crust, excited more interest and more incredulity, not
entirely unexpressed. Clewe was well known as a man of science, an
inventor, an electrician of rare ability, and a person of serious
purpose and strict probity, but it was possible for a man of great
attainments and of the highest moral character to become a little
twisted in his intellect.

When at last the speaker told of his descent into the shaft; of
his passage fourteen miles into the interior of the earth; of his
discoveries, on which he based his theory that the centre of our globe
is one vast diamond, there was a general laugh from the reporters'
quarter, and the men of science began to move uneasily in their seats
and to talk to each other. Professor Tippengray, her silver hair brushed
smoothly back from her pale countenance, sat looking at the speaker
through her gold spectacles, as if the rays from her bright eyes would
penetrate into the very recesses of his soul. Not an atom of doubt was
in her mind; she never doubted, she believed or she disbelieved. At
present she believed; she had come there to do that, and she would wait,
and when the proper time had come to disbelieve she would do so.

If there had been any disposition in the audience to considerately
leave the man of shattered intellect to the care of his friends, it
disappeared when Clewe said that he would now be glad to show to all
present the workings of the Artesian ray. Crazy as he might be, they
wanted to wait and see what he had done. The workmen who had charge of
the machinery were on hand, and in a few moments a circle of light was
glowing on the ground within the screen. Clewe now announced that he
would take those present, one at a time, inside the enclosure and show
them how light could be made to penetrate miles downward into the solid
earth and rock.

Professor Tippengray was the first one invited to step within the
screen. Clewe stood at the entrance ready to explain or to hand her
the necessary telescopes; and as the portion of her body which remained
visible was between him and the light, there was nothing to disturb his
nerves.

The lenses were so set that they could penetrate almost instantly to
the depth which had previously been reached, but Clewe made his ray
move downward somewhat slowly; he did not wish, especially to the first
observer, to show everything at once.

As she beheld at her feet a great lighted well, extending downward
beyond the reach of her sharp eyes,