forced up,
and then rounded and dulled by countless ages of grinding and abrasion,
due to the action of rocks or water."

"Roland," she cried, excitedly, "this is riches beyond imagination!
What is common wealth to what you have discovered? Every living being on
earth could--"

"Ah, Margaret," he interrupted, "do not let your thoughts run that way.
If my discovery should be put to the use of w