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The professor turned off the light and looked into the microscope. There was the usual scene: like falling stars on a calm August night, flashes of racing atoms glimmered in the dark field, left and right, in the direction of the current; paths of light intersected the field of sight, crossing in places, indicating colliding, extinguishing and flashing up again, and strange seemed the silence in which this fiery rain was pouring down. Then, turning a small stop-cock, Flinder admitted into the tube of the apparatus a tiny cloud of dust, which was to serve as a stimulator and augmenter of the process. And at once the picture in the dark field changed. Into the pattern of fiery lines, broke in a volley of rays, scattering themselves in all directions like explosions of miniature charges. These' were no longer integral; the atoms were being scattered into tens and hundreds of fragments by the force of the bombardment. Microscopic worlds were being destroyed, silently rumbled the catastrophies, one after another splashing flashes of rays followed one another.

And now dead silence reigned as before, broken only by the monotonous humming of the transformer.

Flinder almost doubted his own eyes. This meant, that the problem was solved at last. The key to the mysterious treasure was found; an unparalleled victory was won.

Impotently and slowly he dropped into his armchair, in a sense shocked by the achievement. After ten years of persistent work, he had apparently reached his goal. It was difficult for him to realize it all at once. He sat steeped in a confused state of semi-forgetfulness and semidelirium.

The door clicked; apparently, Hinez, one of the assistants, finished his work and left. Flinder did not notice him. He remained under the influence of the excitement that possessed him, trying to visualize the dizzy perspectives that were being opened to mankind. An insignificant dot of matter will yield enough energy to drive ocean liners, and ponderous trains, for many hours. Millions of millions of horse-power! The end of the struggle for energy! We are the masters of energy!

Thus, for about a half an hour Flinder remained in his semi- dreaming state, which completely enthralled his mind. When he finally bent over the eyeglass of the microscope again, that which he saw there was so unexpected, that he uttered a cry.

He no longer saw the separate fiery lines or the volleys of rays; but the Whole circle was enveloped in a raging sea of fire; flaming vortices circled and danced right and left and all along the current stream. Flinder instinctively grabbed hold of the current control lever and shut off the power. The transformers stopped and the dead silence that hovered in the room, filled his heart with a longing premonition.

The scene under the microscope had changed very little. The fiery sea continued its rage, but no longer in one direction. The whirls rotated, collided and scattered in all directions in utter chaos. Flinder stretched out his hand to the switch and lighted up the laboratory. Everything stood in its place; the apparatus, the retorts, the flasks and the insulators with their ivory fingers, and the switches stuck out from the walls and ceiling; the windows were darkened by night shadows and at the right stood a bright, reddish star, apparently, Arcturus. Everything about was simple, familiar and comprehensible.

What was it, then, that had frightened him so? The foolish play of his high-strung nerves. Simply, looking down upon this phenomenon, still new to him, he recalled Deriugin’s recent phrase, in the words of Aston: “The research work into the inner-atomic energy, is like playing with fire on top of a barrel of gun-powder.” And it appeared to him, that this very minute the force he himself had just freed, would crush into fragments the laboratory and everything about it. What nonsense! Here he has stopped the work of the apparatus and nothing at all happened. Apparently, the process, once begun, continues by itself. So far, so good! The only question to be decided on now is, how to utilize this new energy without wasting it without purpose?

He now examined the microscope. Under the object- glass gleamed a bright dot, discernible with the naked eye. Bending over closer, he convinced himself, to his great surprise, that the glass tube had melted away and the tiny pale-blue star quivered without the apparatus, at the brass mounting. An unpleasant chill again ran up his spine.

Mechanically he extended his hand to the glittering object, but withdrew it immediately; his fingers were burned as by a red-hot iron and his body was rocked as by a heavy blow.

And it suddenly appeared to him that the glittering dot was growing in size before his very eyes; that it was not a dot any more; that it had become a smal ball, the size of a pea. He wiped his eyes and looked up again; he felt the hair on his head rising and his forehead was covered with cold perspiration.