The Diamond Master

by Jacques Futrelle

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE GREAT CUBE

  A cube of solid, polished steel, some twenty feet square, set on aspreading base of concrete, and divided perpendicularly down themiddle into Titanic halves, these being snugly fitted one to theother by a series of triangular corrugations, a variation of thefamiliar tongue and groove. Interlacing the ponderous mass, fromcorner to corner, were huge steel bolts, and the hulking heads ofmore bolts, some forty on each of the four sides, showed that thewhole might be split into halves at will, and readily made wholeagain, one enormous side sliding back and forth on a short track.

  In the two undivided faces of the cube, relatively squaring thecenter, were four borings somewhat smaller in diameter than anordinary pencil, and extending through; and directly in the centerwas focused a network of insulated wires which dropped down out ofthe gloom overhead. In the other two sides of the great cube, justwhere the dividing lines of the halves came, were the funnel-likemouths of a two-inch boring. This, too, extended straight through.

  Directly opposite each of the two mouths, a dozen feet away, wasmounted a peculiarly-constructed heavy gun of the naval type. In ageneral sort of way these were not unlike twelve-inch ordnance, butthe breech was much larger in proportion, the barrel longer, and thebore only two instead of twelve inches. The mountings were high, andthe adjustment so delicate that, looking into the open breech of onegun, the bore through the twenty-foot cube and through the barrel ofthe gun on the other side seemed to be continuous.

  "This is the diamond-making machine, gentlemen," said Mr. Wynne, andhe indicated to Mr. Latham, Mr. Schultze and Mr. Czenki the cube andthe two guns. "It is perfectly simple in construction, has enormouspowers of resistance, as you may guess, and is as delicately fittedas a watch, being regulated by electric power. This cube is thesolution of the high-pressure, high-temperature problem, which wasonly one of the many seemingly insuperable obstacles to be overcome.When the bolts are withdrawn one half slides back; when the bolts arein position it is as solid as if it were in one piece, and perfectlyable to withstand a force greater than the ingenuity of man has everbefore been able to contrive. This force is a combination of a heatone-half that of the sun on its surface, and a head-on impact of twoone-hundred-pound projectiles fired less than forty feet apart withan enormous charge of cordite, and possessing an initial velocitygreater than was ever recorded in gunnery.

  "This vast force centers in a sort of furnace in the middle of thecube. The furnace is round, about three feet long and three feet indiameter, built of half a dozen fire-resisting substances in layers,perforated for electric wires, with an opening through it lengthwiseof the exact size of the borings in the guns and in the cube. It fitssnugly into a receptacle cut out for it in the center of the cube, andis intended to protect the steel of the cube proper from the intenseheat. This heat reaches the furnace by electric wires which enter thecube from the sides, as you see, being brought here by a conduit alongthe river-bed from a large power-plant five miles away. Twenty-eightlarge wires are necessary to bring it; I own the power-plant,ostensibly for the operation of a small sugar refinery. I may addthat the furnace is a variation of the principle employed by ProfessorMoissan, in Paris." He turned to Mr. Czenki. "You may rememberhaving heard me mention him?"

  "I remember," the expert acquiesced grimly.

  "Now, pure carbon is vaporized, as you perhaps know, at a fractionless than five thousand degrees Fahrenheit," Mr. Wynne continued. "Acarbon not merely chemically pure but _absolutely_ pure, in highlycompressed disks, is packed in the furnace, the furnace placed withinthe cube, the ends of the two-inch opening in the furnace beingblocked to prevent expansion, the cube closed, the bolts fastened, andheat applied, for several minutes--a heat, gentlemen, of five thousandtwo hundred and eighty degrees Fahrenheit. The heat of the sun isonly about ten thousand degrees. And then the pressure of aboutseven thousand tons to the square inch is added by means of the twoguns. In other words, gentlemen, pure carbon, vaporized, is caughtbetween two projectiles which enter the cube simultaneously fromopposite sides, being fired by electricity. The impact is so terrificthat what had been two feet of compressed carbon is instantlycondensed into an irregular disk, one inch or an inch and a halfthick. _And that disk, gentlemen, is a diamond!_

  "The violence of the operation, coupled with the intense heat, fuseseverything--furnace, projectiles, electric wires, fire-brick, evenasbestos, into a single mass. The cube is opened, and this mass,white-hot, is dropped into cold water. This increases the pressureuntil the mass is cool. Then it is broken away, and in the center isa diamond--as big as a biscuit, gentlemen! Four small bores leadfrom the two-inch bore through the cube, and permit the escape of airas the projectiles enter. There is no rebound because the elasticquality of the carbon is crushed out of existence--driven, I may say,into the diamond itself. Of course the furnace, the two projectilesand the connecting electric wires are all destroyed at each charge,which brings the total cost of the operation to a little more thaneight hundred dollars, including nearly three tons of brown sugar.The diamond resulting is worth at least a million when broken up forcutting, sometimes even two millions. That is all, I think."

  There was a long, awed silence. Mr. Latham, leaning against thegiant cube, stared thoughtfully at his toes; Mr. Schultze was peeringcuriously about him, thence off into the gloom; Mr. Czenki still hada question.

  "I understand that all the diamonds were made in that disk-likeshape," he remarked at last. "Then the uncut stones that were stolenwere--"

  "They were natural stones," interrupted Mr. Wynne, "imported forpurposes of study and experiment. I told Chief Arkwright the truth,but not all of it. In the last twenty years Mr. Kellner haddestroyed some twenty thousand dollars' worth of diamonds in thisway. I may add that while Mr. Kellner had succeeded in makingdiamonds of large size he had never made a perfect one until eightyears ago. But meanwhile the expenses of the work, as you willunderstand, were enormous, so during the past eight years about amillion dollars' worth of diamonds have been sold, one or two at atime, to meet this expense."

  He paused a moment, then resumed musingly:

  "All this, you understand, is not the work of a day Mr. Kellner wasnearly eighty-one years old, and it was fifty-eight years ago thathe began work here. The cubes there were made and placed in positionthirty years ago; the guns have been there for twenty-eight years--so long, in fact, that recollection of them has passed from the mindsof the men who made them. And, until four years ago, he was assistedby his son, Miss Kellner's father, and her brother. There was someexplosion in this chamber where we stand which killed them both, andsince then he has worked alone. His son--Miss Kellner's father--wasthe inventor of the machine which has enabled us to cut all thestones I showed you. I mailed the application for patent on thismachine to Washington three days ago. It is as intricate as a linotypeand delicate as a chronometer, but it does the work of fifty experthand-cutters. Until patent papers are granted I must ask that I beallowed to protect that."

  Mr. Latham turned upon him quickly.

  "But you've explained all this to us fully," he exclaimed sharply,indicating the cube and the guns. "We _could_ duplicate that if weliked."

  "Yes, you could, Mr. Latham," replied Mr. Wynne slowly, "but youcan't duplicate the brain that isolated absolutely pure carbon fromthe charred residue of brown sugar. That brain was Mr. Kellner's;the secret died with him!"

  Again there was a long silence, broken at last by Mr. Schultze:

  "Dat means no more diamonds can be made undil some one else can makeder pure carbon, ain'd id? Yah! Und dat brings us down to derquestion, How many diamonds are made alretty?"

  "The diamonds I showed you gentlemen were all that have been cut thusfar," replied Mr. Wynne. "Less than twenty of the disks were used inmaking them. There are now some five hundred more of these disks inexistence--roughly a billion dollars' worth--so you see I am preparedto hold you to my proposition that you buy one hundred milliondo
llars' worth of them at one-half the carat price you now pay in theopen market."

  Mr. Latham passed one hand across a brow bedewed with perspiration,and stared helplessly at the German.

  "The work of cutting could go on steadily here, under the direction ofMr. Czenki," Mr. Wynne resumed after a moment. "The secrecy of thisplace has not been violated for forty years. We are now one hundredand seventy feet below ground level, in a gallery of the abandonedcoal mine which gave Coaldale its name, reached underground from thecellar in the cottage. Roofs and walls of the entire place are shoredup to insure safety, and heavy felts make this chamber sound-proof,smothering even the detonation of the guns. Mr. Czenki is the manto do the work. Mr. Kellner, for ten years, held him to be the firstexpert in the world, and it would be carrying out his wishes if Mr.Czenki would agree. If _he_ does not _I_ shall undertake it, _andflood the market!_" His voice hardened a little. "And, gentlemen,call off your detectives. The secret is now more yours than mine.It destroys _you_ if it becomes known, not _me!_ The New York policehave turned this end of the investigation over to the local police,and they are fools; all the forms have been complied with, so thisplace is safe. Now call off your men! On the day the last diamondis delivered to you, and the payment of one hundred million dollarsis completed, everything here will be destroyed. That's all!"

  "One hundred million dollars!" repeated Mr. Latham. "Even if weaccept the proposition, Schultze, how can we raise that enormous sumwithin a year, and preserve the secret?"

  "Id ain'd a question of _can_, Laadham--id's a question of _musd_,"was the reply. He thoughtfully regarded Mr. Wynne. "Id's onlySunday nighd, yed; we haf undil Thursday to answer, you remember."He turned to Mr. Latham, with a recurrence of whimsical philosophy."Think of id, Laadham, der alchemisds tried for dhree thousand yearsto make a piece of gold so big as a needle-point und didn'd; und hemade diamonds so big as your fist mit a liddle cordide und someelecdricity! _Mein Gott_, man! Think of id!"

  The jewelers accepted Mr. Wynne's proposition. Mr. Wynne bowed histhanks, and handed to Mr. Czenki a scientific periodical opened at apage which bore a head-line:

  Newly Discovered Property of Radium. Diamonds, Rubies, Emeralds and Sapphires Changed in Color by Exposure of One Month to Radium.

  For the fourth time Red Haney underwent the "third degree." Itculminated in a full confession of the murder of Mr. Kellner. Therehad been no accomplice.

  "Yer see, Chief," he explained apologetically, "you an' that otherguy" (meaning Mr. Birnes) "was so dead set on sayin' there wassomebody else in it, an' was so ready wit' yer descriptions, that itlooked good to me, an' I said 'Sure,' but _I_ done it."