attened stone appearing in it, and
then gradually fading away.

As Clewe stared intently down upon the illuminated space, the brown
earth seemed to melt and disappear, and he gazed upon a surface of fine
sand, dark or yellowish, thickly interspersed with gravel-stones. This
appearance changed, and a large rounded stone was seen almost in the
centre of the glowing disk. The worn and smooth surface of the stone
faded away, and he beheld what looked like a split section of a
cobble-stone. Then it disappeared altogether, and there was another flat
surface of gravel and sand.

Between himself and the illuminated space on which he gazed--his breath
quick and his eyes widely distended--there seemed to be nothing at all.
To all appearances he was looking into a cylindrical hole a few feet
deep. Everything between the bottom of this hole and himself was
invisible; the light had made intervening substances transparent, and
had deprived them of color and outlines. It was as though he looked
through air.

Then his eyes fell upon the sides of this cylindrical opening, and
these, illuminated, but not otherwise acted upon by the volume of
Artesian rays, showed, in all their true colors and forms, everything
which went to make up the sides of the bright cavity into which he
looked. He saw the various strata of clay, sand, gravel, exactly as he
would have seen them in a circular hole cut accurately and smoothly into
the earth. No stone or lump protruded from the side of this apparent
excavation, the inner surface of which was as smooth as if it had been
cut down with a sharp instrument.

Clewe was frightened. Was it possible that this could be an imaginary
cavity into which he was looking? He drew back; he was about to put out
one foot to feel if it were really solid ground upon which this light
was pouring, but he refrained. He got a long stick, and with it touched
the centre of the light. What he felt was hard and solid; the end of
the stick seemed to melt, and this startled him. He pulled back the
stick--he could go on no further by himself. He must have somebody in
here with him; he must have the testimony of some other eyes; he needed
the company of a man with a cool and steady brain.

He ran to the door and called Bryce. When the master-workman had entered
and the door had been locked behind him, he exclaimed, "How pale you
are! Does it work?"

"I think so," said Clewe; "but perhaps I am crazy and only imagine it.
You see