" said Mr Temple, "but it is
impossible, of course, to-day in the face of such a storm. What are you
boys going to do?"

"Read, papa," said Arthur. "It is too rough to go out."

"And you, Dick?"

"Ask you to lend me your Mackintosh, father. It's too rough to stay in.
The sea's grand."

Arthur had already taken up a book, but he now laid it down.

"I don't think it rains, does it?"

"No; only blows," replied Dick; "but when you get where the spray comes
off the sea, it's like a shower."

"I think we'll all go," said Mr Temple. "I want to test a few minerals
first. Afterwards I should like to go down and have a look at the
waves."

It was settled that the boys should wait, and Mr Temple at once lit a
spirit-lamp from a strong box of apparatus he had brought down; and,
taking out a blow-pipe, he spent some little time melting, or calcining,
different pieces of ore and stone that he had collected, one special
piece being of white-looking mineral that took Dick's notice a good
deal, for it seemed familiar.

"Isn't that the stone you got in the place Will Marion showed to you,
father?"

"Yes, my boy," said Mr Temple; "why?"

"Only I thought it was," said Dick. "Is it valuable?"

"I don't know yet. Perhaps."

"If it is valuable, will it do Will any good?"

"I don't know yet about that either, my inquisitive young friend," said
Mr Temple.

"I think it ought if it's any good," said Dick after a pause, during
which he had been watching his father attentively.

"Do you?" said Mr Temple coldly; and he went on calcining a piece of
the soft white stone, and then placing it in a mortar to grind it up
fine.

This done, he took the powder out and spread it upon a small glass slab,
where he applied a few drops of water to it, and mixed and mixed till he
had formed the white powder into a paste that looked like white clay.

"I say, father," said Dick.

"Yes."

"Will would like to see what you are doing with that stuff. May I tell
him?"

"No," said Mr Temple, quietly kneading the white paste in his fingers
and then examining it with a powerful lens. "I desire that you say no
word about anything that you may see me doing. This is private work
that to-day unknown to anyone else may be very valuable. Known to all
the world, it might prove to be not very valuable, but absolutely
worthless. Wait, my boy, and see."

Waiting was always an unpleasant task for Dick Temple. Time never ran
half fast enough